Changes to how we buy | Corona-times and a huge increase in Transactional Searches
Let me lay it all on the table first. There are 3 types of Searches:
- Transaction Searches
- Informational Searches
- Navigational Searches
I’m going to focus right now on #1, Transactional Searches. You know, with this Corona-Virus, things have rather radically changed – a LOT. How we work, how we play, how we spend time at home, who we spend our time with, how we interact with our pets, newfound hobbies, how we grocery shop, etc. So much has changed!
2019 has been a year that Google has changed a lot! And so when I first read the headline to this article today, I had to read on wanting to know what trends have been occurring that we SEO’s need to be mindful of in our marketing efforts. I found a lot of alignment with how I thought Search was being utilized by the world in these times, and how my own Search trends at home have been trending.
When something as drastic as this Viral Pandemic has taken place, so many things are forced to change in our lives. For instance, I noticed in the article from Google that “Breadmakers” have experienced over 100% growth since last year. My own wife started baking her own bread at home, and all from scratch. (She’s not one to bake very often, so even I was surprised at her new hobby.) We found 3 months ago all the breadmakers were all out of stock (everywhere). So she finally just decided to look up recipes and techniques from YouTube to find ways to perfect her newfound art. But what was surprising for me, was that others around the world have done the same thing too. Human nature can’t help the ‘want to create’; especially in times of confinement. I guess this is why prisoners find it in themselves to attain college degree’s while being incarcerated…
Anyways, I cannot find any new Search data yet revealing any other useful trending Search information or insights yet, but I’m betting both Desktop and Mobile Search has seen a huge uptick on certain types of searches in the past 4-5 months, and most especially in the past 3 months. Transactional searches have in a lot of places in the digital-world, experienced double to triple (or more) growth over last years metrics. Amazon for instance has announced huge massive growth in demand for their delivery services. And if you watch the Cloud Computing ecosystem reports, you know there is no sign of slowing down for these services either.
This begs the question; has BERT increased its use in our queries? And if so, how has Google BERT been affected? Has it gotten sharper? Has it grown in utility? Waiting for the answers and keeping my ear to the tracks, so to speak. 🙂 At any rate, here are some screen grabs from the article, in case the page goes away someday:
Here is the article >
