Web users love to search. They use the main search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search and Ask to find one thing only – information.
What sort of information are they looking for?
Clearly this depends on the individual. They might be looking for entertainment news, or hunting for product reviews, or trying to compare vendors and services, or seeking their soulmate, or buying a second-hand car. All these goals can start with a simple search query.
The use of keywords or keyphrases (combining several keywords) helps users find exactly what they want. Modern search engines are generally great at delivering relevant results to users.
Relevance (or relevancy if you are in the US) is the mantra of all search engine engineers.
A word from our resident lexicologist…
Understanding keyphrases enables marketers at companies to target users showing intent or interest in their products.
Notice that we say ‘keyphrase’ (short for ‘keyword phrase’) rather than ‘keyword’. This is because search engines such as Google attribute more relevance when there is an exact phrase match on a web page (a phrase that matches the user’s search term).
Search engines also assess other occurrences of the keywords and synonyms on the page, and also those websites / pages linking to a page. We’ll get onto that in due course…
So how big is search?
The number of searches by people trying to find information is still growing dramatically. Nielsen//NetRatings reported that there were 5.7 billion searches in the US in January 2006, a 39% year-on-year increase from 4.1 billion in January 2005 . Furthermore, the number of searches in the US is more than 183 million per day.
What sort of information are they looking for?
Clearly this depends on the individual. They might be looking for entertainment news, or hunting for product reviews, or trying to compare vendors and services, or seeking their soulmate, or buying a second-hand car. All these goals can start with a simple search query.
The use of keywords or keyphrases (combining several keywords) helps users find exactly what they want. Modern search engines are generally great at delivering relevant results to users.
Relevance (or relevancy if you are in the US) is the mantra of all search engine engineers.
A word from our resident lexicologist…
Understanding keyphrases enables marketers at companies to target users showing intent or interest in their products.
Notice that we say ‘keyphrase’ (short for ‘keyword phrase’) rather than ‘keyword’. This is because search engines such as Google attribute more relevance when there is an exact phrase match on a web page (a phrase that matches the user’s search term).
Search engines also assess other occurrences of the keywords and synonyms on the page, and also those websites / pages linking to a page. We’ll get onto that in due course…
So how big is search?
The number of searches by people trying to find information is still growing dramatically. Nielsen//NetRatings reported that there were 5.7 billion searches in the US in January 2006, a 39% year-on-year increase from 4.1 billion in January 2005 . Furthermore, the number of searches in the US is more than 183 million per day.
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