Aaron Wall's Gets Deep Inside the Mind of the Searcher

• Search Taxonomy: Classifying keywords as navigational, transactional, informational.
  
  • Navigational: Trying to find a specific website.
  • Transactional: Want to buy something (any site).
  • Informational: Looking for info (any site).
• Type of searches done:
  
  • 25% are searching for specific websites.
  • 68% want to find info.
• Intent of search:
  
  • 22% are looking for downloads.
  • 15% are looking for "linking resources" (think articles that contain lots of great *external* links)
  • 77% want to find the "best" source of info on their topic.
• For buyers, they'll dig deeper down into the research results.
• Info & navigational searchers refine their search quickly if they don't get what they want (won't dig as deep).
• Useful Tools:
  
  • Microsoft Ad Funnels tool
    
    • What did people search for *before* and *after* searching for a particular keyword?
  • Microsoft "Entity Association Tool"
    
    • Which keywords were searched for during the same browsing session, or in search queries with the same keyword?
  • Microsoft Commercial Intent Tool
    
    • How likely is it the user is searching to buy something?

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