what is search intent and why is it important?

Search intent is used as a way to describe the purpose or the reason for an online search. Google is always making changes to its algorithm, to ensure the most relevant pages rank for the search term. That is why it is important to ensure your piece of content is optimised for the search intent of your audience.

Here's our quick guide to the different types of search intent.

As you can see above, there are three main types of Search Intent. Informational, Navigational, and Transactional. There are also others, such as Commercial Investigation, which is used when buyers are still making their decision. They may search for things like “SEMrush vs Moz” as they are still weighing up their options.

Search intent can be inferred best by looking at the query itself. For example, if the user is searching “buy a website domain” it is going to be a Transactional search intent. However, A search for “123-reg” would be a Navigational search intent, as the user already knows where they want to end up.

How to optimise your content for search intent

When users are doing a Google search, it is important to lead them to the right landing page. If a user is searching for a query, it may not be best to lead them to a product page, as they are most likely to click straight off.

The key for optimising for information intent is to use the full search queries in the most important on-page content. These include page titles, HTML header tags (<h1> and <h2>) and meta descriptions.

When optimising for transactional search intent, it is important to make it clear how the user can convert. Transactional pages should include a clear ‘Call To Action’, clear and easy to navigate design, and also product descriptions that build trust to help with the user's decision process.

The SEO benefits to intent targeting

The first big benefit is a reduced bounce rate. Users who are being directed to pages that match their specific search are less likely to click off straight away. When a user is engaged with your page, they are more likely to explore the rest of your website. This leads to an increase in page views.

With good Intent targeting, there is a higher chance of having your content selected for Google's featured snippets. This means ranking above every other search result for that specific query. The great thing about Google is that it can interpret multiple queries as having the same topic and intent. This means your content could be shown as the answer for multiple queries.

Our team are SEO experts and are skilled in ensuring your content is found by the right audience. Come and have a chat with our team today to see how we can help your business get found by the right people.