We bet even you have done ridiculous searches like “Why isn’t the number 11 pronounced as onety one.”
But somehow, the search engine always knows what to show you.
These results pop up because the search engine recognizes the searcher’s intent, sifts through content, and displays a relevant result.
The search intent is the reason behind the keywords and queries you type in the search bar. It represents your queries’ fundamental objective. You may search to find information, locations, products, etc. These are all varying intentions behind things you need; a problem to solve, how to get somewhere, or what to buy for an upcoming party.
The search engine determines the keywords you enter into the search bar and categorizes them accordingly. While there are countless subcategories, they all fall under three major categories, which are:
- Informational queries: searches in which the searcher intends to find out information about some topic. People generally use the words “how, what, when, who, where” in these searches.
- Navigational queries: searches people make when they have to find any website.
- Transactional queries: Searches people make when they intend to take some action like purchasing a product.
The exciting thing is that up to 80% of search engine queries are informational, and the remaining 20% are either navigational or transactional.
Why is it important to understand the user’s search intent?
For marketers, knowing the answer to this question will eventually determine their success or failure.
When you understand the user’s intentions for searching, you can optimize your search engine results and create even better content. Having this insight will help you answer the searcher’s queries in the most precise and helpful way possible. It will also give you an idea about how you can branch out the information into relevant topics that the user might be interested in.
Knowing the searcher’s intent is a part of understanding your target audience. When you know your target audience’s needs, you can serve them better. Understanding the searcher’s intent plays a vital role in developing digital marketing strategies that are highly customer-focused.
You can use free keyword research tools to identify search queries and connect them to the intent to optimize your marketing efforts. Additionally, here are a few more tips that can help you identify the user’s search intent to drive better results.
1. Go beyond the keywords
When a person has a transactional intention, they either use the name of the product, model name, or the purpose of the product’s usage. For example, if a user has the intention to buy a mattress, they may make queries like “mattress for sale in (X area)” or “(X brand name) mattress.”
Brands and SEO experts usually target these keywords. But if you want to take your success to the next level, you have to understand your target audience’s thinking pattern. You have to market to people’s problems and needs. Consider queries such as “suitable mattress for back pain” or “how can the quality of mattress affect your sleep.” The reason is simple. Most of the time, people don’t make simple keyword searches. In fact, they need answers to particular questions, and they will type whatever they are thinking of at that moment in the search bar. Your goal should be to upsell beyond the keywords and tend to these queries.
2. Consider the customer buying cycle
You have to understand the customer buying cycle like an inverted top-to-bottom pyramid scheme. Start by serving the queries and keywords on a broad term. You may identify them as general searches that are for awareness purposes. For instance, when a customer needs awareness, they need information. Your duty will be to tend to their informational needs and provide them with comprehensive guidelines about their queries.
The later and more specific queries may include searches on particular products, models, reviews, etc. All of your later stages provide information accordingly. Keeping this cycle in mind can help you optimize your website’s keywords and produce quality content consequently.
3. Identify queries
Now that you finally know how your target audience conducts their searches, you have to dive into their search content. Start by using the same queries as your target audience and analyze Google search results. Statistically, the top most result on Google has a click-through rate of up to 34.4%. You can study the top result and other search results on the first page to upgrade your strategies. You can find out the areas you lack in, what kind of information internet users are looking for, and how you can stay relevant to them.
Analyzing the top results will also help identify the common feature among them, which you can then incorporate into your marketing and content writing strategies for better results.
4. Prioritize understanding your customer
One of the most common mistakes that marketers make is that they strategize according to the search engine’s algorithm and try to find ways to reach the top as fast as possible. Honestly, there is no point in sucking-up to the Big G by trying to please its algorithm if you are not giving your customers what they want. While you may increase the web site’s traffic or click-through rates with this strategy, there’s a high chance this traffic won’t convert into leads.
You have to start by prioritizing your customer over any algorithm. Understand your target’s audience’s habits, needs, likings, etc. Then market your product to solve the problems they face or the needs and desires they want to fulfil. Consider creating buyer personas To identify these needs and categorize them accordingly.
5. Ask them
If you are still unsure about what people are looking for on the internet, then the simplest solution is just to ASK! Now, we are not asking you to run after innocent bystanders and bother them with a questionnaire and dozen “whys.” But you can ask people through polls, surveys, social media, etc. Data collected from these sources can guide you about your customer’s needs, and you will at least have a starting point to build your marketing strategy upon.
Conclusion
You can’t make a business successful by pulling a product out of a magician’s hat and force your customers to buy it. In fact, there is no magic trick that can promise you the number one spot on SERPs – unless you are in cahoots with the search engine algorithm, which is impossible.
But trying to reach the top results by using too many keywords, external links, backlinks, or duplicate content can only ruin your ranking. The simplest solution to improving your rankings on search engines is understanding the user and what they need. Once you know this bit of magical information, you can quickly become the topmost preference for your target audience.
