Search Intent and SEO: a Quick Guide 2022 | DigitalGrowthWorld
Understanding search intent and defining intent can be the secret ingredient that turns a great content strategy into a great website promotion strategy.
What is search intent?
Search intent (intent, user intent) is the main goal that a user pursues when submitting a request to a search engine. In many cases, during the search process, users are looking for a specific answer or resource.
Take pizza for example. The user can search for a pizza recipe, take-out pizza, or a pizza origin story. Although in all these cases the search is centered around the same general theme (pizza), all users actually have different intentions.
Why is search intent so important to SEO?
Satisfying search intent is the main goal of Google, and as a result, the main goal of SEO promotion. When a user searches for certain information and finds irrelevant information, it sends a signal to Google that the intent was most likely different.
For example, if a user is looking for “how to create a website,” and in the search results he sees many pages of products from CMS platforms and hosting providers, he will try to perform another search without clicking on any of the proposed links. This is a signal to Google that the results did not match the user’s intent.
Expand your reach at different stages of the funnel
When it comes to running a business and building a successful content marketing strategy to promote your online store, it’s critical that search intent becomes the driving force behind the pieces of content you create and how you create them.
And why is it so important for a website SEO? The better your content matches different search intent, the more users you can reach and, moreover, at different stages of the funnel. From those who have yet to discover your brand, to those who want to convert into customers.
Improve your rating
The main ranking factors for SEO promotion on Google are relevance, authority, and user satisfaction.
Relevance: This is related to your user’s behavior. If users find the information they are looking for on your site, they are less likely to go back to Google in the next seconds to examine a different result (pogo-sticking). In the event that your content is in line with search intent, you will notice changes in key performance indicators such as click and bounce rates.
Authority: While most of a site’s authority comes from backlinks, it is also important to develop a strong internal linking strategy that signals to Google “I have a lot of content covering all aspects and intent of this topic” in order to rank well. Plus, you can increase your brand authority and visibility by creating valuable content around topics that your brand is well knowledgeable in and that serve a variety of purposes.
User Satisfaction: Is the content you create valuable and relevant to your audience? That’s all.
Search intent types
There is an infinite number of search queries, but there are only four main types of query intents :
- Informational
- Preferential / study of commercial offers
- Transactional
- Navigational
However, keep in mind that the search is not binary – many queries will fall into more than one category.
1. Informational
As you may have guessed, information-intent searches come from users looking for … information! This could be a search for an instruction manual, a recipe, or a definition. When optimizing your site, use this one of the most common types of intent, as users are looking for answers to an infinite number of questions. However, such a search query will not always take the form of a question. Users looking for simply “Bill Gates” is most likely looking for information about Bill Gates.
Examples:
- How to boil an egg
- What is a crater
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg
- How to get to Kennedy airport
2. Preferential/study of commercial offers
Before users are ready to make a purchase, they need to compare commercial offers. In this case, they use search to explore products, brands, or services in more detail. They went through the information stage and narrowed the search to a few options. Users often compare products and brands to find the best solution for them. In the process of your internet site promotion, consider the preferential intent.
Note: These searches often include non-brand localized terms such as “best digital marketing institute nearby” or “best digital marketing institute in Varanasi“
Examples:
- Comparison of Semrush and Moz
- Best website hosting
- Reviews on Squarespace
- WordPress or Wix for blog
3. Transactional
Transactional intent means users are searching to make a purchase. It can be a product, service, or subscription. In any case, they have a fairly complete idea of what they are looking for. Since users are already in the buying phase, the words they use in their search queries usually include the brand name. Users no longer study the product, they are looking for where to buy it. Optimize your online store website SEO based on the transaction request.
4. Navigational
These users want to go to a specific website and often find it easier to do a quick Google search than to enter a URL. The user may also be unsure of the accuracy of the URL or maybe looking for a specific page, such as the login page for a personal account. As such, search engine promotion and these searches usually include the name of the brand or website and may include additional terms to help users find the exact page.
How to determine search intent
Use keyword modifiers
Keyword modifiers can be useful indicators of search intent when promoting to the top of Yandex or Google. But it is not enough just to know the terms. When it comes to keyword research, you may be wondering how to find these terms in the process of website search engine optimization?
Fortunately, there are a number of reliable keyword research tools that you can use for these purposes. Thanks to the ability to apply filters, you can select terms that include specific modifiers or phrases.
In addition, you can filter keywords by SERP (search results). For example, in the case of content, you can filter for keywords that are ranked for dashboards, related queries, and highlighted descriptions.
Browse the search results pages
Another way to determine search intent in your SEO optimization process is to research SERPs. Enter a keyword in the search bar and see what Google returns. You can probably tell from the results you see what Google considers the most relevant search intent for each term.
Let’s take a closer look at the search results for each type of intent.
SERP for content
As mentioned above, informational keywords tend to lead the SERP results, in the form of concise information. Based on this information, you can analyze the intent. These include knowledge blocks, highlighted descriptions, and related queries. The best results are mostly organic and come in the form of Wikipedia articles, reference books, or informative blog posts.
Search results with preferential intent can include both highlighted descriptions and paid results at the top of the SERP. The results are also more likely to provide information about the brands being requested rather than specific information.
SERP for transactional intent
Transactional search results are the easiest to find. Typically these are paid results and/or results in a shopping cart, carousel, and reviews. Organic results are mostly product pages in the promoted online store and physical stores, and depending on the SEO optimization of the site for search, they may include information about their location.
SERP for navigation intent
Since users with navigational intent already know what website they are looking for, the top results usually show the most relevant page. For example, if a user searches for “digital growth world”, the first result will be the digitalgrowth.world home page.
Take a look at the complete picture
Keep in mind that terms often have more than one search intent behind them. So just looking at keywords or SERPs is unlikely to be enough. Only by using a holistic approach can you get closer to understanding the real intent and be able to put together your SEO site promotion scheme and guidance.
It’s also important to note that SERPs are fluid: a keyword may rank for one intent this month, but it may change as early as next month.
How to optimize your site for search intent
Match metadata and content type to the intent
You’ve done your research and know which keywords you are targeting each of your pages. Now it’s time for optimization. The best place to start is with metadata – update your title tag and H1 and H2 headings to match your keyword targeting. To increase your click-through rate, try using some catchy text in your title tag (without creating a clickbait title).
Study the competition
As with most competitions, it is a good idea to find out who the winners are before starting the competition. Order an SEO audit and find out the cost of promoting the site that you want to promote. Before you move on to creating new pages or reformatting existing content, take a look at the top of the search results and ask yourself the following questions regarding the pages you find there:
- How are they formatted?
- What is their tone?
- What points do they cover?
- What are they missing?
Use the answers to these questions to create the best, most relevant material on your topic.
Let’s summarize
When building your SEO content around search intent, be sure to keep the following in mind:
You must have a clear understanding of your search intent before starting to optimize your content.
- When you discover new terms, use special modifiers in keyword research.
- Use SERPs to determine the best formatting and content options.
- Deliver valuable, quality content.
Creating SEO-optimized content for specific search intent is easy, but not easy. Follow the recommendations of the experts of Digitalgrowth. world to provide users with the necessary content in the format they need.
