Search engine marketers and usability engineers want to understand why we go to websites and what we do after we arrive at a search results page. They ask questions like:
- Are we satisfied with where we landed?
- Did the engine provide accurate results listings?
- Was our click choice a positive one?
- Did we stay on the site or leave?
- If we left, what search result better matched what we wanted to find?
- Was it the search results or did we have a bad experience with the web page we landed on?
Both search engines and human factors related fields study our intent.
Author Matt Bailey points to the depth of the importance of intent in his new book, Internet Marketing: An Hour a Day.
“Search engines are integrating more multimedia and allowing deeper access to documents and media earlier in the search process. They are attempting to determine the intent of the searcher and deliver results accordingly.”
What is our intent? Why do we visit the Internet? Why do we use search sites such as Google and Youtube?
In a 2009 ComScore study (comScore, 2009), they found that “Nearly one out of every ten minutes a person spends online around the world is spent on a Google site.” This includes the search engine itself, Youtube, which they own, Google books, email, Google reader and more.
Clearly, marketers want to be sure their clients’ websites perform well in Google’s web properties. Not doing so can wreck the success of a business.
Search Behavior = People Who Search
Shortly after search engines and information sites appeared on the Internet, case studies zeroed in to understand why, who, where, when, where and how humans use them. Hot on the trail, too, were analysts interested in learning about site traffic, popularity, rank and how to make money from it.
Many of you were guinea pigs during the 1990’s when web page backgrounds were gray with black text, and animation, 3D images, scrolling text boxes, rotating banners and blinking images were all part of a typical user interface.
As fun as all those things were to create (I loved animating images), web designers had to buckle to user preferences.
Search engines learned what we really come to the Internet for. Perhaps search engine sites are not suitable for certain subject types when it comes to information searches. In order to improve search engine design and SEO marketing efforts, we try to understand user intent and goals for searching.
It’s been well established at this point that search engines are used by us to find information. What kinds of information are most popular?
A recent study from Australia on who uses search engines found that half of search engine queries were looking for a particular website, while the other 50% were split between ecommerce and popular culture searches.
The study also pointed to what is referred to as “leisure searches”. The findings present the idea of search sites not only for information gathering or shortcuts to web sites, but they’re also sources for leisure, with one in six of all searches estimated as being leisure searches.
The Australian study offered some surprising details for anyone wondering what we’re searching for, by subject. Adult site searches fell into the middle, with ecommerce being second, edged under a tad by popular culture topics. Health, weather, contemporary affairs and government are the least popular searches.
The study stood out from others because it included and factored in the lifestyle of their participants. This is different than user testing labs or Eye tracking tests. To their surprise, lifestyle choices had no measurable impact on the type of search queries. In fact, new questions were raised on user –searcher behavior.
For example, do Internet users tend to go to particular trusted web sites for information on healthcare, computing and contemporary affairs, rather than use search engines? Does the distribution of the most ranked subjects searched for represent user interests or the suitability of search engines for looking up certain types of topics?
Another study (Broder, 2002) narrows search engine user behavior as informational, navigational, transactional and leisure. Half the searches in the study were navigational and one-third, transactional. Half of all searchers know where they want to go.
What Does This Mean To Search Marketers?
The most obvious is that it’s time to accept usability studies into marketing strategy. And, user experience professionals can no longer devalue the role of search marketers. Both camps provide essential skills and expertise needed for web site projects.
A lot of what’s happening on the Internet is relationship building. The global community wants this so badly they invented social networking sites and social marketing to drive interest and generate revenue from these new site sources.
Emotional web design is no accident. We’re emotional beings. Empathy makes us connect with others.
“In life and business, focus on creating win-win situations. Look beyond the immediate sale in order to connect with customers as people.” – Steve Harper, The Ripple Effect.
Despite our developing mental models and creating user personas, we remain on the edge of understanding who uses our stuff. Wouldn’t it be grand if stakeholders got out of their offices and actually interacted with the people who use their websites?
I’ve often wished I could video people who multi-task at home, with one hand on a laundry basket, an ear to the cell phone and a hand reaching for the laptop nearby. What does that busy person search for and how? Can we make their experience less stressful?
Division between marketing and user experience will dissolve as both approaches discover they need each others’ data to do a better job for their clients.
There’s no question that a passion for usability and search engine marketing leads to their fascinating cousins, like information architecture, findability, captology, analytics and neurology. There’s also no question that money can be made by optimizing for and advertising in search engines.
Studying user behavior is a win-win for search engine technology, search marketing and website usability and human factors.
Cited Resources:
Broder 2002; A Taxonomy of Web Search (PDF)
Waller, Vivienne 2010; Not Just Information: Who Searches for What on the Search Engine Google?
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: Just Behave
Gather close, dear friends and hear my words of warning. Gird yourself, for my tale would make any enlightened man or woman stagger back in disbelief. I do not share such news with you lightly. It is not my errand to harm or discomfort your mental or psychological wellbeing.
Resist the urge to sever the very Internet connection with which you receive my message. I shall soon relieve your stress with a simple technique that will counter the malevolence that I describe.
