Instant Gratification
The world in which we live in becoming one of instant gratification, a "we want it now" approach to life. This trend is as applicable in the search engine industry as it is in the world as general.
Not so long ago if you needed to find something your options were fairly limited, in the days of Yellow pages domination you were restricted in the type of searches you performed. If you had an car crash and wanted to claim against the other party you would look up solicitors in the yellow pages and find an advert that caught your eye and give them a call.
For many of us this category type search has become ingrained into our decision making, we have grown up with it and understand how it works and even today many of the online directories employ the same type of categories.
However a new form of search for the internet generation is now being applied, a search that is based on problems not solutions. Where as you used to rely on the user having a rough idea to the type of solution and therefore category they were looking for, the new generation of internet searches are finding solutions be using the problem as the search basis.
For example instead of searching for a solicitor because you have a car accident, the search would be "road accident " or "car crash claim". This type of search allows the searcher to find exact information and solutions for their problems, without having to find a solicitor and then find out if they can help with Car Accidents.
People are using the major search engines as an instant directory, they expect to find a solution to there problem on the first page they click on and not have to search through a website to find the appropriate section.
It is important that you reflect this and makes sure that you are delivering the results to them and not for example sending them to your home page and asking them to find the solution for themselves from there.
With all marketing both on and offline it is about understanding your audience and adapting to their requirements, finding good ways to communicate about your product or service in nautral language.
So clearly identify who you are trying to market too and then decide the best route to them whether a category type approach is appropriate or the longer tail approach will produce better results. It might be that you need a strategy that encompasses both to maximie your online marketing.
