We know one of the ways users find information is through search engines. However, it is helpful to define and categorize the type of information they are seeking.

Generic Keywords

Domainers are most familiar with generic keywords. They are obvious to us but let's take a further look at how to properly target generic keywords. Sometimes they can be too broad or too narrow. For instance, let's say I own the domain: RedRoses.com in order to sell roses online. Targeting the keyword "roses" would be too broad. The chances of my site appearing on the first page is slim. Targeting "Missouri red roses" would be too narrow. "Buy red roses", "red rose store", "buy roses" are all perfectly targeted between too narrow and too broad.

Websites

Users sometimes search for urls in the search box. It can either be the site owner checking to see who is linking to their site or from a user who doesn't know any better. Most of the time, the site searched for will appear first but results underneath will reflect the actual url. Look up "tiawood.com". My site is first but underneath are sites that actually mention "tiawood.com", not "tia wood". This is too narrow to target but I wanted to mention it anyways: sometimes users will come back and research available domains I've posted. I find that interesting.

Questions

I receive a lot of traffic off a simple question: "Why is twitter limited to 140 characters?" which links to this article here. Another example is a popular phrase: "Why is the sky blue?" which has 119,000 listed pages. Not a lot of competition, is it? :)

Geo Locations/Listings

Not everyone remembers to use SuperPages.com. They will search for a business in the form of a question: "cablevision stover mo" which means "where is cablevision in stover, missouri" or "can you find me an address, phone or website for cablevision in stover, missouri" which takes them to my ozarksmallbusiness.com website. This works for anything based on locations: stores, businesses, parks, etc. and is perfect for Geo domains.

Names

What's in a name? Plenty. You used to be able to reach my blog via "karren hall", although I don't believe I've mentioned her. There is a fashion model named "Tia Woods" which visitors mistake my blog for her site. However, obscure variations that receive good search volume are "name reviews", "name quotes", "name interview", "name website" etc.

How-To

"How to _______" anything are popular phrases. (How to fly a kite) eHow.com has cashed in on these phrases. Another variation of this is "About ____ " (about skiing) in which About.com targets. The point is: instructional content ranks well, especially problems that are hard to solve. For instance, I once had problems turning off forwarding emails as attachments in thunderbird. The problem wasn't hard to solve but the solution was hard to find. I made a blog post about it a year ago with pictures and instructions for other users which receives traffic from different variations of the same problem.

Phrases & Catch Phrases

I have been on search kick recently. If I don't remember the name of a song, I'll Google the lyrics I remember and find what I'm looking for. The same goes for any type of phrase: catch phrases, rememberable parts of a song, slogans, etc. I've received traffic from philosophy quotes. For example, you can start an article: "The Proof is in the Pudding...Where are These Search Terms Going?" and rank for "proof is in the pudding".

Model Numbers / Product Names

A client of mine had a unique problem: not only did they serve a private industry (government mostly) but their service area was limited to the state + surrounding areas. They are distributors of a several products not available to the public. This is how I discovered users will search for product model numbers and names, not just a product keyword. For instance "iphone" has Google results of 326,000,000. But one of their model numbers "MA712" only has 6,380.

Conclusion

I am sure there are keyword types I missed or failed to mention. Please leave a comment below if I did and tell me your experiences.

Don't forget to explore Keyword Targeting: Keyword Types to Target in Search Engines Part II to learn more about other keyword types to target.

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