Will potential customers find you through searching?

Every industry and every business has its own language. Very often it’s not the same language as its customers. So if your web site and keywords are full of corporate-speak rather than customer-speak, you won’t be getting the hits you deserve.

Here’s an example. Content expert Gerry McGovern carried out research on how consumers in the US and the UK search for cheap flights. "In the United States, over 80 times more people search for ‘cheap flights’ than for ‘low fares’. In the United Kingdom, 6,500 times more people search for ‘cheap flights’ than for ‘low fares’". That’s an astonishing figure. The travel industry may like to use the term “low fares”, but it’s not the way that consumers speak. Just imagine how many more hits a travel agency could achieve it if gave up industry speak and spoke the language of its customers.

What can you do to bring your language closer to that of your customers? You can ask them, although long-established customers may already have become accustomed to using your language. Find out how new customers found you. Read what journalists say – they have to use a generic language to speak to all readers. Take advice from your marketing agency and copywriters. Whatever you do, don’t get together in a closed room and ask each other. You might come up with the answer you first thought of.