Search intent is one of the most important factors when ranking for a given keyword on Google and increasing your organic traffic.  Google, the world’s most used search engine, is now more focused than ever on providing a customized experience for each user and their search intent and ranking pages that perfectly match their search term.

Therefore, you need to optimize your content for a given query or keyword by focusing on your audience’s search intent. You must ensure that your article satisfies the specific search intent and answers your users’ search queries.

In this post, we’ll cover what search intent is, why it’s essential for SEO, the four types of search intent, and how to optimize your content to rank high for the keywords you want to target.  First, let’s define the basics.

What is Search Intent? 

Search intent, also known as keyword intent or user intent, is the primary purpose and reason people perform a specific search when they type a query into a search engine. To understand your users’ search intent, you need to know why and what they are trying to achieve through their search.

Google has become increasingly good at determining people’s search intent over the years. Google was visited 89.3 billion times in April 2022 alone and dominates the search engine field with a market share of over 90%. Google wants to understand what users wish, so it can offer search page results that best match the search term used and the search intent behind the user’s query.

With updates to Google’s Hummingbird, RankBrain and BERT algorithms, the search engine can see how users interact with keywords and interprets with the rise of natural language processing and machine learning to provide more relevant results based on their particular need or search goal.

Why is Search Intent Important for SEO?

Knowing and optimizing search intent for search engine optimization to increase website traffic depends mainly on what people are looking for and how they process and use the search results based on their end goal.  Below are the main reasons why search intent is essential for SEO when creating content.

Improve rankings for a keyword

Since satisfying search intent is a primary goal for Google, it is also a primary goal for SEOs. To rank well in Google, you must offer content that best matches users’ search intent. If you can’t do that, there’s a good chance you won’t make it to the first page of search results.   When selecting target keywords to include on your pages, determining the user intent behind your keyword searches is one of the key points to consider to improve your overall ranking. Correctly determining the search intent is one of the essential elements in judging the difficulty of a keyword.

Enhance your brand awareness

Creating valuable content around topics, you are well-versed in that meet your audience’s search intent can increase your brand’s authority and visibility. Providing relevant information that answers a potential customer’s query not only means increased industry authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of Google but also makes your users aware of your brand. 

Increase visits and conversions

Providing the correct type of content based on user intent can increase the number of visits to your site and increase the chances that they will turn into engaged user leads who are more likely to convert. The more your content is specific to different search intents, the more you can reach prospects or potential customers at various conversion funnel stages. 

Direct impact on key performance indicators

If you provide the right content for the user’s intent, they are less likely to return to Google within seconds to explore another result.  Key performance indicators, such as click-through rate and bounce rate of your pages, are important factors that allow Google to better rank your page. 

The more clicks you get by providing the right content, the more likely you are to rank higher, as this tells Google that users found what they were looking for on your page. To begin to deepen your knowledge of research intention, knowing its different types is essential.

Related Reading:

SEO for Beginners: How to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO

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12 Best Tips for Creating SEO-friendly Content

20 Most Important SEO KPIs to Track for Successful Optimization

What Are the Types of Search Intent?

Understanding the different types of search intent can help you optimize your content for keywords. The most common types of search intent are informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. People might search for information, a product or service, or a particular website when they perform a search.  We can refer to this as the search intent type classification. 

Let’s examine them in detail: 

 Informational Search Intent

People with informational intent have a specific question or want to learn more about a topic or solve a particular problem. Informational queries are where users typically want in-depth content, such as blog posts or guides, rather than quick answers.

When conducting an online search on any topic, people use informational keywords to find results that can help them decide more easily or increase their knowledge about a topic. The search engines present the best ones that match their search intent to choose the site they want to access, and if your content effectively answers their query, you may have just earned a click.

Informational searches often include words like “how to,” “what,” “best way to,” “why,” or just a topic. Informational intent is one of the most common search intents, as users can search for answers to an almost endless number of questions. 

Examples of queries with informational search intent: 

-What are the benefits of omega-3

-What is the best tutorial to learn Java?

-Guide to dropshipping on amazon

-What is the best way to cook dried beans?

-How to improve vo2 max Garmin cycling?

-How do improve research skills for students?

-How does bitcoin work?

-Learn CSS

Identifying search intent allows you to provide the informative and valuable content that customers want to show up on the first few pages of the rankings.

Commercial Search Intent

Users who search the web for commercial purposes are looking for specific information. They are probably considering purchasing a particular product or service shortly but have not yet decided which solution is right for them. Users with commercial search intent often compare products and brands to find the best solution for them.

They might want to look for reviews of your products, try to figure out where to buy, or determine if there are other comparable options available at this time.  For example, someone searching for “iPhone 13 features” is most likely looking for product reviews and comparisons before a potential purchase. Commercial intent stands between informational intent and transactional intent.

Examples of commercial survey research:

– Best tools for graphic designers

– What is the best app to sell?

