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A little pet-peeve I have is when an obscure(ish) acronym is used and never defined. Is SERP a well-known acronym? Perhaps this is a niche blog and I'm not the

A little pet-peeve I have is when an obscure(ish) acronym is used and never defined. Is SERP a well-known acronym? Perhaps this is a niche blog and I'm not the intended audience.

tptacek 5y ago
Yes; a SERP is a Google search result page. It's the most important acronym in SEO.
- nomdep 5y ago
  I don’t remember never ever hearing it and I’ve been in the industry for some time
  - hollerith 5y ago
    Huh. I've never been in the industry, but noticed "SERP" at least 15, maybe 20, years ago and have remembered it since. (If I were writing something to be published, though, I would write "search-engine results page" instead of "SERP".)
  - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
    You've been in the SEO industry for some time and never heard SERP?
    - nomdep 5y ago
      The web programming industry, not the SEO industry
      - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
        There is actually only very little overlap between SEO and web development. Web developers should know some basic technical SEO but you'd be surprised how much knowledge is in the SEO industry that doesn't overlap at all with development. So, it's not too surprising you don't know what SERP is. Web devs might think SEO just means fast load times, proper markup, meta tags, etc but that's only the very surface
  - Kiro 5y ago
    You can't be serious.
daveguy 5y ago
I had to look it up. SERP: Search Engine Results Page
fergie 5y ago
Unintroduced acronyms should always be avoided.
- runnerup 5y ago
  Perhaps a stroll through your own comment history (or the comments of any other HN (hacker news) user) would illuminate a lot of places where acronyms are used without introductions. TBH (to be honest) though, I'm not sure if every one of those should always have one or sometimes not.
- praptak 5y ago
  Depends on the audience-acronym pair. I don't think HTTP needs an introduction in a technical article, OTOH (on the other hand ;) ) a general newspaper should probably expand HTTP but not WWW.
- nsotelo 5y ago
  As English speakers we often take for granted acronyms such as DB or even USA. For foreigners these can also be inscrutable.
bgroat 5y ago
Not the OP, but I thought it was well known. That said, I do a lot of SEO work. Still, it should be best practice to define any acronym or initialism the first time you use it
marginalia_nu 5y ago
The word SERP feels like a bit of a shibboleth for SEO-people. They seem to take it for granted, the rest of the world just looks puzzled when they hear it.
joncp 5y ago
An all-too-common occurrence in HN comments as well.
wiether 5y ago
On HN I'm used to SE meaning Software Engineer so I came up with "Software Engineer Ranting Board" before asking Google to give me the SERP that would provide me with the true meaning of SERP.

A little pet-peeve I have is when an obscure(ish) acronym is used and never defined. Is SERP a well-known acronym? Perhaps this is a niche blog and I'm not the intended audience.

tptacek 5y ago

Yes; a SERP is a Google search result page. It's the most important acronym in SEO.

nomdep 5y ago
I don’t remember never ever hearing it and I’ve been in the industry for some time
- hollerith 5y ago
  Huh. I've never been in the industry, but noticed "SERP" at least 15, maybe 20, years ago and have remembered it since. (If I were writing something to be published, though, I would write "search-engine results page" instead of "SERP".)
- weird-eye-issue 5y ago
  You've been in the SEO industry for some time and never heard SERP?
  - nomdep 5y ago
    The web programming industry, not the SEO industry
    - weird-eye-issue 5y ago
      There is actually only very little overlap between SEO and web development. Web developers should know some basic technical SEO but you'd be surprised how much knowledge is in the SEO industry that doesn't overlap at all with development. So, it's not too surprising you don't know what SERP is. Web devs might think SEO just means fast load times, proper markup, meta tags, etc but that's only the very surface
- Kiro 5y ago
  You can't be serious.

daveguy 5y ago

I had to look it up. SERP: Search Engine Results Page

fergie 5y ago

Unintroduced acronyms should always be avoided.

runnerup 5y ago
Perhaps a stroll through your own comment history (or the comments of any other HN (hacker news) user) would illuminate a lot of places where acronyms are used without introductions. TBH (to be honest) though, I'm not sure if every one of those should always have one or sometimes not.
praptak 5y ago
Depends on the audience-acronym pair. I don't think HTTP needs an introduction in a technical article, OTOH (on the other hand ;) ) a general newspaper should probably expand HTTP but not WWW.
nsotelo 5y ago
As English speakers we often take for granted acronyms such as DB or even USA. For foreigners these can also be inscrutable.

bgroat 5y ago

Not the OP, but I thought it was well known. That said, I do a lot of SEO work. Still, it should be best practice to define any acronym or initialism the first time you use it

marginalia_nu 5y ago

The word SERP feels like a bit of a shibboleth for SEO-people. They seem to take it for granted, the rest of the world just looks puzzled when they hear it.

joncp 5y ago

An all-too-common occurrence in HN comments as well.

wiether 5y ago

On HN I'm used to SE meaning Software Engineer so I came up with "Software Engineer Ranting Board" before asking Google to give me the SERP that would provide me with the true meaning of SERP.