SEO Secrets: How Tech Buyers Use Search to Purchase
Monday, March 2nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-RunkleThe new Google/TechTarget Research Project delivers exciting SEO insight into how technology purchasers use search terms to find products and services like yours. If you’re serious about your SEO strategies and you want to outshine competitors, even the ones that outspend you, keep reading….
We’re examining the Google/TechTarget Research Project because it deserves some quality time. Serious B2B and B2G marketers should really download this free report. They then should come back here for more quick highlights and observations.
How many keywords are buyers using to find you?
Conventional wisdom in search, across industries, is that buyers are using two to three keywords to find information on solutions like yours. But this report sheds new light on this critical topic. In the early stages of research, technology buyers tend to type in two or three keywords. No surprise to search pros. But later in the buying cycle, they will use brief four- or five-word phrases. Why is this?
In later stages of buying, tech purchases use search terms like “compare” and “review” in an effort to distinguish between products and solutions. Specifically, they are looking for reviews and resources that compare technology solutions.
(As an aside, also from this report, 24% of buyers surveyed “frequently” find industry analyst web sites useful in the buying and evaluating process, but this resource is not even in the top five. Click back later to find where analyst sites rank and which resources rank higher.)
What does this mean for IT marketers? The first observation, taken from the report, but a clear conclusion, is that any and all favorable comparisons of your solutions to your competitors should be on your web site in whatever formats available.
If these resources don’t exist, you need to put a strategy in place to have reviews and comparisons created, preferably by reputable third parties like industry analyst firms, magazines, online editorial sources, etc.
You can also take the lead in generating a discussion around your technology, comparing it to your competitors. Maybe a social media program is in order.
From the report: “An analysis of TechTarget online campaigns demonstrates that many of the superior performing white papers are ones in which the author compares the solution or blueprint of one provider to that of another.” That is a very valuable piece in information.
