In a recent report, Hitwise said that the length of search queries has increased over the past year. Longer search queries, averaging searches of 5+ words in length, have increased 10% from January ’08 to January ’09 they noted.
Ask has an interesting interpretation of this data:
In a nutshell, users are now expecting search engines to not just index the Internet, they are expecting search engines to process the data on the Internet. Searchers don’t consider their query to be just keywords; they are starting to expect that the search engine will understand the intent of the query better. Expressing a query with intent requires more words, and the user’s investment of more words means that his or her expectations on the search engine are higher. We are clearly experiencing a transition in the way that people are using the Internet.
FAQs are relevant results to targetted searches about what your business offers. What a powerful, yet simple and overlooked concept. And considering the emphasis Google seems to be putting on brand it sounds like a can’t-miss when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation.
