Ever wonder what your target user group does when searching for your site? Knowing how your site’s users behave when they approach your site is simply vital to your search engine optimisation plan. A good keyword list is not just about selecting the right main keywords. You also need to know which related keywords to include on your pages.
While you are trying to hit the right user target with your keywords, users are trying to hit you as well. The manoeuvring on both sides could turn search into a huge game of Battleship. It’s really important to be aware of what internet users do when trying to hit your targets.
Happily, internet users tend to behave in predictable ways. One thing they predictably do is rearrange their search term slightly when they’re not happy with the results. You can plan for this in your SEO, and you can discuss this with us at SEO Consult. Here are some common rearrangements that occur frequently:
- Reordering words. This is the most common method of reworking a search, mainly because it requires so little thought on the user’s part. Internet users are aware that the search engines place more importance on the words at the start of their search query. They’re also aware that sites change keywords while attempting to appeal to the right users. For this reason, users swap words around trying to hit the right combination, for example reworking ‘Manchester computer hardware’ into ‘computer hardware Manchester’
- Adding or removing punctuation. Google once used to largely ignore punctuation, but no longer does so reliably. Users add hyphens and apostrophes in the hope of hitting your keywords, so it’s a good idea to include all the possible versions. For example, users might change ‘women’s t-shirt’ to ‘womens t shirt’ or even ‘womens tshirt’
- Adding words. Users often add further words to hone down search results. For example, a user might rework the search ‘World Cup cricket’ into ‘World Cup cricket 2010′ or even ‘World Cup cricket 2010 Pakistan.’ Interestingly, the words added are often locations, times and dates. These are the specifics users are after, and you can improve your site’s appeal simply by including location keywords and dates where applicable
- Word removal. If the user tried something the felt was too specific in their initial search, they might try to broaden the results by removing words. For example, someone searching for ‘pizza restaurant Kentish Town London’ might get very few results. Changing that to ‘pizza restaurant London’ or ‘pizza London’ will broaden their options, and may see them get dinner swifter
It’s important to note that users don’t use these alterations in isolation. Often, several changes are made to the search term at once. This creates a very long list of possible related keywords for your pages. This can be a real problem if you’re not updating your site with fresh content on a regular basis. If you are, it can actually make things easier for your writers, giving them a broader range of ‘natural’ keywords to slip into content.
