You must be wondering what should be your primary consideration when optimising your content. Well, that’s an easy answer in the digital marketing world. Content creation that satisfies search intent and customer needs should always be your top priority.
Consider the instances when you entered virtually gibberish into Google, and it still understood exactly what you meant. We may take this for granted, but this is why search intent is crucial.
Google regularly updates its algorithm to satisfy users’ hearts, minds, and souls by matching their queries with pertinent results.
In this article, we’ll examine why search intent is important when optimising content and how to develop a content strategy based on research in and out of search intent.
What is Search Intent?
The term “search intent” refers to the goal of an online search (also known as “user intent” or “audience intent”). It is the motivation behind a particular search. After all, everyone who conducts an online search is looking for something. Search intent aims to fulfil users’ motivations in response to their search queries. You try to give users the most pertinent information based on what users are searching for.
Users now expect clear, pertinent results directly addressing their queries in the most widely used search engines, like Google. As a result, you must optimise your website’s landing pages and content pages to meet the requirements of each unique search request made by users.
What Makes Search Intent Important in SEO?
Your ability to rank and whether readers are happy with the content of your page depends on how well you understand the search intent. Google’s Quality Evaluator Guidelines even go into great detail about intent as well.
How irritated would you be if you wanted to find out more about how bicycles work but all the search results were advertisements for them? That experience is what you’re working to avoid by adding user intent into your SEO strategy.
If you have a thorough understanding of search intent you can:
- Target search terms that align with the needs of your audience and your business to conduct more successful keyword research.
- Create content that responds to user queries and organise your pages so that both users and search engines will find them easily.
- Produce content that search engines consider more valuable and pertinent to users. As a result, you can rank higher.
Different Types of Search Intent
Although each search query has a distinct intent, there are four fundamental ways to classify search intent: Navigational, Informational, Commercial, and Transactional. Let’s explore each of them.
Navigational Intent
When a user has navigational intent, they try to reach a particular website, domain, or physical location. It incorporates local search and overlaps with Google’s “visit” and “website” user intents (e.g., “TopRankings SEO Agency website”).
Therefore, you need to ensure that people can find your website when they conduct an online search for the name of your business. Remember that obtaining a high ranking for a navigational term is primarily advantageous if your website is what visitors seek.
The fact that users already know what they’re looking for is essential to understanding navigational intent. Therefore, you probably don’t need to sell them on something new if you’re targeting a keyword like this.
Navigational keywords aim to ensure that your current or potential customers can find you when they need you most. Additionally, they can help you understand how customers feel or behave toward your brand.
Tips for Navigational Intent Optimisation
- To target navigational keywords, make sure your website structure is organised and easy to navigate.
- Your website should be divided into sections, each with page titles, tags, headers, and descriptions indicating the information type found there.
- Ensure that every service or product you provide has its own landing page or dedicated page with the most up-to-date details.
- Use the appropriate brand and product names when optimising each page.
- Provide additional pertinent terms (e.g., the type of product or the problem it might solve).
- Make sure your URLs are clear and descriptive.
Informational Intent
People looking for information conduct a lot of online searches. You name it—information about the weather, child education, SEO, etc.—could fall under this category. People looking for information have a specific question or desire to learn more about a particular topic.
The words who, what, where, why, and how are frequently used by users when phrasing these searches as questions. (e.g., “What’s a good SEO Agency?”)
The vast majority of Google searches are informational in nature. You simply cannot afford to ignore them if you want visibility. Despite this, they may still present a worthwhile chance for your business to expand.
A great way to gain your audience’s trust in your subject matter expertise is by offering them informative or educational content. You can use this content to target new leads that you can later convert in addition to improving your visibility.
Tips for Informational Intent Optimisation
- Pay close attention to what users are looking for in terms of information.
- You should write your content as clearly as you can.
- If you’re writing informational content, make sure you’re structuring it correctly regardless of the subject or question type.
- Include key details, like instructions or responses to questions, whenever possible in the page title, description, and headers.
- You can use other text components like lists, charts, and graphics to make your information presentation more readable.
