Strategizing for Intent: An SEO Guide

The intent is the motivation or ideology which drives someone to search for something on the internet. It could be anything such as searching for shoes, books, movies or the latest news. The search intent has been broadly categorized as Informational, Navigational, Commercial and Transactional. 

When content is created keeping in mind the search intent behind it, The content gets more engagement, better ranking and fruitful conversions. Understanding search intent helps an advertiser design a successful SEO strategy. There are many examples on the internet where content has been written just on the basis of placing the keyword on various headings and getting ranked on the search engine page. This approach will not work for a very long time. As an SEO expert in Kolkata. In this article, we will be explaining the importance of search intent and how to utilize it to create content which is more user-centric.

1. Designing Intent-based Content

When you produce written or visual material specifically tailored to the specific goals and intentions of the target audience it is termed Intent-based content. It involves going deep into the keyword and understanding what the user is thinking, What kind of content can satisfy the user based on the keyword. As the best SEO services company in Kolkata, we have helped our clients to gain more results by understanding what their target audience is looking for by suggesting Intent-based content.

For example, if a user uses the keyword “How to make black coffee” so here what a content creator needs to do is provide step-by-step guidelines with images on how the user can make a mug of black coffee. Now, if the audience finds out that the content is unnecessarily long and complicated the chances are that they will leave the page and will jump onto some other website. 

To craft Intent-based content, You can follow the below steps:

• Go deeper and extract the intent of the user keeping the keyword in consideration.
• Know your audience through tastes, behaviours, preferences and surveys.
• The keyword is a question, And you have to answer it with the help of smartly designed written or visual content.

Word count cannot be the sole factor to rank rather advertisers need to focus on creating relevant content which can satisfy the search intent of the audience. Also focus should be on Google’s EAT strategy i.e., Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust.

2. Categories of Keyword Intent or Search Intent

Search or keyword intent is the purpose or motive of the online search query. As an SEO expert in Kolkata, we suggest advertisers and business owners, Understand the goal of an online search query and design blogs, landing pages and Video content on the basis of that understanding.

Keyword intent is categorized into four main categories that are:

• • Informational: When online users are looking for information, solutions and answers to a particular query it is known as informational intent. Users could be looking for some advice, instructions or knowledge on a particular topic. For example “How to apply for a passport” or “How to earn money online” etc.
  • Navigational: Sometimes we look to visit a website directly by using search queries like LinkedIn login or Facebook login etc through search engines. These kinds of queries are known as Navigational intent.
  • Transactional: When an online user is interested to purchase something and makes certain queries these are called Transactional intent queries. For example “pizza near me” or “mobile phone under 30000” etc.
  • Commercial: Certain queries are made by users to compare different products, For example, “compare cars” or “compare phones” These search keys are used when an individual is deciding which product to purchase. Commercial queries help users to find reviews, prices and comparison details.

3. Locate Deeper Search Intent

Getting under the skin of the keyword is essential for advertisers to get closer to the exact motive of users behind the search query. Here are some steps to help you dig deeper:

• Study search query data: Analyze search query data which is bringing you a high volume of traffic. Identify trends and patterns as they can provide information about the search intent.
• Conduct Surveys: Approach your audience and ask them what they were looking to find with their search query. Were they satisfied with the results? These kind of surveys are time-consuming but provides a lot of valid information with regard to search intent.
• Understand user behaviour w.r.t your Website: Try to find out how users behave or what they do after landing on your site or landing pages. How much time do users spend on your website, what pages did they visit and what actions do they take? This can answer the question that whether the search intent was satisfied or not.
• Monitor Competitor’s Website: Examine the content of your competitors’ websites which pulls the maximum traffic. Look for the information and offerings on the pages.
• Just think like the online searcher and imagine if you would have made a specific query what exactly you would have expected from the search results.
• Location plays an important role in search intent, Some keywords may completely have different search intent as the geographical location changes.
• Some search keywords change as per season, for example, “World Cup Schedule” will have different search intent in European countries as it will be related to football whereas the same search keyword will mean cricket in Asian countries.
• Try to find out which social media is popular for a keyword, Track the platform and review comment sections to get more insights.
  

4. Match your marketing efforts with buyers’ journey

A buyer goes through the buyer journey starting from the Awareness stage to the Decision stage, Let’s have a look at all the stages:

• Awareness Stage
• Consideration Stage
• Decision Stage

Designing your marketing efforts to match buyers’ journeys helps in lead nurturing and making quality conversions. Understanding the mindset of your audience in each stage helps you to create precise and focused content to fulfil their specific needs, build trust and help them make an informed decision.

5. Shape your content as per the intent

If you have understood the search intent completely, The next step is to structure your content in such a way that visitors feel satisfied. The featured image, textual content, and content images are all things that should resonate with the search intent of the user.

The content of the website should push the visitor to move from the Awareness stage to the Consideration stage and finally to the Decision stage.

Conclusion

In the end, as an SEO expert in Kolkata, we believe that understanding search intent and creating content on the basis of that ensures high audience engagement, growth in organic traffic and quality conversions. In recent times Google and other search engines have shifted their focus on preferring the intent of searchers.

Focusing on search intent gives a clear idea to content creators as to how they need to produce textual content and visual content. Digging deeper into the understanding of search intent takes advertisers closer to what exactly an online searcher is expecting. There are various factors which need to be considered to find out and understand what is that a searcher is looking for. These factors include Data analytics of your own website, Monitoring competitors’ websites Tracking social media platforms etc. The search intent factor helps advertisers to refine their SEO strategies to suit the ongoing needs of the users and search engines.

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Don’t worry, You can rely on Techshu to get the most valuable inputs and strategies to counter your optimization challenges. We carry 10+ years of quality experience and as an SEO expert in Kolkata, we have established ourselves in the field of online marketing. We are premium Google and Facebook partners! If you want to know more about us please write to us at: https://www.techshu.com/contact-us/.