SERPs and Chinese mutton stew

There's no doubt about the importance of getting your website to the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) for key search terms. This holy grail of SEO typically gets exponentially more traffic than the lower down slots. But, and here's the but, capturing that top spot in even a moderately-competitive marketplace takes a lot.

And, paraphrasing Pareto's Law a bit – it's always the last 20% that costs 80% of your time, effort and SEO spend to achieve. In other words, it gets harder and harder as you climb up the first page of the SERPs.

Isn't there anything that can be done to get more click-throughs even when you're not top-spot? Well, there's no magic trick that can substitute for being in pole position, but there is something you can do.

Catch some eyeballs

Just because search engines use robots, algorithms and spiders in their computations it's easy to forget that it's people, real life human beings, that actually look at SERPs.

Yes, more often that not folks will click the first thing they come across. But not always. If you can make your SERPs entry stand-out then it might, just might, poach a few clicks from those ranked above it.

Remember, it doesn't matter what position your website appears, if someone doesn't click through then you've got zero chance of converting them into a customer.

Let's look at SEO and SERPs a different way…

Imagine you're in wandering through the street markets of Xian with two friends and none of you speak or read Chinese. All around you are stalls with steaming all manner of delicious looking and smelling delights. Steaming baskets, boiling pots and sizzling charcoal grills… all promising delicious new tastes.

But you're seeking out a particular delicacy, a bowl of Yang Rou Pao Mo. A traditional hearty Winter warmer of unleavened bread soaked in mutton stew.

You open your guidebook and turn to the index. Luckily you're close to a whole street crammed with restaurants specialising in Yang Rou Pao Mo.

Your search results

The first restaurant you come to has flashing neon signs all over the front and the characters for Yang Rou Pao Mo plastered all over the windows so you can't see what's inside.

The 2nd is obviously a chain restaurant. It clean and efficient, but not really the experience you were looking for. It also seems to offer everything, so it's hardly a specialist.

The 3rd is everything you pictured. It's a bustling family run place that looks extremely popular with the locals.

The 4th is a bit of a tourist trap. It's a bit tacky to your eyes, but does have an English menu and signs saying 'English spoken here'.

The 5^th has all kinds of awards, recommendations and star ratings from international food guides and the like.

From search to visit

You and your 2 friends walk past the first one – it's garish, off-putting and you don't really know what you'll get.

One of your friends, who's not known for linguistics, rushes to the 4^th restaurant with the sign 'English spoken here'.

Your other friend, who never buys anything without checking out a hundred reviews, heads for the 5^th restaurant.

You of course head to the 3^rd, which is everything you were looking for.

What's this got to do with SEO?

Well… 3 people were conducting the same search, but each found different results attractive. Plus, none of them liked the 'keyword-stuffed' option when they couldn't see what was inside. They didn't just go into the first place they found.

Same goes for SERPs pages. If you're being outranked by your competitors then work on your pages' copy and descriptions to see if you can't attract some eyeballs lower down the page. What have you got to lose?

Written by Jason John Mills