SERP
Also called search engine results page
The page of results a search engine returns for a query, including organic listings, ads and any features such as answer boxes, image packs or local results. A rank check is a reading of one SERP at one moment.
A SERP is not a list of ten links, and has not been for a long time. A single results page can carry ads, an answer box, a related-questions block, images, video, local results, product listings and, increasingly, a generated summary — all above the first organic result.
Two things follow for anyone tracking positions.
Position is not the same as visibility. Ranking first organically on a query whose answer box already resolves the question is a different outcome from ranking first on a query with nothing above it. The number is the same; the click-through is not.
A SERP is a moment. Results are personalised, localised, and re-ranked continuously. There is no single true position for a keyword, only what was returned for a given query, in a given market, at a given time. This is why netweft’s rank tracking stores every check as a snapshot with its timestamp rather than as a current value: the timestamp is part of the fact, and recomputing it later would destroy it.
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