When you own a website, one of your goals is to ensure your content aligns with the user’s wants and needs. That’s what Google search intent is all about – it covers the underlying reasons and goals a user has when using a search engine.
So, why is search intent so important for SEO purposes? In this guide, we will cover:
- What is Search Intent in SEO
- How to Determine Search Intent
- The Types of Search Intent
- The Importance of Search Intent
- How to Optimise for Search Intent
- How to Track Search Intent
The Different Types of Search Intent
To understand search intent, it helps to break it down into the search intent types. When it comes to SEO search intent classification, there are 4 types of search intent you need to know about.
Informational Search Intent
Informational search intent is when a user wants to attain knowledge about something. The keywords to look out for this one include:
- How To
- Guide
- Tips
- Examples
- Why
- When
- Where
- Who
Some informational search intent examples include, “Where is the Eiffel Tower Located?”, “Tips for potty training a child”, and “A beginner’s guide to drawing”.
Navigational Search Intent
Navigational intent covers when users want to find a specific website or page – oftentimes, they already know the website or brand name they are looking for, whether that is a social media site like Facebook or an e-commerce site like Amazon.
Transactional Search Intent
In this case, the user is ready to complete a transaction, whether that means purchasing an item or service. Keywords here include:
- Buy
- Order
- Download
- Purchase
Some examples include “Order food online”, “Electrician in my area”, and “Buy swim cap”.
Commercial Search Intent
Commercial search intent is more for users who are browsing for a potential future purchase. They may not be ready to spend their money yet, but they want to learn more about the product/service to later make a better, more informed purchasing decision. Some keywords to look out for here include:
- Best
- Reviews
- Alternatives
- Top
Some examples of commercial search queries include “The best camera for beginners”, “Reviews for the Kindle Paperwhite”, and “Disney+ vs. Amazon Prime Video”/
More Complexity
Most intent driven searches will fall under the above four types, but there is some more complexity to be aware of – search intent definition goes beyond commercial, transactional, informational, and navigational, as there are subtypes.
Understanding user search intent on a deeper level is crucial for maximising your SEO efforts. For example, a query like “How to bake a simple cake” requires a lot of different types of information, from recommended equipment to baking tips to a list of ingredients. On the other hand, another informational query like “Where are the best summer vacation locations” looks for more variety of recommendations.
Why is Understanding User Search Intent Important?
Understanding human search intent is crucial for several reasons, including the following.
It Enhances the User Experience
When creating a website (and content for that website), one of your main goals is to ensure a great experience for any user who clicks on your site. It’s a biggie, and catering your content to their intent is key for doing this. By defining intent, you can then create tailored content that directly answers questions or provides helpful guides that users can use.
For SEO
SEO and search intent go hand in hand. Search engine optimisation is the process of creating a website and web pages that appeal to search engines such as Google. What Google likes the most is websites that appeal to users and are more relevant/helpful for them, so, by taking into account user search intent, your SEO rankings improve.
An Improved Marketing Funnel Strategy
Predicting user search intent plays a crucial role in creating a better marketing funnel strategy. A marketing funnel strategy guides consumers through the shopping process, and the different search intent types appeal to each stage.
- Top of the Funnel: Informational Intent
- Middle of the Funnel: Commercial Intent
- Bottom of the Funnel: Transactional Intent
You can create content that strategically bends towards different stages of the marketing funnel, in turn increasing your chances of customer conversion. It’s a type of search intent marketing that truly pays off!
8 Ways to Determine and Optimise for Search Intent
Are you ready to go beyond learning what is intent? To create content that converts users and boosts your SEO rankings, you need to optimise for search intent, so here are some tips for search intent optimisation.
Analyse Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Your first step is gaining a general understanding of what users are searching for on search engines, and the way to do this is by analysing the search engine results page (SERP). This part is simple; all you need to do is type in a particular keyword into Google and examine the first results that come up. What topics do they cover? What type of structure does the content adhere to? Identifying these results means you have a better idea of the kind of content that ranks for those keywords.
Identify a Keyword’s Search Intent
This is a critical step for SEO and content strategy. Some keywords are pretty crystal clear, but others might be more ambiguous.
Your goal here is to find the most relevant keywords for your content. You can do this by:
- Getting to Know Your Target Audience
- Looking Into their Usual Search Queries
Then, choose the keywords that your audience frequently searches for. Once you have these, get to grips with exactly what those keywords mean. Determine if the keyword is informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational – then create content that matches that type. If you need more help understanding keyword search intent, there are tools available to streamline this process.
Create Content for Specific Intentions
To appeal to an intent based search, you must create content that appeals to the specific intention types.
