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Understand SEO Search Intent and What it Means for Your Content
Imagine swimming upstream, battling against the current. With every stroke, your arms ache, your lungs gasp for air, and your energy drains away, yet you seem to go nowhere.
Optimising for search engines without aligning with search intent is no different. It’s an uphill struggle—exhausting, inefficient, and often futile.
If your business is having a hard time trying to achieve higher search rankings, despite several attempts at optimization, it may be because your strategies are not aligned with the search intent of your target audience.
In this SEO search intent guide, we’ll be sharing some of the best practices on how to optimise your website to align with search intent.
What is Search Intent?
To put it simply, search intent (in some circles, referred to as keyword intent) is the primary goal a user aims to achieve when they submit a query into a search engine. This goal may be to seek information, make a purchase or find a specific website.
Why is Search Intent Important
Search engines like Google, consider many factors when evaluating a page. Why? Because, out of millions of pages, without any ranking system, finding an answer that is both reliable and accurate can be a nightmare, obviating the need, in the first place, for a search engine. It is precisely for these reasons that search engines prioritise search intent, because it enables them to deliver relevant content.
Try to query ‘best laptops’. You’ll find the most results will be about reviews about or listicles about the top-performing laptops, not any one brand’s particular page.
The reason for this is that Google understands that the intent of the query is to learn rather than to purchase. By aligning your content with search intent, your business can achieve higher rankings, and in turn, better engagement, credibility and conversions.
Read More: Introduction to SEO
Types of Search Intent
There are three main types of search intent: informational search intent, navigational search intent, commercial search intent and transactional search intent. Understanding the essence of each of these categories can help you create content that not only fits within the scope of Google’s recommendations for relevance but also resonates with your audience.
Informational Intent
Informational intent, as the name suggests, revolves around seeking knowledge about a topic. Queries that fall under this type of intent, generally tend to begin with words like “What,” “How,” “Who,” and “Why.”
For example, “How Do I Build a Content Strategy Framework?” or “What is Organic SEO?” Note, some queries might fall outside the umbrella of these common words, such as “Is SEO Worth it?”
Content targeting informational intent, should, therefore feature guides, tutorials, FAQs, e.t.c. The more comprehensive, reliable, and accurate the content, the better, as this is less likely to send your readers away to sources that are better equipped to address their queries.
Navigational Search Intent
Navigational search intent is primarily focused on finding a specific online destination. Keywords that fall under this category are generally used to access specific pages that may be cumbersome to find manually.
For example, say, you wanted to find Grammarly support page, you would have to:
- Visit Grammarly’s domain.
- Look for the support link in the footer.
- Realise that Grammarly designates their support as “Help Center,” not “Support.“
It’d be easier for a user to simply query “Grammarly Support” to find the exact page they need.
Commercial Search Intent
Keywords that fall under commercial search intent straddle the line between research and purchase. They are queried when users know their problem and are looking to make an informed decision.
Commercial search intent keywords come under different shades, some are investigative, characterised by a quest for more information. Keywords like this typically use modifiers such as review, top, best, and compare.
And then you have local commercial intent keywords, such as “near me” or [service] in [location] (e.g. bookstores in Toa Payoh) which are queried when a user is ready to visit a store, book an appointment.
Transactional Search Intent
Keywords with transactional search intent indicate a clear readiness to take action, such as buying a product, or signing up for a service. Transactional search intent can sometimes be confused for commercial search intent. What separates them is that the former is focused on action while the latter is focused on research.
Examples of queries that reflect this type of intent include “Book hotel in [location]”, or “Orange BMW X5 M60i”. You may find that keywords that fit this type of intent, describe the products or services more precisely.
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How to Identify Search Intent
Identifying search intent is not always easy for reasons including but not limited to ambiguity, little to no context, and scope. For example, generic keywords like “shoes” are hard to discern: is the user seeking information, comparing options or ready to buy. The tips shared below can help you identify a keyword’s intent.
SERP Analysis
Analysing the search engine results pages might be one of the quickest (and easiest) ways to identify search intent. Search engines like Google, have invested a great deal of resources in matching which existing pages with user queries.
