Internet Marketing Digital_marketing_for_dummies | Page 184

Targeting Search Queries
One way that people discover your business, brands, products, and services is by using
search queries typed in search engines. A searcher navigates to a search engine, types a
keyword or phrase, and taps or clicks a search button, and the search engine returns
popular, relevant results. The searcher clicks or taps one of those results, and he’s off to
the races.
To help make your brand discoverable and available to a searcher, marketers have two
broad categories of search queries to keep in mind:
Branded queries: Keywords or keyword phrases that searchers type in search engines
when they’re looking for a specific business, brand, product, or service. The search
query “Southwest Airlines,” for example, is a branded query that Southwest Airlines
should target.
Nonbranded queries: Keywords or keyword phrases that searchers type in to search
engines when they’re not looking for a specific business, brand, product, or service.
The search query “fly to Chicago,” for example, is a nonbranded query that Southwest
Airlines should target.
By understanding the preceding two categories, marketers can target keywords or
keyword phrases to help make their brand discoverable and available to searchers.
Suppose that a searcher is looking for a bed-and-breakfast inn, and she types the search
query “historic bed and breakfast near me” in Google (see Figure 8-2). This query is a
nonbranded search query. The searcher isn’t looking for a particular bed-and-breakfast;
she’s simply researching and discovering historic bed-and-breakfasts nearby.