We use Google for everything. Finding the movie times for tonight, ordering Christmas presents, and spell checking – Google does it all.
But with so many searches, how do you sort through it all to get the right type of traffic to your site?
Well, there are three primary types of searches:
Navigational: These searches are done by someone who wants to find a particular website. Suppose someone searches for “McDonalds”. It is highly likely that they are looking for McDonalds.com. They aren’t searching for restaurants in general, or even fast food. They know where they want to go and they are trying to get there as quickly as possible
Informational: These searches are done by someone who wants information. These searches tend to be broad in nature and the searchers typically don’t care which site they get the information from, as long as the details are accurate. For example, suppose someone searches for “Denver Broncos stats”. They want the specific numbers but they don’t care whether they end up at NFL.com, ESPN.com, or DenverBroncos.com.
Transactional: These searches are done by someone who wants to take an action. This could be making a purchase, signing up for a class, or contacting their congress person. For example, someone who searches “buy prom dress online” is clearly expressing their desire to take action today.
So what type of searches should you target?
Informational and transactional searches typically have the most value for companies, but there is no one size fits all answer to that question. However, understanding the different types of searches will help you with an essential, often overlooked step in your marketing campaign: Make sure your content matches the search.
Regardless of what you want to say to your website visitors, if it is not what THEY are looking for then they will not listen. So whenever you are setting up an SEO or PPC campaign, be sure to analyze each search phrase that you are targeting and optimize your landing page with what the searcher wants to find.
For example, someone who is doing an informational search about prom dresses is likely to purchase soon. But right now they want information. So giving the details on what you are selling is fine – but first you NEED to give them the information they want. Tell them about what is in this year and what is out. Tell them what styles look best on what body shape. And THEN show them the perfect product for their needs.
Or, if someone is doing a transactional search for prom dresses, first show them what you have for sale. And in the description of the dress, mention what is hot this season and which style would be best for their body shape. Give them a link to read more and then show them the perfect (albeit more expensive) product for their needs!
Consider the type of search you are targeting and FIRST give the searcher the content they are looking for!
