What’s the ‘why’ behind the keywords your audience searches for on Google?
In other words, what does a user hope to achieve by searching for a keyword related to your business?
It could be they want to:
- Find information (informational intent)
- Find a specific website or web page (navigational intent)
- Research products (commercial intent)
- Make a purchase right away (transactional intent)
These are the four main types of search intent, and they happen to align with the stages of your sales funnel. Informational and navigational queries are at the top of the funnel (TOFU) because users are just learning about a new topic and aren’t ready to make a purchase yet.
Conversely, commercial and transactional queries are at the bottom of your sales funnel (BOFU), which makes them high-intent keywords.
They go by this cool name because these types of keywords represent users who are likely to convert or will be easy to convert into customers.
In this article, we’ll teach you how to use high-intent keywords in your SEO strategy, so stay tuned to learn how to boost your conversion rates!
What is Search Intent?
Search intent refers to the ‘why’ behind a keyword a user enters into Google. The user’s search intent is the underlying purpose behind their search, such as to find a product or learn more information about a subject.
Satisfying the search intent behind the keywords you target is one of the most crucial aspects of SEO.
Why’s that?
It all comes down to providing what a user wants to find online.
For instance, let’s say a user searches for ‘affordable gardening tools’ on Google. This keyword has commercial intent because it’s clear the user wants to find gardening tools in their price range to eventually make a purchase.
The #1-ranked organic result they see is a blog on your website called ‘The Most Affordable Gardening Tools for Beginners,’ and they click through to the page. It’s a helpful buyer’s guide comparing gardening tools from numerous vendors online, which is exactly what they were looking for.
In this scenario, you successfully satisfied the user’s search intent, fostering brand loyalty and maybe even landing a conversion (if you carefully position your gardening tools as affordable and high-quality without being too pushy).
If, instead, your blog post doesn’t compare affordable gardening tools and tries to hard sell the reader on one of your expensive products, you won’t satisfy their intent, and they’ll likely click off your page in frustration.
Failing to satisfy your audience’s search intent can lead to:
- Poor search rankings
- Low levels of engagement
- Missed conversion opportunities
- A negative reputation
Even with flawless on-page and technical SEO factors, your entire strategy will fall apart if you don’t properly interpret the search intent behind the keywords you target. That’s why understanding search intent is a must for any search engine marketer (SEM).
The 4 Different Types of Search Intent
Most search terms fit into one of four categories of intent, which are informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional.
Here’s a table breaking down each type of intent using variations of the keyword ‘biotin.’
| Search Intent Type | Stage of Funnel | Goal | Example Query | Content Needed |
| Informational | Top of Funnel (TOFU) | To learn something new | “What is biotin?” | Articles, guides, tutorials, FAQs |
| Navigational | Top of Funnel (TOFU) | To find a specific website or page | “Biotin Wikipedia” or “Biotin WebMD” | Direct links or references to authoritative sources |
| Commercial | Middle of Funnel (MOFU) | To compare products/services before buying | “Best biotin supplements” or “biotin reviews” | Comparison articles, product reviews, buying guides |
| Transactional | Bottom of Funnel (BOFU) | To buy something | “Buy biotin supplements online” | Product pages, pricing, purchase options, calls to action (CTAs) |
As you can see, each type of intent has specific types of content that cater to them, which is the key to mastering search intent.
For your informational queries, you’ll want to hit them with educational articles, guides, FAQs, and how-to’s. These materials will inform and educate your readers, establishing your brand as an authority and earning the trust of your audience.
Commercial intent means users are considering making a purchase, but need more information first. Buying guides, product reviews, and comparison articles are all perfect ways to scratch the commercial itch.
Lastly, if the intent is transactional, it means the user is ready to buy something right then and there.
You should optimize your landing and product pages for these keywords, as well as pricing pages since these are the areas where transactions happen.
The ultimate search intent ****
Determining search intent isn’t always straightforward. While most keywords align closely with one of the four main categories (informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional), sometimes it’s unclear.
To confirm your assumptions, Google it!
Type your keyword into Google and see what pops up in the top 5 spots. Since Google’s algorithms are adept at deciphering search intent, the top-ranking pages will reflect the intent behind the keyword.
Next, assess the content.
Are the top results mostly blog posts, product pages, review sites, or something else?
This will clue you in on what people are really looking for.
Informational content may be suitable if your goal is brand awareness. However, if you want to make sales, you need to focus on keywords that scream, “I’m ready to buy!”
That’s where high-intent keywords come in, and we’ll dive into those next.
What Are High-Intent Keywords?
High-intent keywords are queries that have commercial and transactional intent, and they’re the keywords that are most likely to lead to sales.
