User Intent is the foundational piece of SEO Testing efforts. It’s the tool that can help your brands move beyond chasing consumers to delighting them with your content. For example, Canva, a graphic design tool, leveraged user intent to improve their image rankings on Google. Instead of solely focusing on keywords and search volume, they recognized the power of user-based searches.
In particular, they understood user searches for “color palettes” sought inspiration and ideas. By creating inspirational content aligned with this intent, their page ranks favorably at the top of Google’s search results. This shows that understanding and matching user intent can lead to higher SERP rankings. Some brands may opt to focus on the entirety of a personalized strategic plan.
In particular, some brands may focus on an identified weakness in product-conscious content. A different brand may notice a need for more pain-conscious content. At the same time, another business may notice gaps across the entire journey. By adopting this user intent focus as a foundational piece of the puzzle, strategists can see a wider landscape for their brands to inform strategy.
When people find — or come back to — your website, they’re looking for a product or information that satisfies their needs. When they conduct a website search, that search should match the intent behind those words. Be that as it may, if you’re looking to deliver tailored results that meet individual customer needs, an AI-powered search software tool that considers user intent can help.
Why Webmasters And Marketers Should Care About User Intent
Technically, User Intent (searcher intent) refers to a user’s underlying objective or goal when searching the World Wide Web (WWW) or browsing the Internet. It’s a way to classify an individual’s purpose behind a search query. Another way of thinking about this is the task they are trying to accomplish through their search. Broadly, most users intend to learn something (Informational).
They may also want to find something (Navigational) or buy something (Commercial/Transactional). When marketers talk about personalizing the customer journey, we tend to focus on outbound channels like email, chat, and website — the things we’re saying to our customers. But tapping into what customers are looking for, whether on a browser search engine or your website, is essential.
Usually, connecting with your potential customers and target audiences is a powerful way to convert leads, drive organic traffic, and increase sales. Plus, searches on your website represent a high-intent activity that you don’t want to lose out on. Of course, regarding optimizing user intent, you’re likely a marketer looking to better understand how you can improve your website lead conversion rate.
Most of the time, that conversion energy is focused on outbound campaigns. One overlooked area is inbound marketing by many marketers. And there are numerous ways website search can be an inbound marketer’s best friend. As mentioned, a website search shouldn’t just turn up content that matches the words they put in the search box. It should match the intent behind those words.
User Intent Search Types:
- Informational User Intent Search: An informational query tries to find informational content about a topic that may or may not be tied to a specific product or service. An informational keyword search can be broad or specific (e.g., “cake-making tips” versus “how to bake a red velvet cake”).
- Commercial User Intent Search: Commercial search intent is a subset of Informational that focuses on finding more details about a product or solution they want (e.g., “best hiking boots”).
- Navigational User Intent Search: This type of user intent focuses on finding a specific site or page. Navigational searches typically target a destination like a social media login page, hub site, or specific website.
- Transactional User Intent Search: The intent with a transactional search is connected to the user’s readiness to buy or convert. They have done their research and are at the decision/buying stage (e.g., “buy Apple AirPods”).
Traditionally, search personalization required historical data, user profiles, and more. But, what about when you don’t have much information about a user? This is where session-based personalization can address challenges when interpreting the user intent.
Some Considerable Challenges:
- Realistically, user intent can change over time. Without historical data, it’s difficult to understand where a user is in their buying or informational journey since the algorithms can only see what is happening in the current session. This can be limiting for some search platforms.
- Since keywords can have different interpretations, user intent doesn’t always equal purchase intent when someone searches for a product.
- User signals can be influenced by external factors like location (e.g., local intent), time of day, and device type which can make user intent around a specific search term or keyword query hard to interpret.
- A user intent based on search results tends to be informed by their past search activity, browsing behavior, and interactions on external websites, but this data may not be available. Again, limits for some search platforms.
In addition, during a single search session, there is still data — this data can be used to personalize the session on the search query results. To better understand your user intent performance results, that’s where some search analytics tools like Microsoft Clarity come in. They help identify the keywords people use to find your website, though they don’t provide much information.
Why User Intent Is Essential In Strategic Content Marketing Planning
As a marketer, when you understand the common user intent search types that drive different queries (e.g., “trail running tips” versus “best trail running sneakers”), you can plan a more deliberate digital marketing and content approach. One example is understanding how user intent helps with planning your keyword research and working with the most potential focus terms/words.
Tools like the Google Keyword Planner (through your search analytics webmaster central) show keyword volume and provide a list of similar search terms that people use when searching. The Google Keyword Planner offers a good starting point when coming up with a content strategy. However, the tool doesn’t give you much more than a target keyword (or keywords) to work with.
