At this point, it’s safe to say that over 99% of all active internet users have made a search query in Google’s search engine, but how is a search query actually born and what is it?
To start, every search query will have a need that must be satisfied, an action that should be carried out, an expectation, hope, or just a guess or question that needs to be answered or confirmed.
As a result, three main types of search queries emerge:
- Navigational Search: The user searches for specific pages or sub-pages.
- Informative Search: The user searches for information on a specific topic.
- Transactional Search: This search is followed by an action such as an order, a purchase, etc.
This article will give you a deeper understanding of the three major types of search queries and how business owners and SEO experts can leverage them to bring more traffic, and ultimately, more conversions to your website. Ready? Let’s begin!
1.Navigational Search
With navigational search, the user searches specifically for pages or subpages that they already know or at least believe exist. This means that the user is looking for brands, company names, products, or various events from a company, manufacturer, etc… The user can also find places and logically assumed names in these search queries: e.g. “Montreal Zoo” (of course, there’s no zoo with that actual name but it gives the user a list of all the zoos in the city).
From this search, it can be concluded that the user already has some prior knowledge for a navigation search and may only want to find a specific page again.
Due to the specific search query, the searcher expects good quality results on the first page. Google even accommodates you in the brand/company search. The company you are looking for is recognized as a reference and you can select a few sub-pages directly from the Google search index.
Example for better understanding: Company Search – OptiWeb Marketing
It is therefore important to ensure that your website has multiple sitelinks that can appear whenever someone searches for your brand on Google. Some of the special sub-pages that are frequently searched for are, for example, contact information, open jobs, or special products.
2.Informative Search
With the informative search, the user will be on the hunt for information on a specific topic. They would like to have questions answered and or assumptions confirmed.
The search is characterized by inquiries such as:
- General inquiries: XYZ instructions, help, tips, how-to, etc.
- Search for definitions: what is, definition, explanation, etc.
- Special identification with question words: what, how, why, where, etc.
The user expects the results to be text, infographics, or explanations in forums or other “user help users” portals. However, not every request can be clearly assigned by the search engines. In particular, inquiries made by “creative users” are difficult to put in the results. Trending searches such as “My pants won’t close” or “When is the bus coming” are as confusing to the search engines as they are funny to us.
One of the most frequent results for this type of search is certainly Wikipedia. Here, too, Google helps us with useful little features – the so-called knowledge graph, the explanation of definitions as the first search result or on the right side of the screen.
A few examples for a better understanding:
– The knowledge graph using the example of “Barack Obama”
The most important information is summarized to the right of the search results. Related search queries are also presented here by Google.
– Explanation of definitions using the example of “Liger Definition”
Here, the definition you are looking for is displayed first and you do not have to search long for an answer. Of course, Google offers us further sources of information here as well.
In most cases, this “definition” function from Google really works best when the search query is made similar to the one shown in the example.
– Last but not least: The weather display. For example, “Montreal Weather”
Short and simple: the current weather is displayed first.
Now, back to the business portion. Brands can make effective use of this type of search and act as knowledge resources and thus present their brand as a trustworthy source for Google by integrating information pages on special topics on their company’s webpage. Furthermore, niche topics can be answered on different forums for which users cannot find a lot of content on the search results pages. What must of course be considered is that the information should ALWAYS relate to your website.
3.Transactional Search
This search is usually followed by an action. This means the user would like to buy something, download something or register for something, etc. As a result, the search is based on product names in combination with buy, order, download, rent, etc. Additionally, essential information such as the size of items of clothing and price expectations such as cheap, discounted, luxury, etc. are also frequently added in such types of search queries.
There are actually no limits to the user’s imagination. With transactional search, the user expects all pages that offer them exactly or at least close to what they are looking for.
We don’t have to tell you why this type of search is potentially the most important of all searches for a business, especially e-commerce websites. However, the biggest challenge here is to be ranked for high search volume keywords, which are quite often very high in competition as well.
Final Words
Regardless of the search type, if you wish to get your website ranked on Google’s first page for high-volume search queries related to your products or services, your website will need a thorough SEO campaign. The experienced and trusted team of professional experts at OptiWeb Marketing – a leading SEO Company in Montreal, can help you achieve your organic search engine rankings (SEO) goals effectively!
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