Understanding Search Types for SEO

Understanding Search Types for SEO

Everyone uses search engines for everything now. Finding a local business. Researching a holiday destination. Figuring out how to fix something in the house. And it’s tempting to think of all ‘search’ as the same.

But it’s not quite that simple, and for those businesses that truly understand search, their search engine optimisation (SEO) can get a huge boost.

So, what are the main types of search and why should you care?

Classifying Search

Search classification is useful because it allows businesses to tailor their content to meet the needs of different types of searcher. This specialisation and specificity is beneficial because it allows more precise targeting of users based on what they are putting into a search bar.

Being clear and specific is also helpful. For example, if you’re trekking through the wilderness in North America and someone sees an something rustling in the bushes, then knowing that it has four legs and fur is sort of helpful because it tells you it’s an animal. But the specific detail ‘it’s over 2 metres tall’ is where the real value is because it’s this information that tells you that the animal is likely a bear, not a small household cat. More detail is always better.

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Understanding the ‘Plumbing’ of SEO – How it Works

Understanding the ‘Plumbing’ of SEO – How it Works

There are a lot of things in the world that we don’t fully understand, but that need to work so that our lives can go on. Things like Wi-Fi and the reliable supply of water and electricity are just a few examples of goods and services that only a small percentage of people fully understand, but that we all rely on.

The same concept applies to SEO: only a few people fully understand it, but millions of businesses rely on good search engine optimisation to get better ranking on results pages. That better ranking can drive new browsers, that then turn into paying customers. And from there, revenue and profit can flow.

To help break down the walls, we’ve come up with a ‘SEO Basics’ post so that you can better understand the concepts that make SEO work.

Web Crawling

The first thing that all search engines must do is ‘crawl’ the internet, and all the websites and pages in it.

This is sort of like an explorer from the 1600’s setting out on a ship to map parts of the world that had not been explored yet. But instead of using ships on the ocean, search engines send out web crawlers to find content. Content that these crawlers find can range from entire web pages to single images. It can also include uploads to web pages such as documents and videos.

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Understanding the Language of SEO

Understanding the Language of SEO

Have you ever been to a doctor or spoken to a tradesperson who just talks in jargon? That habit can lead to poor communication, as well as leaving you feeling like you don’t understand what the expert is saying or what they are advising.

It’s the same in search engine optimisation. As a fairly new industry, the terms are not used in common language yet. And because SEO is highly specialised, it has developed it’s own array of terms, phrases and shorthand that its own experts understand.

But SEO isn’t just for experts. Businesses of all kinds rely on SEO to ensure that their services are placed well on Google search results. And even for businesses that want to get some professional help with their SEO for their website(s) it helps to know the terms so you can ask informed questions when you interview people or companies for the role.

We’ve collected some of the terms you should know right here and made the explanations simple and easy to grasp so you can get up to speed quickly.

‘Google My Business’ Listing – possibly one of the most important and cost effective things any business can do (if they haven’t already). This listing is free to all local businesses and allows businesses to be found more easily in search, to add their location, be found on Google Maps and add their opening hours and contact information so that when a customer searches for them by name, that information appears in the search results.

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