What is search intent in SEO?

When it comes to clever SEO strategy, there is great power in understanding what users are looking for when they search for specific keywords. Having strong knowledge of search intent is essential to tailoring content to meet those needs. And you’ll end up with better quality leads.?

Here we explore what search intent is, how it impacts SEO and best practices to follow.?

What is search intent?

Search intent, also known as user intent, is the main goal a user has when typing a query into a search engine like Google. Common types of search intent include informational, commercial, navigational and transactional. For instance, if someone searches for “best summer holiday destinations,” they are looking for information before planning a trip. They’re not trying to navigate to a specific page and they don’t want to buy something yet. This shows that the keyword has commercial intent. SEO experts can use this knowledge to adjust content to target the keyword better.

Why is search intent important in SEO?

Google Search’s main goal is to provide relevant results for users. So understanding search intent can influence your business’s ability to rank in search results. Google’s systems analyse if content is relevant to a query using keywords as well as interaction data. They transform data into signals that help their machine-learned systems to better evaluate relevance.

There are certain key factors that Google uses to determine which results are returned for a searcher’s query:

Meaning of the query - their language models will decipher how the searcher’s words match up to the most useful content available.

Relevance of content - Google systems analyse the content to determine whether it contains information that the searcher is looking for.

Quality of content - Google prioritises web pages that seem the most helpful. A website is often deemed as trustworthy if other prominent websites link or refer to the content.?

Usability of web pages - Google systems will also consider the usability of content - content that people find more accessible may perform better. This is where page experience is key, such as the mobile friendliness and speed of your site.

Context and settings - a searcher’s location, past search history and search settings will also help Google to deliver results that are the most relevant.?

Essentially, when users (your potential customers) conduct searches for your products or services, you want your site to pop up in the search results. And SEO plays a huge part in making that happen. By matching user search intent in your SEO efforts, you will see an increase of leads to relevant content on your page. This is largely done by optimising your content to match search intent.?

How to optimise for user search intent

If you want to be relevant in search results, creating content that aligns with search intent is key. Here are some ways that SEO experts suggest optimising for search intent.

Identify search intent

Before writing any content, you need to look at the search intent for your keyword. For instance, “best sunscreen” is commercial. But “how often to apply sunscreen” is informational. By understanding this, you might find that you have an informational page that could be updated to match commercial intent instead.?

Improve the user experience

Google looks at how people interact with SERPs and can tell if they aren’t loving a specific search result. And consequently, they’ll downrank it. This is why user experience is so important. Make sure that your site doesn’t contain unnecessary pop-ups or too many fonts that can hinder a searcher’s experience. Use subheadings in blogs and high quality imagery and videos to make content easier to understand. SEO experts will also look at Google Analytics to focus on improving bounce rate and average session duration metrics on key pages.?

Update existing content?????????????????????????

You might have a page or pages that should rank well, but don’t. If so, you might have a search intent problem. Re-optimising old content for search intent is one of the best ways to get more organic traffic to your site. So think about doing a full website audit of your site to pinpoint the pages with potential.?

Enhance your online visibility with specialist SEO?

Our SEO team is well-equipped to uncover search intent and implement tactics that will get you high quality leads. We employ a comprehensive approach from thorough keyword research to creating purposeful content.?

Ready to rank higher and drive traffic? Get in touch

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