Chew Valley Web

Promoting your small business website is not about looking for customers but getting them to look for you. So how do you know what web searchers are looking for? This article explains the three main behaviours of an web searcher and how to make sure your website covers these search queries.

Navigational Search

This is what an internet searcher does when they know the website they are looking for. The web user types a brand or site name into their search box to be presented with a link to their chosen website. This is the easiest kind of search to rank well in as long as your site name, domain name content reflects your business name. It is obviously important that customers who know your business name can find your site using a search. A study has shown that navigational searches account for around ten percent of all searchers queries on the web.

Transactional Search

A transactional search is a query based on a web searchers desire to further interact with your site. Search words such as “buy” or “download” often indicate interest in purchasing your product. Transactional searches often result in internet searchers converting into customers. Don’t forget to use such phrases as “buy [product]” in your website copy. Although transactional web searchers convert well, the bad news is that this search type may only accounts for around ten percent of search queries.

Informational Search

The largest number of queries by internet searchers are informational. Customers looking for information on something related to your business. They might not be looking to buy now but the more visitors your site receives, the more sales you make. Most small business owners can instantly tell me the most popular topics of information in their business area. The important thing is to use web searchers desire for information to your advantage and create website content to suit. While potential customers are looking at your lovely free information they are already beginning to trust your business. That large net of information based content has caught a boatload more web searchers for you.
Don’t forget to make sure that every information page of your business website is clearly branded with good links to other parts of your site, particularly the sales or product pages.

Great, where do I start?

Start thinking about information your customers might look for, related to your business topic. Do some test searches to see where they are getting that information at the moment. Your competitors might using informational search already.

Take a break from looking for customers and use your website to get customers looking for (and finding) you.

The studies that this article refers to can be found at Determining the User Intent of Web Search Engine Queries

With additional information from Taxonomy of Web Search

About the Author:
Rob Sayer is an internet marketer who specialises in personal service for small business websites. At Chew Valley Web, Rob provides Search Engine Optimisation and Marketing Services to small businesses that unleashes the potential of their websites.