WordPress SEO In 5 Minutes-What Is A Search Term?
Have you ever wondered how the search engine comes with the right suggestions for what you are going to search even before entering it completely? And do you know these terms you use to search plays a significant role in SEO and ranking? So, let’s unroll the facts about search terms and its significance in this article brought by our SEO and branding agency in Perth.
What is a search term?
Search terms or search queries are the words that a user enters in the search engine to search for something. Search engines interpret these terms to understand the user’s intent and give the most relevant results. This can be a single word, multiple words or a complete query.
Are search terms and keywords the same?
They are different things, though they are used interchangeably often. A keyword is what a search engine has crawled and indexed.
When a user types a term or word in search engine, it will look into its index, and find a page with the keyword most relevant to the term typed and display it in the results.
Ideally, your keyword should match the search term that you are hoping to target.
Let’s say a small business in Perth is looking for a web development company. They will search for ‘web development agency Perth’ or even ‘web development for small business in Perth.’ The Computing Australia Group being an established web development agency will have its pages optimised for these key phrases or related keywords.
Why Search Intent is important?
Whenever a user searches for something on the internet, they have a purpose or intent. This is called search intent. Different users may have different intent for the same search term.
Understanding the intent behind the term will help you develop keywords around the same and rank them.
The search queries are mainly divided into 3 categories based on intent.
- Navigational search queries: A query entered to find a specific website or webpage. E.g. If you enter “youtube”, the search engine will take it as a navigation query and lead you to the site.
- Informational search queries: A query entered to get information about a topic. These queries cover a broad topic, and there may have thousands of relevant results. E.g. If you enter “Perth “, search engines take it as a general query to know all the information about the place and provide accordingly.
- Transactional search queries: A query entered to complete a transaction. E.g. when you search for a particular brand or product like “iPhone X” or “Antivirus for phone” or when you add the term “buy” or “purchase”. The search engines interpret it as a transaction query and lead you to sites where you can purchase the product.
It’s essential to make sure that the results are accurate to the users searching intent. If the page doesn’t match what they were looking for, they will go back and click on another page.
Importance of search terms for search engine marketing and advertising.
Search engine marketing is mainly based on search terms—understanding which terms are used by users will help you to choose the accurately.
When you enter a query to search, Google shows you results that are focused on satisfying your intent. These results are divided into two categories. Paid results or Google Ads, which are displayed on top and bottom; and Organic results, also called SEO results which are displayed in middle.
If you want users to click on your advertisement, your ad should consist of your targeted search terms. This needs a thorough understanding of Adwords and Google ads management.
Search terms and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Creating keywords based on search terms and search intent can help you rank higher in SERPs. Keyword research is the foundation for a good SEO strategy.
For example, The Computing Australia Group provides web designing, web development, coding, hosting, SEO and other web related and creative services across all major industries including but not limited to mining, healthcare, government, manufacturing, retail and corporate clients. Our keywords would be exact match or related to the search terms for these clients.
Understanding the search terms that are most relevant for your business and intent, is essential to rank better in SERPs. Need help with search terms or Google ads management? contact us today or email at sales@computingaustralia.group and speak to our SEO team in Perth.
Jargon Buster
Crawling – the process by which search bots visit a website.
Index – the database where a crawler stores the data from the pages it has crawled.
Google Ads – an online advertising platform by Google, where you can pay to display your ads on SERPs.
by The Computing Australia Group