We left off discovering which search terms were used by visitors who tended to have the most satisfying experience, regardless of site design.
Finding a group which tends to have a favorable experience regardless of other data is kind of like a golden static Taguchiism. You want more of these. It doesn't matter what else you change in the system, the outcome's the same.
What is important to walk away with is that people aren't the same everywhere (again, more on this Reading Virtual Minds, Volume 2). People ask questions differently (the search terms used) based on education, geographic location, economic background, ... the number of influences is staggering. Similarly, what it takes to satisfy them is different and is based on just as many if not more factors.
But you don't need to know all the different influencing factors, all you need to know is that people ask questions differently and are satisfied that their questions have been answered differently. Knowing that, you know enough about what will work, with whom, where and when to answer their questions satisfactorily every time.
I want to close this section with a quote (quite off the record, although made in the presence of others so verifiable none-the-less) from the same CTO who started this investigation with the "useless" slip of the tongue. After reviewing our analysis and interpretations he sat back and continued going through the reports we'd given him, flipping from one to the next and shaking his head.
"This is exactly what we would have anticipated, except we have five years of experience behind us. These are the same suggestions we'd make, but you made them with only a month's data gathering and thirty seconds calculation time."
Links for this post:
- Chapter 4.F "Anecdotes of Learning - People Aren't the Same Everywhere"
- Reading Virtual Minds
- Search engine presence needs more than Pay Per Click
- The Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click arc:
- Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click, part 1
- Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click, part 2
- Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click, part 3
- Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click, part 4
- Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click, part 5
- Searching, Searching Everywhere and Not a Link to Click, part 6
- Wittgenstein on Search Engines
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
(Information in this arc is from Chapter 4, "Experience Versus Expectation" of my next book, Reading Virtual Minds. Text and images copyright Joseph Carrabis and NextStage Evolution 2006-2007)
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