Understanding search intent is the secret ingredient you can use to build content strategy and rank on search engines.
As a digital marketer, it is important for you to analyze your SEO strategy because searcher intent and behavior is changing every time.
You need to understand why people search and how the content that you provide is going is serve their purpose.
What is Search Intent?
Search intent (also known as user intent), is a primary goal a user has when searching a query in the search engine.
Creating content that matches the search intent is important for the success of your SEO, PPC and Content Marketing effort.
Why Search Intent is Important for SEO
1. To Broaden your reach across marketing funnel:
The Marketing Funnel no longer follows a linear path to conversion. Digital has redefined the funnel overtime.
Creating content that matches the user intent at every funnel stage is the answer.
It ensures the more specific your content is, the more users you can reach and at different stages of the funnel.
2. To help improve your site rankings:
Create content to increase user relevance and authority.
If your content matches the searcher intent and provide the relevant information, they are less likely to ignore it. Also, you can increase brand authority and visibility by creating valuable content around topics that your brand is well versed in.
Types of Intent:
There are four types:
1. Informational – This is a type of intent where buyers are looking for information. This could be in the form of how-to-guides or a definition.
Pro Tip – Do a research and find out what information your prospects are looking for. It will help you develop your SEO and content strategy around these queries.
2. Commercial Investigation – In this stage, a searcher use search to investigate products, brands and services. Users here are comparing products and services to find the best solution to their requirements.
Pro Tip – As the users are finding for an optimal solution to their problems, create content in the form of a blogpost or similar format which highlights, the solutions your business can provide.
3. Transactional – Here, searchers are looking to make a purchase. This could be in the form of a product, service or subscription.
4. Navigational – In this stage, the searchers are looking to navigate to a specific website. The user could be unsure of the exact URL or looking for a specific page – eg- a login page.
How to Optimize for Search Intent
1. Keywords Mapping:
To start optimizing for user intent, start by mapping a list of keywords. Create categories for your keywords, the search volume, intent type and the keyword value. Match the same with the search intent for that keyword by conducting a keyword research. This will help you better match the user’s search query.
There is also a tool that helps you better optimize for search intent. TextOptimizer extracts search intent tables from Google SERPs and generates a list of related terms. This will help you to better create your content around user intent.
2. Format Content for SERP Features:
Analyze the SERPs to better understand on how to make your content relevant to the query.
So, here is how you can optimize for search intent and why it is important to acknowledge it while formulating your SEO strategy.
For SEO consultation or queries, contact us or write to us digitalinfer@gmail.com.
