In January 2011, Performics and ROI Research published a report, where they studied people’s motivations and behavior when using search engines. The study started out with a survey of 3 million US adults. Then they did an insight study with a panel of 500 respondents who had used a search engine in the past week and were regular users of Google, Yahoo! or Bing. They published some interesting results:
User search behavior:
- 40% used a search engine more than twenty times in any given week
- 88% will click on a result that has the exact phrase they searched for
- 89% alter their search query if they don’t find the results they’re looking for
- 89% will try a different search engine if they don’t find the results they’re looking for
- 79% scan through multiple pages of results, if their query isn’t answered in the first page
- 53% are more likely to click on a listing if it includes an image
- 48% click on a company or brand if they appear multiple times in the search results
- 26% said they were more likely to click on a search result if it included a video
- 63% know the difference between paid and natural search results
- 37% rarely or never click on paid results
Based on these results, here are a few tips on how to structure your content to make it more findable:
- A good content marketing strategy will deliver organic search results which searchers consider more valuable and trustworthy than paid results.
- Weave longer tail search terms into the body of the content to ensure you’re found by searchers who are altering queries and typing in longer strings. But remember, you’re writing for a human audience and your content must be engaging and insightful. So don’t just stuff it full of keywords. Make sure it’s readable and informative.
- Use the Google Wonder Wheel to learn more about how searchers alter their search queries in relation to your desired keywords, and incorporate the alternate search phrases into your content where appropriate.
- Include important search terms in the meta-descriptions that are shown in the search results. The more closely your meta-description matches the search term used, the more likely the searcher will be to click on your link.
- Create multiple pages of varied content addressing important keywords where you want to be found, as this will help ensure that your company gets multiple listings in the search results. However, it’s important that you not duplicate content. Google will catch this and downgrade your search rankings. So create multiple content pieces that address the issues from different angles, using the appropriate keywords in context.
Warm regards,
Candyce
