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Don’t Get the Wrong Target! 4 Types of Search Intent to Optimize Content

Types of Search Intent and How to Optimize

There are four most common types of Search Intent, including: informational, navigational, commercial and transactional.

1. Informational Search Intent

The first type of Search Intent is Informational Intent, which means determining a search query that indicates the user wants to gain knowledge or learn accordingly.

This search is often phrased as a question and uses keywords such as who, what, where, why and how.

Here are some examples of keywords with informational intent:

  • Cheap Hosting in Indonesia
  • What is Web Hosting?
  • What time is it in Japan now?
  • How to buy the best web hosting
  • Benefits of Informational Search Intent

Here are the main benefits of targeting informational queries:

Visibility: Informational keywords are an important part of Google searches. If you want visibility, then don’t ignore this type of search intent.

Building trust: Providing useful information and educating your audience is a great way to build trust in your expertise. Target new leads: Content that targets informational keywords can bring in new leads that you can convert later.

How to Optimize Informational Search Intent

Pay close attention to what people are searching for when targeting keywords with informational search intent, and create or optimize content in the right format.

Blogs, FAQs, and How-Tos are popular content types and formats that often target consumers with high search funnels.

This form of content aligns with the search intent of informational keywords because it is highly educational.

2. Navigational Search Intent

As the name suggests, Navigational intent directs users to a specific page. Unlike other types of intent, searchers already know what they want to find.

Typically, searchers who already know where they want to browse will use navigational keywords, such as the name of a brand, product, service, or technology they are interested in.

For example, if a user wants to read the IDwebshost blog, all they need to do is search for “IDwebshost blog”.

How to Optimize Navigational Search Intent

Top-level domains tend to rank well and receive high click-through rates for navigational searches because they are the most relevant to users.

Maintaining the overall technical health of your website and implementing SEO strategies will help you rank at the top of navigational searches that are relevant to your brand and business.

3. Transactional Search Intent

Transactional search intent is when users use transactional keywords when they are close to making a purchase.

Often, these transactional queries include a number of buying keywords, such as “buy,” “sale,” “discount,” “nearby,” “price.”

Much like buying keywords, transactional keywords are your money-making machines, which your potential customers use when they are ready to convert.

How to Optimize Transactional Search Intent

Including transactional keywords on your web pages is essential, especially on product landing pages. These pages often satisfy user intent because that is where they will optimize.

Additionally, use transactional language throughout your website to optimize for transactional keyword searches. This transactional language functions as a Call to Action (CTA) for users to click, fill out a form, share a link or make a purchase.

4. Commercial Investigation

Google categorizes this commercial investigation as a pre-transaction search, which is also included in the buying keywords category. The position of this type of search intent is between informational intent and transactional intent.

The user intends to buy something, but only needs a little effort to be more convincing. This can include searches to compare products with similar features.

Here are some examples of keywords with commercial intent:

  • The best web hosting for village websites
  • VPS hosting reviews at IDwebhost
  • WordPress template alternatives
  • Shared Hosting vs VPS Hosting Comparison
  • How to Optimize Commercial Search Intent

Just like informational keywords, you need to know what information someone is looking for when targeting commercial keywords. Products, solutions, services, or blogs are often the landing pages that rank high in the SERP for this query.

This type of content aligns with the user’s intent to learn more about a product or service and/or to find out why they might want to buy it over others. How to Determine Search Intent

Determining the search intent of each keyword that might rank your website is flexible. It can change from person to person and from situation to situation.

Here are three steps you can take to better understand and determine what people are searching for.

Step 1: Check the SERP

Studying the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) can give you insight into what people are searching for when they search for a particular keyword. Each element in the SERP provides clues to determining search intent, but remember to pay attention to:

  • Paid ads
  • Organic listings
  • Knowledge graph results

The content and search engine optimization on your client’s pages will vary greatly depending on the true intent behind the query.

Step 2: Use Google Search Console

This step helps you determine search intent; whether your existing content is properly optimized for the user’s search intent.

Understanding whether your content marketing is meeting your visitors’ expectations is key; rather than creating new content to drive conversions, it’s better to repurpose existing content.

To analyze the keywords that your visitors are using frequently, you can use the Google Search Console tool. How to determine which keywords your content should be optimized for based on user search intent, for example adding transactional keywords to content with informational intent.

Step 3: Use Google Ads

While your team may not be bidding on this keyword, even if you’re creating organic content, it’s always helpful to know what others are willing to pay and how competitive the keyword is.

Generally speaking, the higher the suggested bid and the higher the competition, the higher the commercial intent. You can do this using Google Keywords Planner:

As you can see, the suggested bids for “cheap hosting” range from $13,500 to $70,000, and the competition is high. High competition indicates high commercial search intent.

While ranking for this keyword doesn’t guarantee that your visitors will actually convert, it does give us a good indication that people using this term are in buying mode.

Step 4: Leverage Audience Research

To quote Gregory Smolarski from Seeinteractive, the best way to understand search intent is to tap into actual consumers and understand their journey and how they interpret keywords.

When using audience research, use these 3Cs:

Content Type – What types of pages are ranking #1? Blog posts, product pages, homepage, service pages, etc.

Content Format – How are these pages formatted? Guides, how-tos, list articles, products and descriptions, lots of images, etc.

Content Angle – What kind of angle do these pages take? What makes them different or unique? What makes them different or unique? Are these pages opinionated or hypothetical, or more direct and concise?

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