SERP analysis

SERP analysis is the habit of studying a search results page before deciding what to publish for it. SERP stands for search engine results page. The point is not to count competitors. It is to read what Google has already concluded about what that search means, because Google has watched a very large number of people type it and click something, and the page it now shows is the answer it settled on. Publishing without looking is guessing at a question that has already been answered in public.

In short

• SERP analysis means reading the results page for a search before writing anything for it.
• The shape of the page tells you what Google thinks the search means.
• The pages already ranking are the standard you have to beat, not a template to copy.
• Check on a phone, from where your customers are, or you are reading somebody else’s results.

What the exercise is actually for

Most pages that fail were written for a search the writer never looked at. The page answers a question nobody asked, or answers a question in a format the results page has already rejected.

A useful analysis answers four things.

• What does this search mean to Google. Somebody typing the words may be buying, comparing, or simply curious, and the results page shows which one Google settled on.
• What kind of page wins. A shop, a guide, a list, a directory, a video. If every result is one kind of page, that is the format, and arguing with it is expensive.
• Who occupies the space. Big national sites, directories, or businesses the size of yours.
• Whether there is room. Room is not a gap in a tool. It is a question the ranking pages answer badly or not at all.

Start with the shape of the page

The anatomy of a results page is set out on the SEO page. What matters here is what each element tells you, because the layout is a summary of Google’s conclusions about the search.

• Ads mean commercial intent. Advertisers do not keep paying for months on searches that never lead to a sale, so a page thick with Google Ads is a page where somebody is buying something.
• A map pack means the search is local, and that your Google Business Profile matters more than any page you could write.
• An AI answer means the question has a summarisable answer, which is a warning about how much traffic a page here will actually receive.
• People also ask means the subject has follow-up questions attached, and the box lists them for you.
• Images, videos or product panels each tell you the format the searcher expects, and none of them is served by an article.
• How far down the first organic result sits, which decides whether ranking there is worth the effort at all.

Two searches that look similar can produce completely different pages. One returns a map and ten local businesses. The other returns national guides and no map. The first is asking for a supplier and the second is asking for an explanation, and one page cannot serve both.

What the results tell you about intent

Intent is the reason behind the words, and the results page is the readout.

• Buying intent shows as ads, product panels, shops and service pages.
• Local intent shows as a map pack and businesses with addresses.
• Learning intent shows as guides, definitions and long articles with no ads worth speaking of.
• Comparison intent shows as lists, review sites and directories.
• Mixed intent shows as a page carrying two or three of these at once, which means Google is hedging, and a single page will struggle to satisfy everybody.

The practical use is subtraction. A search that returns nothing but explanations is not a search a service page will win, however well written the service page is.

Reading the pages that already rank

Open the first five and read them properly rather than scanning them.

• What does the page actually cover, section by section. The headings are a free outline of what Google considers a complete answer.
• How specific is it. Most ranking pages on a competitive search are general, because they were written for many markets at once.
• Who published it, and whether they do the work or only write about it.
• What is missing. The specifics they cannot know, local conditions they have never seen, the step everybody skips, the question in the comments nobody answered.
• How old it is, and whether the advice has been overtaken.

That last column is where your page comes from. A business that does the work has first-hand detail a national publisher cannot invent, and that detail is the only durable advantage available on a crowded search.

The questions the page hands you free

A results page is also research nobody has to pay for.

• People also ask is Google’s own reading of what gets asked next, and it is the best source of subheadings there is.
• Related searches at the foot of the page shows the neighbouring questions, which is often where a topic cluster starts.
• Autocomplete shows how the search is usually finished, in the words people actually use rather than the words the trade uses.
• The questions inside the ranking pages show what those writers thought needed answering.

Collect these and you have the structure of the page before writing a line of it, and you have it in customer language, which is most of what on-page SEO is.

Doing it properly in the Philippines

A results page is assembled for a person, not for a country, and the assembly is strongly local.

• Check on a phone. Most of your customers are on a mid-range Android phone on mobile data, and the page they see is taller, slower and more crowded than the one on your laptop.
• Check from the right place. Local results change across a city. A search run from Makati and the same search run from Quezon City can return different businesses.
• Use a private window, so your own history stops flattering you. It does not change your location, which is the factor that moves local results most, so it is a partial fix rather than a clean one.
• Check the way customers write. People search in English here, but they search in shorthand, with brand names, with a barangay or a city attached, and often with a spelling nobody in the trade would use.

Words you will hear

• SERP. The search engine results page itself.
• SERP feature. Anything on that page other than an ordinary blue link.
• Map pack. The block of three local businesses with ratings.
• Featured snippet. A boxed answer lifted from a page and shown above the results.
• People Also Ask. The expanding list of related questions.
• Autocomplete. The suggestions Google offers while you are still typing.
• Related searches. The neighbouring queries listed at the foot of the page.
• Above the fold. Whatever is visible before anybody scrolls, which on a phone is much less than people assume.
• Search intent. The reason behind the words, which the results page is the best available evidence of.

What this is not

SERP analysis is not competitor analysis, and confusing the two produces bland pages.

The pages ranking above you are evidence of what the search wants. They are not a model of what your page should say. Copying the top result produces a slightly worse copy of a page that already exists, which is the exact thing a search engine has no reason to prefer. Match the format, cover what the search clearly expects, and then be specific about the things only you know.

Turning the analysis into a decision

The output should be a decision, not a document, and there are only four of them.

• Write, and in what format. The format the page rewards, at the depth the ranking pages set.
• Split, when the results show two intents. Two clear pages beat one page hedging between them.
• Skip, when the page is owned by directories and national brands and no version of you belongs on it.
• Do something other than write, when the map pack is the real prize and the profile, the reviews and the categories are the work.

Write the decision down next to the search. A month later, when the page is published and something has moved, the note is the only record of what you expected to happen.