Search intent – or keyword intent – is the reason why a search is being conducted. Understanding the different types of search intent is essential and yet surprisingly straightforward. Taking search intent into account can benefit you as a business, as it’s a thought process you’re probably very familiar with. You might just not realise it yet.
Hypothetically speaking, if you’ve been a part of the process of planning and developing new products, you might have asked the question “Why are people going to buy this product?”
It’s the same as asking yourself “Why are people going to search for my products/services?”
There must be a reason. Getting that reason right could potentially boost your chance of conversions. Are they searching because they want a specific brand? Do they want to find a local retailer that stocks the product they want? Are they scouring for more information? Are they hoping to be inspired by what they find? It depends what you want customers to think when they search for (and land on) your page.
Google has become far more clued into determining its users’ search intent. But this is where the advantage lies with you.
Google ranks websites higher that demonstrate evidence of:
It’s a vital part of ticking all the right boxes with your SEO strategy.
Google’s complex algorithms have determined several key types of search intent:
In other words, people who want to find out specific information or question a particular topic.
Such examples could be anything from ‘How to cook pizza in a frying pan’ to ‘What is the average size of an engineering brick?’
People love knowledge, and when you rank for queries like these due to your content, it can be an instrumental factor in getting ahead of your competitors. You’re simply giving Google the impression that you know what you’re talking about more than they do.
If the customer is looking for an answer to a question they have, the more they see your website, the more they (and Google) will be convinced you know what you’re talking about.
Navigational searches have obvious intent. A navigational query is a direct search to find one distinct location.
Let’s take the search term ‘Twitter’ as an example. While it’s likely navigational queries are for the official website itself, some searchers might be on the lookout for the latest news and updates about the social media company. Therefore, if you’ve written a blog about Twitter recently, and you’re ranking for this on page 1 of a SERP, then you stand a good chance of drawing some extra traffic.
Making sure you own your own brand’s potential navigational queries, and optimising content around those keywords might see you make a higher ROI. Branded keywords can drive both clicks and conversions.
Essentially, this refers to people who are ready to purchase something online. This covers a broad spectrum of obscure and straightforward searches such as, ‘Cheap bathroom tiles’, ‘Buy reusable water bottle’ or ‘DeLonghi kettles’
Organic content plays a part here, and good examples of these could be optimised product pages, local SEO-driven blogs and articles, among others.
Sponsored ads and PPC campaigns via Google AdWords are likely to deliver a good ROI for these search queries. Sponsored results take up large amounts of space on SERPs for transactional queries.
Tailoring organic content to each type of search intent is the next step.
For Navigational Intent, ensuring you have landing pages for all elements (company details, brand, services and products), alongside your homepage. The landing pages need to, somewhat concisely, say who you are, what you do and who your customers are. Having H1s and H2s that are both keyword-focused and integral to the specific element is an excellent method to entice navigational searchers to the page.
Think about the positioning of your titles, URLs, subheadings, and meta descriptions. Putting high ranking keywords in these areas (where appropriate) can give an overview of your product pages on a SERP before users even click on your site link.
For Informational Intent, it’s wise to keep the URL and titles query-focussed – in other words, optimise them to match search queries that are questions. Use a description underneath to answer your own question. Think about different questions searchers might ask (use People Also Ask as a reference) and optimise subheadings to match that in your blog or product page.
Transactional Intent is about keeping the content centred around the purchase. By keeping details concise, brief and clear and having a user-friendly experience where the design, text and CTA are straightforward for the user to see, you’re maximising your potential here. Structuring the page right will increase the chance of appearing in a Featured Snippet.
Users with varying search intents may well end up on your page anyway. That shows you’re doing your SEO well. But, thinking about the content that is optimised with search intent can give you an edge.
If you’re selling a product, optimise the content around that product. Write blogs about it. Then optimise the blogs. Develop new landing pages that link back to that core content material.
Another word of advice; take advantage of a free SEO audit when you get a chance. You will know where you stand currently, and search intent might just be the missing piece of the puzzle.
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