A web search query is basically a query that a user types into a search engine to search for specific information. Web search queries are a lot more general that standard query languages which tend to be very exact and govern by many syntax rules. Search engines have revolutionised the way in which people use the internet and they make websites a lot more accessible. This is because you simply type in what you are looking for, i.e. your search query, and they bring up results that provide the information that you are looking for.

There are four main types of search queries. The popular of these would be information queries. These are very general and cover a broad topic which usually results in hundreds of thousands of results. There are also navigational queries which look for a specific website or webpage by name. Transaction queries would reflect the intention to perform an action. An example of this would be buying a house or making a loan. The least popular query would be connectivity queries. These queries enquire about the connectivity of an indexed page. An example of this would be trying to find out how many links link back to a certain website.

Search Query Reports

Search query reports can be very useful when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is because you can find out information such as which relevant keywords or phrases are most searched for and you can then use this information to edit the content of your website. This will help you remove redundant keywords and include popular keywords. You will then improve your ranking with search engines.

Should you choose to place advertisements with Google AdWords then the search query report will be particularly helpful. This report will only show you results for all the adverts that were clicked on. This is because you would be able to see which phrases or search queries people typed in to make your advert pop up. You would then know how to delete existing keywords and replace them with better targeted keywords.