By now, you are familiar with the importance of SEO. Without it, you can’t practically survive in the virtual world. SEO is your only lifeline. But is SEO enough. Do you think SEO will make you approach your desired client without any further hassle? 

Let me share the reason why I am asking that. 

Believe it or not but Google process over 3.5 billion searches in just 24 hours. Out of any number of countless happening every day, approximately 15% are new to Google. After Google’s BERT Core update in Dec 2020, 24% of the keyword were reverted to intent in the BERT update in May 2021. 

There is always a limit to everything. For example, SEO helped you grow your business. 

But is everyone asking about your product? 

Is everyone aware of what your products are? 

Is everyone talking about you? 

No. 

Yes, you read it correctly. But, no, not everyone is aware of what you do and how good you are in your business. Only those people know who have been educated about you via your good SEO strategies. 

Have you ever thought, are these people enough for your business. Should you not be any more popular than you already are. What if there is a possibility to approach more people and increase your existing client base? 

If you are interested in all these questions, I would love to end your curiosity without wasting any more of your time. Please allow me to introduce you to a relatively new sub-section of SEO. It is called ‘Search Intent.’

Search Intent

As stated earlier, SEO can only help you rank up to a specific stage. After that, you can either change your strategy or technically be more sound. Knowing that technological evolution will help you more than usual, I think it’s time for you to get a hands-on experience of what Search Intent can do.

It is a game-changer. It is evidence of the technological evolution Google is forcing entrepreneurs to be equipped with. It is the answer to your growth. It is the understanding of what, why, how, when, and from where, who is searching for anything. It is the science of understanding the reason for any search made.

Let’s dissect search intent and see what it consist of.

What is Search Intent

Search intent is your actual reason behind any search you made. It is the understanding of why someone will someone search for anything? You can understand the reason by answering the following questions:

1. What is the purpose behind this search? 
2. Are they looking for something? 
3. Are they interested in seeing the alternates of this product? 
4. Will they be researching about it and needs to know the articles published about it? 
5. Maybe they are just looking for a correct spelling of the product or service you are selling
6. Or are they just roaming around without a purpose?

There is no fixed set of questions. You need to define or identify your set of questions following your business. But make sure that the answers are supposed to help you understand why someone would search for you. 

Should it matter?

Yes, fortunately, and unfortunately, Google wants to keep entrepreneurs on their toes. With its constantly evolving customer-centric approach and product development, Google wants you to be more accurate. 

Google only asks you to provide information in such a manner that it’s easily available to your client. 

All information has to be useful and accessible to all. Believe me when I tell you this, that I didn’t just make this up. It is Google’s mission statement. 

Just imagine to what lengths Google is going just to provide accurate, authentic, and useful information to people. 

Let me ask you this, why do you think Google is the most famous search engine and why not yahoo or bing? Yes, you guessed it right. They are not authentic and accurate. They are following the footprints of Google, but they can’t be on the same level as Google. 

And for the very same reason, you have stopped using yahoo and bing and started loving or maybe practically living on Google. 

What to do next?

Implement Search Intent. Yes, that’s only it. If you want Google to rank you on the highest level, you have to start creating or presenting content based on search intent. To start with, you have to create content that aligns with search intent. 

I will give you a quick small example. Let’s assume that you want to sell an electronic product. You cant forcefully use this product on your landing page for SERP. All you need to do is to share more and more information, blogs, and comparisons for this product. 

You need to understand that only authentic and understandable information will help you with higher rankings from now onwards. 

Types of Search Intent

By now, we know what search is intent on it. Its importance and what it will be doing to website ranking. Now let’s talk about the types of search intent. Search intent can be divided into 4 parts:

1. Information
2. Navigation
3. Transaction
4. Investigation

But before getting into the details of what search intent types do, we need to understand how search algorithms work and why the results vary. So let’s get into knowing that. 

How do search algorithms work?

