The Human Goals of Searching
The basic goal of a human searcher is to obtain information relevant to her inquiry. However, searcher inquiries can take many different forms. One of the most important elements to building an online marketing strategy for a website around SEO and search rankings is developing a thorough understanding of the psychology of your target audience. Once you understand how the average searcher, and more specifically, your target market, uses search engines, you can more effectively reach and keep those users.
Search engine usage has evolved over the years, but the primary principles of conducting a search remain largely unchanged. The following steps comprise most search processes:
Experience the need for an answer, solution, or piece of information. For example, the user may be looking for a website (navigational query) to buy something (transactional query) or to learn something (informational query). We will discuss this in more detail in the following section.
Formulate that need in a string of words and phrases (the query). Most people formulate their queries in one to three words. ComScore data from March 2009 shows an average query length of 2.9 words. A more detailed look shows the following percentages of searches per word length (see Table 1-1).
Table 1-1. Searches by query length (comScore)
Words
Percent of searches
1
25.32%
2
24.96%
3
19.80%
4
13.17%
5
7.53%
6
4.04%
7
2.15%
8
1.19%
Data from Hitwise for this book shows a similar distribution of search query lengths ...