On that note, utilizing a mix of Machine Learning Algorithms to tie user intent to the customer profile data and activity helps you personalize information for your targeted audience. In this case, if someone is researching eggplant-based recipes, they wouldn’t get egg-related content — but a wider, broader recommendation that’s specific to them, such as vegetarian and non-meat options.
Understanding the different types of search-based user intent metrics also helps empower webmasters to focus on creative and interactive content creation. Moreover, user search intent changes based on where they are in their buying journey. Recognizing this and incorporating it into the content you create allows you to personalize your content approach across all stages of that journey.
The Simple Steps To Help Unearth User Intent For Higher Web Ranking
Before we can simplify the best steps to help unearth user intent for quality content delivery, SEO, and higher rankings, it’s worth considering a few essential elements. For instance, AI search can provide dynamic personalization that adjusts to a user’s search results based on their behavior (e.g., behavioral data ), interests, and search history. This is called “small data personalization.”
Rather than relying on large amounts of user data, AI-based Semantic Search uses small data personalization to combine things like user intent, keyword phrase analysis, journey analysis, predictive analytics, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to produce a customized search result in real-time. Therefore, personalization is a considerable strategic factor that helps foster user intent.
In most cases, personalization happens when the search engine studies in-session user-specific signals to provide individualized search results and recommendations. It’s worth noting that personalized search looks different for different businesses and use cases, but the goal is always to deliver the most relevant results possible based on an individual customer’s search intent.
Personalization can drive substantial revenue lifts. However, the tension between personalized experiences and privacy is increasing, with a growing segment of shoppers not agreeing to the usage of cookies. Session-based search personalization engine provides a unique opportunity to personalize user intent without requiring personal information or historical data about a user.
Step #1: Identify potential users and target audience
Knowing your target audience will give you an idea of what they might be searching for. Demographics is the basic start, but dive much deeper here and get into the nitty gritty of psychographics for the best results. The more you understand your target audience’s behaviors, habits, interests, and lifestyle, the more effective your SEO strategy can be. Compile a list of user intent metrics.
Work on the focus lines and analyze them based on your target consumers and the potential customer journey stages (i.e., pain, gain, product, and dollar-conscious). This will help you understand how your audience searches specifically for various items on your website. On the contrary, to help fine-tune your identification process, ensure you learn from competitors and creators.
Look at your competitors’ well-ranking content. How do they address user intent? Consider how you can improve upon it. Remember, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a race to the top, where brands strive to create better results and compete for SERP ranking supremacy. For many web businesses and brands, content creators are closer to your audience than you. Leverage this!
Explore if a creator has created content that could assist your brand and develop relationships with them to benefit your SEO content. Often, content creators have valuable insights and expertise in speaking to your target audience, making it a perfect match. Also, integrate a natural language search system in your strategy — an application of NLP that goes beyond search intent signals.
For your information, natural language search uses relevant information to derive meaning from queries, recommend synonyms, and match phrases. A natural language search query allows the user to “speak” with search the same way they’d talk to another human.
Step #2: Study and analyze the most potent keywords
According to Search Engine Land, keyword research has typically informed strategic SEO decisions. But it should no longer be seen as a standalone solution. SEOs can’t depend on keywords alone to rank on a SERP, never mind ranking effectively. By all means, focus terms or Keyword Density is an essential factor. Keywords need to be used in the context of user intent to be truly effective.
Historically, it seems that SEOs focused on terms with significant search volume or favorable seasonality. However, we must dig deeper into the “why” question, and help come up with an answer. When conducting keyword research, prioritize delivering value to your audience and addressing brand needs in the search journey. Focus on pain-conscious and dollar-conscious content.
Go after intent-based strategies rather than a random collection of terms with favorable search volume. This will enable you to deliver a more focused content strategy and develop a more effective web of knowledge for a brand. Once you grasp your audience’s psychographics and tendencies, you can use this knowledge to assess whether a keyword is relevant to them.
Step #3: Understand the target customer search journey
Next, you can understand the user’s search journey, potential deviations, and the different stages they might be in. On the one hand, this helps you identify the most critical stages to focus on for your brand. On the other hand, user intent signals can include query suggestions using autocomplete and autocorrect. First of all, the search engine result tool uses the context of your website.
Secondly, it analyzes the web browsing history and other signals like search queries from the same session. For example, if you sell craft supplies and a user who’s been browsing knitting patterns begins typing “cot” the query might autocomplete as “cotton yarn for knitting.” Autocomplete relieves some of the cognitive burden on the target audience by suggesting relevant, popular choices.
