How SERP Summaries Can Benefit Searchers And Site Owners

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Bill Slawski often uncovers unique and interesting tidbits from search patent applications before anyone else does. Without geteting into all the technical aspects of this search patent, it is interesting to note the question that Bill poses:

Would you find it useful if Google started showing some information at the top of search results from one of the pages of the results, based upon a classification that the search engine determined to be the most relevant to the results that showed up for a query?

Would showing that information be helpful to searchers? Would it be helpful or harmful to site owners whose pages might show up in those search results?

Actually, that’s several questions, but they are all useful questions to be sure. How do we answer them?

Why a SERP Summary Might Be Useful For Searchers

I think Bill’s suggestion that a summary appearing at the top of search results to summarize the nature of the results returned for a particular query would be helpful. Searchers would spend less time clicking on links only to bounce back and continue looking for the information they want. The summary could serve two purposes – let searchers know that the results on a particular SERP do indeed answer their question and to let searchers know when those results do not answer their questions. Very helpful indeed.

But what about site owners? Would they benefit?

Why Site Owners Would Benefit From This Technology

Site owners would see a lower bounce rate for sure. Less traffic perhaps, but a higher percentage of targeted traffic. That’s a big benefit, especially if traffic quality is a measure of authority for search engine optimization purposes. And Google has made comments implying that it is.

Site owners would benefit in another way as well. It could be a way that site owners ensure that they improve the quality of their content to match the summary rather than simply churn out keyword-based content that ranks for the wrong query. I’m all for the SERP summary. Thanks Bill!