- Informational: Informational intent is all about learning something, so your goal here is to create content that makes that learning process as straightforward as possible. The best type of content for this includes blogs, video tutorials, how-to guides, and FAQs. Aim to answer all of the core questions, break down the tougher parts into more accessible chunks, and provide depth, detail, and sourcing where necessary.
- Navigational: Navigational intent is when a user already knows what they are looking for. To create content for this, focus on clear branding, internal linking, and consistent naming for products/services. Make sure your website’s navigational process is simple – a drop-down menu with clear links works well. Understanding local search intent can also be helpful for smaller businesses creating navigational content.
- Commercial: For commercial intent, create content that discusses the best products and services. Comparisons, unbiased information, reviews, and statistics work well here. For example, an in-depth article titled “the best mattresses for lower back pain” should address pain points while discussing the pros and cons of each mattress listed, including insights from industry experts where applicable.
- Transactional: Transactional intent means users are already ready to make a purchase – you just need to create content that pushes them in the correct direction. This should include product pages with accurate descriptions, strong calls to actions, clear pricing, and an add-to-basket button (that leads to a simple transaction page).
Optimise On-Page SEO
The core aim of SEO is to match user queries – in other words, appeal to user intent. As such, it makes sense to optimise on-page SEO wherever you can, as this will lead to higher rankings and more satisfied users.
Some ways to do that include using headings/subheadings, writing meta descriptions, using a title tag, and including the primary keyword in the first 100 words of content. Also, think more carefully about your URL structure; you want a short, readable URL that accurately describes exactly what is on that page (including a keyword here is essential).
Internal and external link building is another way to optimise on-page SEO. Internal links point to other pages on your website, whereas external links should lead clickers to authoritative pages in other areas of the web.
Look At Similar Content
One of the simplest ways to learn the type of content to create for search intent is by looking at the dominant content that shows up for the keywords. It’s a bit of research that can take you very far. What type of format does the content use? Does it include blog posts, landing pages, or product pages? Use this information to create content that works for the keyword and helps you climb the ranks.
Use the Right Tools
While some manual research into search intent is handy, don’t forget there are available (and often cost-effective or even free) tools to help you! A search intent tool will go further than simply identifying the right keywords to use; it will teach you the exact intentions beyond a searcher’s queries. There are many different search intent tools out there, including free and paid varieties – it helps to perform some research and choose one that appeals the most to your goals.
Dig Deeper than Surface Level Intent
If you really want to meet a user’s expectations and satisfy their queries, you must dig a little deeper than the surface level intent.
For example, you may know that if someone types into Google ‘How to take better photographs’ they want to learn how to become a better photographer. It may seem simple, but the truth is it’s not.
As well as wanting to learn basic techniques, the user likely also wants to know:
- The Best Photography Equipment
- Photography Equipment for Beginners
- Common Photography Mistakes to Avoid
- Examples of Good Photography
It’s digging deeper like this that allows you to fully understand intent search.
Create Genuinely Helpful and Accessible Content
If you keep up with SEO, you will know just how crucial genuinely helpful content is for climbing the ranks. Google is all about prioritising content that appeals to users, so it is up to you to create guides, product descriptions, how-to articles, video explainers, and infographics that make sense and are useful. Do not only think about how your content appeals to Google (keyword stuffing is a big no-no these days); consider the user and the type of content that they need to meet their needs.
Accessibility is also essential. The last thing you want to do is baffle or overwhelm your reader with overly technical language (unless your target audience is already familiar with this type of language). The key here is to use plain, simple, logical language that flows and is easily skimmable. Some ways to manage this include:
- Using Headings and Subheadings: Break your content up! You don’t want continuous large chunks of text; instead, you want smaller paragraphs that fall under the appropriate headings and subheadings.
- Free Your Content from Jargon: Use simple language first – always. If it’s a choice between a more complicated word and a simpler one, use the latter.
- Add Visuals: The best content typically includes a mix of words and visuals. Visuals can help break dense content up while also providing useful infographics that deepen a user’s understanding. Overall, it makes the piece of content more engaging.
- User Shorter Sentences and Paragraphs: While longer sentences sometimes have their place, most people want content that gets to the point. As such, aim for shorter sentences and paragraphs when creating written content.
Final Thoughts
Search intent is the goal a user has when typing a query into a search engine. For websites wanting to rank higher and improve conversions, understanding search intent and optimising for it is essential.
Do you want to get to know your target audience better, including understanding their exact aims? Perhaps you need help with keyword research and link building. In any case, we are here to help.
We are a digital marketing agency with over twenty years of experience in the industry. We are experts in all things SEO, so we are sure to be able to help you climb the ranks. Get in touch today for a free consultation!
