A recent study came out that we found really interesting. It stated that 27% of searchers phrased their search query in the form of a question, starting most commonly with how, why, and what. Aside from that, 50% of searchers use “fragment” or short keyword terms, and 50% of searchers use “non-fragment” or more long-tail keyword terms. Being able to tailor your content so that a broad variety of searchers can find it, is key.
With search engines getting so intelligent, it’s all the more reason to take a good hard look at just what exactly your content is saying. For example, if you’re trying to think of engaging and highly searchable blog post ideas, try thinking about how your audience might search for that content. If you’re providing information that’s solving a problem, you might think about making your title in the form of a question, similar to how someone might be searching to solve that problem.
This research does a great job at explaining why it’s so important to decipher between search preferences. If you’d like to read the rest of the study, you can read it HERE, or check out a brief summary over at Search Engine Land.