Demystifying Search Intent for SEO

You recognize that better understanding how online queries related to know, do, and go can help put you out in front of your potential customers at every purchasing stage, but you might not know what to do with this information. The fact is that Google didn’t coin the term Zero Moment of Truth for nothing – it refers to that period in the purchasing cycle when the consumer is doing his or her research on a product. In other words, it’s that rarified moment that comes between becoming aware of an interesting product and interacting with a specific brand online – and it matters.

This moment only happens when it happens, and you likely won’t get a second chance to get your product or service in front of potential buyers. When it’s time for someone to commit to pressing Add to Cart or Buy Now, you want to be right there, and that’s what search intent is all about.

The Intent behind that Search

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the name of the game, and understanding search intent is an important component of optimizing your site for specific searches. The intent behind consumers’ searches can be broken down into three distinct categories:

• Searches for information, which Google refers to as know
• Searches that are transactional, which Google refers to as do
• Searches that are navigational, which Google refers to as go

Taking a closer look at each of these can help you get a better grip on exactly how you can achieve optimal placement with your potential customers and clients.

Searching for Information

When a consumer is searching for information, that person is in the beginning phase of making a future purchase, and things are fairly generic at this stage. If, for example, a customer is in the market for new furniture, he or she might type in any number of queries, but they are likely to include questions like the following:

1. What should I look for when buying furniture?
2. What is the best month to buy furniture?
3. What are the signs of high-quality furniture?

Consumers who are looking for new furniture (or anything else) often have specific concerns about quality, expense, and other basic information, and it’s not difficult to determine the most common queries. In fact, a quick online search will fill you in (related to whatever it is that you are marketing). Google’s People Also Ask is a remarkable resource for this component of your research.

While the conversion rate at the informational stage isn’t huge, it is, nevertheless, incredibly important. If you can rank on these informational queries, you can get your brand out in front when your future customers are first testing the waters, and that’s a good place to be. By putting effort into your organic online presence, you help yourself while providing potential customers with valuable information. The deal is that you can’t get on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) if you don’t have content out there that satisfies common queries in your market.

Transactional Searches

As the name states, transactional searches are all about that purchase. To return to our furniture example, our potential customer may use queries such as:

• Purchase couch
• Best couches on a budget
• Such-and-such brand couches

If you have limited time and resources to put into optimizing your website, you’ll want to focus on upping your transactional search game. The bottom line is that you want to capture the attention of potential customers and make the deal, thus improving your bottom line.

Navigational Searches

Navigational searches are all about online navigation to a specific brand or website, and you want that brand to be yours. The way to improve your navigational game is to optimize your informational and transactional games – navigational searches will follow organically.

Getting Down to Action

You understand the basics of intent, but putting this information into action may be a different story. The idea is to bucket your keywords knowledgeably and efficiently in order to maximize their potential, and fortunately, there is a powerful tool for helping you do just that.

Introducing Keyword Keg

Keyword Keg is a powerful keyword research tool that is relatively new to the scene. To use Keyword Keg for optimizing your search intent and bucketing efforts, enter your seed keywords, including any wildcards you may have, into the tool’s search box. From here, you’ll also choose your country, language, and the APIs you’ll be using. For web marketing, your top options should include Amazon, Bing, eBay, Google, and Wikipedia, which will provide you with a full array of searches that relate to know, do, and go. Finally, you can finetune your results with options like:

• Alphabetical
• Questions
• Buyer intent
• Product info
• Prepositions

From here, you’ll get almost instantaneous results on important factors, such as:

• On-Page Difficulty – On-page difficulty is a measure of the keyword’s ability to rank on the webpage. The lower the number, the better chance you have of ranking.
• Off-Page Difficulty – Off-page difficulty is a measure of your keyword’s ability to rank on measures that are backlink based.
• SEO Difficulty – SEO difficulty is an overall measure of the keyword’s on-page and off-page difficulty.
• CTR Scope – The Click-through Rate scope tells you how much traffic the top organic search results can expect to get with the keyword in question, and here, the higher the number, the better.
• Keyword Power – Keyword power – as the name implies – refers to the keyword’s overall effectiveness. This score takes the word’s monthly volume, CPC, SEO difficulty, and CTR scope all into consideration. This score is scaled to a numerical range of from 0 to 100, and the higher the score, the more inherently valuable the keyword is.

Our Digital Marketing Specialists Will Help You Capitalize on Search Intent

The marketing maestros at The Web Guys are here to help you maximize the rewards you reap from your online presence. We specialize in you and your business, and we take the individualized approach that’s right for you and that gets you noticed on the web. Your business isn’t static, and your website shouldn’t be either. Our savvy digital marketing team is committed to helping you keep your online efforts fresh and fruitful. To find out more, connect with us or give us a call at 317-805-4933 today.