In SEO, not all keywords are created equal. They vary in frequency, target audience, user intent, and many other parameters.
The site’s position in search, the number of clicks from search engines and, ultimately, sales depend on how accurately the queries for promotion are selected. Incorrect selection of keywords can lead to a waste of money and time on promotion for irrelevant queries.
Therefore, before diving into optimization, you need to understand the types of queries and learn how to choose those that are right for your business.
In this article, we will look at the main types of search queries, their characteristics and methods for choosing the most effective ones for promoting your website.
Types of queries by search purpose
When people enter a query into a search engine, their goals may vary. To choose the right keywords for website promotion, you need to understand these goals.
Here are the main types of requests and their features:
Informational
These are user queries that seek information or an answer to a specific question. In most cases, users entering these queries are seeking knowledge, not necessarily with the intent to make a purchase or interact with a specific company. These queries often begin with words like “how,” “why,” “where,” etc.
Examples:
- “How to make homemade bread?”
- “Why the sky is blue?”
- “Where were the 2014 Olympic Games held?”
- “The History of Impressionism”
- “The Best Books on Marketing”
Information requests are necessary for any website or business that wants to become an expert in its field. If you provide quality and useful information in response to such requests, then an audience will come to you, which can then become your clients.
While information requests aren’t directly related to sales, they help show that you’re a pro at what you do. And then people will trust you.
When a person searches the Internet for how to do something, why this or that happens, where the right place is, you answer their question and demonstrate your knowledge. This increases brand recognition.
As a result, if a person has a need in your field in the future, they will remember you as a reliable source. This is how information requests lead to sales, even if they are not directly related to them.
Commercial or transactional
These are queries that users enter with the purpose of buying a product or service. This is one of the key types of queries that are worth paying attention to when promoting online stores, services and other commercial projects.
Main characteristics:
- Aimed at finding specific products, services or brands.
- Contains names of product categories, models, brands.
- Often contain geo-referencing.
- May contain price ranges.
Examples:
- “Buy iPhone 12 Pro Max”
- “Samsung Galaxy S21 Price”
- “Order pizza home”
- “Gym membership Novosibirsk”
Working with commercial queries is necessary to attract target customers who are already set to buy. Optimising content and advertising campaigns for such queries can significantly increase sales.
Navigation
These are queries that users use to try to find a specific site or page.
Main characteristics:
- Contains the name of a company, brand, product or service.
- May contain website URLs.
- They do not carry any semantic load and are aimed specifically at searching for a site.
- Often contain the word “site”.
Examples:
- “VK login”
- “Avito Real Estate”
- “Russian Railways official website”
- “Ozone of programming books”
- “Wikipedia Socrates”
Navigation queries should be added to the title and description of the site’s subject pages: contacts, delivery, about the company, etc. This way, users will find the necessary pages more quickly through search engines.
All queries by search intent have their own frequency — how often people search for these phrases in Yandex and Google. You can check the frequency of any query in special services. We will discuss which ones below.
In which services to look at the frequency of requests
You can check the frequency for Yandex using Wordstat . To do this, enter a query in the search bar of the service and it will show how many times a month users searched for this word or phrase
Google doesn’t have its own internal service that would show the frequency of queries. But there are third-party tools that can help you find a frequency benchmark rounded to tens.
If you don’t want to use Ahrefs, you can use the Google frequency forecast, making a proportion based on the Yandex.Radar service data . Now the frequency of queries in Google can be calculated as 3/5 of the Yandex frequency.
Types of queries by frequency
The frequency of queries is divided into three main categories:
High frequency (HF) queries
Main characteristics:
- A large number of impressions in the search. But the exact number cannot be named, since this is an individual indicator that depends on the highest frequency in the niche.
There are niches where the high-frequency request will not exceed 5,000 impressions:
And for some niches, the high-frequency request can be 10,000 impressions or more.
- High competition in the TOP-10. You can evaluate the competitiveness of queries using the KeyCollector tool within the KEI indicator .
Indirect signs of high competition may include: activity in contextual advertising, the size of bids there, as well as the presence of giant sites (strong brands) in the search results. - Typically, high-frequency queries consist of 1-2 words.
- As a rule, they are general and vague in nature.
High frequency requests are used by:
- For sites that already have good traffic indicators and positions for mid- and low-frequency queries.
- When promoting information portals and news sites. Such resources can compete with strong players for leadership in popular queries.
