A search engine results page (SERP) is the page that a search engine shows after a user types a query. It lists organic results ranked by the search algorithm, sponsored results and other features such as snippets, images and maps. Work to raise a page's place in the organic results is called search engine optimization (SEO).
History of SERP
Creator: No single creator. Search engines created their results pages from the 1990s onward.
A search engine results page is the display a search engine returns for one query. Early search engines showed a plain list of ranked links. Marketers called that list the ten blue links. A 2023 study describes how the pages changed. Its title is From 10 Blue Links Pages to Feature-Full Search Engine Results Pages.
A study looked at Google results pages from 2000 to 2020. It found that the pages gained more element types. It found that they took content from more verticals. It also found that they gave more direct answers. The study is titled The Evolution of Web Search User Interfaces. It was presented at the 2023 CHIIR conference.
Rich snippets show information from the structured data markup of a page. Google displays them in results. Featured snippets show a summary of an answer. The summary sits at the top of the list. The Knowledge Graph shows entries from sources like encyclopedias. Google Discover shows topics and news. It shows them on the home page, below the search box.
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, Bing and Sogou build the snippet from page content. They fall back to metadata tags when the content is not enough. The HTML title tag is normally used as the snippet title.
The results on a page include organic results. The algorithm ranks organic results. The page also includes sponsored results. Advertisers pay to show sponsored results. They are sold through bidding. The highest bidder gets the top place.
In recent years, large language models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini added AI-powered answer boxes. They also added generative overviews to results pages. These summarize information from several sources. They do it directly on the page. This can reduce the clicks to external sites. On 20 May 2025, Google announced that its AI Mode would be released to all users in the United States (U.S.).
Results can vary by location and by browsing habits. A search engine uses the location of the user. It also uses past activity in the browser. It uses these to change the order and the features that appear. Google publishes help pages on how it uses location in results.
Changelog and latest update
Search engines change the layout of their results pages over time. Wikipedia lists these features as added to the page. They are Google Discover, rich snippets, featured snippets and the Knowledge Graph. Each addition gave the page more element types. Each addition also gave more direct answers.
Google's AI features documentation was last updated on 10 December 2025. It explains how AI Overviews and AI Mode appear in Search. It also explains what a site must do for its pages to be eligible.
Google's snippet documentation was last updated on 20 April 2026. The page covers the title, the link and the description of each result. It describes how a site can increase the chance of read more deep links.
Latest update: Google snippet documentation: read more deep links, 2026-04-20
Google's snippet documentation was last updated on 20 April 2026. The update added a section titled Best practices for read more deep links in Google Search. A read more deep link is a link inside a snippet. It leads users to a specific section of the page. The page explains how to raise the chance of these links. Google states that it uses page content and meta descriptions to build the snippet.
Usage examples
The results page is built from the page title, the description, the HTML markup and the structured data of each page. The examples below show four things. A structured data block comes first. A search query URL comes second. A title length check in JavaScript comes third. A meta description comes last. Each example shows an input. A search engine reads that input when it builds a SERP entry.
<script type="application/ld+json">
{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "WebPage",
"name": "Blue Widgets",
"url": "https://ex.co/blue-widgets/"
}
</script>This JSON-LD block (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) gives search engines a structured description of the page. Google reads structured data to show rich results in the SERP. The name and URL fields are values. The engine can match them to the page.
G=https://www.google.com/search
B=https://www.bing.com/search
echo "$G?q=blue+widgets"
echo "$B?q=blue+widgets"The q parameter carries the query in both Google and Bing search URLs. Plus signs stand for spaces. Opening one of these addresses shows the results page for blue widgets.
const t = document.title;
console.log(t.length,
t.length <= 60);This script reads the title of the current page. It logs the length. Long titles are cut short on the results page. So a title under 60 characters is easier to read in full. The check runs in the browser console on any page.
<meta name="description"
content="Blue widgets for home.">The meta description is a short summary of the page. Google states that it can use the description when it builds the snippet. The results page can show the description under the title.
References
These sources are outside Websnoogie and were checked on 2026-10-12.
Search engine results page
Wikipedia
Encyclopedia article on the SERP. It covers the organic and sponsored results, the query box, rich snippets, featured snippets, the Knowledge Graph and the AI answer features that search engines add to results.
Snippets and Meta Descriptions
Google Search Central
Google's guide to the snippets that appear in Google results. It explains where the title and description come from and gives the last update date, 20 April 2026, used on this page.
AI Features and Your Website
Google Search Central
Google's guide to how AI Overviews and AI Mode show content from websites in Search. It explains the requirements for appearing in these features and was last updated on 10 December 2025.
Google Search Central Updates
Google Search Central
The dated list of changes to the Google Search documentation. It records changes to snippets, structured data and AI features in Search, each with its date.
Bing Webmaster Tools
Microsoft Learn
Microsoft's documentation for Bing Webmaster Tools. It covers how Bing indexes pages and builds its results, and it gives site owners the reports to check how their pages appear in Bing.
Schema.org
Schema.org
The shared vocabulary for structured data that Google, Bing and other search engines use. It lists the types and properties, such as WebPage and name, that a page can use in its JSON-LD block.
What a searcher sees before your site loads
Owners often ask us why a competitor sits above them on the results page. The answer is usually in the words. Each result shows a title, a short link and a description, and the searcher picks one in a few seconds. We read those lines the way a searcher reads them, then rewrite them so they name your service and your town clearly.
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