Transactional Intent
Users with a transactional search intent want to carry out a specific physical or digital action. Contrary to what the name might imply, this is not limited to purchases only. When conducting a transactional search, a user might also want to sign up for emails, submit forms, visit a store, or make phone calls (e.g., “Avail SEO services” or “Contact TopRankings SEO Agency”).
This indicates that they frequently already have a clear idea of what they want to buy and are simply looking to get to the product page right away.
Your revenue generators are transactional keywords. Whatever conversion means to you, these are the keywords that your potential customers will use when they’re ready to buy.
Target transactional keywords with an optimised product landing page and a simple checkout process to take advantage of your opportunities.
Tips for Transactional Intent Optimisation
- Know what conversion means for you (Do you want them to sign up? Register? Buy something?).
- Provide all the most relevant information in the most user-friendly way you can.
- Make the conversion process as straightforward as you can.
Commercial Intent
Informational and transactional search intent is combined in commercial search intent. In other words, these are the search terms that your target audience uses when conducting research before making a purchase (e.g. “TopRankings SEO Agency vs. xxx SEO Agency”).
Of course, there are other types of commercial searches besides product comparisons. Users may additionally look for the following:
- Product reviews
- Product specifications
- Brand recommendations (e.g., “best SEO agencies 2023”)
- Free trials or product demos, etc.
Commercial keywords are all about displaying your offerings to your audience and providing them with the data they require to convert. Your audience is more likely to proceed if they can find and use this information quickly.
By using these keywords, you can maintain contact with your user during a crucial phase of their purchasing process.
Tips for Commercial Intent Optimisation
- To target commercial keywords, similar to informational keywords, you must be aware of what the user is looking for.
- Develop your page’s structure to help users find the solution as quickly as possible.
- Use descriptive page titles, headers, meta descriptions, and URLs to optimise your content.
- Provide links to additional information, lead generation forms, or purchase pages to make it as simple as you can for them to make a purchase.
How to Leverage Search Intent on Your Content?
There are a lot of ways for you to be able to leverage search intent on your content. Below are some of the ways you can try to do so:
Consider Search Intent in Your Keyword Research
Sometimes it can be quite hard to determine the search intent of a query. And perhaps different users that use the same search term will have a (slightly) different user intent.
A list of pertinent target keywords that you’ve discovered through research should serve as the foundation of any effective content strategy.
Consider the search intent underlying each keyword as you compile your list. Keep a record of this data for future use as you create your content calendars.
Understand the Content Categories That Best Serve Each Type of Search Intent
Although it might seem obvious, it never hurts to go over the fundamentals. If you take search intent into account when conducting your keyword research, you’ll have a clear understanding of the categories of search intent that are most prevalent in your vertical.
There will probably be a large percentage of informational searches, which are frequently suitable for content that has been optimised for organic search.
Additionally, there might be a ton of transactional and preferential investigation searches. Consider the types of content these users are seeking, just like with informational searches, and then produce that content for your website.
Perhaps doing so entails writing a blog post in which you contrast your product with one of your rivals. Perhaps this entails improving the performance of your website’s product pages in search results for transactional searches.
Publish Content With a Purpose
Publishing content with no purpose in mind, or the wrong purpose, is the best way to fail at content marketing. Regardless of what you’re publishing—a blog post, an infographic, a social media post, or anything else—you should always be aware of the user goal you’re attempting to satisfy.
Keep in mind that content marketing is effective—but only when done correctly. It is not a good use of content marketing to anticipate that an informational blog will immediately increase sales.
Instead, be aware of the purpose of your content and gauge how well it achieves it. When you do that, you’ll see that SEO content is ideal for boosting your site’s authority and reputation by assisting readers in finding the information or specific transaction they’re looking for.
Create Effective Contents with Industry Experts!
It’s essential to make sure that the content you write matches both the search terms people use and the search intent of your audience. When people seek information, ensure your post or page is informative. When someone searches for your company name, be the first result. When people are still weighing their options, give them information that will assist in making an informed choice. But if someone wants to purchase one of your products, direct them to your sales pages.
This may seem like a lot of information, and yes, it is. So, hiring a competitive and reliable SEO Agency like TopRankings can be an ideal option for you. You can always make it easier by working with SEO professionals. We can help you find better content strategies that will suit perfectly for your business needs. Contact us today to help you get started!
