Search Intents are an integral part of the approach to customers in 2020. So, what is Search Intent? Why does Search Intent play an important role in the success of SEO and Content Marketing in 2020? Let’s find the answer about Search Intent in Bizzvn below!
Quickly see the article content
- What is Search Intent?
- Why is Search Intent important?
- Ways to optimize Search Intent effectively.
Discover your intention to search through keywords.
Optimizing user experience
Improve existing content
Optimization of commercial sites
Navigation queries
Optimize advanced Search Intent
- Summary
What is Search Intent?
Search Intent, also known as User Intent, means the main purpose of a user when they perform a search query on a search engine. Common types of Search Intents include: Information, commerce, navigation and deals.
Example: You want to cook dinner with chicken. But you are hungry and get dinner right away. So, you go to Google and search for “Quick Chicken Recipe”.
The first result that you clicked on looks good at first sight. But you quickly realize that this method takes more than 1 hour. So, you quickly return to the search results page to see the remaining results
And next time, you find better results, a method that takes only 10 minutes to complete.
This is exactly what you want to find
If enough people search for “Quick Chicken Recipe” in a similar way, it will help the Website increase its ranking significantly.
Why is Search Intent important?
It is simply understood: Satisfying the user’s search intent (Search Intent) is Google’s # 1 goal. So, if you want to be successful with SEO and Content Marketing in 2020, Search Intent is an important part of your approach.
In fact, the most recent version of Google’s Quality Assessment Guidelines mentions Search Intent a lot:
In addition, Google has published a report: “How Search Intent Is Redefining the Marketing Funnel” (roughly translated: Intention users are redefining the marketing funnel?).
And in other words: Backlinks and other Google ranking factors are still important. But if your content does not meet Search Intent, it cannot have high rankings.
Let’s look at a real-world example of Google ranking a high-ranking website based largely on Search Intent.
A few years ago, Backlinko published a blog post entitled: “SEO Strategy Case Study: From # 6 to # 1 In One Week”.
There is no denying that this is a high-quality article – the type of content Google wants to rank. Written by Brian Dean – a well-known SEO expert, the article includes tips and strategies you can’t find anywhere. In addition, there are many pictures, screenshots, etc. in the article to help readers understand and practice better. The point that proves this content is of the highest quality is obviously that many Blogger in Digital Marketing has linked to Brian Dean’s article:
So, theoretically, this article should be ranked 3rd with the keyword “SEO strategy”. But in fact, this did not happen. This article has stuck on the second page of Google search results for a very long time.
And when Brian Dean found another result that was ranking for the SEO strategy keyword, he realized that his post was unsatisfying, not even reaching the user’s search intent.
With the keyword “SEO Strategy”, most of the higher-ranking cabinet outlines a high-level SEO method.
What about the content of Brian Dean? It is just a case study of a strategy.
So, Brian Dean has rewritten from the beginning and did his best to completely satisfy the article Search Intent. After being rewritten, the article outlined a 9-step SEO strategy. And with the response to Search Intent, the article was in the top 5 with the main keyword!
No backlinks, no tricks, Brian Dean just makes his content relevant to Keyword Intent and Google takes care of the rest!
Ways to optimize Search Intent effectively.
Once you understand what Search Intent is and why Search Intent holds success in SEO and Content Marketing 2020, what do you need to do to make your content meet the Search Intent?
Stay tuned for the following!
Discover your intention to search through keywords.
To optimize content according to search intent, you must first find the main keyword for the article that meets the search intent. In fact, 99% of search terms belong to 4 different types of Intents: Information, navigation, commerce and transactions.
Example: With the keyword “Buy a laptop desk” will be commercial. But a keyword like “Using a laptop desk to help with neck pain” is clearly intended to be informative.
If you have explicitly identified Search Intent, you still need to see the pages that rank for that keyword. This will help your article also have good points similar to the results you find on the first page
For example: See the keyword “Check Backlink”.
What do these results draw your attention to? All are tools.
In other words, when users search for “Backlink checking”, they do not want to find content about how the Backlink checker works, what they are looking for is a tool that allows users to check Backlink.
So, identify keywords based on exact search intent to help your content get the best rankings.
Optimize user experience
You may be wondering: How does Google know if a page meets Search Intent? The answer is that Google will look at how users interact with the SERPs.
In other words: Google can know if users do not like search results when they visit that site. And if the search results are NOT relevant to the keywords, Google will reduce the ranking of that website.
Specifically, Google does not want to see people “Pogo Sticking” search results. “Pogo Sticking” means when a user has visited a search result but must return to the search page to find another result.
Instead, Google wants to see users “land on” a result and get answers to their search queries from a single page.
That is why when it comes to SEO in 2019, user experience is key.
Here are a few tips to ensure that Google searchers have a great experience with your content.
- Limit Pop Ups: Google does not like Popup, nor does the user. So, if you use a popup, you should only use it when the user intends to exit the page.
- Fonts 14+: You can have Blog posts with high quality content. But if it is hard to read, people will exit the page and “pogo stick”.
- Use Subheading: Google searchers want to find answers quickly. That means, users will not read every word of your page. Subheadings allow users to skim through content but still easily find the main content.
