Keyword Classification: Understanding The “Why” Of SEO

As search engine optimizers, we want to know as much as possible about our target audience so we can deliver the best search experience. To accomplish this, we address the following questions:

Without understanding the reasons why people search, affordable seo professionals will often misinterpret or improperly classify keyword phrases.

• What are people searching for? -keywords/labels, file type
• Where are people conducting their searches? -location
• When are people conducting searches? -date, time
• Who is using the commercial -web search engines? target audience
• How are people searching? -desktop/tablet/mobile, query/browse/ask
• Why are people conducting searches? -goals, intention, motivation

Keyword research tools, web analytics data, advertising data, and other resources provide us with some answers. However, for our conclusions to be accurate, we should also understand the data and resources in context.For example, keyword research tools can tell us what people are searching for and the order in which searchers type in keywords. But keyword research tools do not provide a lot of context about each keyword phrase. Therefore, savvy search engine optimizers know that they must use other means to understand searcher context.

Card Sorting Analogy
As a website usability professional, I am fortunate to observe people in their natural search environments. Furthermore, I get to conduct usability tests with keywords. Many of my SEO insights are a result of ongoing usability testing.One usability test I use to determine searcher mental models about keywords is a card sort test. Please see When Good SEO Becomes Bad Information Architecture for info on the different types of card sort tests.  Card sort tests can also help best seo professionals determine the best labels when optimizing web documents.

I recently attended a webinar presented by information architect and card-sorting guru Donna Spencer entitled Designing Usable Categories with Card Sorting. I discovered that Donna and I have the same experience with keywords and user mental models.Card sort tests can be conducted online and offline usually face-to-face. In her webinar, Donna explained some of the differences between a face-to-face card sort test and an online card sort test. Sometimes, Donna conducts face-to-face card sort tests in groups of three. The value of group testing is listening to participants talk through what they think.
She could observe:

• Where test participants really disagreed
• How test participants resolved the labeling dispute, if it were resolved
• The words that participants did not write on a sticky note or an index card

In other words, she often hears why test participants had an easy or difficult time determining a category label. something she might not experience by conducting the same test online. When I observe users/searchers in their natural search environments and during usability tests, search engine optimization companies  I often learn information that I do not get from keyword research tools.

For example, recently, I discovered that if I architected a website based on keyword research data, I would have completely missed the users’ mental models.The keyword research data showed that the vast majority of search queries were by type. But all test participants mentioned their personal status single or family during the usability test. Consumers didn’t know the jargon for different types of services.So for this company’s website, the primary way of organizing information was by target audience, not by type. Because of this, I modified the primary navigation and relevant page interlinking on the website.I did not discount the keyword research data. I just used the keywords in the right context.

Sometimes, the missing SEO ingredient is understanding why people search.

To me, search engine optimization is optimizing a website for people who use search engines. Understanding searchers, their contexts and environments, behaviors, and intentions is just as important as understanding how search engines work.In my opinion, if best seo services are optimizing websites without considering query classification and searcher personas, then they are optimizing more for search engines than for searchers technology-centered optimization. Keyword classification is crucial for long-term search engine visibility and conversions.

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