How Users Phrase their Queries on Search Engines

With the growing sophistication of search engines like Google thanks to their endless updates in algorithms, users are now being given a better search experience, enabling them to place a query as natural as asking a question—but how do users phrase their query on search engines?

A recent study from the Blue Nile Research shed light to the psychology of these searchers and looked into how users phrased their queries on Google. They found out that 27 percent of respondents use question formats, or phrased their query in the form of a question. These formats included “how”, “why”, “where”, “what”, and “which”. The remaining 73 percent of searchers, meanwhile, still phrased their queries in a non-question format.

Among the aforementioned question formats, the format of “how” was seen to be the most popular, with 38 percent of users phrasing their queries in this format, followed by “why” with 24 percent. Meanwhile, 15 percent of users used the “where” format, while 12 percent used “which” and 11 percent used “what”.

Furthermore, when looking into how long the search phrases were, the study found that users phrasing their queries in the question format were split between those using fragment queries, or two- to three-word queries, and full queries, which were queries having four words or longer. The most number of words used by these users were eight.

The facts mentioned above are helpful for businesses and professionals alike who are aiming to have a successful SEO campaign.