Whenever I click to read blog posts online, I only need to read the first few lines to understand whether the writer understands ‘search intent’ or not.
Unfortunately, many a time, I find that most writers don’t really understand the concept. That’s why I’ve decided to come up with this post.
If you’d like to know more about search intent and how it affects SEO, please do stay with us till the very end.
What is search intent?
Search intent refers to the intention a searcher has when using a search engine. Generally speaking, search engine users usually come with an intention to buy, learn, compare, research, or review.
What a search engine displays to a searcher at any given point in time is a function of what it perceives its intention to be. For example, if a search engine perceives a searcher’s intent to be comparison-based, you won’t find historical or fun content on the results page. Instead, what you’ll see will be review and comparison-based articles.
See an example below:
A case study showcasing search intent
Imagine that you go online to search for “7 ways to get rid of acne,” and then you find posts with these intros:
Post Intro A: “Historical records indicate Pharaohs had acne, which may be the earliest known reference to the disease. Sulfur’s usefulness as a topical remedy for acne dates back to at least the reign of Cleopatra (69–30 BCE). The sixth-century Greek physician Aëtius of Amida reportedly coined the term “ionthos” (ίονθωξ,) or “acnae,” which seems to be a reference to facial skin lesions that occur during “the ‘acme’ of life” (puberty). Credit: Wikipedia
Post intro B: “9.4% of the global population has acne. If you’re stuck with those ugly bumps on your face, stop feeling alone. There are others like you around the world. Today, we’ll show you seven effective treatment methods that will help you conquer acne once and for all.” Credit: National Library of Science
Which one are you more likely to read? Definitely article B. While both articles have, no doubt, talked about acne, B addresses the subject from the searcher’s viewpoint. Coming to Google to search for solutions to their acne problem, a searcher really doesn’t care about the history of the term or who coined the word. What they need is a solution to their acne problem. And as such, their intent is different from that of someone who’s searching for the history of acne to use in an acne-based paper publication. Article intro A would have been better suited to a search query like “history of acne,” or “how was the term, acne, coined.”
Search intent and SEO
How does all this relate to SEO, you must wonder? Well, the same way a human could tell which article relates best to a searcher’s search intent, a search engine tool is intelligent enough to spot the difference.
Once a search engine crawls a site, its algorithm deciphers the intent for which the content on the site best aligns. That means it doesn’t matter the number of keywords you’ve used. If your content type doesn’t align with what a searcher is searching for, your post will never be displayed to them.
Search intent, SEO, and keyword optimization
Keywords are a key part of any SEO endeavor. However, the way a keyword will work for site A may not be the same way it would work for site B. And search intent is what’s responsible for that.
Take a look at these two examples.
A = “Best waterproof pants for winter,”
B = “Best waterproof pants price”
These two posts have both used the keyword “best waterproof pants.” That’s a great keyword with a lot of potential in the outdoor niche.
However, the number of organic traffic to both posts will differ significantly because their target audiences (searchers) are way apart.
Clearly, people looking for winter waterproof pants brand names are the ones Google will show site A to, while people looking for price comparisons are the ones they will show B.
Now, imagine your brand sells these kinds of pants but only has posts covering article title A (no provision for B). You’ve unknowingly shortchanged yourself. Now, you’ll be missing out on a significant amount of traffic that could have come from other applications of the keyword.
The implication of all this is that one could spend years struggling to reap the rewards of their SEO investment. Not because their SEO strategies are weak or poor, but rather because they’ve failed to take into consideration all the possible search intent categories of their audience.
Types of search intent
While there are numerous reasons (intentions) for which people search for things on Google, we can classify all of them under the following four umbrellas:
- Informational
- Preferential/Commercial Investigation
- Transactional
- Navigational
Informational
Informational intent is when searchers come to Google in the hopes of finding information-related content. Often, this type of intent is likely accompanied by a question-type query.
For example, “How To do XYZ,” “What is the best time to do XYZ,” “When is XYZ event happening?” and so on.
It should be noted that a question-type search query doesn’t always portray informational intent. When someone’s asking to know about a place, event, action, or even a person, they could do that by entering the name of the so-called stuff in the Google search bar without necessarily adding a question tag.
For example, if I go to Google and search for “Lionel Messi.” Google will interpret that to mean I’m seeking information about Argentina football. And as such, it will likely show me results featuring historical details and other relevant information.
Preferential/Commercial Investigation
Searchers with this intent come to Google to find product-related answers. These searchers are past the information stage. They aren’t looking for what to buy or do. They already know that. They’re simply looking at comparing options, prices, and other important comparative factors.
Common themes of this intent include this vs. that, review of XYZ, comparisons between this and that, best XYZ, XYZ near me, XYZ Las Vegas.
