Today, my inquiring mind, took me on a Google search. I wanted to know, “how people search online”?
I typed in “how people search”, using parentheses, to get exact results (without the parentheses, I got 180,000,000 results).
Today’s Lesson
My consensus is: if we can determine how people search online, we can create a site that will be found consistently, thus increasing our traffic counts.
What I read on several sites, is that the majority of the people who search online, have a short attention span. I agree.
Most say, searchers will not go past page one of search engine results, but some will go as far as page 5.
The majority of people are searching online, because they have a concern. They may need to know how to fix a broken faucet, what their local weather forecast is, or they may just want the latest gossip on their favorite movie star.
Whatever they are searching for, they want an answer, and they want the answer now.
Time is of the essence.
They jump from site to site, trying to find the best answer for their “problem”. It’s like they have a bad case of ADD (Attention Deficient Disorder)
I must admit, I search, and am often plagued with ADD. If a site doesn’t provide me with the information I am looking for, I’m off to the next site.
If I haven’t found “the answer” after a few attempts, I change my search string.
Today’s Assignment
How do you search online?
Do you get afflicted with ADD when you search online?
Does your site give your readers what they are looking for?
Listed below are three sites I visited to gain additional information for this post:
Thank You!
Hi Barbara – I’m glad you mentioned SEO book. It’s a great resource.
How I search depends on what I’m looking for. And I too hop from site to site quite quickly in attempt to find what I want. If I’m looking for reviews – I’ll often type in that word at the end of my search phrase. And if it doesn’t work – I add the phrase discussion forum to the search phrase too.
If my search takes me to about.com – I’ll often press the back button on my browser. Ditto Yahoo answers, which often contains some terrible and misleading advice.
And if I’m really struggling to find what I’m looking for, I’ll put quotation marks round my search term.
Now, if I’m looking for an answer to a specific question – I’ll often type in the exact question because sometimes sites put the question in their headline, before providing the answer.
Another favourite is to look for lists: eg Top Ten – then the search term, or worlds best – worlds worst etc etc.
I almost always use Google. Hope this helps a little.
Catherine,
So you have ADD too. When time is of the essence, it’s frustrating to not be able to find what we want within our first few attempts.
I think that is another reason why sometimes I think Google’s page rank may need some revamping, as sometimes the sites at the top of the search engine results aren’t really the most informative.
That’s a great idea of typing the exact question as your search string.
Thanks for sharing.
Barbara – that is so true. Googles page ranks sucks thanks to all the paid links and link farms.
The trouble is – no matter what they seem to bring out – the seo experts are always one step ahead.
You are so right Catherine,
I’m sure there are many who spend their time trying to stay ahead of Google, or right with them.
I would have to believe even Google struggles with what is the best way to produce meaningful search results, and thus far, whatever they decide on, the “experts”‘ are using to “beat the system”. And, you know, it’s all about money.