The way we search for things on the Internet has changed incredibly over time. The basic mechanics we perform as searchers have remained more or less the same – the query is still there, as is the search engine. Much of the change was due to what the search engine did after receiving the query, and was most evident in the quality of the results we started seeing. At least some of it has to do with the search engine’s better understanding of search intent.
But it wasn’t just search engines that were supposed to cater to specific search purposes. Anyone dealing with search engine optimization needs to consider intent when choosing keywords, phrases, and even the types of content they produce. For someone just starting out with all this, it can get confusing very quickly. So let’s relax.
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When someone performs a query – searches for something online using a search engine – they have a reason to do so. they want to achieve something – find out what the weather will be like tomorrow, follow a business competitor’s blog, get a gift for a loved one, or find out which flowers are the right gift for which occasion.
Search intent is what they’re trying to achieve with their queries. Since search intent is synonymous with user intent, you can think of it as the motivation a user has when making a query.
Add search engines and how they work into the equation and you’ll see that their job is to identify the user’s intent – their motivation, the reason for the query – with nothing more than keywords and modifiers. They then display results that are more diverse than just a list of links and offer the search engine’s best guess of what satisfies the user’s intent.
This makes the results relevant to the searcher’s intent, which prevents the searcher from going to competing search engines. If you’ve ever wondered what makes Google such a good search engine, its ability to identify search intent and satisfy it is one of the biggest contributors.
While keywords and keyword modifiers (words that help determine search intent) can come in an endless stream of combinations, there are no endless types of search intents. You can categorize most searches simply by assigning them to one of four different categories. This is a great tool to help you understand how search engines cater to different user purposes and what you can do to get your website among the chosen ones to fulfill that purpose.
Informative Search Purpose
When someone uses a search engine to find some type of information they want, search intents can be classified as informational. For example, keep in mind that “informative” is a broad category, as content that might be presented to match the keywords “apple pie” might include images of apple pie, videos of people making apple pie, the web. pages with recipes, pictures of apple pie ingredients, articles about the history of apple pie and its importance in today’s culture.
The type of information content you get will depend on the modifiers you use. You can spice up the search using:
Usually, however, if you just type “apple pie” into the search bar, search engines offer endless recipes because they know that’s what people are looking for. Search engines are getting better and better at this.
Navigation Search Purpose
When a person makes a query with the sole purpose of viewing a particular website, web page or service, its purpose is what we call browsing. They do the query to be able to visit a particular site. A search for “Google Drive”, “YouTube” or “Twitch” usually returns the searched website as one of the top results, possibly one of the top results.
Here are some navigation modifiers you may encounter:
When ranking navigation search terms, it’s best to stick to terms related to your website. There’s no reason to try to rank for “Wikipedia entry” or anything like that.
Commercial Investigation Search Purpose
Also called preferential search intent, this is what people do when researching products online. One of the interesting ways people use the internet to make purchasing decisions – even when purchasing in-store – is to go online and look for comparisons, reviews, and opinions on something before deciding whether to buy. A commercial investigation investigation is part of this process.
Searches that fall into this category might look like this:
As you can see, the modifier types you’ll find in this intent type include lots of “best”, “vs”, “reviews”, but you’ll also occasionally find location modifiers – the names of parts of cities or “near me” everywhere. It is also possible for this type of search to contain two or more product or service names.
Transactional Search Purpose
When people know what they want to buy and just want to move on without looking for any additional information or reviews, they will search to buy a particular thing, sometimes from a particular place. In this case, their search intent is transactional – their intent is to buy.
When people want to make a purchase, their searches might look like this:
This search will usually include the name of the product or service they want to purchase. Sometimes, if the product or service is a generic term, they may use a branded keyword as a modifier, specifying the brand of the product or the specific store they want to purchase from.
Now that you understand what search intent is and why search engines should be good at identifying and responding to search intent, let’s see what all this means for you. If you have a website and you want people to be happy that they visit it, it probably won’t just match the search term – you need to match the intent type as well.
Understanding Intent
First of all, you need to find a way to understand what the intent behind a search phrase is. Sometimes, your grammar and instincts will be all you need to figure out what the purpose behind the phrase is. Other times you have to rely on descriptive signs like modifiers to help you out. Modifiers that work well with certain types of searches include:
Page Optimization
You can then use a combination of modifiers and the keywords you want to rank for to optimize specific pages of your website. The same website can appeal to visitors with very different search intents using the same keyword, and in this case, it is essential that you optimize for the purpose.
For example, if you’re selling baked goods – pies, let’s say – You can create category pages for different types of pie and then product pages specifically for each pie.. You can then make sure these pages contain the type of content (images and descriptions) people would expect to see on category and product pages, as well as keywords related to the action modifiers.
If the store has a blog, you can optimize it for informational purposes – but also commercial research if that’s the type of content you want to create. Again, this means creating appropriate content – how-to articles, infographics, even quizzes – and using keywords with appropriate modifiers.
If you’re not doing it for your brand and website, you’re going to have a hard time optimizing for navigational intent. When it comes to transactional search queries, the trick may be to develop your organic strategies with search engine advertising. The fact that this type of purpose often carries the greatest return on investment can guarantee this.
SERP Analysis
You may have noticed that search engines do not display results for all queries the same way. Depending on the purpose, you will find that the search engine displays different content in different orders. This is important to realize because it will help you format the content on your pages to rank better.
Check out the best performance on different SERPs. See what they have in common and try to find formatting rules that can help you increase the likelihood of your content appearing at the top. For example, check the formatting of the content that appears in the featured snippet and see if you can apply any changes to your content that will make it more likely to appear in a snippet.
content creation
Using keywords and search intent modifiers with a keyword research tool is a surefire way to get some content ideas. If you’re having trouble finding topics for your blog, this is a great way to get you out of a stalemate. There is no better way to come up with content ideas than by researching what people are searching for.
Looking at the wider picture, which includes content types other than just articles or posts, you should always make sure that the content is fit for purpose. For example, it must match the type so that you don’t send transactional contacts to informational content.
The content must also follow the most appropriate format for that type of content. – for example how-to for informative content and product reviews for commercial research.
Ideally, something in the title to spice it up a bit should be an adjective or two that let you know exactly why people should be looking at this content. It doesn’t have to be much – saying something is easy, simple or beautiful can do the trick. You just need to stand out and give the content an extra reason to make an appearance.
Let’s wrap it up!
For the most part, search engines are in the business of getting people to find what they need. This may sound simple, but presenting relevant results for a simple query is no more than an easy task. To be good at it, search engines need to be good at understanding why people are searching for something.
However, it’s not just search engines that need to understand search intent – anyone who wants to be found through a search engine query also needs to understand the intent. This beginner’s guide has shown you the basics of search intent, a small part of what and why and at least how. Now it’s up to you to do your best to apply this to your website.
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