Search engine optimisation has truly evolved into search experience optimisation, and SEO's role is no longer strictly contained within brand discovery. SEO now has a directly impacts bottom line - a significant shift from when it was concerned only with links and SERPs. Let's take a closer look at how a holistic, conversion-centric campaign works, and understand the three types of search:
Navigational Search - Top of Funnel
The three types of search categorize how people use the search function of Google and other engines, describing their main goal as either navigational, informational, or transactional. Each of these types of search also neatly align with phases of the sales funnel - the top (discovery and need recognition), middle (information and competitor research), and bottom (purchase decision).
Navigational search happens when a user requires some sort of direction to not only find what s/he is looking for, but also figure out what s/he wants to do. People who perform navigational research need direction: they use search engines to point them where they think makes most sense.
Navigational search employs broad keywords with neutral purchase intent. For SEO purposes, it would make sense to target navigational searchers by targeting relevant broad keywords if you wanted a broader audience, if only to increase the chances of brand discovery and rely on content quality to instill need recognition and hopefully move interested segments of your audience further down into your sales funnel.
Informational Search - Middle of Funnel
For people who go past the navigational search type or people who already know what they're looking for, search engines are great for research. The informational search type is the typical phase where consumers research goods and services they're interested in, as well as possible providers in an effort to zero in on the best one for their needs.
Keywords become longer, leaning more towards long-tail variations; brand names come up, and informational search phrases ("how to," "benefits," "why buy...") become increasingly used. Search volume for informational search keywords is less than navigational, though more targeted. Through proper on-page SEO practices and excellent keyword targeting, you can bring in a lot of interested people to blog posts, how-to guides, top 10s, and other articles that provide the information they want - just don't forget to infuse your content with marketing messaging that pushes informational search users further into your sales funnel.
If you check your analytics, you'll find that users who land on one of your pieces of content targeting informational search keywords will either bounce right out, or explore your other posts, increasing page depth and time spent engagement metrics. Tracing the path of users who use informational search keywords can show you how much info they need, if you're providing sufficient data, and which of your posts or pages are performing poorly (exit pages).
Transactional Search - Bottom of Funnel
Finally, only a fraction of search use - the fraction that uses long-tail keywords that reflect purchase decision - constitute transactional search. People who engage in this form of search are ready to purchase or transact, so their keywords are specific brands, products, and consist of very specific markers of intent to buy.
While a bit hard to target because of low potential search volume, transactional search users are easily converted, so you can direct them towards your hard selling landing pages by targeting their long-tail keywords.
Throughout the years after the search boom, SEO has pronounced dead a good number of times, but really, it's only evolved. This is the current evolution: aligned to the sales funnel and encompassing the entire search experience.
We have an excellent eBook for you to download that gives the top optimisation tips from the pros.