All you have to do is search for the keyword. Identify common themes, formats and content types in the top 10 results, as well as the answers displayed in SERP features. If necessary (and we highly recommend this) visit the top page and examine their content, the topics, the format. Then use what you learn to inform your keyword strategy.
Study the Query’s Language
Occasionally, you can infer the intent behind a keyword without having to conduct a deep analysis. For example, words like “best” or “cheap” suggest that a user has an interest in the product or service, and are therefore looking for the best options.
While keywords with modifiers such as “what” and “how” indicate that a user is looking to learn about a particular topic.
Use Tools
SEO tools can also be an efficient way to zero in on a keyword’s search intent. For example, SEMRush’s Keyword Magic Tool, in addition to metrics such as keyword difficulty and volume, provides insight into a keyword’s intent.
Moz’s keyword suggestion feature has a similar function, offering, in addition to search intent, insights such as relevance and monthly volume. Used correctly, they can streamline your keyword research and help you craft content that aligns with a keywords intent.
Best Practices for Optimising for Search Intent
Optimising for search intent is both at once easy and complex: it’s easy because once you identify the user’s goal from the query, your next course of action is clear. However, it can also be complex, because you may need to factor aspects such as the user experience or the user journey to accommodate various types of intent. Below are a few best practices for optimising for search intent.
Align Your Content with Search Intent
Say you’ve identified the intent for a particular query, before you begin pen to paper (metaphorically speaking) take a step back, and make sure you actually understand what the user wants.
If you haven’t studied the format of the top-ranking pages, do so, with an eye towards, format, angle, related topics, as well as audience.
For example, a keyword such as “investment strategies” might compel you to demonstrate the breadth of your expertise, with advanced insights such as factor based investing or quantitative portfolio modelling. When in fact, the majority of the audience for that keyword comprises beginners.
Map Search Intent to Marketing Funnels
Consider matching content to the customer journey so that your content (messaging included) is in lockstep with where your customers are in their journey.
For example, if your product solves a problem that some people don’t yet realise they have (the awareness stage), create content that highlights and addresses that problem. This positions your brand to be discovered for the first time, gaining visibility where competitors might not yet be present.
Are they ready to convert but considering options? Provide comparison guides, testimonials and product demonstrations (as is required in the consideration phase) highlighting the merits of your product, while leading them closer to the decision stage.
The closer you align search intent with the marketing funnel, the better your content will attract, engage and convert your target audience.
Read More: 10 Tips on How to Improve eCommerce SEO
Optimise Meta Tags
Titles and meta descriptions are your first opportunity to make an impression. How closely they match the keywords search intent may determine whether users skip it (signalling to Google that your page might not be serving what users want or expect, and hence needs to be brought down) or whether they click to view its contents.
You only have 60 characters to work with for the title and 120 for the meta description. Make them count. Take a cue from the top-ranking pages, if necessary; are they including numbers? or mentioning tips in the description? If they are, then incorporate the same in your meta tags.
Err on the Side of Comprehensive
Comprehensiveness is an asset when it comes to optimising search intent. Don’t settle for merely reproducing the structure, format, and topics covered by the top ranking pages; drill deeper into subtopics, consider new angles, delve into areas that may have been neglected by the competition.
What this does—besides enriching your content with depth and value (which, by the way, is an important ranking signal)—is: a) hold visitors captive, preventing them from seeking alternatives with either greater scope or solutions to problems you may not have addressed. And b) it increases the likelihood that your content closely matches the user’s search intent.
Read More: 20 Common SEO Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Final Thoughts
Optimising your website for search intent can have a significant impact on the success of your efforts. By aligning your content with user goals, you place your business in position to drive traffic, build trust and boost conversions. We hope that some of the strategies outlined in this article will help you create content that matches search intent.
Rogue Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency, with a team that is just as passionate as it is experienced and skilled. Some of the services we provide include, SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Content Writing, Creative Design, Website Design & Hosting as well as Display & Video Advertising. Reach out to us for a free consultation on how we can help your business achieve its goals.
