Understanding Search Intent – SEOcycle

Do you wish to improve your visibility on Google?

Google is the internet’s largest driver of organic traffic and, as such, premium placement on search engine results pages is incredibly competitive.

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the major channel to achieving this, and it plays an essential role in enhancing and improving a website so that it is awarded greater visibility in search engine results.

Keyword selection is intrinsic to your SEO strategy. Your entire strategy and its outcomes in terms of ranking highly online for organic searches depend on getting this right. This is because organic search is fuelled by the internet user’s search query – which is underpinned by specific keywords. Choosing the right keywords for your brand, business, and target customers is not necessarily a simple task, and at its foundation lies search intent.

What is Search Intent?

Search intent (also referred to as user or keyword intent) describes a person’s purpose when using a search engine. 

Every online search is undertaken with a specific purpose. This includes:

• looking for a local tradesperson for home repairs
• researching new vehicle ******
• finding entertaining video content that resonates
• booking in for a medical appointment
• reading a new book review
• making a restaurant booking
• planning a holiday
• participating in a chat forum or community
• doing research for a school assignment
• shopping for trending products
• checking out the latest celebrity gossip
• and everything else imaginable!

Whatever you go to Google to look for, this is your search intent.

Search intent is a critical ranking factor and informs a website’s keyword selection.

Google uses search intent to:

• Modulate algorithms
• Influence the architecture of search engine results pages (SERPs)
• Fulfil the needs of internet searchers

Google (and other search engines) use complex algorithms that understand search intent based on keywords and phrases used. It considers the search terms (keywords) and, not only does it apply these, but it also autogenerates similar, alternative terms and uses these to offer result suggestions to ideally meet the searcher’s needs.

You need to select keywords that reflect the most likely words and phrases your target customers will use to find you and what you offer. You must create and develop website content based around these (as well as blog content, social media content, etc) to captivate the search engine algorithm so that your business is presented in search engine results at the most appropriate, relevant time.

Types of Search Intent

Up to 99% of search queries online fall into one of four categories:

• Informational – Question-based queries (how, who, what, where, or why) that actively seek information. It may be purely for practical or educational purposes, or represent the very beginning of the buyer journey.

• Navigational – searching for a specific website, web page, business, or brand. The search intent is very specific and based on the user already knowing the brand or website they seek.

• Commercial – searches that include words like “review”, “compare”, “best”, etc, and represent a user who seeks to learn more about a product, brand, or business before making a buying decision.

• Transactional – searches that include words like “buy”, “purchase”, “Book”, “download”, and “watch”. The user is actively looking to purchase a product or service but has yet to make a final decision.

Looking deeper, common search intents can include:

• Buying a product
• Finding local businesses, events, activities, and resources
• Seeing latest news
• Looking for images
• Fact-checking
• Defining a word
• Checking the weather
• Recipes
• Medical symptoms/self-diagnosis
• Troubleshooting
• Booking recreation
• Watching a video
• Listening to a song
• How-To
• Looking up lyrics
• Looking for reviews
• Comparing products
• Maps/getting directions
• Tips
• Fixing a technical issue
• Education
• DIY
• Job hunting

Understanding and implementing search intent into your content creation offers numerous benefits:

• Enables you to better target your audience
• Presents your website to relevant searchers
• Improves your website’s search engine ranking
• Upgrades your website’s user experience
• Promotes you as an authority in your niche
• Boosts clickthrough opportunities
• Increases conversion rates
• Encourages customer loyalty

Incorporate Search Intent with SEOcycle

Learn more and benefit from our expert SEO services at SEOcycle.

From basic keyword research and recommendations to a website audit or a complete, ongoing SEO campaign, our Sydney SEO provider has the in-depth knowledge, experience, tools and techniques to understand your brand, business, online goals, and the unique challenges in your niche and how they inform and influence your visibility online. Using these insights and strategies, we can implement and conduct an effective SEO campaign (both on-page and off-page) to optimise your website and help you rank as highly as possible online for the most appropriate search terms for your business.

Operating for more than ten years and with many clients all over Australia and internationally, we have helped hundreds of businesses across a wide, diverse range of industries to rank highly on Google and other search engines for greater organic reach and more relevant website visitors.

We can help you, too.

Understand search intent.

Choose your best keywords.

Be seen by the right audiences at the right time.

Get in touch with us today.