Pushing Personal
Now, we know this isn’t a particularly new phenomena. Search engines have been around for a while, and their modus operandi is to provide answers to questions.
What is happening today however is a definite shift in how those questions are being put across. More and more searches are of an increasingly personal tone.
That means words like ‘my’, ‘I’, ‘me’ and any other first person pronouns you can think of are appearing in searches with increasing frequency.
Are we all getting more self-involved? Well, that’s not for us to say…
But there’s been a notable change in the search dynamic. Think With Google reports that there’s been a 60% increase in mobile searches that include the term ‘_ for me’ in the past 2 years. Similarly, mobile searches that include ‘_should I_’ have grown by 80% in the same two-year period.
What are people searching for?
It’s easy to overlook the variety of reasons search engines are used.
Think about it. Have you ever used a search engine to:
- Try and work out if you have a certain illness
- Find out who sings that song that’s stuck in your head
- Find your nearest supermarket, petrol station, ATM or something along those lines
- Find an item for cheaper than you see it in store
Chances are that most people will answer yes to all of the above. What appears when they search therefore is a key element in their ultimate decision.
Whether it’s informational, locational or commerce-related, people want information that is most relevant to them. And they’re increasingly using those aforementioned terms – ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ – to find it.
What to do?
As a business, you should take stock of this growing personalisation among search terms. The closer you are able to align yourself with what people are searching for online, the better your search engine optimisation will be. This in turn gives you a chance of having a higher conversion rate as you will be driving more relevant traffic to your website.
Equally, by having a better awareness of the specific personal terms relevant to your industry or area of expertise, you can tailor any PPC campaigns you have to increase their efficacy.
And if this all seems like too much of a struggle to figure out, our team of SEO experts can help! All you need to do is say hello.
