Search Intent: Your Pathway to Unlock Ridiculous Traffic

Why do you create content?

There is no right or wrong to this question, but one thing I am sure of is - that you do it to get more eyeballs and rank higher to get more traffic on your website. Because the more traffic you get, the more Google will think of you as an authority in your industry.

Well, that’s a convincing reason, but you can’t rank higher if your content doesn’t align with the user’s search intent. If a person is typing Buy motorbikes, they are looking for options to buy motorbikes, not to read your 1000 words long blog post on the best motorbikes. 

So, search intent is crucial if you want to rank higher and get more users to notice your content and give them what they’re looking for. This article will discuss different types of search intent and how to infer it correctly.

Table of contents

• What is search intent?

• Why does search intent matter?

• Four types of search intent

• How to infer search intent?

• How to analyze mixed search intent

• Wrap up

What is search intent?

Search intent is the why behind the user’s searches. You might be familiar with the saying; there is a reason behind everything! I am not sure about everything, but behind every search, there definitely is a reason.

To prove you right, here is a screenshot of my last searches (unfiltered), and I will leave it to you to guess my intent behind each of them.

Why does search intent matter?

Well, Google ranks pages that are authoritative and relevant. And aligning your page’s content with search intent gives a clear signal of relevance to Google. This, in turn, boosts your page ranking and increases organic traffic.

So, simply put 

Content that aligns with search intent > Highly relevant > Boost ranking > More traffic.

Don’t take my word for it.

Ahrefs got a 677% increase in organic traffic by optimizing their keyword “backlink checker” with users’ search intent.

A thorough understanding of the user’s intent will help you create content for each stage of the buyer’s journey. Thus, you can attract potential customers by offering the right content when they are searching for it.

Google states that “Organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” is one of its major missions. So, if your content doesn’t fulfill the search intent, then you’re not going to rank. After all, no one wants to read a 1000-word blog post about bikes when they want to buy them.

But there can be more than a single intent behind a particular query. And to optimize your page to meet the searcher’s intent, you must be aware of the four major types of intent.

Four types of search intent

Before we get down to optimizing the search intent, here are four basic types of intent behind user searches

1. Informational

2. Navigational

3. Transactional

4. Commercial

Informational

The searcher is looking for the information. They might be looking for information about the weather forecast to plan their next trip, Pancake recipes to impress their children, how to build a personal brand on Twitter, or how to impress their crush. 

As per Google, the informational query can be of two types: Know simple and Know query.

The intent here is simple - users want to get some information they might or might not be fully aware of.

Navigational

The searcher is looking for a specific website. That being said, these searchers already know where they want to go. For instance, someone typing Facebook is looking to go to Facebook, but instead of typing the entire URL, www.facebook.com, they type the website name and click on the results.

Other examples: Linkedin jobs, Plagiarism checker, Google Trends, etc.

Transactional

The searcher here is in the buying mode means they are looking to buy some stuff. For instance, they might want to buy a birthday gift for their best friend and look for online stores that sell amazing gifts.

Other examples, Eyeglasses for women, Sunscreen with SPF 30+, buying sticky notes, room freshener, etc.

Commercial

The searchers with commercial intent are looking to buy the product, but they’re still weighing their options. They might be looking for reviews, comparisons, etc. 

Examples: best laptop for designers, mobile phone within 15k, Ahrefs vs. Moz, Canva reviews, etc.

How to infer search intent?

Your first step towards optimizing content for search intent is to infer it correctly. If you are writing informative content for transactional search intent, that will not give you the best result.

So, here are two ways to infer the keyword intent correctly:

1. Look at the keyword modifiers

Search intent is usually clear from the keyword itself. 

For example, someone searching for how to reduce back pain is clearly looking for an answer; thus, the informational intent. 

While the search query buy, Grammarly premium implies user wants to make a purchase. So, this would be a transactional intent.

To make your work easier, here is a list of modifiers to infer each search intent accurately:

But, modifiers may not give you a foolproof way to determine the intent. Luckily, there is another way - Google’s search result page.

2. Look at the SERP-rich results

Google is here to lend you a helping hand. As Google’s mission is to give the most relevant result for their query, you can find insightful data to figure out the intent behind a keyword. 

Over the years, Google has gone through many updates, and one of them was showing rich results in SERP. 

Rich results are special SERP features that go beyond the 10 organic blue links you see when you search. Some include featured snippets, knowledge panels, image carousels, Twitter posts, etc.

For instance, when I searched Twitter, Google showed me two rich results - the knowledge panel, and top stories, besides the brand’s login page URL.

When I searched for effective ways to deal with stress, Google showed me a featured snippet at the top.

Google tends to show rich results based on users’ intent to serve them with relevant content without much hassle.

Here is a rough guide of rich results that Google shows for different intents:

Note: SERP features aren’t 100% reliable as there are many keywords for which you won’t see any rich results, and many might have mixed search intent or, as Google defines them, Searches with multiple meanings.

For example, here is the result I got for a coffee blender:

According to our rich result table, Google should show me ads or shopping results as this is a transactional query. 

Instead, it showed me Amazon's product page, which still helped me fulfill my intent.

However, there is also some commercial intent behind this keyword, as Google is showing people also ask in this query. 

So, how do you infer what content to write to target such a mixed query?

3. Analyze the content of top-ranking pages

SERP only gives you an overview, but visiting the top-ranking pages and seeing which kind of content they’re writing in their content can straighten your search intent.

Taking the above example, here’s what top-ranking pages are writing about. One was the transactional content - showing me different coffee blends to buy.

While the other was a comparison post of 5 different coffee blenders and a link to buy. 

So you can decide which content piece you want to write. A product page will be useful if you want to showcase your product. But if you have different types of coffee blenders, then writing a listicle and adding a link to buy might help users check out different products and buy the ones they like.

Once you have inferred the search intent, you can create relevant content and answer the keyword’s intent. 

Now, the 3C principle by Ahrefs will come in handy.

• Content-type - Overall type of content: Blog posts, product pages, or category pages

• Content format - The format of the page: how-to guide, listicle, opinion articles, reviews, comparison pages

• Content angle - The unique selling proposition of your page: best, top, free, paid, etc.

To satisfy users’ intent, you must ensure your content follows the right type, format, and angle for each search query.

For instance, search result for performing a website audit shows the following results:

Here is what 3C’s approach you should take if you want to rank for this keyword:
Content type: Blog posts
Content format: How-to guide
Content angle: Beginner’s guide, improve SEO.

How to analyze mixed search intent

A single query might have many interpretations, and Google defines these terms as queries with multiple meanings. 

And Google will analyze such queries based on the following interpretations:

• Dominant interpretation: It’s what most users mean when they type the query. So, Apple as a brand is the dominant interpretation as most people want to know about the brand when they type ‘apple’ as their search query.

• Common interpretation: Many or some users may want to know about the apple-like fruit. Such interpretation will be classified as common.

• Minor interpretation: Very few people refer to someone’s name or city name when they type apple. So, such queries are minor interpretations. 

To summarise it all, here is an image:

Wrap up

Search intent can change results and relevancy too. So, relevancy will win you more eyeballs and traffic than any other factor combined. If your content is not optimised for users’ intent, no matter how many links you get, it won’t serve any purpose.

So, invest time understanding the intent behind keywords you want to rank for and create content that aligns with that.