The behaviour of people using search engines and vertical search is different for every target audience. As a search engine marketer you should always know the target audience and how they search. In this article I will share some of my experience on the subject of “searcher behaviour”.
How people use search engines is mainly based on experience. If you try something and it works for you, you are likely to do it the same way the next time. Searcher behaviour is also based on knowledge in the specific field they are searching in, and on the decision phase they are in. The used search engine and search engine type, internet device and desired content type and many more factors all play a role, but it is possible to exactly define your audience and their most likely search behaviour.
- Your first ever search engine will be either the default one on your computer or the one someone advices you to use. If you remain satisfied with the results you’re not likely to switch. This is why all search engines want to become the default on new computers.
- Unexperienced searchers are more likely to type full sentences in stead of only keywords. As people become more acquainted with search they will use only key-words and even start using phrase and negative query options.
- Unexperienced searchers won’t know the difference between sponsored and organic search results and are more likely to click ads. As experience grows they will sometimes create an automatic ad filter and they won’t even notice the ads anymore.
- Websites that sell something are more likely to use sponsored listings. And because people aren’t always searching to buy something the sponsored listings are deemed less relevant in most cases. Only when someone is looking to buy, they are more likely to look at and click on ads.
- The decision phase someone is in determines what keywords they use and what they click. The Search Funnel (pdf) can be used to determine what keywords belong in which phase and shows you which steps need to be taken to end up with a buying customer. Down the AIDA funnel (Attention, Interest, Desire and Action). In which Action can be buying something.
(Click for PDF)To get a buying customer someone needs to go through the entire decision making process. If you get your website visitor in the “attention” phase you need to offer him all the following steps and information without loosing him to a search engine which might be able to give him more information then your site does. The further down the search funnel you get your visitor, the more likely someone is willing to buy or take any other desired action. Maybe this article can help: Best landing page layout.
Target keywords from all phases, but make sure you offer the desired information for that phase. Guide them to the desired action on your site, but in these steps offer answers to possible questions in every decision phase.
- Most websites are written in only one writing style. They can for instance use commercial language, corporate language or informal language. They’re also written from a specific knowledge level with the presumption that the visitor has that same knowledge. Write your text from all different standpoints, all knowledge levels and every possible writing style that is suitable for your product or service. Just figure out a way to do it all in one website and target all possible search queries.
- Organic and Sponsored search results are almost always placed in the format Title, Description and URL. Eye-tracking studies on the Google result pages show that it is not only important to be amongst the first five search results, but it is even more important to be have a relevant and attractive result. The second result can easily convert better then the first as long as it is more relevant to what the searcher was looking for or even more then he was looking for.
(Click for full page)The different colors show how much time was focussed on a specific region of the page.
The X-es show where the user clicked.
The red lines show how far someone scrolled.As you can see people don’t scroll much, but that depends on the first five results. If they are exactly what the searcher was looking for, they will click those. If it was nothing like what they were looking for, they will click the search box to refine the search. If it was somewhat what they were looking for, they will scroll to see if there is something better in those results.
People scan the results for what they were looking for. Having the keyword in your title and description makes them bold. Something bold ate the beginning or end of the line attracts extra attention.
Make sure your result stands out of the crowd. Titles in search engines are your page titles, the descriptions (snippets) are either: 1. Your DMOZ or Yahoo directory description. 2. Your description metatag. 3. A specific piece of text from your page where the search phrase is situated. Test titles and descriptoins in payed search and reflect the successfull ones in your webpages.
- The future of search is in personal search, custom result page layouts and vertical search. All of these result types make it harder to predict where and how your result will be shown. Make sure you end up in every relevant vertical search type. In a future post I will focus on influencing personal and vertical searches. It isn’t very important yet, but just realize that this is coming!
These are just a few of my findings. The article would become too long if I continued. Maybe I’ll focus more future posts on this subject.