Knowing your customer’s search intent is key to optimizing content. You can create a strategy around your search intent.
Search intent should be your priority when optimizing content.
Consider how many times you’ve typed in Google gibberish text, and Google instantly understood what you meant.
Although this may seem obvious, it is precisely why search intent is so important.
Although monthly search volume is excellent, generating demand is impossible. Therefore, we must align our high-quality content and product landing pages with the customer’s intent.
Google never really cared much about optimizing content.
It is committed to providing the best content and information possible to help users find the correct information.
Google continously updates its algorithm to ensure that it meets the needs of its users and matches their queries with relevant results.
This article will discuss why search intent is so important when optimizing content. It also explains how to create a strategy for content based on search intent research.
Jump To:
- What is Search Intent?
- What are the Unalike Types of Search Intents?
- Why is Search Intent so Important?
- How can we ensure that our content changes with the search intent?
- How can we devolop a content strategy for search intent?
- In Conclusion
What is Search Intent?
Search intent is also called customer intent or user intent. It is the main reason users go to search engines and type in a query.
A search engine is a tool that allows users to search for specific information.
Consider all the times that you’ve used search engines to do research on a product or answer a question.
With the rise of mobile search, we have a search engine at our fingertips.
As marketers and SEO professionals, knowing where customers are in the buyer’s journey when they type in a phrase is important. We also need to identify which page or piece of content we should target with this phrase.
Search intent is the heart of any well-optimized landing page and should be our primary focus when writing content.
We must remember the various stages of a customer’s search journey.
What are the Unalike Types of Search Intent?
Many times I have searched Google without knowing what I was looking for.
Sometimes I use it to spellcheck or remind myself of a movie’s name.
We can generally group search intent into three main categories.
Learn how to plan and create content that meets the three types of search intent.
1. Informational
These are search queries in the early stages of a customer’s research.
Our goal is to assist users learn more about products and services in the initial stages of their search.
Studies have shown that when a user learns something on a website and establishes the topic as authoritative, they will return to that website and convert later when they are ready.
2. Comparative (also known as Navigational)
This is middle-stage content, where customers want to compare your product with another to help decide what they should do.
The middle or comparative stage is where users try to determine if they actually need the product or service they are researching or if there are better alternatives.
Consider all the times that you have compared two products or restaurants.
3. Transactional
This content is in the late stage of development and is ready for conversion.
We created all the content to support our users so that they can convert.
Our end-stage or transactional content is usually product or category pages that we want the user landing on when they’re ready to buy.
When creating content, it is important to ensure that the keywords we target align with the intent of the user’s search.
We can ensure that we target the correct keywords on the landing page that Google wants to show by creating content that matches all aspects of the user’s journey.
You can also ensure that you are a digital presence, increasing visibility, and conversions.
SEO is only half the battle. Google wants to display our content based upon the phrase. This is why search intent is so important.
Why is Search Intent so Important?
When doing keyword research, there are many factors you should consider, including search volume, seasonality, and branded vs. non-branded. Localization is also essential. Search intent/user intent is the most important.
Understanding the intent of searchers ensures that we prioritize relevancy in our content and keywords.
Google and other search engines permit users to type more words into Google, which will help them move further along the buyer’s journey. This increases the likelihood of them converting.
It is also tough to determine search intent.
Once you understand search intent, optimizing content becomes more accessible. You will be able to know what content Google wants to display on Page 1.
We should remember that Google determines the search intent.
Google won’t allow you to go against their guidelines. Your content will not show up in the SERP.
Many times, executives and marketers are blinded to search volume. Instead of pursuing lower volume keywords with a higher chance of winning, they follow higher volume phrases. They end up missing out on the chance.
How can we ensure that our content aligns with the search intent?
If you have difficulty understanding the concept of search intent, take a step back from work and picture yourself as a user.
Consider what search terms you might use to find your product or blog page.
Google will show you the results if you type that phrase in Incognito or Private browsing.
A SERP (search engine results page) analysis will confirm what Google believes the user might want to see.
Are there content aggregators available? Are there any transactional sites?
Is it a search engine result page with both transactional and content?
Google may not know the exact search query of a user, so it displays a mixed SERP that includes different content.
This information can be found live on Google’s SERPs. It shows what Google considers the query’s intent and how it rewards them.
Because we want to find out what phrases people are using and then see if it is possible to compete for the exact phrase based upon intent, SERP analysis is one way to get competitive data.
How can we develop a content strategy for search intent?
Although content may be the king, the user holds all the power.
It does not matter how best your content is. If the keywords you target doesn’t match the intent, then it’s useless.
Unqualified traffic is of no benefit to anyone and wastes time and energy.
Before creating content, we need to ensure that we do keyword and competitive research.
We now know who is competing on the SERP and if we are eligible to rank on Page 1.
Competitive research can also identify semantically related keywords we may want to use in content. These keywords are not necessarily synonyms but are closely related.
Search engines can use semantically related keywords to understand our content better. They also allow users searching for similar items (but with different keywords) to locate our content.
The hub-and-spoke content marketing model is one of the best ways to create content strategies with search intent in your mind.
This content marketing model permits us to target transactional and informational keywords via the hub pages.
This permits us to ensure that we provide content relevant to our users and their respective stages.
Keyword research is the foundation of some content strategies and is crucial for understanding search intent.
Although keywords with the highest search volume may be appealing, they can be extremely vague and not the best words to concentrate on.
Sometimes, singular and plural keywords can have different meanings.
You could search for “TV” to find a guide or history of television channels.
However, if you search “TVs,” you are most likely looking to buy a TV from someplace. You will find the corresponding search results.
SEO professionals must constantly look at what Google shows and consider the customer or user’s perspective when searching.
This graphic helps us understand what content strategy might be pursued if we sell reading glasses.
Targeting keywords with higher volumes should be a priority on your homepage or category pages.
These lower-volume keywords could be targeted in subcategories or product pages and possibly a blog post.
This visual can be used to identify how many keywords are being searched. It can also help us to understand how much content and what kind of content we should create.
In Conclusion
It is vital to put our customers first and identify their query’s search intent to ensure our content meets their needs.
We have only joined on half of the story, the research side.
The best part is using an enterprise SEO platform for monitoring keyword ranking and reporting to executives about the changes made.
We can increase buy-in to our SEO program by regularly reporting on our wins. This will allow us to evangelize the importance of SEO to our company and make it easier to get a seat at more significant decisions.
Regarding keyword research, search intent is the most crucial aspect of optimizing content.
Google’s algorithm updates in recent years have been focused on user experience. However, it continues to emphasize user intention and make its search engine more conversational to provide the best search results for users.
When creating or updating content, ensure that you focus on search intent and the relevance of keywords.
