Webmasters depend on tools and technology to begin their journey of optimising a website. These tactics have proven useful for forming an adjacent view of how people search; it’s never been a complete picture. Most SEO professionals admit that no tool will be able to fully replicate the user behaviour, which is why there needs to be a subtle shift in how webmasters go about their work.
In this article, we discuss how online users initiate a search, the most common types of internet searchers, and how you can use SEO services to target people searching on Google.
The First Step
The first step users take when they initiate a search is by inputting keywords into a search engine. Anticipating and predicting those keywords is the first thing webmasters need to accomplish so that the process can get off the ground. One of the philosophies growing in popularity regarding the process is that webmasters need to study the users themselves, instead of relying on web tools alone.
Several studies took that advice to heart and began observing the habits of users who were tasked to find an online solution for random problems. The results showed that there are two dominant behaviour types when it comes to search – fragment and full queries.
Fragment Versus Full Queries
The first group – fragment searchers – are the people who use the absolute minimum number of words when conducting a search. When presented, for example, with a query on how to treat a swollen ankle, these users will simply input ‘swollen ankle’, or ‘swollen ankle treatment’. This group’s focus is speed; they simply put the most relevant keywords into the search bar and see what the SERPs come up with.
The second group – full searches – are people who take a few seconds to figure out how to best phrase their query. The main concerns of these types of searchers are the details of the results they want to get. Going back to the ankle example, full query searchers would look like ‘how doctors treat a swollen ankle?’, or ‘home treatment for a swollen ankle’.
Five Types of Internet Searchers and How to Target Them with SEO Services
Your SEO management and strategy can be further improved if you pay attention to the ways in which online users search on Google to find information they’re looking for. By studying the following searcher types, you can improve your site’s optimisation and enhance keyword selection to target searchers.
Take a good look at the different kinds of online searchers who may well be potential visitors to your website.
Navigational searcher
The navigational searcher is looking for a specific webpage within a website or a particular website itself. That means they’re only liable to use a specific keyword from the search inquiry’s URL. Normally, with a navigational search, the user can remember the URL to a certain extent, but not entirely. Therefore, they’ll aim to locate the page via Google or any other search engine.
An important question to ask yourself then is: how well optimized is your URL when it comes to keywords? This is crucial because your URL’s relevance can really help users in remembering the keywords in your URL when they need to find your site again.
Known Item Searcher
This type of searcher already knows the website or page they’re looking for. Most likely, they’ve already visited your site beforehand and liked what they saw. They also remember a bit of your URL or the page they’re looking for. They will then use this information to play around with keywords and browse through the different search engine results.
This is perhaps when partial match keywords are useful for your SEO management strategy. When these keywords are well-optimised, you allow someone who’s trying to find your website or offerings locate you within their first two to three attempts. If this user doesn’t find you, they’ll get sidetracked by your competition and you will have lost potential traffic and conversions.
Named Page Searcher
The Named-Page searcher already knows the website or page they’re looking for. They know the existence of the domain, but choose to find the site by entering keywords on the search engine bar rather than typing the site’s URL on the browser.
To target these types of searchers, ensure that your URL plays an important role in your site’s keyword optimisation. Named-Page searchers already know your site well so it’s best to retain their loyalty.
Informational searcher
Informational searchers are looking to do some research. They’re users who aren’t looking specifically for a particular site, but are instead conducting background research. They’re looking to find out what they can about a certain product, service or topic, wading through the material on the search results. In other words, they’re trying to find new information.
If you put your SEO services to good use, you will attract many informational searchers to your site with relevant keywords that are sure to generate huge amounts of organic traffic. When you optimise relevant keywords when an informational searcher is on the prowl, you’ll be able to hook and reel them in with your keywords as bait.
Transactional searcher
This type of searcher is already looking to buy something. So if you have something to offer or to sell online, your keywords should reflect this fat. If they don’t, then you’ll miss out on a huge pool of potential conversions.
Think about the specific nature of your products and services and then utilise keywords to successfully tap into the transactional searcher remit.
SEO Management: Match Keywords for Different Types of Internet Searchers
To hone in on the styles and pursuits of searches, you’ll need to generate different kinds of keywords. Once you’ve developed and refined those keywords, you can then proceed on targeting the different types of searchers.
When it comes to making the most out of SEO services, keyword optimisation and relevancy are essential to generating the kind of quality traffic you want from search engine results. In this turn, the more you understand about the motivations of online searchers, the more effective your SEO management strategy will be.
For instance, navigational searchers are arguably the least focused out of all the searcher types. They are more open to new information, so they can be approached using a different set of keywords. On the other hand, transactional searchers are already ready to buy. These searchers have found a product or a service they want and are about to convert.
Understanding how people conduct their searches can give webmasters a better idea of the kind of phrases they’ll need to incorporate into their SEO strategy. Websites need an SEO provider that already has that kind of insight at their disposal, and fortunately, all they need to do to find that is to contact us today.
Our teams are always looking for ways to improve the quality of our strategies, to give our clients the best shot at the top spot. Let us discuss your specific or local SEO needs today.