What is Keyword Intent and Why Does It Matter?

Keyword intent is a term that is constantly being thrown around and for good reason. Being able to rank your websites for a specific targeted keyword is great, but without keyword intent top of mind, the organic traffic might not actually help your brand.

Keyword intent is a crucial part of SEO and can have a major impact on the quality of your organic traffic, business goals, and conversion rates. 

Chasing keywords with the highest monthly search volumes is not always the best approach for an effective SEO strategy in 2022. 

Online marketing is evolving at an accelerated speed. It is no longer good enough to just have your website rank well in Google’s search engine results page. These days you need to know what people are looking for and optimize your website, specifically for this to drive high-quality users with high buyer intent that will engage with your brand to your site.

So, what is keyword intent and why does it matter? 

Keep reading and we’ll help you figure out how to use this important concept for better SEO results.

So, What is keyword intent?

Keyword intent is a term that describes what people are looking for when they search for a specific keyword on a search engine. It’s a way to understand the intention behind a search query so you can use it to your advantage and drive users to specific pages of your website depending on where they are in your marketing funnel.

A basic marketing funnel is typically split into three major groups: 

• Top: Awareness of your brand is created by grabbing attention.
• Middle: Interest and desire is created by convincing prospective buyers.
• Bottom : The prospective buyer is nudged to take action.

Why is understanding keyword intent so Important?

Understanding keyword intent is essential because it helps you identify what people are looking for when they search for a specific keyword. The better you understand the intent behind a user’s search query, the easier it will be to target and drive the right audience to the right pages on your website. 

Understanding keyword intent helps you know what a user hopes to find when they click on a SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) link. As an SEO specialist, it’s easy to get caught up in chasing keywords with the highest monthly searches, however, It’s not always about targeting these types of keywords – it’s about targeting the right keywords with the right buyer intent to capture the right audience. 

How to Understand Keyword Intent for Better SEO Results

Keywords are a key part of any SEO strategy. However, understanding the intent behind specific keywords is even more important.

Like a basic marketing funnel, keywords internally can be broken down the same way into three basic categories:

• Informational
• Navigational
• Transactional

Informational type keywords are typically long-tail questions used when someone is looking for information about a topic or product.

Navigational type keywords have the intention of being used to find a website or page with certain information or content on it. For instance, if someone types in “Scotiabank login” or “youtube” their intent is navigational so they can find a specific website or page online.

Transactional type keywords are typically used when someone is looking for something, wants to know how to do something, or wants to buy something from you. For example, if someone types in “how much does this cost?” then their intent would be transactional because they’re trying to find out how much your product costs and whether it’s worth buying from you or not.

How to Find Buyer Intent Keywords that Convert!

Buyer intent keywords from an SEO standpoint are the bottom of the funnel with the highest chance to convert a user.

On the flip side, informational and navigational type keywords are typically low intent and top of the funnel by nature. With keyword intent, there is no real Middle of Funnel, however informational type keywords can still vary in terms of the buyer intent depending on your website’s offerings.

For example, let’s say you owned a brand that sells backpacks for camping, the keyword “What is the best backpack?” has lower buyer intent than the keyword “what is the best backpack for camping?”.

Understanding keyword intent can be difficult with so many different types of keywords to choose from. Below are some tips that will help you further understand keyword intent and help make choosing the right buyer intent type keywords much easier.

Tip 1) Put yourself in the Users Shoes

When determining keyword intent, it’s important to take the time to slow down and put yourself in the user’s shoes as this step is often overlooked. Looking at the search query from a user’s perspective and asking yourself, why the user is searching a specific query and what they are looking to achieve? 

Are they looking to purchase a specific product, research information to determine what product they want to purchase, or just looking for general information about a specific topic or product?

This small but simple step can make a huge difference when determining the right buyer intent keywords to target for your website. 

Tip 2) “Buyer Intent” Type Keywords

Buyer Intent keywords are often at the bottom of the funnel and searched by a user with an intent to buy a product or service, these keywords often have the highest conversion rates.

Buyer intent keywords usually include terms like:

• Buy 
• For Sale 
• On Sale
• Offers
• Deals
• Solution
• Near me

Tip 3) “Product Intent” Type Keywords

Product Intent type keywords are often searched by a user with a desire to buy a product or service but have not yet committed to or made their decision yet. Keywords like these are considered Top of Funnel but also have high buyer intent with a potential to convert.

Product Intent keywords usually include terms like:

• Best
• Top
• Cheapest
• Review 
• Comparison
• Specific products like “Samsung Galaxy 21” 
• Branded Searches like “Samsung TV” or “iPhone Chargers”

Conclusion

Keyword intent is a concept that has been used and abused by SEO experts and marketers alike, but it’s still one of the most important things to consider when selecting keywords for your brand. 

Understanding keyword intent is important because it can help you identify what people are looking for and how to optimize your content to target the right audience with the highest intent specific to the goals of your website.

With a full understanding of your audience and keyword intent, driving the right users to the right pages on your website will be much easier helping you achieve better SEO results.

Developing an effective SEO strategy that takes keyword intent into consideration can be a daunting task. Having a team of SEO experts on your side will make the process seem easy. NAV43 is a marketing agency that specializes in SEO. Give us a call.