I reveal my knowledge only because you may in fact be a person possessing an enterprising mind. If this is true, I know you will see in my tale of woe and tragedy the shadow of immense opportunity.
My Tale
I have, in my professional pursuits been privy to the plans of many a starry-eyed business person. So eager are they to tap the keg of the Web that they have made themselves drunk with anticipation, even before a single sip of the digital elixir has crossed their lips.
They are handy with their search tools, clever in their keywords and pen pay-per-click ads that seem to dance upon the page.
It is all for naught, for the heady traffic pours into vessels so riddled with hole and crack, that from this torrent these businesses can scarcely moisten their lips. The websites to which they deliver their click-through treasure fail in their basic duty of capturing and converting the bounty.
And so, they make changes. They replace the ineffective cup with a bowl and then a pitcher and then a saucer, each equally as impotent; each delivering little sustenance to them.
Take your kerchief now from your pocket, dear friend, for my tale will bring tears to your eyes.
In their quest to find the proper vessel these misguided souls fail to see the true opportunity. It is as if they are blind, and yeah, they truly are.
They stick their inferior containers out into the flood and clinch their eyes tightly closed as if looking upon something abominable. Thus, they see only the result, and not the cause of their famine.
But lift your head now and let the brightness of joy return to your face, for I can tell you now that you need not suffer as they do.
The True Opportunity
The core of the matter is this: the opportunity lies not in the container, but in the holes and cracks.
Yes, each little imperfection offers up a chance to be corrected, each tiny fault a hope of repair. And when enough of these imperfections are discovered our cups will fill with abundance on which our businesses will become sated.
Do not dismiss me now expecting tales of split tests and multivariate monstrosities, for I offer a much simpler way of stripping the blindfold from your eyes.
I offer you: the Serial Test.
Behold, The Serial Test
I chuckle now as I think of the simplicity and power of this trick. It begins with the ability to measure traffic and track the very leads and sales that sustain you.
You may choose Google Analytics or Clicky for its simplicity. Enterprises may prefer Omniture or Webtrends. It is of little consequence to me.
It is only important that you be able to gauge the level in your cup as compared to the visits flowing into it.
Seek not absolute accuracy, but seek instead consistency of measure and no more.
Tread lightly! You must bring change in small steps, patiently and purposefully. Seek to join a crack or fill a hole.
Change a headline, reduce the number of fields in your form or add trust-building symbols to the page. Change but one thing at a time.
Accompany each change with a hypothesis, a thesis for what you expect the change to do for you. Most of the time, your hypothesis will simply be this:
“This change will increase the percentage of visitors who take action; who convert to a lead or a sale as measured by ___________.”
You must fill the blank, my friend.
Will you measure calls you receive from the Web? Will you measure completed forms? Will you measure revenue per click? It is up to you.
All I ask is that you choose a measure for which you know the current value and that will reliably rise or fall as your fortunes change.
Test Duration
Hold fast! Do not rush off to ogle your analytics, for we must first discuss statistical significance. Do not be disheartened. This term, though bulging with syllables simply means that you must let enough time pass before you review the results of your change.
There are ebbs and flows within even a calendar week that must be considered. I say you shall let no less than a week pass before you evaluate any change. This assumes a heady stream of traffic.
To ensure validity, you should let enough time pass for 100 conversions to occur or for thousands of eyes fall upon your change before you harvest your learnings.
Measure your current page, which we call the control for an appropriate amount of time. Then measure the changed page, which we call the treatment for such a time as well. Then will you be ready to glean insights that will fill your cup.
In many cases you will find a difference between the two. The treatment will offer an increase or decrease over the performance of its brother. But, don’t rush to the conclusion, for if the change is small, it is wholly invalid.
Only Big Differences Count
Do not think me foul that I must reveal that a serial test does not control for natural changes in the marketplace. Just as the temperature fluctuates from season to season, so too will your conversion rates and independently of changes to your site.
Therefore stake your decisions on large changes. If your treatment causes a drop of 20% or more, you can be comforted that it is an inferior vessel. Cast it aside and restore the control. This is truly an honorable result!
If your treatment brings a bounty of 20% or more in increased conversions, rejoice. You have found a new control.
Otherwise, retain your control and try something anew.
Repeat & Grow
Tarry but a moment, dear reader, as you must prepare for the next test. Choose another change. Create your hypothesis. Select a measuring stick. Launch your treatment at the appointed time and wait patiently for statistical significance.
And as God is my witness, I say that you will have prepared yourself to ease into a more profitable and fruitful pursuit: the split test.
Your new-found skills at selecting what to change, at choosing metrics and knowing how long to test will serve you well. The split test will control for seasonal and competitive fluctuations that plague even the most stalwart of serial tests. Riches will be yours for the taking.
Hark! I offer gifts with my glad tidings. For your pleasure, I offer my very own test planning document to guide you through your most pressing serial test.
Use it in good health and growing prosperity as it guides you to online success. With it, you will rise above the blind rabble who would dare to compete with you.
You will have questions, no doubt. Please share them in the comments for a rousing response from me and other smart readers like yourself.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.
Related Topics: Conversion Science
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