– Hubspot CRM vs Salesforce

Transactional Search Intent 

Transactional search intent comes from people who intend to purchase a product, service, or subscription online. A transactional search query might look like “Buy iPhone 13” to get to that product page immediately. Users making transactional queries are no longer researching the product; they are looking for a way to buy it. Transactional searches often include words like “buy,” “coupon,” “discount,” or “shipping,” with specific product names in the query.

Very commonly, the search results that appear for queries with transactional search intent are e-commerce stores, product and service pages, or a landing page from an online store.

Example of transactional search queries:

– Buy ps5

– Buy Dell XPS 13 OLED

– Fitbit premium price

– Best cheap android phone

– Cheap stock options to buy today?

Transactional searches are the most valuable type of search you should optimize because they have the most potential to bring conversions to your business.

Navigational Search Intent

Navigational search intent is the type of search intent in which people use the search engine to go to a specific website they have in mind and want to visit next. Navigational search intent can be a brand name or a URL. 

Such queries are usually reserved for brands because it’s always easier to do a quick search by typing the brand name into search engines than typing the URL.  For example, people who search for Instagram online are usually on their way to the Facebook website. 

Examples of queries with navigational search intent:

– Reddit sign up

– eBay login

– Instagram

– subscribe to YouTube TV

Remember that a high ranking for a navigation term is mainly beneficial if your site is the site that people search as a navigation term. So you need to ensure that your website can be found when someone searches for your business name online. Searches are not binary – many will fall into more than one category. That’s why the SERPs are a mix of various pages for some keywords.

So now that you know what search intent is and why you should care about it, we can move on to a practical guide on how to recognize search intent. Now that we have an overview of the different types of search intent and the importance of understanding search intent let’s take a look at how to identify user search intent to create content that best matches the searches made by potential customers. 

How to Identify Search Intent?

The easiest way to identify user search intent is to analyze searches in the SERPs. 

Analyze and Identify the Content-Type in the SERP

The most direct source for identifying the search intent that best matches your keywords is to look at the search results pages in the Google SERP. Search intent is often evident from the query itself. So first, perform a keyword search by typing the keywords you are targeting into the search bar and checking what Google offers to determine the topic and type of content in the SERP.

From the information that Google presents for each term in the SERP ranking for your target keyword, you will know the type of search intent that users are looking for when they type that keyword into their search bar. Identifying the search intent of the pages ranked by Google helps you understand which search intent you are more likely to rate your content.

For example, if the first content ranked in the SERP is transactional search intent content, and you write informational search intent content, you probably won’t make it into the top three.

SERPs results for informational intent

Informational keywords tend to have SERP results that provide summarized information. Examples include knowledge snippets, featured snippets, and related questions. The top results are most likely organic results and consist of informative blogs.

SERP results for commercial search intent

The commercial intent SERP results are similar to informational intent in that the results may include a featured snippet, but they also have paid results at the top of the SERP. Results will also likely provide information about the brands searched for rather than featured snippet information.

SERP results for transactional intent

Transactional SERPs are some of the easiest to identify because they are usually preceded by paid results, shopping, carousels, and reviews. Transactional results are essentially product pages from online and brick-and-mortar retailers

SERP results for navigational intent

Since users with navigational intent already know what website they’re looking for, these results usually show the most relevant page at the top. For example, if the user searches for “Spotify,” Spotify’s homepage will be the first result.

Tip: Keep in mind that sometimes it’s pretty challenging to determine the search intent of a query because users searching for the same term will have a slightly different intent. In other words, the keyword you are searching for may have a mixed search intent. Since SERPs are volatile, a keyword may be ranking for intent this one month; it may change next month.

Review SERP Features 

Analyzing SERP features is vital because Google displays certain SERP features more or less frequently, depending on users’ search intent. What Google does is set up features that you can use to help you deduce the search intent of a query. Some of the many SERP features that Google displays include:

– Featured snippet:

Featured snippets, also known as answer boxes, knowledge graphs, or Google direct answers, appear before links on a search engine results page, giving the user an instant response to their question. Appearing in this frame can maximize the chances of your content appearing at the top of search rankings.

Featured snippets appear at the top of the SERPs and allow users to quickly and instantly access the information they want. Featured snippets tend to come up primarily for informational queries and are a significant traffic driver for your site.

Related Reading: 10 Featured Snippets Optimization Tips to Rank in Position Zero

– People also ask

The section ”People also ask” will allow you to identify not only the search intent of the users but also the keywords you should use in your content by proposing a series of questions related to the initial search query.

-Related searches

Related Searches is also one of Google’s outstanding features to find a wide variety of related search terms that you can use to formulate words that would help you generate traffic.

-Video Results

Pages in Google’s SERPs that display video results at the top of the search results tell you what forms of content users like best. Videos appear a lot in search results, especially for tutorials and reviews, because people who search for these keywords are looking for videos to find the solution to their problem rather than reading about it.

