Buyer Intent Keywords Convert Better. Here’s How to Find Them

Traditionally, SEOs sort buyer intent keywords into different groups. This grouping helps clarify differences between the keywords and makes organizing campaigns easier — if you’re new to the topic, this is something worth knowing.

These features suggest that Google recognizes the commercial intent behind a keyword and that advertisers also expect high conversion rates from these keywords. Also, you’ll be able to find keywords that don’t have the typical buyer intent modifiers.

To show you how the process works, I’ll be using Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer. Additionally to SERP featues filter, it also has a SERP lookup function with an AI powered intent identification feature and CPC data which will come in handy when double checking on keywords.

• Enter a few broad terms related to your business. You can ask AI for some suggestions.

• Go to Matching terms and set the SERP features fitler to: “On SERP”, “Top ads” or Shopping Ads (if you’re an e-commerce business). Hit Apply.

• Sort by ascending CPC to get keywords with a higher probability of high intent on top.

• Look for the most relevant keywords to your business. Save them to a keyword list to make them accessible whenever you need them.

To verify the intent behind a keyword, click on the SERP button and examine the purpose of the top-ranking pages. To make this easier, use the Identify Intents feature; ideally, most traffic should be coming to pages promoting products or services.

If you’re in a new niche, chances are there won’t be too many advertisers for your keywords; the SERP features filter won’t be as effective. In this case, use typical modifier keywords and double-check search intent by analyzing the top-ranking pages.

Here are some of the modifier words you can use: buy, order, sale, best price, best, top, review, alternatives, near me, open now, in [city name].

From there, you’ll be looking for the same signs of relevance and commercial intent as we did in the previous section. Sorting by CPC will again reveal keywords more likely to have buying intent.

And if you want to spy on your competitors paid keywords, you can use Paid keywords report in the same tool.

But this time, make sure you’re looking into the right country. Your competitors might be running ads in various markets with different keyword cost per click.

Focus on keywords that are most likely to convert into sales or leads, even if they have moderate traffic or high cost.

Suppose you run an online store selling kitchen appliances. A keyword like “buy stainless steel blender online” may not have the highest search volume compared to more generic terms like “blenders.” However, it has a high conversion potential because users searching for this term are likely ready to make a purchase.

Even if this keyword is moderately trafficked or more expensive to target, the focus on ready-to-buy customers can lead to a higher return on investment.

To automate the scoring process you can use ChatGPT. It can take any keyword list with data in these categories and map the data to a scoring system.

Here’s the prompt you can use:

I have a list of keywords for my website, along with data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost per click. I’d like to score these keywords based on four categories: Traffic Potential, Conversion Potential, Keyword Difficulty, and Cost per Click.

Target keywords that have high conversion potential but lower competition and cost.

A travel agency could focus on long-tail keywords like “affordable family vacation packages in Europe.” This keyword is specific and less competitive than broader terms like “European vacations.” While it may attract fewer searches, the users who do search for it are likely looking for exactly what the agency offers, thus having a higher likelihood of conversion.

Identify keywords that your competitors rank for, but you don’t. You can do this easily with a tool like Ahrefs’ Competitive Analysis. All you have to do is to plug in your and your competitors’ domain.

For example, a keyword we could consider is “conversion rate optimization” since it’s in the digital marketing domain and we don’t rank for it at all.

Once you pick your keywords, you need to decide whether to target them using SEO, Google PPC, or even both.

Can you use both at the same time? Absolutely, and it’s actually a smart strategy. This approach allows you to appear in multiple positions on the SERPs, increasing your chances of getting clicks. Additionally, it reduces the likelihood that your competitors will receive clicks.

To illustrate, here are some of the keywords HubSpot ranks for organically but pays for, as well (the yellow line is paid traffic, blue is organic).

Final thoughts

Buyer intent keywords typically convert better, but it would be a mistake to focus solely on them in your search engine marketing strategy. Targeting early-stage searchers will help you build brand awareness, increase website traffic, and guide your audience through their decision-making process.