Search Intent
As we are at pains to point out to our clients, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not rocket science.
The key to it is very simple: you have to try to think how your customer thinks when they are typing their requirements into Google. Simples!
This search intent (also known as searcher intent or keyword intent) holds the fundamental to all things SEO. If you can get to the top of Google rankings by using words that will answer their questions, then you have cracked it baby.
Ok, sometimes there are barriers, such as wildly expensive Pay Per Click words because the market is saturated, but we won’t concern ourselves with such trifles at the moment!
Potential customers seeking to buy something via a Google search, invariably will want to do their research before making a purchase.
That means the keyword has commercial intent, enabling us to use this knowledge to adjust our content to target this keyword better.
The top goal of search engines is to provide relevant results for users. So, understanding search intent can impact your ability to rank in search results.
Google has invested a great deal into interpreting the intent behind search queries used in searches, so if you want to rank in Google (and this is indeed the barometer of success) you must make sure your pages satisfy the search intent behind the keywords they’re targeting.
All you need to know is there are four types of search intent:
- Navigational intent: Users want to find a specific page (eg; Adder Business Ltd)
- Informational intent: Users want to learn more about something (eg; which Highland League football team plays at Dudgeon Park?)
- Commercial intent: Users want to do research before making a purchase decision (eg; best Indian Restaurant in the Highland Capital?)
- Transactional intent: Users want to complete a specific action, usually a purchase (eg; where can I buy a Nissan Juke locally?”)
But when you’re focusing on search intent for your own original product or service, try to do so with a degree of originality. Bear in mind the words of US poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Unlikely he foresaw the rise of SEO in 19th Century Boston, but you get the picture…
*Spoiler alert: With no apologies, the answers to some of the above questions might well lead you to the doors of some of our clients!
