Search query – what is it
A search query is a word or phrase special database that a user enters into a search engine (Google, Bing, or another) to retrieve relevant search results.
With the help of such words and phrases, you can find out almost anything – from the current exchange rate and tomorrow’s weather to the results of scientific research and the geopolitical situation in the world. And, it would seem, this is quite enough to understand how such words and phrases work. But in practice, everything is a little more complicated, especially from the point of view of promotion.
Types of search queries
There are different queries for search engines and different ways to classify them. They can be divided into nine main categories. We want to talk about each of them in more detail.
By intent
Intent is, in simple terms, the user’s intentions. For example, a clear request indicates a person’s desire to buy a certain product, use a service, or get how to install wordpress using nginx on ubuntu server the information they need. A fuzzy one can give ambiguous results, but in greater quantity.
Simple examples of search queries:
- “buy iPhone 15 in Kyiv” is a clear user intent to make a purchase;
- “iPhone 15” is a vague phrase that can indicate either a desire to buy the gadget or simply to get additional information about it without the purpose of buying it.
From a business perspective, it is the clear aero leads types of SEO queries that are a priority and should be emphasized in order to attract the target audience interested in the products or services.
By brand mention
Branded queries in search engines imply the use of the company name in the search phrase. That is, when a person types not “website promotion in Kyiv”, but “website promotion in Kyiv Elit-Web”, he is clearly interested in the services of a specific studio.
For businesses, promoting branded keywords has several advantages. First, they can be used to attract new customers more effectively. Second, promoting them is easier than promoting them with more general keywords. On the other hand, branded search queries for a website only work if your company is already known.
By frequency level
According to this parameter, keywords are divided into three categories:
- high frequency;
- mid-range;
- low frequency.
High-frequency queries help attract more potential clients, but at the same time, it is much more difficult to get to the top of search results for them. Especially in highly competitive niches, where a clear list of leaders in the Google rating has already been formed. And paid contextual advertising using them will also cost more.
By competition
This parameter partly echoes the previous one. But frequency and competition are still different things. Here, too, there are three subtypes:
- highly competitive;
- moderately competitive;
- low competitive.
Again, it is easier and cheaper to promote using low-competition words and phrases, but they ultimately generate less traffic than highly competitive or medium-competitive ones.