In our world of SEO and content writing, we are hearing a lot these days about "predictive search", "contextual search" and other similar applications / developments that are taking web search to a whole new level of personalization.
Here is a funny anecdote about predictive search in action outside the online world. Those of us who are regular church-goers know that we are all guilty at some time of "staying awake but tuning out". Most often, we don't mean to, but it happens. And yet, when the pastor says something that we know we must respond to with a standard response, we do that, even if we weren't listening to what was being said right before the congregation's response. "Thanks be to God", "Amen", "Peace be with you", and so on and so forth.
So, a pastor was almost at the end of his sermon when he remarked, " I must apologize; I think there is something wrong with my microphone". The response was, "And also with you"!
Coming back to the point about predictive and contextual search in the digital marketing world, a question that seems to be on everyone's mind today is whether keywords are dead. Our response to that is: definitely not. Keywords will continue to remain important as long as text queries exist. BUT, the difference now is that search marketers need to factor in 'context personas'. In order to deliver content that is relevant to the various personas using a certain search query, this understanding and segmentation of keywords is critical. As online content providers, we need to utilize 'keyword clusters' rather than just keywords.
A keyword like "juice vending machine" may be typed into Google (or communicated through Siri or searched with Google Glass) by many potential context personas. It could be a student out in the sun looking to buy a healthy drink, it may be an entrepreneur looking to buy and install a vending machine as a business venture, it could be school authorities looking for possible vendors that can install and service a vending machine at their school...there are so many possibilities. User intent, relevance and context are the key drivers of predictive search. You need to tailor your content for the context personas that fall within your target audience.
At MintCopy, we work with you to give your list of target keywords greater meaning. Let's connect to talk about your context personas and how we can write copy that converts those personas into paying customers. Call us now at 888-646-8003 or send us an email to find out more about predictive search, contextual search and meaningful online content.