SEO is a method for getting more traffic over to your website. When you rank high in Google’s search engine, you can attract more visitors to your website. Probably your goal will be to attract more visitors on a regular basis or sell your products. A good technique for getting more traffic to your website is optimizing your content for the words that people use.
However, in order to really convince individuals to purchase your products, subscribe to your email newsletters or return to your website later, you should also take search intent into account as well. In this article, we, the Houston SEO, will be discussing what search intent is and what you can do to optimize your content for search intent.
What exactly is search intent?
It has to do with reasons why individuals conduct specific searches. So why are they doing a search? Do they have a question and are searching for an answer? Are they looking for a certain website? Or are they doing a search because they are wanting to purchase something?
Google, over the years, has increasingly been able to determine people’s search intent. Google wants to rank pages the highest that fit the search term and the search intent for a specific search query. This is why it is critical to ensure that your page or post fits your audience’s search intent.
These following are several distinct search intent types:
Informational intent
One type is informational intent. Many internet searches are from individuals search for information. Information about SEO, educating children, SEO, the weather. In that case, individuals want to learn more about a topic or have a specific question.
Navigational intent
With this kind of search intent, people are trying to reach a specific website. Usually, people who are searching for Facebook are normally want to head over to the Facebook website.
Ranking high for navigation terms is beneficial only for organic traffic is your website is one that people are searching for. A couple of years ago, there was a Google Analytics plugin offered by Yoast, and we were ranked fairly well for the phrase Google Analytics. However, that didn’t drive any traffic to our website. Individuals searching for Google Analytics were searching for the Google Analytics site and weren’t usually interested in our plugin.
Unfortunately, unless you are the owner of the brand that someone is searching for, you won’t get much of an ROI on navigational queries. So why is that? Because the intent for that kind of search is very clear: the searcher is wanting to visit Facebook (or Pinterest, or YouTube, or wherever). The chances of their search journey being redirected to your product or website are about slim to zero.
Transactional intent
With this type of search intent many people purchase things online and browse the web looking to find the best item to purchase. Individuals who are doing searches with transactional intent are people who have the intention to buy.
Commercial investigation
Some individuals have the intention of buying in the future or near future but conduct their research on the web. Which is the best washing machine to buy? Which is the most helpful SEO plugin? Those individuals have transactional intent as well but need more time and more convincing as well. These kinds of search intents usually are referred to as commercial investigating intent.
What commercial intent refers to is the process of evaluating the chance the someone who is searching for a keyword becomes a customer or lead. The commercial intent can be evaluated by looking at how many people are advertising in Google Adwords for a specific keyword.
Keyword intent
Finding popular keywords that you can target is not the only thing that is involved in keyword research. It also is broader than just identifying low competition phrases and words that you have the chance to rank for.
The words that individuals use in their searches will provide you with information regarding their user intent. When people use words such as discount, deal, or buy, they definitely are prone to buying something. Also, if individuals are searching for certain products, probably they are interested in buying it. If individuals are using and searching for words such as the best way to, how-to, information, then you will know the search has an informational search intent.
Keyword intent is among the most critical aspects when it comes to paid search. Without having a good understanding of the intent that is behind the searches of a visitor, even well-funded PPC campaigns are bound to fail. However, when keyword intent is leveraged for intent-driven marketing, not only can advertisers increase traffic to their websites but attract more qualified prospects as well, to generate more leads and drive more sales.
How to optimize content effectively for search intent
You want to ensure that your landing pages fit in with your audience’s search intent. If people are searching for information, then showing a product page is not what you want to do. Not immediately, at least. That will probably scare them off. Lead them into your shop. Don’t bore them with long-winded articles.
It is a good idea to optimize your product pages for commercial driven keywords. If you are selling dog vitamins, you can optimize a product page for buying dog vitamins, for example. Maybe you have an article on administering vitamins. For example, you could optimize your article for “how to give m dog vitamins” search term.
It can be difficult to figure out the search intent for some queries. And different users might have user intent that is slightly different but still is landing on the same page. To know more about your audience’s search intent, the best way to find out is to ask them. You could make a short survey that contains questions about what individuals were searching for and have your survey pop up when individuals enter into your website. Probably that will give more insight into your audience’s search intent.
Conclusion
In it critical to make sure that you write content that fits both your audience’s search intent and the terms that individuals are searching for. Make sure your page or post is informational if individuals are searching for information. However, if people are prone to buying a product of yours, then lead them to your sales pages.
