When considering content optimization, your top priority should be search intent.
Think about how many times you actually typed something awkward to Google, and Google understood exactly what you meant.
This may seem obvious, but it’s the exact reason why search intent is so important.
Monthly search volume is great, but it’s impossible to generate demand, so you need to align your customer’s intentions with high-quality content and product landing pages.
Google has never really cared about optimizing content.
We are interested in providing users with the most relevant and unique content that will help them find what they are looking for.
Google updates its algorithms frequently. This is to ensure that the user’s mind, thoughts, and soul are satisfied and to collate the user’s query with the relevant results.
This article explains why search intent is the most important consideration when optimizing your content, and how to build your content strategy based on your search intent research.
What is your search intent?
Search intents (also known as customer intents and user intents) are the main reason users access search engines to enter queries.
When someone visits a search engine, they keep in mind the specific goal they are trying to achieve in their search.
Always think of using a search engine to research a product or answer a question.
And with the growth of mobile search, we always have search engines in our pockets.
So, as a marketer or SEO expert, you need to understand what part of the buyer’s journey you are in when a customer enters a particular phrase, and the content and landing pages that target this phrase.
Search intents are the backbone of optimized landing pages and should be the main focus when creating content on your site.
However, you need to be aware of the various stages of the customer search process.
What are the different types of search intent?
I googled many times before I knew what I was looking for.
I’ve also used it to check spelling and remind me of the name of a particular movie.
In most cases, you can group your search intent into three main categories.
Learn how to plan and create content that meets your three search intents:
1. Information
These are early search queries and customers are still trying to dig deeper into the topic.
When users are in the early stages of searching, our goal is to ensure that they learn more about our products and services.
Research shows that if a user learns something from a website and the site establishes itself as a trusted source of information on that topic, the user will eventually return to the website and convert when ready. Will be.
-
Image from Google, June 2022
2. Comparison (also called navigation)
This is intermediate content that helps customers decide what to do by comparing your product or service to another product or service.
Users in the middle or comparison stages are trying to find out if they really need the product or service they are investigating, or if there are even better options than those they have found before.
Always think about comparing different restaurants to each other or comparing two similar products.
-
Image from Google, June 2022
3. Transaction
This is late content that customers are ready to convert.
The reason I created all the other content is to support the user so that they can convert it, and to make sure they are helping the user in the process.
Transactional content or final stage content is typically a category or product page that users land on when they are ready to make a purchase.
-
Image from Google, June 2022
When creating content, it’s important to make sure that the phrase you’re targeting matches the intent of what you’re searching for.
By creating content and landing pages that match every part of your user journey, you can target the right keywords on the best pages that Google wants to display.
You can also see that you own your own digital presence and increase visibility and conversions.
Half of the fight is to make sure the content is properly optimized, while the other half is to make sure Google wants to display the content based on the phrase. This is why search intent is so important.
What is the reason why search intent is so important?
There are thousands of factors to consider when doing keyword research, such as search volume, seasonality, branded and unbranded, and localization. However, the intent of the search, that is, the intent of the user, is of utmost importance.
By understanding the searcher’s intent, you can prioritize the relevance of your content to your keywords.
The more phrases users enter into Google or another search engine, the more the buyer’s journey will be and the more likely they are to convert.
The intent of the search is also very difficult to understand.
However, understanding the purpose of your search makes it much easier to optimize your content. You can learn more about the type of content that Google wants to display on page 1.
The main thing we should consider is that we haven’t decided what the intent of the search is – what is Google?
Contrary to Google’s statement, content does not appear in SERP.
Marketers and executives are often blinded by search volume. Instead of chasing a quiet phrase, you’re pursuing a loud phrase, and you’ll eventually miss the mark.
How do I make sure my content matches my search intent?
When you’re having a hard time understanding the concept of search intent, take a step away from the company and imagine yourself as a user.
Think about what to search for to get to a blog post or product page.
Enter the phrase into Google (preferably via secret mode or private browsing to prevent it from being personalized to your search history) and see what you see.
SERP (Search Engine Results Page) analysis is the best way to see what Google thinks users may want to see.
Is there a content aggregator? Is there a transaction site?
Is there a mixed search engine results page that contains both content and transactional content?
It shows mixed SERPs with different types of content, as even Google often doesn’t know what the user is looking for.
By finding this information live on SERP, you can find out what Google is rewarding at the top and what you believe your query is intended for.
SERP analysis is one of the best ways to use competitive data when creating content. Because I want to know the phrase they are using and see if they can compete for the same phrase on their intent.
How can I create a content strategy with search intent?
The content may be king, but the user has all the power.
We can create the best content in the world, but if the keywords we’re targeting don’t match the user’s intent, it’s really all free.
Capturing unqualified traffic doesn’t help anyone and is a waste of our time and energy.
Before creating content, you need to make sure that you are doing a competitive survey with your keywords.
Understanding who else is competing in SERPs will tell you if they could be ranked on page 1.
Competitive research can also find semantically relevant keywords that you might use in your content. These are not necessarily synonyms, but they are essentially closely related keywords.
Semantically relevant keywords help search engines better understand what our content is, and users who are searching for something similar (but using different keywords) are ours. Allows you to find content.
One of the best ways to create a content strategy with search intent in mind is the hub-and-spoke content marketing model.
This content marketing model allows you to target transaction keywords on hub pages and more informative keywords on spoke pages.
Doing this ensures that you create content that matches the potential locations of your users and the different stages of your journey.
Keyword research is the cornerstone of your content strategy and is very important in understanding your search intent.
The keywords with the highest search volume may be attractive, but they can also be very vague and may not be the best word to focus on.
Also, singular or plural keywords may have different meanings.
Example: When searching [TV] You may be looking up a TV channel guide or TV history.
But when you search [TVs]You’re probably trying to buy a TV from somewhere and you’ll see the corresponding search results.
It’s important to note that SEO professionals need to continually review what’s already visible on Google and adopt a user or customer perspective when searching.
This visual will help you better understand the content strategies you may implement when selling reading glasses.
-
Image created by the author, June 2022
You need to target a large number of keywords on your home page or category page.
You can then target low-volume keywords to subcategories, product pages, and perhaps blog posts.
By creating such a visual, you can determine the total amount of keywords you are trying to track. This will help you understand the amount and type of content you need to create.
The conclusion is
Putting your customers first and identifying your query’s search intent is the best way to ensure that your content matches your needs.
I also talked only about half of the story, the research side.
The exciting part is being able to use the enterprise SEO platform to monitor keyword rankings and report to executives what changes they have made and how they have led to significant increases in traffic and conversions.
Frequent monitoring and reporting of wins helps you gain support for your SEO program, spread the word why SEO is important to your organization, and secure a seat for making bigger decisions.
Search intent has always been the most important factor when it comes to keyword research and content optimization.
Google’s recent algorithm updates are very focused on the user experience, but more focused on user intent and more conversational to search engines in order to generate the most accurate search results for users. increase.
Therefore, if you have any doubts, make sure that your search intent and keyword relevance are the main focus areas when creating and updating content.
Other resources:
Featured image: maradon 333 / Shutterstock