WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes – What is Search Intent?

What is Search Intent - WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes -The CAG

WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes –
What is Search Intent?

What is Search Intent - WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes -The CAG

WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes – What is Search Intent?

WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes – What is Search Intent?

As you already know, SEO aims to drive more organic traffic to your website by increasing your rankings on the SERPs. To successfully rank in Google, you should create content that your target audience would like, i.e., you should fulfill your customer’s search intent. Google ranks pages that best fit the keyword, as well as the intent behind a specific search query. If you are not optimised for intent, your keyword-rich content may not help you get the desired results. Here’s a small guide on search intent from our team at Perth.

What is Search Intent?

Website -The CAG

Types of Search Intent

There are broadly 4 intents.

1. Transactional Intent

The user searches with an intent to buy something. In most cases, the user already knows what needs to be purchased and are looking for a place to buy. The search will be mostly with the product name.

Examples

Samsung phone

Philps TV

2. Commercial Investigation

The user is searching for a specific product but is probably yet to make a final buying decision. The search is for products reviews or comparisons to arrive at a decision.

Examples

(Product 1) vs (Product 2)

Best (Product name)

3. Navigational intent

Users are searching for a specific site. They already know the site name and probably find it easier to google it than to type the entire URL.

Examples

Facebook login

The Computing Australia Group

4. Informational intent

Why is Search Intent important for SEO?

Google will always look to provide users with the most relevant result for their search query. So, if you want your page or post to rank, your content should be relevant to the intent. Keyword-rich content will not be sufficient to get your page to rank, as now Google understands that intent relevance is more important for user satisfaction. Our SEO team in Perth can help you understand this better.

Benefits of Intent Targeting

Lower bounce rates – Since your page content meets your audience intent, they stay longer, thereby reducing bounce rates.

Boost engagement – For the same reason mentioned above, chances of your visitors engaging with the rest of your web pages are high.

Improve conversions – More the number of relevant visitors, the more the chances of conversions.

Enhance audience reach – Thanks to Google, it can interpret your specified intent that it will display your pages for many other related search queries. For example, if your keyword is “best expensive car models”, then the page not only appears in the SERPs for that query but also for general search queries like “car models” and “cars”.

At times, it can be difficult to identify the intent of a search keyword; and different users can have different intent for the same query.

So, How to Determine User Intent?

Take a peek at the SERPs

Researching the SERPs can help you determine search intent. Conduct a search using your keywords in the search engine and see the results. Check the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)s to understand what type of keywords are currently ranking for the intent that you are focussing on.

Analyse keyword modifiers

You can determine the search intent by using keyword modifiers.
Few examples:
Informational – How, Guide, Ideas, Tips;
Navigational – Brand names, Name of a product;
Commercial – Top, Best, Review;
Transactional – Buy, order, price of.
Using the right modifier can define the right intent to search engines.

Check search results history

Pages that stay the same in the ranking results have the most relevant keywords for the intent that is being aimed at.

Since one keyword can have multiple user intents, you can’t wholly rely on the above means since the SERPs fluctuate over time. However, it will assist you in finding the most relevant intent.

Search Intent optimisation

Here are some practices that you can follow to optimise your page for intent relevance.

  • Optimise product pages for commercial intent keywords.
  • Optimise posts with page titles and descriptions for information intent.
  • Optimise transactional pages with clear CTAs and simple conversion process.
  • Use keyword modifiers relevant to the intent.
  • Include target keywords in the URL, metadata and headlines.

The content you’re writing must be relevant to the keywords as well as the intent of your audience for a good ranking result.

Jargon Buster

Keyword modifiers – words added to your target keyword to create a more specific longtail keyword.
Keyword – a focus word or phrase that sums up your post or web page’s content.
SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages – pages displayed by search engines in response to a user’s search query, which includes organic results, paid results, featured snippets etc.
Optimise – A process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a web page or a website from search engines.

Article originally published on 27/06/2020
Revised by on 17/06/2021
Added new sections:
Benefits of Intent Targeting
How to Determine User Intent?
Added Jargon Buster

Peter Machalski | Blog author | Computing Australia

Peter

Peter is the Systems Operations Manager at The Computing Australia Group, he is responsible for managing and maintaining uptime for thousands of client servers. It is a busy portfolio with a lot of responsibility because clients depend on their systems being accessible practically 24 hours a day. It is a far cry from when he started in the industry when most people just worked Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 and we had plenty of time to maintain systems after hours. He also works across other portfolios at The CAG, including projects and service delivery.

Peter Machalski | Blog author | Computing Australia

Peter Machalski

Peter is the Systems Operations Manager at The Computing Australia Group, he is responsible for managing and maintaining uptime for thousands of client servers. It is a busy portfolio with a lot of responsibility because clients depend on their systems being accessible practically 24 hours a day. It is a far cry from when he started in the industry when most people just worked Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 and we had plenty of time to maintain systems after hours. He also works across other portfolios at The CAG, including projects and service delivery.