Increasing website traffic is possible through SEO. Achieving a high ranking on Google will attract more users to your website, increasing traffic, sales and returning visitors. For this to happen, you need to constantly optimize your content for the right keywords if you want people to visit your site. However, you should consider search intent to increase your ranking chances and get visitors to buy your product, subscribe to your newsletter, or even return to your site.
But what do we exactly mean by search intent in SEO? Allow us to explain- Consider a scenario where you want to prepare some greens for dinner. But you need to eat now because you are hungry. So, you go online and type “fast kale recipes” into Google. This is intent to search for something that you want because there is a need to fulfil. This itself is called ‘search intent’ in SEO.
Intent acts as an important factor in helping a brand or a company unlock what a visitor who can become a potential customer is looking for on a search engine. In this article, we explain search intent, along with some tips on how to make your content more searchable. So, if you are interested we would request to kindly read further.
Types of search intent
- Navigational purpose
Navigational intent is the name given to the second category of search intent. This kind of person wants to go to a particular website. For instance, people who look up [Facebook] online typically intend to visit the Facebook 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 phrase is primarily advantageous if your website is the one that visitors are seeking. We had a Google Analytics plugin a few years ago, and we were really well-positioned for the term [Google Analytics]. However, it did not increase visitors to our website.
- Informative purpose
Starting with the target information. People looking for information do a lot of online searches. Whatever it is – information about the weather, parenting, SEO, etc. – can fall into this category. People looking for information have specific questions or want to learn more about a specific topic.
You should be aware that Google understands intent far more than just displaying results that provide details about a certain term. For instance, it is aware that people searching for [tomato sauce] are probably looking for recipes rather than information on the sauce’s gastronomic past. It is aware that the majority of individuals who type in [Mercury] are seeking the planet and not the element. Google even recognises that adding videos and images can be helpful when searching for terms like “how to make a bird feeder.”
- Transactional purpose
Transactional intents are the third category of search intents. Many people shop online and look for the best deals on the internet. When someone wants to buy something immediately, they search with transactional intent. This shows that they often already have a clear picture of what they want to buy and just want to go straight to the product page.
- Commercial purpose
Some people use the internet to research the products they are going to buy in the near future. Which washing machine will be the best? Which SEO Plugins Are Most Useful? Although they also intend to reach an agreement, these people need more time and persuasion. This type of search objective is usually referred to as a commercial investigative purpose.
What is keyword intent?
We can learn about user intentions from the keywords people use in their searches. The opposite is also true. You can increase your chances of being found by users with similar search intent by creating keywords that contain words with specific intent.
What do we mean by words with a specific purpose? Well, the keyword transactional intent often contains the following words:
- Buy
- Act
- Discount
- Product names
As a further illustration, an information search may (but does not have to) contain the following words:
- information
- how
- best method
- why
How to make your content search intent-optimized
Why are we disclosing all of this to you? Because you want to be certain that a landing page matches the audience’s search intent. You shouldn’t display a product page to those who are browsing for information. at least not right away. Most likely, you’ll frighten them away. However, if a potential customer is looking to purchase your product and finds one of your longer blog pieces, you risk losing them. In this scenario, you want to direct them to the appropriate product page in your shop.
It makes sense to optimize your product pages for commercially relevant keywords. For example, you can optimize your product page (category) for the search term [buy dog vitamins] if you sell dog vitamins. Maybe you wrote something about giving vitamins? You can target information-seeking readers by optimizing this article for the search term “how to give my dog vitamins”.
Check your target audience’s search intent
Sometimes it is very difficult to determine the purpose of a search query. And maybe different users using the same search term have (slightly) different user intentions. Fortunately, there’s one direct resource you can turn to if you want to find out which intent best matches your keywords: the search results page. Find out how you can use results pages to create great content powered by intent.
If you want to learn more about your audience’s search intent, you can also ask them. You can create a short poll containing questions about what people are searching for and have that poll appear when people visit your site. This will likely give you valuable insight into your audience and their intentions. Make sure not to overly intrude on these types of pop-ups as they can ruin the user experience of your website.
Final thoughts
It’s imperative to make sure that the content you write matches both the search phrases people use and the search intent of your audience. When individuals are looking for information, make sure your post or page is informative. Be found at the top of a search for your company name and ensure you leverage the understanding of search intent. If you want a consultant or a managed SEO provider to help you understand this better, get one.
Here is hoping you have understood about what search intent means. In case you have any doubts, please share them in the comments section below.