- Using Videos and Images: This helps users more easily understand your content. That is why Brian Dean uses lots of images and videos in each of his posts.
- Using Google Analytics: Focus on improving Bounce Rate and Average Duration per session on the main pages.
Improve existing content
Did you build a page on the website and you thought that content would rank? But this did not happen. If you encounter this situation, your content may have problems with Search Intent.
In fact, optimizing old content that meets Search Intent is the fastest way to get more unpaid traffic for your website (Especially when you do Full Audit Content).
For example: The following article is ranked in the top 5 for the keyword “Backlinks”
But as Google’s algorithm increasingly focused on Search Intention, rankings and search engine traffic began to decline.
Here is a screenshot of the Google Analytics of the page:
When Brian Dean reviewed the site in terms of Search Intent, he realized that: “Backlink searchers are often new to SEO, they are looking for an overview of Backlink.
But Brian Dean’s article is for those who want to learn advanced knowledge about SEO. This content includes advanced tips and strategies loved by SEO experts. So, it will also confuse those who are looking for “Backlinks”.
So, Brian Dean has rewritten his guide to be more suitable for SEO newbies. He tried to incorporate as much as possible from the old article into this new tutorial.
Is the result more satisfactory with Brian Dean’s article?
This new guide immediately gets to the top of Google. In fact, the article now ranks very well in the top 5.
Reference “People also search”
You may have noticed more and more in the “People also search” text box in search results:
This is a “gold mine” of information about Search Intent. Because those crosswords say: These are the questions that people ask around this topic. When your content answers those questions, you can meet the intent of the user (User Intent).
Trade page optimization
Here is an important thing to remember about Search Intents: It’s not just content searching.
In fact, there are many search terms that DO NOT want content.
Instead, searchers want to buy a product, sign up for a free trial or get a quote.
For example: Check with the keyword “pro airpods headset”.
You may want to create a piece of high-quality content around this keyword. But that would be a mistake. Most keywords that include the name of a specific product will have the purpose of the transaction in it.
Returning to the keyword search results above, almost all results are e-commerce product pages!
This means that there is not an article or Blog in the top 10. So, if you want to rank for this keyword, you need to create a page optimized for Search Intent, namely a page already and selling these types of headphones.
Navigation query
Navigation queries help people find a specific website or a page on a website (like the homepage or about page).
For example, in the search query “Photoshop CC 2019 price”, it is understandable that the user is looking for a license price of Photoshop CC 2019. Although you can rank for Navigation Query, the click rate may be low. Because people searching for these terms do not want to visit third party websites.
For example, Backlinko’s article ranked in the first page for the keyword: Google Search Console
That page received a lot of impressions but not many clicks
Why?
Because “Google Console Console” is a navigation query. Most people will click on the first result without having to see the other results on the top search page.
So, while this is a good keyword to rank for, it will never be a big keyword for Backlinko.
Keywords that contain multiple Intents
Sometimes you will come across a keyword that contains a lot of user intent
In fact, Google’s review guidelines say a lot about keywords that contain different user intent.
What should you do if you come across a keyword like this? The answer is: Do not go couple! Instead, focus solely on one type of user intent.
For example: One of Brian Dean’s highly ranked keywords is SEO audit
When Brian Dean looked at that keyword’s search results, he found that there were two completely different types of user intent. Some people search for “SEO Audit” with the intention of looking for a software.
Others want to find a method to follow:
Therefore, Brian Dean decided to focus on the user’s intent to find the method and create a complete guide for searchers to apply:
With careful research of Search Intent and quality content, the article quickly reached the top 5 in Google search page:
Advanced Search Intent optimization
Optimize Search Intent means that you will find out if the Intent here is Trade or Transaction. But if you want to take this process to the next level, you need to get extremely detailed information from the user.
For example: With keywords like “noise canceling headset”. Obviously, the purpose of the transaction is very clear with this keyword.
But what is the real purpose of the user? Is this a searcher ready to make a purchase decision right now?
Or are those keyword searchers still considering other options?
The answer is usually in search results.
As you can see, users who are searching for this keyword are only in the early stages of the buying process. So, they want the content to be transactional, but offer them a number of different options:
We will consider another advanced example of Search Intent: How to implement Burpee.
We can easily identify this keyword to search information
But what kind of information does the user want to find?
A list? A Case study? Or is it a video?
Based on SERPs, it is possible to identify people who want a complete set of steps.
(In fact, most people who search for “How” will want the results to be steps.)
So, if you want to rank for that term, you should write an article that includes the steps. In addition to us, the steps that are clearly presented can also help the content of appearing in Featured Snippets.
Conclusion
With updates that clearly show the purpose of improving the user experience of Google, it is clear that Search Intent is something that SEOs and marketers cannot ignore. Search intent is not too strange in the marketing world, but to identify and create content that meets search intent is not easy. To better understand Search Intent, Bizzvn will share the knowledge about each type of Search Intent as well as how to research User Intents by keywords in the next article. Follow Bizzvn blog to not miss the useful knowledge and apply it to your business!
Bizzvn – Google Marketing Agency