They also go by the name money keywords due to their high earning potential.
Keywords that contain terms like ‘buy,’ ‘pickup,’ and ‘deliver’ indicate a strong desire to take action as soon as possible, so targeting them can connect you with customers precisely when they’re about to convert.
As an example, the term ‘buy biotin online’ is a high-intent keyword used by users ready to purchase the supplement Biotin from an E-commerce store.
Here are its top Google results:
As you can see, the keyword is undoubtedly transactional since it triggered Google’s Shopping Carousel, a feature that lists products related to the search.
It’s a feature that only appears for transactional keywords, and the rest of the organic results are all product pages for Biotin supplements, which further proves our point.
On the other side of the coin, informational and navigational queries are low-intent keywords. The difference has to do with their place in the sales funnel. Since informational and navigational keywords are at the top of the funnel, users are a long way from converting.
They’ll require ‘nurturing’ via helpful content and informative emails, something which can take a long time.
Does this mean that you should ditch low-intent keywords altogether?
Absolutely not!
While they don’t lead to direct purchases, low-intent keywords are still incredibly important for:
- Generating new leads
- Establishing your brand as a thought leader
- Building trust with new prospects
Therefore, you need low-intent content just as much as you do high-intent, so don’t let the name fool you.
Having said that, the better you are at targeting high-intent keywords, the better you’ll be at boosting sales, so let’s learn how to find them.
How to Find High-Intent Keywords in Your Niche
First, you need to know how to consistently discover high-intent keywords to target that A) are relevant to your niche and B) are possible to rank #1 on Google.
There are several ways to hunt down these types of keywords, including the following methods:
- Understanding your buyer’s journey
- Using a keyword research tool
- Analyzing competitor keywords,
- ‘Seed’ keywords
Let’s learn more about each method so you can find the one that works best for you.
Understand your audience and their journey
One of the best ways to nail search intent every time is to have an intimate understanding of your target audience.
If you know what makes them tick, it’ll become way easier to understand the type of content they want to consume. This means you should do some serious research into your audience’s demographics, preferences, and pain points (i.e., what challenges do they face that your products and services can solve?).
Try roleplaying as one of your potential customers.
What information would you search for to learn more about your business? What problems are you trying to solve by searching for your products?
Also, reach out to your sales team to learn more about how you’re currently acquiring customers. In particular, ask them for specifics about why customers choose you over your competitors. It could be that you offer better prices, higher-quality products, or a million other factors.
The point is that once you know the main reason why customers choose your brand, you’ll be able to harp on that fact in your promotional materials.
Identify high-intent keywords with research tools
Our free keyword research tool is perfect for uncovering high-intent keywords.
All you need to do is enter a general topic or keyword, and the tool will generate tons of results in seconds.
Let’s try it out with the keyword we mentioned earlier, biotin.
After entering the query into the tool, 50 results load for us (with the option to view more).
Each keyword contains its search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC (cost-per-click), and, most importantly, search intent.
Our tool provides tiny icons reflecting a keyword’s search intent as an easy visual cue for users. The small i encased in a blue circle means the keyword has informational intent. The tiny skyscraper means the keyword has commercial or navigational intent.
In the example provided, ‘biotin for hair’ and ‘biotin for hair growth’ are both high-intent keywords and the rest are informational.
This means you could target either keyword for transactional content like product pages and buyer’s guides to boost your conversions.
| Pro-tip: Look for keywords that include action-oriented words such as “buy,” “order,” “purchase,” “discount,” “deal,” “coupon,” etc. Also include specific product names, model numbers, and brands that indicate strong purchase intent. |
Don’t forget about long-tail keywords
You should also look for long-tail keywords with high-intent.
A long-tail keyword is a search phrase that doesn’t have much search volume and tends to contain specific phrases and question-based queries.
Most commonly, long-tail keywords are long strings of phrases related to a topic, such as ‘who has the most affordable Biotin online.’
Some search engine marketers mistakenly think that since long-tail keywords don’t have much search volume (they tend to receive only a handful of searches per month) they aren’t worth targeting.
This isn’t true, as research shows that long-tail keywords have higher conversion rates than short-tail keywords. The average conversion rate for a long-tail keyword is a whopping 36%, while the strongest landing pages only convert at 11.45%.
You should target long-tail keywords that contain:
- Specific phrases: The more specific a long-tail keyword is, the more likely it’ll be to land a conversion. For example, ‘buy biotin online’ shows higher intent than just ‘biotin.’
- Question-based queries: Keywords in the form of questions (e.g., ‘where to buy biotin’) often indicate a user closer to making a decision.
