Internet Marketing Tips: Understanding Generic vs Specific Search Terms

By Rodney Brooks, on May 16th, 2009

According to the ecommerce and internet strategy experts, you can learn a lot about a customer from the search terms they use to get to your site.

Online business expert Chris Cathcart from Bigmouthmedia says, understanding the way people search can teach you a lot about how close your visitors are to purchase, and allow you to greatly improve your current web strategy results.

In this business television show produced by yourBusinessChannel, Cathcart shares his latest internet marketing tips and insights to help businesses improve their internet strategy and reach their business development goals.

Cathcart uses the examples from the financial sector to illustrate is ecommerce web strategy advice.

A critical part of his online business advice is to use analytical tools to understand how the people visiting your website have been searching online, immediately before they arrive at your site. There is a ’search funnel’ process which most internet users typically follow, from the generic search which customers begin their searching with, to the more specific second tier search.

So with credit cards, for example, a generic search might just be ‘credit card’, whereas a second-tier search might be ‘zero percent credit transfer credit card’. There are a few important factors to take account of when you are developing your ecommerce web strategy.

You should optimize your site for both generic and second tier searches and use analytic tools to identify what most relevant search terms of each type are.

Catchart also explains that while the overall volume of second tier searches is usually much smaller that of generic searches, the intention behind second tier searches is much greater. In other words, when a person searches for something as specific as a ‘zero percent credit transfer credit card’, they have clearly thought about what they want carefully and are close to making a purchase decision.

In the show, Cathcart explains how to adapt your web strategy to leverage the most value from these different kinds of searches.