More Words Are Now The Key
It appears that a new trend is rapidly gaining ground in search methods being used by people conducting product research via the search engines. Hitwise has revealed recently that search queries on all major search engines are starting to use more and more words. In a recent study, the measurement firm found that when people type in words to search they are typing four or more words at an increasing rate to find what they’re looking for. Hitwise found that searches using five words are up 6 percent, while those using eight or more words have risen by 22 percent. Overall, longer search queries are gaining traction to the point that they have increased 10 percent over the past year of tracking.
It appears that using one- and two-word search queries is dropping in popularity. Two-word queries are down 5 percent, while one-word searches dropped 3 percent. Searches using three words have stayed the same in terms of frequency.
“This is an interesting trend, and it could be interpreted in a variety of ways,” writes Frederic Lardinois in a ReadWriteWeb post. “This could mean that a growing number of users [are] finding less value in the search results they get from relatively unspecific, short queries. It could also indicate that users are becoming more sophisticated in how they structure their queries when they are looking for very specific answers.”
You need to take note of this since those that use four or more words to define their search are looking for a specific product or service to solve their problems. Be sure that you use three, four and five word phrases as part of your SEO strategy so those that are qualified and ready to do business can find you. The real advantage is that your comp[etition will not be using this technique!
As always we welcome your thoughts and comments on keywords and boosting SEO.
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