Navigating the Evolving SERP (Google’s Search Engine Results Pages)
A Guide for Material Handling Businesses
By Devon Hoffman
THE DIGITAL LANDSCAPE is constantly shifting, and recent seismic shifts in Google’s Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) fundamentally alter how businesses gain visibility online. Understanding these changes isn’t just beneficial for the material handling industry – it’s crucial for staying ahead in the race for customer attention. AI Overviews, prominent shopping results and a wealth of other rich SERP features increasingly occupy the valuable above-the-fold real estate, pushing traditional organic listings farther down the page. This new reality demands a strategic evolution in your SEO and content marketing efforts.
Due to these recent changes and the impact of SERPs, there are some actionable steps tailored specifically for material handling businesses to help your business thrive in this new environment.
The New Face of Search:
What’s Changed?
Gone are the days when a simple list of ten blue links dominated the search results page. Today’s SERP is a dynamic mix of features designed to provide users with immediate answers, transactional options and rich information directly on the results page.
Perhaps the most significant recent change is the introduction and expansion of AI Overviews. These AI generated summaries appear at the top of the results for many queries, aiming to provide a concise answer, drawn from multiple sources. While they offer quick information to users, they can also significantly reduce clicks to traditional organic listings, particularly for informational searches.
For product-related searches, visually driven shopping results, carousels and grids are more prominent than ever, often appearing above organic results. This highlights products with images, pricing and availability, directly influencing purchasing decisions before a user even visits a website.
Rich snippets, including “People Also Ask” boxes, video carousels and featured snippets (which pull a direct answer or summary from a webpage), are designed to answer user queries instantly. While they can drive targeted traffic when your content is featured, they also contribute to the “zero-click search” phenomenon, where users get their answers without ever leaving the SERP.
For businesses with a local presence, the local pack displaying nearby businesses on a map with key information remains a critical SERP feature, often appearing high on the page for location-based searches.
The collective impact of these features is clear: increased competition for visibility and a diminished prominence for standard organic listings. For material handling companies, relying solely on traditional ranking strategies is no longer sufficient.
Adapting Your Strategy for
the New Digital Landscape
Success in the evolving SERP requires a multi-pronged approach that prioritizes user intent, leverages new technologies and focuses on providing value in easily digestible formats.
The rise of AI Overviews and rich features means that potential customers searching for material handling solutions might find answers to their initial questions or browse product options directly on the SERP.
This can impact the traditional sales funnel, requiring you to capture attention and provide value earlier in the buyer journey. The long sales cycles common in the material handling industry mean that initial searches might be highly research oriented, making your content’s appearance in AI Overviews or featured snippets crucial for establishing expertise and brand awareness.
Take Action Regularly analyze the SERP for keywords relevant to your products
and services. Use tools such as SEMRush to see which SERP features
are triggered and identify which competitors appear in them. This provides a clear picture of the competitive landscape and the
opportunities you might miss.
Practical Strategies for SEO and
Content Marketing Adaptation
To thrive, your digital strategy must adapt to prioritize visibility within these new SERP features while still optimizing for traditional rankings.
- Optimize for Featured Snippets: Structure your content to directly answer common questions about your products and services using clear headings, bullet points and concise paragraphs. Think about the “what, why and how” of material handling solutions.
- Enhance Product Feeds for Shopping Results: If you sell equipment or parts online, ensure your product feeds are comprehensive, accurate and regularly updated with high-quality images, detailed descriptions, pricing and inventory information.
- Prioritize User Experience: Google prioritizes websites that offer a seamless and fast mobile experience. Ensure your website is mobile-responsive, loads quickly and is easily navigable.
Take Action Implement Schema Markup. Use schema markup (structured data) to
help search engines better understand your content, products,
services and business information. This increases your chances
of appearing in rich snippets and other enhanced listings.
Technicalseo.com has a good tool for this.
Leveraging AI, Featured
Snippets and Local Search
AI is not just changing the SERP; it can also be a powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.
Take Action
Leverage AI for Content Ideas and Optimization. Use AI tools to
brainstorm content topics based on your industry's trending
questions and help optimize existing content for clarity and
conciseness, making it more suitable for featured snippets.
ChatGPT is the most popular tool you may have heard of (and may
already use).
Maximize Local Search Visibility. Claim and optimize your Google
Business Profile listing with accurate and complete information,
including services offered, hours and location. Encourage customer
reviews and respond to reviews and questions in a timely manner.
Build local citations on relevant online directories.
Creating Content That
Coincides With Search Intent
Search intent is becoming more nuanced. Users are looking for specific answers and solutions, not just general information.
Take Action
Develop In-depth, Solution oriented Content. Go beyond product
specifications. Create content that addresses your target
audience's challenges and how your material handling solutions
provide answers. Remember to keep EEAT (Experience, Expertise,
Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) in mind when creating
content. This could include case studies, white papers,
comparison guides and detailed "how-to" articles.
Focus on Long-tail Keywords. Target longer, more specific keywords
that indicate a user is further along in the buyer journey and has
a clear intent. These often have less competition and higher
conversion rates.
Utilizing Data for Informed
Marketing Decisions
In the new SERP landscape, data is your compass. Monitoring and analyzing performance is essential for refining your strategy.
Take Action
• Track Key Metrics. Monitor metrics such as organic traffic,
click-through rates from different SERP features, keyword rankings
(paying attention to which features you appear in)and conversions
originating from organic search. Google Search Console is
a good tool for tracking these key metrics.
• Analyze User Behavior. Use analytics to understand how users
interact with your website after arriving from search results.
This can inform improvements to your content and website structure.
• Attribute Conversions. Implement robust conversion tracking
to understand which keywords and content drive leads and sales,
allowing you to allocate resources effectively.
The expanding search landscape presents unique challenges and opportunities for the material handling industry. By understanding the impact of new SERP features like AI Overviews and adapting your SEO and content marketing strategies to prioritize user intent, optimize for rich results, leverage AI and make data-driven decisions, your business can not only maintain but also enhance its organic visibility and connect with customers in this dynamic digital age. The time to adapt is now, so take action.
About the Author
Devon Hoffman has over ten years of experience in marketing and currently serves as a digital marketing specialist at Site-Seeker. His innovative and client-centered methods effectively generate positive results for the businesses and organizations he works with and supports.
