As a contractor, you rely heavily on keyword searches to bring your potential customers to your website. But what exactly are they looking for? The team here at Contractor Charlie has a few tips to help you understand common search queries and how to target them on your contractor website.

What Consumers Are Searching For

When marketing your contractor website, it’s easy to give keywords the center of attention. These are what users are typing into Google.

But we often don’t think of the type of searches that users conduct. These searches fall into three categories:

• Navigational search queries
• Informational search queries
• Transactional search queries

The team at Contractor Charlie explains what these types of searches are, and how you can target them for your website.

Navigational Search Queries

A navigational search query is used to find a specific website. When a user types “Walmart” into the Google search bar, chances are high that they’re looking for the Walmart website. The user could enter the URL into the search bar, but this might be easier for them. They may also be unsure of the spelling of the brand or company.

Targeting navigational search queries is rather tricky. With this, users typically have one thing in mind: they want to find your website. If your website isn’t what they’re looking for, then you’re irrelevant to them.

Becoming well-known is arguably the best way to target these searches. But you have to be well-known in order for customers to look for your company. What are some steps to achieve this?

• Content marketing: Writing blog posts, creating infographics, and recording videos can be part of an effective content marketing campaign that helps companies boost their authority.
• Use structured data: By adding structured data directly to your website code, you allow Google, Bing, and other search engines to deeply understand your site. This can improve your company’s search results.
• Create social media pages: Maintaining the right social media accounts can help spread awareness for your company, and help you engage with visitors.

Owning the site that the user is looking for is arguably the best way to target navigational queries. But it takes effort to ensure that you dominate that first page of branded results.

Informational Search Queries

An informational search query is a search that looks for, well, information about a particular topic. The user’s likely focus is to look for the most relevant information on a particular topic. Sometimes, there could be thousands of results. The odds of making a purchase is low since they aren’t likely ready to buy.

What needs to be considered is when a user searches for a particular brand or business. In our earlier example, the user enters “Walmart” into the search bar as part of a navigational search. They want to find the URL or website. Entering “Walmart” as an informational search could mean that they’re looking for the nearest store, business hours, or contact information.

Different Types of Informational Search Queries

Informational search queries can come in different forms. Sometimes they can be in question form, such as, “How do I change my oil?” They can also be a simple phrase or keyword combination, such as “kitchen cabinets.”

The best way to target informational searches is similar to targeting navigational searches. That is, create high-quality content that is useful for searchers.

• Tips and tricks
• New products
• Videos
• How-to guides
• Infographics

The goal is to not aggressively sell your products but to allow the user to trust you as an expert in the industry.

Transactional Search Queries

A transactional search query is when a user searches for something with the intent of making a purchase, or if making a transaction is imminent. It’s safe to infer that the user is clearly looking to get a product or service.

Transactional searches have their own patterns, like the previous searches we’ve listed. They can include the name of the exact brand names or product, such as “Dallas Cowboys jerseys.” Searches can also be generic, like “light bulbs.” Sometimes, they’ll include verbs such as “buy”, “download,” or “order.”

Transactional Searches Require On-Page and Off-Page SEO

Targeting transactional searches should involve both on-page and off-page optimization. For on-page SEO, you’ll need to optimize the title and description meta tags, your focus keywords, heading tags and images.

Generating backlinks from high-quality websites is the best method to optimize for off-page SEO. Being active on social media, as well as linked and unlinked mentions of your business, will also help.

Contractor Charlie Can Help You Target the Common Search Queries

Targeting these search queries for your contractor website isn’t as difficult as you think. Email us today to talk with one of our representatives about what these search queries can mean for your business. The right type of content and optimization can attract customers using each search type.