Informational query
-
Hello,
In an informational query can the answer people are looking for have multiple intent or will it always have 1 intent ?
For example New York, the intent is probably where ?
On a longer query such as "Provence bike tour" what is the intent ? Where, what, Why, How to, when ?
Thank you,
-
Thank you for your detailed answer.
-
On Google, query-spaces can become ambiguous. For some keywords, Google know that there is a very strong affinity in terms of the user's search-intent
For example, if the query is: "properties to rent in Camden, London" - then it's almost certain that the searcher is looking for a new place to live and wants to see rental property listings
If on the other hand, the query is something like "science", that's extremely broad. Do the users want science news? Maybe to pick up a sciences degree? Do they want to know the basic principles of science (e.g: the scientific method?)
The answer to your question is variable. It's not that Google 'always' assumes one meaning, or 'always' assumes multiple meanings. It depends upon the specific search-query, and the resources available within the appended query-space
You'll find that some query-spaces are very, very noisy and not really very helpful - because there's just too many search audiences 'competing' (through their clicks and queries) for 'control' of the query-space. Some query-spaces are like a battleground, others are much more straight-forwards and easy to interpret
As a general rule of thumb, if a search query returns results predominantly from one type of site - all about the exact same thing, that query-space is 'clean'. If you search for something and the results are messy and all over the place, then the query-space is 'noisy'
It's easier to optimise for clean query-spaces, but because they are clean your competition will be harder to overcome. In a noisy query-space, it's harder to write that one piece of content that addresses everyone perfectly - but competition is usually not as stiff (because most people can't be bothered optimising for noisy query-spaces, you can't do it with crappy textbroker articles - it takes real thought!)
So there you go. You should now have a lens to analyse Google's results with, and decide upon your SEO / content implementation
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Sitelink Search Box mark-up when multiple query strings are used
Hi all, I'm looking to implement sitelink search box mark-up in Google Tag Manager in JSON-LD format. This would be popped into the Custom HTML tag and would look a little something like: The above option is great if you have one query string for your search term, but what if you had a URL that triggered two query strings - for example: https://www.example.com/search?q=searchterm&category=all Would you need to amend the code something like the below: Any help would be much appreciated! Cheers, Sean
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seanginnaw0 -
Do Query Strings strip SEO value?
Hopefully a quick Yes No answer to this one but if I site links to my site as follows: www.mysite.com/?gclid=CNuG0Kasfy7oCFfMbtAodZg4AIw Is there value in that link still?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Marketing_Today0 -
Keyword Research: How best to target keywords without using a region as part of the search query.
When doing keyword research and trying to rank for a keyword. I am wondering if we need to localize the query by adding a city to it. For example Phoenix Web Design vs. just targeting web design since Google is localizing search results now. Then when creating content and optimizing the site do we just put the keyword in the title and page content or do we also add the region/city to the keyword phrase? Any insight would be appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hireawizseo0 -
Using Reg Ex to 301 old categories and query strings in Magento
Hi SEOmoz community! I'm hoping somebody with a little Magento and Reg Ex knowledge will be able to help me out here. I need to 301 some old categories along with their old query strings. Below is an example. Old URL /bed-linen/pillowcases-html.html Users can then filter by price or range which then creates a query string such as... /bed-linen/pillowcases-html.html?price=1%2C10 New URL: /bed-linen/pillowcases.html So the new query string will be /bed-linen/pillowcases.html?price=1%2C10 Does anybody know the Reg Ex to 301 this? Can this be done in Magento re-write module or by htaccess only? Thanks in advance 🙂 Anthony @Anthony_Mac85
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tone_Agency0 -
How Come Meta is different based on different query?
We have a site we added a number to in the meta description. Once we did that we did a fetch as google to hopefully recrawl the page quicker. A few days later and we cleared W3 cache on WP and clear computer cache, then did search on common search for the site/page. WidgetA for example. The url is OurClient.com/widgetA/ - on organic in meta on SERP and we see our new meta with number. We then do a search on a similar term WidgetingA for example and the same url shows: OurClient.com/widgetA/ BUT THE meta description is different on SERP! It is the old meta. When we look at the element using mozbar, it shows the new meta as it should same as when we look at it under the original search term. So, search for WidgetA, get new meta in serps and search for WidgetingA (which returns same url as WidgetA) and we get the old meta. Thoughts???
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RobertFisher0 -
Link Building for "State" informational pages
I have a webpage for all 50 states for specific info relating to relocation and was wondering if there are any recommended links to work at getting for these pages. I would like to do "state" specific and possibly health related links for each page to help in the SEO rankings. I can see that if I just wanted to get 10 links on each page that is going to be 500 links I have to build and it is going to be very time consuming but I feel it is necessary. Thank you, Poo
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Boodreaux0 -
Front end content optimisation query
One of my sites is installing Strange Loop, a front end content optimisation platform. Does anyone have any advice when dealing with this type of implementation or pitfalls that I need to look out for. Even just a headsup on some reading material would be good. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BenFox0 -
<rel canonical="">and Query Strings</rel>
How are you supposed to <rel canonical="" tag="">a page with a query string that has already been indexed? It's not like you're serving that page from a CMS where you have an original page with content to add to the head tag.</rel> For example.... Original Page = http://www.example.com/about/products.php Query String Page = http://www.example.com/about/products.php?src=FrontDoorBox Would adding the <rel canonical="" tag="">to the original page, referencing itself, be the solution so that the next time the original page is crawled, the bot will know that the previously indexed URL with query string should actually be the "original"? That's the only solution I can come up with because there's no way to find the query string rendered page to tag with the canonical.....</rel>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Yun0