So creating high-quality multimedia content will increase your chances of satisfying search intent and ranking well in the SERPs for these queries. Purchase results and carousels usually only show up for transactional queries. Therefore, if you are searching for keywords with transactional or commercial intent, you can only include keywords with shopping SERP features. And SERPs with featured snippets, knowledge panels, and “people also ask” boxes tell you that the search keyword has informational intent.

How to Optimize Your Content for Each Type of Search Intent?

It is essential to understand how to address each type of Internet search and best optimize your content for them.  Your starting point for optimizing search intent is your marketing personas. Understanding the needs of your marketing personas will help you predict the intent behind a particular search to create specific content for each persona and purpose. However, you can also use the SERPs’ main features to deduce a query’s search intent.

Use the SERPs for content and formatting choices

 Generally speaking, just as you used SERP features as clues to search intent, so too can they serve to inform the formatting and content of your pages. For example, if a featured snippet contains a numbered list, it’s safe to say that Google likes and rewards that format for that term.

Similarly, if the SERP returns related questions, be sure to answer those questions clearly and concisely in your content. Also, remember to use the title and summary of your content to identify the type of search intent you are targeting. Now, let’s look at how to optimize your content for each type of search intent.

How to optimize Informational Search Intent?

Queries with Informational Search Intent constitute the vast majority of searches performed on Google. They can serve you as an opportunity to acquire leads to convert later, establish your brand as an authority, and raise awareness of what you offer. Because users want to know something, they will use words that help them learn more about a topic. Therefore, you need to target informational queries like “what are,” “how to,” “what is,” Etc., and your industry terminology.

Then, create high-quality content that meets your user’s needs and provides information relevant to the query to drive traffic and leads to your site. 

The types of content that are most effective for informational search intent should include blog posts containing tips, lists, step-by-step guides, how-to videos, infographics, and checklists. You might want to consider answering these questions in your content or creating new content based on them. 

How to Optimize Commercial Search Intent?

Commercial intent means that the person is searching for a specific product, and searchers look for final information before making a transaction. For commercial intent queries, search queries using words that suggest commercial intent such as “top”, “best”, “comparison”, “cost”, “vs”, “reviews”.

As with informational queries, you can use questions with commercial intent to build brand awareness, generate leads and make future conversions. Since people with commercial intent want to know more about their options before making their final decision, the right way to optimize your content for commercial intent keywords is to prove the product’s usefulness by explaining how it works. Creating product comparisons to highlight the benefits of your product or service over competitors is quite common for commercial search intent

How to Optimize Transactional Search Intent?

The most likely type of queries to generate ROI in organic or paid searches are transactional queries. For Transactional search queries, you need to write content targeting transactional keywords with the name of the brand or a product or service. You may target transactional queries with even blog posts, but the pages that are most likely to be optimized are: 

– Product pages

– Sales pages

– Pricing pages

– Registration pages

– Appointment pages

One of the keys to optimizing for transactional search intent is to use elements to help the user convert, the main one of which is clearly stating your product name and description in the title and elsewhere on the page, as well as using a clear call to action. 

A call to action (CTA): Your CTA should grab the user’s attention and clearly state what to do by clicking the button. Besides making sure your content aligns with the user’s intent, try using sign-up forms, lead submission forms, or add-to-cart buttons to allow users to complete the transaction/conversion directly. 

How to Optimize the Navigation Search Intent?

As said above, in the case of search with navigational intent, the user is looking to reach a particular website or product/service with which they are already familiar. Google will display the brand name the user is searching for at the top of the SERP. To create optimized content for a query with optimized search intent, you need to target your brand name or navigation search query and brand name. 

Navigation search queries include Brand name, brand login, service/product name, location of, cost of, hours of operation, Directions to, near me, reviews, and testimonials.  

The content types that are most successful for navigational search intent are:

– Landing pages and online forms

– Product demonstration videos 

– Presentation pages

– Product and service listings

– E-books

– Case Studies

– Webinars

The main goal of navigational intent optimization is to place product keywords in your title, including your company name so that your website’s subject is clear. Also, don’t forget to expand your description to mention your products and what you have to offer.

Note: Even if it is possible to optimize your content to rank for navigation queries, your click-through rate will likely be low because people searching for these terms don’t want to go to a third-party website. Unless you are the site owner, the person is looking to access.

Conclusion

Hopefully, the points presented in this post will help you with how to correctly identify the search intent behind a query so that users discover your content on the web.  It is essential to ensure that the content you write matches your audience’s search intent, which is one of the most crucial ranking factors. 

Considering search intent in your business’s SEO and digital marketing strategies helps you increase your chances of ranking for a keyword and turns your visitors into leads or even loyal customers who return to your website. Begin by optimizing your website’s existing pages for different types of search intent.