Understanding Search Intent and Its Analysis for Optimization

Imagine you type the word ‘apple’ on Google’s search bar. What could it possibly mean? Apple – the fruit or an apple pie recipe? Perhaps it could also mean Apple Inc., the Cupertino-based tech giant, or simply one of the many first-grade exceptional electronic or digital products from Apple Inc., such as the Apple Macbook, iPhone, or Apple Music?

The SEO experts at the Dallas SEO company suggest that it could simply mean a whole lot of things for different people. Yet, almost each time, Google returns the perfect result to the search query. Almost like magic!

But the mysterious question is, how, under the Sun, did Google understand ‘what’ the search query was about?

That is precisely why we are here – to unravel the mystery for you and tell you in fair detail what it means for your business.

The truth is that there lies some insane hard work of Google engineers and its infamous algorithm. And why do we say that? Well, Google’s algorithm has, over the years, undergone massive transformations, which seeks to understand what a user intends to search and how the user’s behavior has changed and its intentions evolved.

Seriously, suggests the Dallas SEO agency experts, as an online entrepreneur, your business needs to keep track of what your potential users intend when they use a particular keyword or phrase in their search. It is an interesting maze of tapping into the minds of your users. The result is phenomenal.

You would not only know what your users are searching for but more importantly, why they are searching and what they mean when they use a particular phrase or keyword while they are searching.

This entire game of trying to understand the real meaning of a keyword or phrase is known as understanding the user’s search intent while trying to make a meaningful analysis out of it is known as search intent analysis.

Before we delve further, let’s understand briefly what a user’s search intent means.

What is Search Intent and Why is it Important?

Simply speaking, a search intent (user, customer, or audience intent) is the underlying reason behind the search query. It describes the purpose of the online search. Why the user might want to search a particular phrase or keyword.

The reason behind the search was the crux that gave birth to the query. Once we understand that, we can match their intent in serving them better and quicker. We could generate and serve them to the point and precise content to educate, inform, engage, interact, and transact with them based on where they stand in the buyer journey.

Speaking from their experiences, the SEO experts at Dallas SEO agency pitch in a valuable observation. When we create content with that intention in mind, we stand a greater chance of ranking high on the Search Engine Ranking Page (SERP), and more importantly, generating highly potent leads and conversions.

Understanding Search Intent Analysis and Its Role in SEO

We can understand the search intent by analyzing the keywords and the search results displayed on the SERP.

Using SEO tools such as SEMRush or Ahrefs etc. one can easily know what type of intention a keyword holds.

However, one must understand the basic categorizations and their underlying meaning, to effectively take advantage of the intent analysis of keywords. As such, it is worthwhile to note here, that keywords can have informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional intent.

Out of the approximate 195 million keywords analyzed for intent, the shares of each of the categories are as below:

• Informational: 56.6%
• Navigational: 8.6%
• Commercial: 12.6%
• Transactional: 22.4%

Types of Search Intents or Keyword Intent

Based on the analysis, experts have categorized the search query into four types of intentions. This means that a query can have the following intentions behind it.

  1. Informational Intent

This is the beginning stage of a buyer’s journey. It simply implies that the user is seeking more information regarding the product. So, for instance, if someone searches for “smartphones” it simply means that the user is searching for more information regarding smartphones in general. Maybe he is searching for the benefits and features of using a smartphone. Or, he is looking for ways to use a smartphone’s particular features.

Other examples include, “How to start a blog?”, or “How to stitch a cloth?”. Here the user is seeking information, tips, techniques, strategies, or procedures to do something, in other words, it is instructional. Thus, content created and targeted using informational intent aims at creating awareness in the minds of the users. It is a solid starting point in the buying process.

Experienced marketers at the Dallas SEO company observe a critical insight here. As is also evident from the data furnished above, this type of keyword has the major chunk of share among all other categories.

However, should that mean a major portion of your content should be targeted at catering informational keywords? That depends upon various other factors, including your company’s goals, the nature of business and its strategies, etc.

  2. Navigational Intent

When the user is specific about using a particular brand or website and specifies the intent through their query, their search intent is to go to that particular brand or website. Rather than searching through the maze of other brands or websites, they now directly want to navigate toward their desired brand. For example, the keyword “Amazon” is solely a navigational keyword, where the user wants to navigate to the webpage of “Amazon”.

However, keywords with navigational intent could contain some general terms like “login”, “support”, etc. Thus, if someone types the phrase, “Amazon login” he is specifically intending to navigate toward the login page of Amazon. And, it becomes interesting here to note that the moment someone adds the word login, it becomes a transactional keyword as well. This is because the general intent of the user is to log into the Amazon site to browse for various products (navigational) or order a purchase (transactional).

  3. Commercial Intent

As is evident from the term, when a user searches for a particular product or service to know more about its commercial value in the marketplace, those keywords have a commercial intent. These keywords may contain phrases or words like best, top, compare, versus, prices, reviews, etc.

This is the stage where the user is already familiar with the product, but may not be ready to buy it just yet.

Examples could be, “Best smartphones in 2023”, “Top men’s shoes brand”, “Perfumes under USD100”, etc.

The content strategists at the Dallas SEO agency put forth an interesting observation here. As a smart marketer, if you are targeting a commercial intent keyword, your efforts should be to highlight your product’s features at this stage, and what makes it different from your competitors.

It could be that your product is more economical than others, or maybe it has some renowned certifications. The idea is to inform the customers about what makes your product the best fit for their needs.

  4. Transactional Intent

This marks the end of the customer’s buying journey. Since the user has by now already made up a choice and knows what they want, their searches would be more of a transactional nature.

They are now ready to buy or at least take some other kind of similar action, like signing up for a free trial, subscribing to the newsletter, or downloading a free ebook, etc. Their searches may contain words such as, “buy”, “register”, “order”, “download”, or “subscribe”.

Examples could include, “buy Apple iPhone 15”, “subscribe to Apple TV”, or “Netflix subscription”, etc.

A Better Way To Win Your Customers

The experts at the Dallas SEO company reiterate that search intent analysis is paramount to tailor and deliver the content as per the user’s demand. Since Google and the major search engines proactively do not cater to what the keywords convey, but rather, they want to put forth the best pages available according to the intent of the keywords a user is searching for.

Thus, it becomes increasingly practical to understand the intents of your customers. According to the SEO experts at B3NET Inc., a leading SEO company in Dallas, understanding customer intent is important because once this is done, your battle to rank high, and generate leads and conversions is half won already.