There are three unique types of searchers who visit the search engines you are targeting.

1) Navigational Searchers

Navigational searchers are searching for a specific website. Sometimes, it’s because they have visited the site before or perhaps someone described it to them. Often, they have heard of a particular company or its products. Perhaps they were flipping through a magazine and saw something that piqued their interest. And lastly, there are many Internet searchers who have so much confidence in the web that if they think of something they assume a site exists to that covers it.

Navigational searchers are not web surfers. They know what they are looking for and no other site will do.

Niche affiliate marketing has captitalized on the navigational searcher, providing niche-specific content to exactly fit their unique requirements.

Navigational searchers are the only group likely to go past page one in the search results, if they don’t find titles and description snippets that match their queries in the first ten search results.

2) Informational Searchers

Informational searchers are looking for in-depth content on a very specific subject. They believe the deep information exists but they don’t know where to find it. Unlike navigational searchers, informational searches aren’t looking for a specific answer. They will often click several of the top ten search results, then follow the links in the sites they arrive at to expand their search.

Almost every Internet user is an informational searcher at some point, and
informational searchers are the mainstay of any search marketing program. Informational searchers have not firmly decided on a product or service, so they are still ‘up for grabs’. They allow you the opportunity to sell them. Conversion plays a vital role with informational searchers, turning visitors into buyers.

3) Transactional Searchers

Transactional searchers are ‘can do’ people. They make things happen. They are not surfing for information. They want to take action. Transactional searchers want to buy something, download something, sign up for a newsletter, subscribe to a blog, donate to a charity, etc.

Make sure the keywords for any specific searches they may enter come up on search engines and your site search. They enter model number and product/service information.

Transactional queries are the most difficult to optimize your site for. The product and service pages they are looking for are often database-generated catalog pages, which have little content to work with. You’ll have to be careful to include all relavent keywords in these brief descriptions. Choice of your shopping cart or CMS, based upon optimization will be critical.

If you would like follow-up articles on optimizing for each group, please comment.

Technorati Tags: navigational searchers, informational searchers, transactional searchers

What do you think about this? I personally think this show will reduce the credibility of those of us who provide legitimate services and products online, fueling the ‘get rich quick on the web’ ebook craze to new heights. Imagine the wave of spam that will follow this show’s airing and the flood of bogus unproven strategies to be foisted upon the ’something for nothing’ groupies. Scary stuff!

Your thoughts?

SEO experts and Internet marketing consultants don’t always agree on SEO pricing and budgeting, but on average the SEO budget recommendation works out to 4 - 5 times the cost of the website. In other words, if a company’s annual website budget is $15,000.00, SEO and Internet marketing should be between $60,000.00 and $75,000.00.

To their extreme detriment, most website owners have it exactly in reverse. They’ll invest only a paltry 5 to 10% into SEO and Internet marketing.. The results will almost always be a disaster. The most drop-dead-gorgeous award-winning website without traffic is like having boxes of Clio-winning four color glossy brochures stacked neatly in the storage closet.

Small companies often feel they can’t afford to invest in SEO. They’ll build a budget site for two or three thousand and then throw a few dollars after it with a $24.95 site submission package. What they should have done is invest $500.00 into the site and $2,500.00 into first rate SEO and Internet marketing, developing the backlinks that provide a top-5 ranking on Google, Yahoo Search and MSN Search. Even a butt-ugly website (while not recommended) with a flood of qualified traffic will always outperform the pretty site with little or no traffic.

Some SEOs like Vancouver SEO expert, Cole Wiebe, offer monthly SEO plans at very reasonable rates. Even a small company can afford six to nine months of Advantage SEO or  Extreme SEO to drive serious traffic to their site.

Technorati Tags: seo investment, seo budget, how much for SEO