Thread: Offline services searched for online

Any idea what are the most online searches for offline services?
"find a <service> in <location>"
eg. "find a funeral director in New York"

but searching for locksmith wouldn't be such a good idea I imagine as people don't have access to their computer when they are locked out of their house.

Being in that field myself, I can tell you that people do search for computer help online, a lot.
It may even be in the "top ten" if there is one.
Let's face it, if you're on your computer, then your computer has a pretty good shot at being foremost on your mind. And, searching online for solutions to computer problems is probably as close to second nature as you can get.

Thanks for the reply Zap.

I was thinking of making a kind of yellow pages directory devoted to one particular type of service, possibly steering clear of the competition for online services that would no doubt outrank me. Say someone's washing machine explodes, they might search for "find me a washing machine repairman in Sussex". I was wondering what the most popular services searched for online that people would need to meet face to face.

In a different direction, but on the same track...

You might want to think about going local. It's easier to rank that way.

So, instead of competing with the 1,000,000 general directories out there, a directory of nightclubs in Seattle might not be as competitive.

Maybe it would be better to ask what services people do not search for online very much eg. nightclubs. They could afford to advertise I'm sure but a lot of them seem to change name every few months.

I could go up to an accountant and say "do you want to advertise in my directory of accoutants?" The same couldn't really be said of a bank or a school. Thoughts?

they don't use "find a <service> in <location>"

they search like this <service> <location>

or <location> <service>

No extra words.

Some examples;

locksmith essex
locksmith essex uk
essex locksmith

In the USA you see lots of people use abbreviations for states after the city name, especially with city names that may appear in other states too. Like the Springfield link in my sig. The name Springfield occurs at least 60 times in over 30 states. And at least 5 decent sized cities use it. So a state qualifier is needed when searching online.

Mr Loverman added 236 Minutes and 48 Seconds later...

The <service> <location> search is often the most common.

Many people will begin their search with just <service> and, after being buried by the results they see their, they will then stick <location> to the end of their previous search.

If you had to write "find a *** in ***" what would you search on the internet for?

Originally Posted by Biscuit

If you had to write "find a *** in ***" what would you search on the internet for?

A search engine that doesn't require the extra words.

Seriously, the axeman is right. People don't search like that. They're lazy, like us.
They search city service or service city for the most part.

I can verify Trippy and AM are right. just this morning I searched "phoenix flowers"

Originally Posted by Zap

People don't search like that. They're lazy, like us.
They search city service or service city for the most part.

Yes! Lazy is the key.

Halibit, Order yourself a copy of "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug. It's not about search but about how people use websites. The most important book I've read so far on web design.

Here, is some excerpts from Chapter 2. This forms an important point for the whole book. The whole chapter can be read here

Fact of life #1:
We don’t read pages. We scan them.

One of the very few well-documented facts about Web use is that people tend to spend very little time reading most Web pages.1 Instead, we scan (or skim) them, looking for words or phrases that catch our eye.

....

Fact of Life #2
We don't make optimal choices. We Satisfice.

When we’re designing pages, we tend to assume that users will scan the page, consider all of the available options, and choose the best one.

In reality, though, most of the time we don’t choose the best option—we choose the first reasonable option, a strategy known as satisficing. As soon as we find a link that seems like it might lead to what we’re looking for, there’s a very good chance that we’ll click it.

.....

Fact of life #3:
We don’t figure out how things work.
We muddle through.

One of the things that becomes obvious as soon as you do any usability testing—whether you’re testing Web sites, software, or household appliances—is the extent to which people use things all the time without understanding how they work, or with completely wrong-headed ideas about how they work.

Faced with any sort of technology, very few people take the time to read instructions. Instead, we forge ahead and muddle through, making up our own vaguely plausible stories about what we’re doing and why it works.

Why does this happen?

* It’s not important to us. For most of us, it doesn’t matter to us whether we understand how things work, as long as we can use them. It’s not for lack of intelligence, but for lack of caring. In the great scheme of things, it’s just not important to us.5

* If we find something that works, we stick to it. Once we find something that works—no matter how badly—we tend not to look for a better way. We’ll use a better way if we stumble across one, but we seldom look for one.

The way we search is the same. We start with one word, the main keyword, see what appears then modify the search by sticking in an extra word or 2. See what comes up.

Because of all this most users skills are very very poor on the net, but slowly improving. We webmasters, of course, are a different lot. We spend many many hours a day using the net, using search engines, using websites, building websites, etc. We take much for granted because of our vast experience. But because of that we can also overlook a lot when we are building sites that are supposed to cater to average users.

Nice to see this post and i really thanks for sharing the the information.

What do you mean by offline services?