Below is a picture of a search engine results page (SERP). This page is the result of a search I did for the keyword phrase HVAC. After you type in your query in the search box the search engines scour their indexes and return a page that they hope gives you the links to information that is relevant to your need.
On the left column of the page you will notice many choices like video, images and maps, you can click on any of these choices to narrow down the type of info that is searched for. This feature can help the search engine return more meaningful results by excluding things you are not interested in.
(1) Local Results & Map
When the search engines think you are looking for information for you local area they will give you a pack of local results that match up with a map on the results page. How may local results you get depends on which search engine you use. In this example Google has returned seven local businesses it feels are relevant to your search. To local businesses these local search packs are very important and if the local business is not showing up in the local pack there is a good chance the searcher will not visit the businesses website.
(2) Organic Results
Organic search results or (free results) are returned from website that the search engine has decided is most relevant to your search query (question). The organic results are drawn from the engines index of websites that have a relation to what you are looking for. All search engines use algorithms to pin-point what they think you are looking for and returning it to you. The closer the result to your need the better the chance you will come back to use the search engine again. It’s important to note that ads on the right side of the results page have no influence on the organic results.
(3) Paid Results
The results you see in the right-hand column are called paid results, these results are advertisements that businesses place hoping to get you to click and visit their websites or offers. These results are also called (PPC) ads, the PPC stands for “pay for click” which means each time someone clicks on one of these ads the business who owns the ad pays the search engine some amount of money. The amount is determined by an auction system that pits each advertiser against each other. The amount could be a few cents or dozens of dollars all depending on how hot the competition is.