Most people understand that SEO is a way to drive traffic to a website and that by ranking high on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs), you will be able to attract more customers to your site.
To achieve this, you are more than likely optimising your content through the use of keywords, including keywords for voice search, which is on the rise and for which businesses will need to optimise their keywords. However, if you really want to increase your likelihood of ranking on that coveted first page of Google and convince consumers to buy your products or services, you need to focus on search intent.
What is search intent?
Search intent, also known as user intent, is the phrase used to describe the purpose of an online search.
Or, to put it in even simpler terms – the reason why someone is carrying out a search.
Are they looking for an answer to a question?
Are they looking for information on a specific brand?
Or are they looking to make a direct purchase?
The reason the user is carrying out a search is a key part of the user journey and understanding that reason is vital to ensuring that your page fits the intended search of your target audience.
What are the different types of search intent?
There are four main types of search intent and it is important to understand each one.
1.  Informational intent
As you are probably aware, many people use the internet to find out information. It’s fast, effective and arguably much easier than heading to your local library.
People with informational intent usually have a specific question that they need answered.
Examples of informational content include:
- Who is Rishi Sunak?
- Latest premiership scores
- London airports
Google is easily able to identify exactly what people want from an informational search. For example, they will know whether someone searching for “London airports” wants directions or information about the facilities.
Link building is an effective way to attract users with informational intent, as you are aligning yourself with authoritative websites that improve your domain authority (DA) on Google.
2.  Navigational intent Â
The second type of search intent is navigational intent. This refers to searches that are aimed at directing someone to a specific website.
Examples of navigational searches include:
- Facebook login
- Click intelligence
It is worth remembering that navigational intent only works if someone is specifically looking for your website.
3.  Transactional intent
As the name suggests, transactional intent involves people who are searching to buy something. This includes browsing to find the best products or services to fulfil their needs.
Examples of transactional intent include:
- Buy iPhone 11 pro max
- Best price nintendo switch
4.  Commercial investigation
The final type refers to people who are searching with the intent to buy something at a later date. They are carrying out commercial research into the products or services they want to buy in the future.
These people also have transactional intent but need a bit more convincing before actually making a purchase.
Examples of commercial investigation include:
- Best link building services
- Top restaurants in the capital
- Hot tub vs jacuzzi
Why is search intent important?
Do you want to be looked upon favourably by Google? Of course, you do.
As such, you need to actively help Google with its ultimate aim – providing users with the most relevant and helpful results for their queries.
Search intent is crucial if you want to do this.
Google often changes the search results for a keyword in order to align with what they think a user’s search intent is.
For example, if you are trying to rank for “the best savings account,” you cannot just force your landing page onto SERPs. Google will not allow it, as it knows this is not what their users want.
Instead, Google will change the keyword intent to informational, meaning that you need to supply content that contains information, such as blogs and comparisons of the “top ten savings accounts.”
If you want a successful SEO campaign, you need to focus on relevancy.
How to determine search intent?
Once you have established the keyword you would like to rank for, you can now start to determine what the search intent is for that keyword.
This can be done in several ways:
Examine the SERPs
Even if you don’t yet know the intent of your chosen keyword, Google will. By simply studying the SERPs, you can be privy to inside information about users’ search intent.
For example, if you want to optimise your product or service for “outdoor furniture,” you may assume, wrongly, that anyone searching this is looking to buy outdoor furniture.
However, they may be looking to compare different outdoor furniture or find out where to buy office furniture locally, which is known as local search intent.
Google already knows this information, so why not use this knowledge to help your keyword strategy?
Make sure you pay attention to ads, organic listings and knowledge graph results.
Use AdWords
AdWords can be used to determine the extent of commercial intent that users have for a particular keyword. As a general rule, the higher the suggested bid and competition, the higher the commercial intent.
Of course, nothing is foolproof when it comes to converting visitors into customers, but AdWords can give a strong indication that people who are using a particular term do intend to make a purchase.
Check your bounce rates
It can be useful to find out how well your existing content is working for you, as well as determining what you should include in any new content.
Why? It’s simple. If you only need to make small changes to your existing content to make it more effective, you will save both time and money.
One of the easiest ways to check the success of your existing content is to see how high your bounce rates are for visitors who found your site via the search engines – an SEO audit can help you with this. If they are higher than your other traffic sources, the keywords your site is ranking for are not matching with your content.
Do you want to increase your conversion rate right now? Find out how search intent can help you achieve this by getting in touch today. Â
Additional Related Articles
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/could-the-increase-in-voice-search-affect-keyword-strategies/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/how-voice-search-and-google-direct-answers-are-changing-seo/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/how-search-engines-are-improving-through-machine-learning/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/optimise-business-voice-search/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/the-future-of-paid-search/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/how-to-manage-local-search-as-an-enterprise/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/how-to-boost-your-natural-search-visibility/
- https://www.staging-uk.clickintelligence.com/what-is-search-engine-marketing/