Examples:
- iPhone vs. Android
- Best credit card companies
- Bluehost reviews
- Mailchimp or Sendinblue for email
- Top beauty salon near me
- Best phone repair plugs Toronto
Transactional
We call a searcher ‘transactional’ when their intent is clearly ‘to buy.’ That is, they’ve already passed the research phase and are now in the buying mood.
You can identify these searchers with search queries like:
- Best coupon codes right now
- Buy ConvertKit
- Walmart clearance sales
- Shop discount sales
Note that instead of ‘buying,’ a searcher could be looking to download, join/signup, cancel, play, or watch something. These queries still show that the searcher is ready to take action.
- Download XYZ eBook
- Cancel Netflix subscription
- Join XYZ gym program
- Play/watch XYZ boxing match
Navigational
Navigational search intent typifies people looking to navigate to a website using Google. Two sets of searchers typically showcase this type of intent.
One, those who don’t like entering a site’s URL in the web browser. Instead, they just type the name of the site in the Google search bar. Why? Well, for these people, it’s easier s to run a quick search in Google than to type out a site’s full URL.
The second group comprises those who don’t know the actual URL of a site. Or who has forgotten what the URL is and wants to avoid making a mistake?
Examples:
- Grammarly login
- Facebook Signup
- Semrush
- Rankwisely
- American Express Account
Search intent determination: How to know what search intent your keywords are
Keyword research is usually the beginning of any content creation process.
You go into a keyword research tool to identify potential keywords. Once you do, you list them out and separate them into primary, secondary, and probably, tertiary keywords. After which, you’ll now then go back to start creating content.
Up until now, you normally just start creating your content without caring too much about the underlying search intent.
Well, now that you’ve been introduced to the concept of search intent, that ought to change; wouldn’t you agree?
So, looking at your keyword collections, how do you know which search intents they are? For example, say your keyword planner suggests targeting a keyword like ‘Top mortgage rates’ for your debt financing blog. How do you know which intent this keyword belongs to?
It’s fairly simple. Go back and research the SERPs.
Researching the SERPs to understand search intents for different keywords
The way it’s done is that you’ll go into the Google search bar and input that keyword. The types of SERPs (search engine results page) that appear when you search for that keyword tell you the kind of intent that goes with that keyword.
- If Informational – You’ll likely see the top results featuring popular/household names in that niche or other long-form content site. E.g., Wikihow, Wikipedia, Mayoclinic, Healthline, Forbes, Moz, etc. Another way to identify whether a keyword is good for informational intent is that you’ll notice the SERPs being filled with featured snippets, knowledge grabs, and related questions.
See an example of a search (with an informational intent) leading to a knowledge grab result.
- If Preferential/commercial –You’ll likely see a lot of paid results and ads at the top. What follows these ads depends on the other interpretation the search engine gives to the keyword researched.
- If Transactional – You’ll likely see the SERPs appearing as paid and or shopping results, carousels and reviews.
- If Navigational – You’ll likely see the SERPs containing direct links to the site you’re looking for. If the site has other relating pages, blogs, or social media handles, these may be displayed, too. But in almost all cases, the main homepage/signup/login page will display first.
How to optimize your content for search intent
Now that you know all about search intents, you probably want to go back into your web pages and start formatting things.
Before you do that, it’s important that you first learn the tricks of search intent optimization. That way, you know what to do while editing your content or creating new ones.
- Ensure your metadata and content type match the intent
Go back to your web pages and ask yourself, do the contents on these pages align with the search intents of the people we’re trying to target?
If no, edit the content to match this intent. Depending on the type of content in question, editing may require you to update your pages’ metadata –– title tag, H1, and H2s.
- Scope out the competition
Another way to optimize search intent is to understand how your competitors are doing it. Go into the Google search bar and search for the keyword. Then take out the top ranking sites on that SERP and examine them.
What are you looking for? You wonder. Generally speaking, you want to see how they’re formatted. If these sites are sitting atop a Google SERP, then it can only mean one thing – that they’re doing something right.
Now, during your examination, the following are the questions you need to ask yourself:
- Which points are covered in each of these pages?
- Which points are skipped and not talked about?
- How are data and statistics presented?
- What keyword modifiers are used in the post title?
- What kind of visual elements are embedded in?
- How are the site content formatted? Is it a list-type, how-to-, long-form, or case study format?
- What’s their tone? Is it conversational, formal, or informal?
After your examination, you must have gotten some answers. The idea is to now use those answers to create the best piece of content on the topic.
Final words
The whole point of this post is that you shouldn’t create content for an audience without first understanding their search intent.
An attempt to understand searchers’ intent is guaranteed to create the type of content they want.
If you are looking for a depth consultation of your website for better SEO, you can reach out to us.