In today's digital landscape, understanding and catering to users’ search intent is paramount for businesses that want to boost their online visibility through search engine optimization (SEO). By aligning your content with user intent, you can significantly improve your website's search engine rankings and drive conversions.
Using Search Intent for SEO
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your website to increase visibility and traffic through organic (unpaid) search engine results. As the digital world continues to evolve and expand, it’s become increasingly important for businesses to understand their users’ search queries and create content that is tailored to their needs. This requires understanding of users’ search intent, or the reason a user enters a particular query. Search intent falls into four categories: commercial, informational, navigational, and transactional, each of which requires a different approach. By understanding and responding to users’ search intent, businesses can increase their website’s visibility in search results and increase conversions by reaching the right users with content that meets their needs.
Commercial Intent
Commercial intent is when a user is wanting to learn more about a product before buying. To give you an idea of what this looks like, here are some examples of commercial intent search queries:
- echelon vs peloton
- best laptop for college students
- airpods max reviews
- anytime fitness or planet fitness
When a user types “best laptop for college students” into Google, they aren’t looking for a specific page because they aren’t looking to buy a specific product yet. Their goal is to research products before purchasing. If you want to increase your business’s presence in commercial intent SERPs, here are a few strategies for supplying the information users may be looking for:
- Create informative and inviting landing pages tailored to your specific products and services.
- Leverage reviews and testimonials to display social proof and trustworthiness.
- Ensure your website is optimized for mobile users, as this is one of Google’s top ranking factors.
It’s important to note that commercial intent search queries often populate results from third-party websites with independent reviews of products, which may make it difficult to rank for some commercial intent keywords that are relevant to your brand.
Informational Intent
Informational intent is when a user wants to find an answer or learn something. Their search queries are often phrased as a question using who, what, when, where, why, or how. Here are some examples of informational intent search queries:
- What is a good credit score
- How to draw a butterfly
- Directions to target
- Who is in the super bowl
Google will often answer the question in the SERP, but blog posts are also a top resource for informational queries.
If your goal is to increase your presence in informational intent SERPs, here are a few strategies you can utilize:
- Analyze and optimize your site’s content, especially your blog, to ensure it is organized, up to date, and contains high value information.
- Utilize long-tail keywords, which tend to have lower search volume but higher conversion rates.
- Ensure your site’s architecture is organized for search engines to easily crawl and index.
- Use schema markup to help search engines understand your content’s intent and context.
Ranking for informational queries can be a valuable opportunity to grow your business by increasing visibility and building trust. Informational queries make up a sizeable number of Google searches, and providing useful information for your audience showcases your expertise.
Navigational Intent
Navigational intent is when a user knows exactly what they are trying to find. Their search queries will commonly include branded keywords. Here are some examples of navigational intent search queries:
- apple return policy
- netflix login
- moz domain authority checker
- youtube
Because these users know exactly what they are looking for, your goal should be to make it as easy as possible for them to get to their intended destination. Strategies to improve SEO rankings for navigational intent search queries include
- Accurately describing the page’s content using relevant keywords in the meta description, title tag, and URL
- Adding appropriate internal links to encourage users to interact with and navigate the site with ease
- Increasing visibility to your target audience by utilizing localization in your content
Transactional Intent
Transactional intent is when a user wants to complete a specific action. Although transactional intent includes more than just making purchases, this is the most common type of transactional intent, which is why these queries are known as “money makers”. Here are some examples of transactional intent search queries:
- iphone 14 pro max price
- online personality test
- amazon prime trial
- watch game of thrones
To provide the best transactional user experience possible, here are some SEO strategies to implement:
- Create targeted ads using personalized content.
- Encourage customers to submit reviews for your products.
- Use an analytics tool to track conversions on your site.
- Simplify the buying process by optimizing checkout so it’s seamless for users.
By understanding search intent and tailoring your content and site structure accordingly, you can reach your target audience and provide them with relevant information. To learn more about your audience’s search intent and identify high-value keywords, check out these tools:
- Ubersuggest by Neil Patel
- Keyword Research Guide for SEO by Semrush
- Keyword Planner by Google
- Trends by Google
Understanding search intent is essential to developing a successful SEO strategy. By consistently aligning your content with users’ needs, you can enhance your website's visibility, attract the right audience, and ultimately drive conversions.