- To increase brand traffic. Using high-frequency queries with the brand name can increase activity, especially if the brand is already in demand on the market. But if a specific product of the company is more recognizable than the brand itself, then the work should primarily be carried out on queries for this specific product.
- To expand the audience reach. High-frequency queries are often used by the mass average user, and not just a highly specialised expert. Therefore, with their help, you can attract the attention of the widest possible audience.
Thus, high-frequency queries can become an additional promotion tool. To use them, a detailed analysis of the specifics of the project and the market niche is required.
Midrange (MF)
These are queries with average popularity and competition within a specific topic/niche.
Main characteristics:
- The approximate monthly search volume is up to 1000 impressions per month. But the exact values of the mid-frequency queries depend on the specifics of the niche and the distribution of queries in it.
- Moderate competition. You can assess the level of competition using the KeyCollector tool by analyzing the KEI indicator. As with high-frequency queries, you need to look at the activity in contextual advertising, high rates, the presence of large brand sites in the TOP.
- Mid-range queries usually consist of 2-4 words.
MF queries are used by:
- For sites with an average level of influence and traffic. Promotion by mid-range queries will help increase audience reach.
- To attract targeted and interested visitors. High-frequency queries also attract interested visitors, but the interest of the medium-frequency queries is usually higher
- To promote young sites that cannot yet compete with strong players for high-frequency positions.
- For local sites, it is also better to focus on mid-frequency regional and city queries.
- When promoting little-known product brands in search engines, their names should first be promoted using mid-frequency queries.
Mid-frequency queries are good for deep optimization of website content and attracting targeted visitors.
Working with such queries requires effort. You need to create useful articles, add the right words, set up technical SEO. But such work can bring good results.
Thanks to optimization for mid-frequency queries, interested users will come to the site – your target traffic, which will perform the necessary actions on the site more often compared to traffic for high-frequency queries.
Low frequency (LF) queries
These are low-popularity queries that users search for relatively rarely. Frequency depends on the topic, season, region, and other factors.
Main characteristics:
- The approximate frequency of mentions is up to 100 impressions per month. But the figure is relative, it depends on the subject of the site.
- As a rule, these are narrowly targeted and specific requests.
- The length of low-frequency queries is 5-7 words.
Advantages:
- Little competition in the TOP – easier to get good positions. Many companies focus their attention on high-frequency and mid-frequency queries, which makes low-frequency queries less competitive. But if many focus primarily on low-frequency queries, they can become super-competitive.
- High conversion – due to their specificity, visitors coming through low-frequency queries are often ready for a specific action.
As we have already said above, low-frequency queries consist of 5-7 words (or more), which indicates the user’s intent.
- Sometimes low-frequency queries may be less demanding for optimization – basic SEO is enough. But this depends on the subject of the site and the competition
Low frequency queries are used by:
- For narrowly focused and niche sites. Low-frequency queries often reflect the specifics of such projects. Their optimization will improve expertise.
- To attract target customers to a local business. Local queries with little competition will allow you to reach the audience of the area. Exception: Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- To supplement the semantic core, if the main target queries are not enough to cover the topic and audience of interest. It is important that the added LF phrases correspond to the site’s topic and are truly relevant to the target audience.
- To improve positions on additional topics and categories. Optimizing low-frequency queries will increase coverage if the queries are relevant to the site
Thus, low-frequency queries are suitable for all sites and can be effective within the framework of a strategy for promoting narrowly focused and niche projects.
Types of queries based on location
All of the above search queries are divided into geo-dependent and geo-independent.
What is the difference between them?
Geo-dependent queries change their results depending on the user’s location. Often such queries are commercial in nature. For example, “custom cakes”, “pizzeria nearby”, etc. The search results will be different for different regions. Such queries are used to promote offline businesses, local services, and stores.
Geo-independent queries provide almost identical results, regardless of the user’s location. They are usually informational. For example, “how to care for succulents”, “chocolate fondant recipe”, etc.
Previously, to make the search geo-dependent in Yandex, manual settings were required. Over time, search algorithms began to independently determine the location, making the results more relevant.
To determine the type of query – geo-dependent or geo-independent – you can compare search results in different regions.
In Yandex, this can be done by changing the city code in the URL of the search results page. This city code usually follows the lr= variable in the URL.
How to Determine the Type of Requests for Your Business
Let’s look at what types of queries are effective for different types of businesses – online stores, service companies and information portals.
