Google wants to display content that is valuable and relevant to users — it’s the primary goal of any search engine. Therefore, if you want to see your page in top-ranking positions, you need to have the same goal. This is where keyword search intent comes in.
Find out how to optimize your content for search intent to boost organic traffic and rankings.
What Is Search Intent?
If you’re going to optimize your on-page SEO for keyword search intent, you first need to understand what search intent is. This will impact your ability to create content your readers want to see and improve Google rankings as a consequence.
Search intent refers to the user’s purpose when inputting a query into a search engine. For example, if someone searches ‘how to make banana bread,’ the user is looking for a recipe and step-by-step guide. They are not looking for cafes with the best banana bread.
What is the reason for someone plugging something into Google? When you understand this reason, you can optimize your content to satisfy the intent and give users exactly what they want. Let’s dive a little deeper.
Types of Keyword Intent
There are different types of keyword intent that are tied to a user’s buyer journey. These types of search intent are as follows:
- Informational – the user is looking for information on a topic (i.e., ‘what is email marketing?’)
- Commercial – the user is looking for product or service options (i.e., ‘best email marketing software)
- Transactional – the user is searching for a specific product or brand (i.e., ‘Mailchimp email marketing software)
If you can determine the type of intent behind each keyword, you can optimize your content that answers your users’ questions. This is not only relevant to user experience but improves rankings because Google likes content that is valuable to readers.
How to Optimize for Keyword Search Intent
Now that you understand search intent, how can you make sure that your on-site SEO is optimized to satisfy intent?
Once you’ve figured out the intent of a specific keyword, it’s time to dive into the search engine page results. What are the top pages doing, and how are they structured to satisfy intent?
Try to emulate the things they do right and fill the gaps that you notice. Check out the ‘people also ask’ section to include important questions and answers in the content you’re creating or optimizing.
Once you’ve created perfectly curated content, it’s important to write meta descriptions and titles to match. What is a meta description? It’s the little snippet that appears under the title of a page in the SERPs. Ensure that the meta description and title are descriptive and match search intent.
Get Busy Optimizing
Is your site optimized to satisfy keyword search intent? It’s worthwhile diving into your existing content to make sure that it does. Also, keep search intent in the forefront when creating new content. It’s an important user experience and ranking metric.
Keyword search intent is just one of many factors of a successful, well-ranking site. Interested in learning more? Keep exploring for more informative content.