That’s how easy it is to identify high-intent keywords using our free tool, so don’t hesitate to put it to work for you.
Researching competitors
Ahrefs’ Site Explorer tool is extremely helpful for uncovering your competitor’s high-intent keywords.
Here’s how it works.
Once you enter your competitor’s URL, select either the Top Pages or Organic Keywords reports. To find keywords with the highest intent, try adding the following modifiers to the reports:
- Best
- Review
- Comparison
- Alternative
- Vs
- Top
These modifiers all suggest high intent, so they should quickly uncover high-intent keywords the site currently ranks for on Google.
From there, pay attention to the search volume and keyword difficulty for each query to ensure it’s feasible to rank for it. Also, pay attention to the content they create for each high-intent keyword, as it can help you spark your own ideas.
Secondly, you should analyze their content to see what you’re up against.
If you want to stand a chance at outranking their content, you’ll need to outdo them by a significant margin.
That means adding high-resolution product images and videos, glowing reviews, and answering frequently asked questions. If your content satisfies the search intent better than the original post, you stand the best chance of outranking it.
Here’s a step-by-step guide for using Ahrefs to research competitors.
Step #1: Analyze the competitor’s domain
1. Log in to Ahrefs. Go to Site Explorer and enter the URL of one of your competitors in the search bar.
2. This will take you to the Overview page where you will see a screenshot of your competitor’s SEO performance, including organic traffic, backlinks, and top-performing pages.
Step #2: Find competitor keywords
3. Click on the Organic Search tab in the left-hand menu to dive deeper into their organic keyword data.
4. In the Organic Search section, click on Top Pages. This will show you the pages on your competitor’s site that get the most traffic. By analyzing these pages, you can see which keywords are driving traffic to them.
5. Alternatively, click on Organic Keywords to see a list of keywords your competitor ranks for. This includes the keyword, its search volume, the position your competitor ranks at, and the estimated traffic it brings to their site.
Step #3: Filter and analyze keywords
6. Use the position filter to see keywords where your competitor ranks in the top positions (1-10). These are high-value keywords.
7. Identify keywords with high search volumes but manageable competition (KD means keyword difficulty score).
8. Review the list of keywords and select those that are most relevant to your business and have the potential to drive traffic. You can also download the keyword data as a CSV file.
What Happens If You Can’t Find High Intent Keywords?
It’s possible that you may not find high-intent keywords if you operate in a very niche industry, are targeting a new or emerging product/service, or have exhausted the most obvious options.
If that’s the case, here are some alternative strategies to explore:
Expand your keyword scope
It could be that you aren’t being broad enough with the keywords you target. Here are some suggestions for broadening your horizons:
- Consider informational keywords. As stated before, low-intent keywords are equally as important as high-intent keywords. They build brand awareness, generate leads, and establish your brand as a reliable source of information.
- Use broader keywords: Start with more general terms and see what variations or related phrases people are searching for.
- Look for alternative modifiers: Instead of “buy,” try “compare,” “review,” “alternative,” “best,” “top,” “vs,” or even question-based modifiers like “how to” or “where to buy.”
Use Google autocomplete
Google’s autocomplete feature has long been a secret ****** for keyword research. Here’s how to use it:
- Start typing relevant keywords into Google and see what suggestions it offers. These aren’t random suggestions, they’re real keywords that users search for every day.
- Look at the “Related searches” section at the bottom of the SERP for more ideas, as these are also real keywords.
- These features can reveal how people actually search and give you clues for keyword variations, which can help you crack your audience’s search intent code.
Leverage your existing data
You can use your internal data to discover high-intent keywords, like:
- Google Search Console (GSC): See which queries are already bringing traffic to your site and identify potential high-intent variations or expansions. If you’re new to GSC, check out our guide on the platform.
- Google Analytics (GA): Check which keywords drive conversions or engagement on your site, and explore similar terms.
Look beyond search engines
You don’t have to stick with search engines like Google to find high-intent keywords. You can also leverage:
- Social Listening: Monitor social media conversations to see what language your target audience uses when discussing products or services like yours. Tools like Hootsuite are perfect for this.
- Forums and Communities: Engage in online communities related to your niche and observe the discussions to gather insights. Reddit is a great place to start, but don’t stray away from more niche forums, either.
Concluding Thoughts: High-Intent Keywords
High-intent keywords are a massively powerful tool for converting organic traffic into paying customers. They signal a user’s readiness to buy, making them the golden ticket to higher conversion rates and increased revenue.
By mastering the art of finding and targeting high-intent keywords through effective keyword research and strategic content creation, you’ll attract qualified leads and skyrocket your sales. Remember, it’s not just about traffic – it’s about attracting the right traffic.
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