Selecting Queries for Online Stores
Here are some general guidelines for choosing keywords for online stores:
- Study your assortment and categories of goods that you sell. This is the basis for forming requests.
- Analyze the statistics of search queries in your niche using the Yandex Wordstat service . Identify the most popular and promising user queries.
- Study the keywords and queries of your main competitors, this will also help you find popular user queries.
- Use low-frequency and commercial queries. For online stores with a small assortment, the only way is to focus on low-frequency and commercial queries. They can attract the audience that is looking for a specific product or service.
Example: Let’s say your store specializes in selling manual coffee grinders. What queries can you use:
- “Buy a timemore manual coffee grinder” – commercial + LF request
- “Manual coffee grinder for espresso” is a specific low-frequency request.
- “Order a coffee grinder with ceramic burrs” – commercial + LF request.
- “Mechanical coffee grinder price” is a commercial request.
This approach will allow us to form a balanced core taking into account the range, demand and competitive environment in the online store niche.
Selecting queries for a service site
Unlike a physical product, services can be less specific and often require more explanation. Therefore, keywords can be focused on a specific action or result, rather than just a name.
Also, unlike products, the price of services may vary depending on volume, complexity or duration. This may lead to keywords such as “designer renovation” or “finishing”.
Tips for choosing keywords:
- Identify your uniqueness. What makes your service different from your competitors? It could be the speed of execution, the quality of service, or unique methods of work. Integrate these features into your keywords, but also don’t forget to check their frequency in Wordstat or Ahrefs.
- Use long keywords. Long (and more specific) keywords will help you better define the needs of your target audience and attract more targeted traffic. Keep in mind that the longer the search query, the lower its frequency
Focus on local audience:
- Geo-dependent queries. If your services are provided in a specific geographic area, include the name of the city, district, or district landmarks in your keywords.
- Register with Yandex Business. This will help you show your services to local residents and increase your chances of attracting local traffic.
Example: If you provide home repair services in Krasnodar, then keywords might include “apartment repairs in Krasnodar,” “repairman Krasnodar,” or “budget repairs Krasnodar.”
Selecting Queries for Information Portals
Websites with useful information help people learn about different topics. To attract the right audience, it is important to choose keywords that are relevant to the content of the site.
The main queries for such sites are informational ones, which begin with the words “how”, “why”, “where”, etc.
Examples:
- “How to make carbonara”
- “Where is Lake Baikal”
- “How to clean silver”
If you choose the right keywords for such portals, you can get an influx of target audience and increase the authority of the resource.
It is also worth considering quick responses from search engines. This is when the answer to an information request is shown directly in the search results, and the user does not have to go to the site:
Quick answers can reduce traffic to popular resources that are in the first positions in the search results. But for less popular sites, it’s the opposite. Getting into quick answers can greatly increase the flow of traffic.
Thus, a study by EngineScout showed that 35.1% of people click on the quick answer block.
Tips for choosing keywords:
- Analyse your audience’s interests. To understand what topics your readers are interested in, use the Yandex Wordstat tool for keyword analysis.
Also, track trends and news in your subject. This will help you find out the most popular queries that people use to search for information on the Internet. - Conduct in-depth research. Before writing an article, thoroughly research the topic to create the most useful material. Plus, research can help you find additional relevant keywords.
- Update outdated content. The information on your site should be up-to-date. This is especially important for rapidly changing topics. Plan to update articles so that they are in line with the latest news and trends.
Once you have sorted out the types of queries and selected the ones that suit your site, the next step is to form a semantic core from them. We tell you in detail how to do this in the article Semantic core of a site – how to compose it correctly and avoid mistakes .
Conclusion
The correct selection of queries is the most important stage in the promotion of any site. It is necessary to analyse the goals and audience of the project. As well as the types of queries in order to create an optimal list.
Don’t just take the most popular queries. Depending on the site’s topic, business size, and other factors, mid- and low-frequency queries may work well.
Regularly analyse the effectiveness of promotion and update the semantic core. Remove ineffective queries and add new promising words. Only a comprehensive and flexible approach to the selection of keywords will bring the desired results in website promotion.
Partnering with the best SEO company can help ensure that a deep analysis of your project and target audience is conducted, a relevant semantic core is formed, and the content and technical aspects of the site are optimized for maximum effect from your investment in SEO.