You have certainly experienced the situation where you wrote only a few letters of the keywords, and Google recommended you the desired option in less than a second. Of course, it can be downright scary at times, but you’re not the only person who’s been through this. The explanation is simple: the search engine focuses not only on the search query, but also on behavioral, historical, temporal, contextual and content signals so that it can deliver the correct variant.

Fixed issue for regular users. But what is there for marketing and SEO specialists to do? How can they optimize keywords based on search intent? Here are some suggestions!

First of all, we need to turn our attention to the classic elements of keyword optimization, such as:

• how they will be used,
• links that refer to the page,
• domain authority,
• alt text,
• up-to-date content.

Then, you have to take into account that Google is constantly working on keeping users in the search engine. So, if you do this, they will often help you rank your website in a higher position. How can we use this information? Is simple! In the process of researching the right keywords, ask yourself for each one, “how well does this term solve the user’s query”?

Finally, if the goal is to place us in a superior position compared to the competition, we advise you to pay more attention to the title, meta descriptions, the first sentences of the content and obviously, the content itself. These elements can make the difference between a superior and inferior position.

Optimization methods depending on the search intent

Browsing searches

Such a search intent is realized when the user knows the website he wants to visit or even the page. Therefore, his intention is clear, he wants to get from point x to point y, as quickly as possible.

As we can see in the image below, we have made a brand search, in which we want to access either the Optimpro business page or information about it.

Therefore, Google will give priority to the main website that bears this name. The public Facebook page of the business also appears in a higher position because the search engine considers it to be a relevant link.

If a user has this type of intention, he will certainly want to access more details about the brand, either through the website or through complementary sites that offer useful information. To ensure that your business website is optimized for this type of search, you will need to consider the following:

• simple and concise pages for the product / service offered,
• a home page that provides useful information,
• business details,
• details about the services offered,
• include your business name and product/service or category name in your page title, subheadings, and meta description.

Information seeking intention

Information search occurs when the user is looking for information or wants a solution to his problem.

These are most often composed of questions, beginning with “How” or “What is.” Through them, the user looks for a simple answer or, on the contrary, a complex solution, such as the one highlighted in a guide.

Optimizing your content for this intent consists of adding keywords that contain “intent modifiers.” Intent modifiers are words that predict an intent because when used, they most often change the meaning of the search.

To be able to improve the page and its content, use the question that your audience asks, in strategic positions, such as titles, subtitles, URL, meta title and meta descriptions.

Include part of the answer in the very first paragraph so that the reader can quickly decide that you are the solution they are looking for. The modifiers of intent mentioned above are: how, what, who, guide, tutorial, and resources.

The best content types for this type of intent are articles, guides, lists, how-to posts, and helpful videos.

Commercial investigations

In commercial inquiries, the user knows the product or service they are looking for, but is not sure from which business they will purchase. Therefore, he is not yet in the transactional stage, he is just comparing businesses and the various products they offer to finally decide which ones suit his needs.

But commercial searches don’t stop there. These also include reviews, which are closely related to local searches. In this case, the user wants to dine in a certain city and eat a specific type of food. If we type “the best sushi in Bucharest”, a variety of restaurants will be displayed.

Thus, for the business to rank higher, include detailed descriptions of particular products and services. Depending on the industry, you could design a blog post comparing the products or services offered and how they can be useful.

Including terms like “best”, “top”, “review” and using descriptive terms in blog posts, reviews or product/service descriptions can help optimize your page and content.

Transactional search intent

Transactional queries focus on concrete actions, because at this point, the user has decided to purchase a product, sign up for a newsletter, download a guide, and so on.

In this case, users can use certain modifiers, but there is an option to enter only the exact name of the product. To optimize the page according to the transactional intent, we recommend placing the content to keep the buyer focused on the desired action. The user wants information that can be easily read. So, pay attention to the delivered content. Here are some other helpful tips:

• opt for a minimalist design,
• include the product name in the page title,
• use the white spaces,
• provides quality images of the product,
• keep all useful information on one page,
• use lists within the content,
• uses transactional vocabulary such as product and brand names,
• includes categories,
• use intent modifiers such as: buy, discount, coupon, sale, free shipping.

Instead of conclusion

Optimizing your content for these four types of search intent will help you improve your rankings by making your content more relevant to the search query.

Content that has been optimized for search intent will help increase click-through rates from search engine results pages. In addition, if you have content relevant to the search intent, you will influence the duration of the sessions and reduce the bounce rate, these elements help the position of the page in the search engine results.