I’m sure you might have done this.
You went to a random keyword research tool, found a lower difficulty keyword, and blindly created lengthy content around it.
But the one thing you missed out on was, understanding the actual intention behind that keyword or why a person is searching that keyword. Is it for buying something? Is it for knowing something? Or maybe some other reasons.
I have even made this mistake during my initial days while doing keyword research.
Keyword research isn’t only about finding a low volume and low competitive keyword. Understanding the search intent is one of the most important factors that makes keyword research highly effective.
In this article, I will help you understand all you need to know about searcher intent and how it will help you to drive traffic to your website through organic search results.
What is Searcher Intent?
Searcher Intent is simply the actual reason behind a particular user query. No one goes to google to search for something for no reason. Whenever a person searches for something, there will be some kind of intention behind it.
Types of Searcher Intent are:
Informational Intent:
When a person searches online to know about something it is referred to as informational intent. In SEO, the informational stage is the first stage of the buying journey.
In this stage, a person tries to gather information about different aspects of a particular topic.
For Example, Imagine you heard your friend talking about SEO and you do not know anything about SEO. The first thing you would do is go to google and search for keywords like, What is SEO, SEO full form, how to do SEO, SEO blogs, etc.
Information Intent consists of words such as What, when, how, types
Navigational Intent.
In this stage, a person has already had some knowledge about the topic and wants to opt for something specific.
For example, You have knowledge of smartphones, now you want to know about Samsung smartphones so you will search for Samsung smartphones.
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Transactional Intent:
Transactional Intent leads to the purchase of a product or service. In this stage, a user wants to buy something hence he will search for something specific and might end up purchasing it.
For example, You want to buy an iPhone 13, you will go to google and search for the keyword “Buy iPhone 13”.
Transactional Intent consist of keywords such as buy, deal, offer, discount
Commercial Investigation Intent:
Commercial Investigation includes a comparison between brands, products and services. When a user is confused or wants to make the best decision before purchase he or she will go on exploring to find the best match for their search intent.
For example, You are confused about buying smartphones, you would go to google and might search for the best smartphones under 20,000, Best camera smartphones, best gaming smartphones.
Commercial Investigation includes keywords such as Best, Top, cheap, affordable.
Above are the 4 types of Search Intent that would help you understand the search intent for a user query
But the problem here is, sometimes it is not easy to find the searcher’s intent just by looking at the keyword.
But don’t worry, I will give you a simple yet effective method of understanding the searcher’s intent that helps you create compelling content that matches the content.
I would like to give an example from my personal experience.
I wanted to write an article on Email Marketing so I went to ahrefs keyword generator and entered the keyword “E-Mail Marketing”
Here is the list of results I got
Now looking at the above list, you might choose keywords 4, 5, 6, 7 since they have an amazing searching volume with the lowest keyword difficulty.
I did the same but I was interested to know why these keywords have such an amazing search volume with the lowest keyword difficulty.
So I entered these topics on google and here are the results I got!
As you can see in the above screenshot, the keyword was related to an answer for a multiple-choice question.
This says that the searcher’s intent was just to know the answer to that multiple choice question and not to read a blog.
If I had not understood the searcher’s intent and created a 1000 word article, all my effort would have gone to waste and no one would read it because the searcher’s intent here is just an answer for a question, not a lengthy article.
Key Takeaways:
We discussed what searcher intent is, its types, and some alternatives to find it. Finally, I would conclude by saying, do not blindly select the keywords looking at their keyword difficulty and search volume but understand the searcher’s intent. This will help you to understand what the user actually wants that will help you to create a compelling article.
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