Step #4: Study the search engine results page behavior
In this case, it’s worth mentioning that user browsing behavior also informs user intent and provides clues about what the user is looking for. Mind you, an AI-driven personalization platform can utilize innovative Machine Learning (ML) technology to suggest appropriate categories based on a user’s query. For example, let’s consider someone reading about launching a campaign.
In particular, let’s say they have been researching social media campaigns on a marketing agency’s website, and then search for “paid Facebook ads” using the website search bar. As a result, the system could suggest they visit the “Paid Media Planning” category to find more information. To help improve the user intent performance results, analyze the SERPs for your target keywords.
For your information, you may be surprised to know that well-ranking content can provide insights into the platform’s understanding of the current user intent. Monitor the SERPs if rankings change, as intent might evolve. Studying the SERPs helps you grasp the broader landscape, which is always beneficial. Note that the current location and time of day can influence user intent.
By understanding the time and place context, it’s easier to determine what content might be most relevant for users. Understanding and reacting to the most essential user intent signals allows website tailoring on a level that says to a site visitor, “I get you.”
Step #5: Utilize the faceted search UI system feature
By all means, search facets are another feature that users have come to expect in their digital experience. They make it much easier for users to navigate on mobile websites. They work by filtering broader search queries into more specific categories and can be displayed as relevant tags – or facets – alongside the user’s search results. Let’s consider the illustration image below:
As you can see, search facets help users quickly narrow down search parameters to find what they want. For example, if a user searches for “snowboard,” they might see faceted search tags like “size”, “price”, and “category.” With intelligent facet generation, facets can be generated and shifted according to a unique user’s behavior, making it even easier for them to refine their results.
Equally important, it’s important to realize that AI search can also make an “educated guess” about user intent by using refined similarity models to predict a user’s intent from their in-session real-time browsing behavior. Markedly, the system applies a temporary ID to anonymous users (e.g., people who aren’t logged in), and analyzes the information gathered during the session.
Essential Tools:
- Google Analytics: Use Google Analytics to analyze your site’s traffic, identify driving keywords, and pinpoint areas of struggle. By mapping this data to user intent, you can prioritize your efforts and allocate resources effectively.
- Answer The Public: This tool generates keyword-related questions, revealing user queries. Many tools now do this. Even SERP’s People Also Ask feature offers quick insights into users’ questions.
- Semrush And Ahrefs: Ah! The OGs. These SEO tools offer detailed keyword analysis, showing top-ranking pages for specific keywords and providing insights into user intent.
Still, there are other tools that you can heavily rely on, with user intent as the foundation. For example, Google Trends is a tool that gauges term/topic popularity over time, offers related queries and reveals user intent and community trends. Eventually, it helps identify emerging trends before changes in search volume occur for more effective content iteration (proactive reactivity).
In Conclusion;
It’s worth mentioning that a strategic user intent plan enables intelligent Keyword Search delivery by various search engines like Google. As a result, they surface the most appropriate content to the potential users. In particular, the customized content is based on elements that go beyond relevant keywords and include factors like user behavior data, historical data, interests, and more.
By using AI search and user intent signals from users’ current context and website activities, dynamic search personalization provides users with relevant, personalized results without relying on user profiles and historical data. This helps you meet rising customer expectations around good online experiences, opening new opportunities around engagement, interaction, and conversion.
Equally important, to help empower your strategic user intent plan, AI search can also make an “educated guess” using refined similarity models to predict user interest from their in-session real-time browsing behavior. Furthermore, the search system applies a temporary ID to anonymous users (e.g., people who aren’t logged in), and analyzes the information gathered during the session.
Other More Related Resource References:
- Keyword Cannibalization | Top 5 Steps To Identify & Solve It
- What Is Keyword Difficulty? The Steps To Choose Focus Terms
- How Keyword Stuffing Affects Website SEO | 5 Auditing Solutions
- 15 Strategic Keyword Research Tools Plus 15 Focus Terms Type
- 8 Steps To Write SEO-Friendly Blogs Plus Paraphrasing Skills
For example, a contractor on a home improvement retail site may be reading about how to ship industrial materials and then do a search for “tool rental”. The results would be geared toward professional contractors (e.g., pro equipment rentals versus DIY rentals). Conversely, combining user intent signals with AI-driven user personalization allows you to optimize website content.
At the same time, you are also able to deliver a better user experience on your website in real time without massive user data sets and complex workflows. Generally, you’ll have the ability to provide a truly personalized search experience for your visitors that meets their needs more quickly and accurately than ever before. Let us know if there is something else we can add below.