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How to use search intent to deliver more sales with SEO and plan right content?

If you want to convert the search engine users into revenue generating customers of your business, you should have a strong understanding on what search intent is. This will help you to take your SEO campaigns to the next level and receive outstanding returns in the long run. You will be able to use the understanding you have on search intent to organize content of your website, so that you can address search intent. Keep on reading this article, and we will share more details with you on how to do it.

What is search intent?

Search intent is the main reason on why a person is searching for something on the internet. When you search for something, you enter a word, question, or a phrase. There’s a reason that motivates you to search for that on the internet. You should understand what that user intent in search is all about.

To get a better understanding on this, you should get into the shoes of a person who is searching for something on the internet. When you search the question “how to clean windows”, you are looking forward to receiving a step by step guide, which clearly illustrates the steps you will need to follow for cleaning windows. You don’t expect to read a 1,000 word article. This is why the understanding you have on search intent.

When you are aware of search intent, you will be able to properly organize, format, and optimize the content on your website. This will help you to offer what exactly visitors are looking forward to receiving.

The four types of search intent

When you deep dive and take a look at search intent, you will figure out that there are four main types of search intent. Here’s an overview of those four types.

–       The “Know” search intent

The “Know” search intent is where people look for things with the objective of enhancing their knowledge. It’s also called “informational intent” or “informational search”. For example, when you search the internet on “what are the health benefits of apple”, you are trying to enhance your knowledge. To cater this search intent, you should use tutorials, how-to guides, and FAQs. Certain types of answers from this type of searches are most often promoted to “feature snippets” in SERPs.

–       The “Do” search intent

People with the “Do” search intent are looking forward to purchasing products. It’s also called “Transactional intent”. For example, when you want to buy a new wireless headset, you will search the internet on “Best wireless headset under $100”. This is where you will have the intent of purchasing a product (high commercial intent). To attract people with such search intent, you should be using product pages and landing pages.

–       The “Website” search intent

People with the “Website” search intent are looking for websites. It’s also called “navigational intent”. When you are not too sure about the specific domain of a website, you will simply search for it on the internet. For example, most people who want to visit the website of “Marks and Spencer” search this phrase on a search engine.

–       The “Visit in person” search intent

This is where people search for local businesses where they can buy products or services. For example, when you want to try Italian dishes, you will search the internet for “Italian restaurant near me”. You are trying to find a local business that is offering what you want. To capture people with such search intent, you will need to focus on local SEO.

Are You Optimized for Search Intent?

Now you have a basic understanding about user intent in search. While keeping that in mind, you should figure out whether your business website is optimized for search intent or not. This is where you should take a look at the pages that you have under your website. You should figure out the intent behind all the pages that you have as of now. Then you can get the help of a keyword research tool and discover the different keywords that your visitors are interested in. Based on the keyword research, you should update your content and match that with the search intent of visitors.

The Science Behind Intent

There are numerous studies conducted on the topic of search intent. From one such study conducted in the year 2006 by the University of Hong Kong, it was discovered that there are two primary goals behind search intent. The first goal is where a person is looking forward to finding specific information with related to keywords. On the other hand, a person can even look for general information with related to a keyword.

When you generalize this, you will notice that different search engines can be categorized into the specific search queries of the search engine user and the exhaustive nature of those search queries. People with specific search queries are looking for specific topics. They will not usually tend to deviate from what they are interested in finding. Even the search engines such as Google are looking forward to being more intelligent by trying to understand what user intent in search is.

Understanding user intent and relation to type of content, especially in transactional search is a key to increase user engagement and conversion rates.

Machine Learning & Intent Classification

Different websites are offering content in multiple forms. This can eventually influence the search behavior of a user via marketing. As a result, there is a possibility for the output intent associated with a search query to change. This is where machine learning will play a major role. Machine learning basics can be paired with specific algorithms, in order to change the search engine results pages. Google is conducting a large number of experiments with related to this. Therefore, we will be able to see how Google search is becoming more intelligent in the future.

How To Do Keyword Research Right?

You should have a clear understanding on how to do a keyword research while keeping user intent in mind. You shouldn’t just believe the keywords that a random person tells you. It is important to understand that Google has transformed to become a smart search engine. Hence, old school ranking techniques with keywords will not deliver positive results anymore.

One of the best methods available for you to do a keyword research now would be to use informational queries. This is where you will be trying to deliver information to the people who are looking forward to getting them from your website. Therefore, you should write answers to those questions on the website. Keywords should be selected based on the informational queries that the search engine users are entering. Some of the best keywords that you can use are troubleshoot, how to, not closing, not opening, solve, block, and get rid of.  Based on these keywords, you can write informative tutorials and blog posts.

Likewise, you can do a keyword research with navigational queries as well. You should know the top queries that take place on your website and find relevant keywords. Then you should optimize your landing pages based on them.

When you do a keyword research for transactional queries, you should be addressing the needs of people who are trying to purchase products or services. This is where you should look for keywords such as best, pricing, ratings, reviews, benchmarks, and pros vs cons.

Make sure that you adhere to these tips and optimize your website accordingly. Then you will be able to boost your rankings with ease.