It is vital that you understand how people interact with the search engines if you have a website that you want to market and promote through search. When you understand how your target market interacts with the search engines you will be able to focus your search optimization strategy and target the correct search phrases.
The search process has evolved over the years but the main principles have remained the same. Billions of searches are conducted monthly using search engines with Google the search engine of choice capturing more than 60% of the market during the first quarter of 2010. Search engines aim to provide users with the most relevant information based on the search query entered and 85% of users find the information that they are looking for when conducting a search.
Search Steps and Processes:
• The user experiences the need for an answer, solution or piece of information.
• The user creates a search query using words or phrases to describe his or her need.
• The user enters this search query into his or her search engine of choice.
• The user browses through the results (normally only the top 10).
• The user clicks on one of the results that looks like a match.
• The user scans the information to determine if it is what he or she is looking for.
• If unsatisfied the user will return to the search results to browse the rest of the results.
• If none of the results provide the correct information the user will formulate a new search query and start the process again.
Based on results from an April 2010 comScore study Google Sites captured 64.4% of the search market in April 2010 with Yahoo Sites at 17.7% and Microsoft Sites at 11.8%. More than 15.5 Billion searches were conducted in April 2010 by Americans with Google Sites accounting for 10 billion searches. The first 4 ranking positions receive more than 70% of the click-thru traffic with the first 10 ranking positions receiving around 90% of the click-thru traffic.
More people are using search to find local businesses and to research a product before purchasing it from a local store. This increase in the use of search engines to find local businesses and products highlights the importance of effective search engine marketing.
How to use this information:
1. Research search phrases that normal users will enter into the search query to find your business.
2. Optimize your website for these keywords and phrases.
3. Build high quality links to your website from respected and relevant sites using your chosen keywords in the anchor text of the links.
4. Target local search if you provide a product or service that is location driven.
5. Track and monitor your keyword rankings.
6. Keep on optimizing your keywords until they reach the top 4 ranking positions and maintain your rankings over time.
Organic search is one of the biggest traffic generators on the Web and search is very popular. Make sure that you implement an effective keyword optimization strategy for your website in order to capture your share of the market. Search engine optimization for your business website is a must and should not be neglected. Being listed in the top search engine results is critical to high visibility and generating targeted traffic to your website.