Search algorithms have highly intelligent ranking systems developed to process countless information within a blink of an eye. This ranking algorithm allows search engines to present the most relevant information in response to the queries. 

For example, let’s discuss what “Google,” the search engine does. First, Google adjusts pages based on keywords. Then it ranks these pages based on keyword density, authenticity, accessibility, relevance, and information useability by the user. 

SERPs then contain the highly ranked pages on top of the first page, which means that the best links to your query are on the top of SERP. But sometimes, the results vary. 

Search engines have designed multiple tools to help display a wide variety of information in digestible pieces. Now, the goal of search engines is to deliver the relevant and the most accurate results for users. That is why search results are entirely intentional and personalized.

Why do search results vary?

Well, a couple of things affect the search results. First, it depends on what your geographical location is, your search history, and Google Algorithms. Let’s see how these affect the search results. 

• Google knows the location of every device accessing it with a unique IP address and MAC address. This helps Google to show location-centric results. This is the actual reason behind one site being famous in one area than somewhere else. 
• Google keeps a log of what you have searched. This log helps Google to understand your likes and dislikes, your working habits, interests. Then, based on a combination of these things, Google shows you the information you might be most interested in reading. 
• It will not be wrong to say that search history helps Google to know that you regularly visit one specific news section on a new site. If you type in the search bar anything related to news, Google will automatically direct you and show your favorite website link on top for you to visit. 
• Last but the most important factor is Google Algorithm optimization. Google regularly makes changes to its ranking systems. This update usually affects a lot of websites ranking. With this change, if any website is not ranking on the first page anymore, the results will change. 

Before going any further, I would once again request you to understand that people ask the same questions in many ways. Therefore, there is not 1 exact method to ask or search for something. 

This is why search engines have to be constantly updated with smarter, faster, and progressive solutions to respond with the highest accuracy and authenticity. Without this constant update, search engines will never be able to identify and present useful information. 

Let’s take a step back here and continue our discussion about various search intents. 

• Informational search intent simply represents that the user is looking for specific information related to anything. This search is based on the focus keyword and is related to a basic question or a complex scientific theory.
• Navigational search intent reflects the searches related to something, but the search doesn’t know the website’s web link. This is usually related to web address searches. 
• Transactional search intent reflects that the user is interested in buying a brand product either from a brand or otherwise. 
• Commercial search intent reflects that the user is interested in looking for sales and deals on products from daily life use. 

So now, when you know the details of what Search intent is, it’s time for me to walk you through some examples where search intent has been identified and helped with product sale growth. 

The whole concept of search intent is as easy as it is complex. It is based on the basic logic of how the question is being asked. 

Following is the list of keywords that you can use in your content to enhance your ranking:

• For informational search intent, you should always have the 4 W’s and 1 H (who, where, what, when, and how).
• For navigational search intent, you should use names of brands, products, or services.
• For trans search intent, you should use buy, sell, price, order, and cheap
• For commercial search intent, you should use best, top, product attributes, etc.

Now, please note that these are the sample example of keywords you should be using to increase your search intent capabilities. These are not limited to only these but can be changed according to your will and need for ranking. 

You can always use multiple tools to check the search intent-based keyword density. One of my favorite tools to do search intent is ahrefs. You just have to enter the product name and hit search. Ahrefs keyword ideas will take you to many options based on the keyword density and clicks. Following is one example of the ahrefs tool. 

I know by now you will have only one question in your mind. How to optimize for search intent? Good questions; let’s dig in and see how that can be done easily. 

Let’s divide search intent optimization into three steps.

The sole purpose of search intent is to identify and help you decide what needs to be created. To explain what this statement means, if the keywords informed that the search is related to the informational query, you should write a blog about it. 

But if the search is related to the commercial aspect, you should display a product demo page including pictures, designs, and colors. 

Once again, you have asked a good question. Is this simple? Well, my dear friend, let me be very honest with you and say YES and NO.

Why both yes and no, you ask. Well, it’s because you can understand the intent type, but you would not judge SERPs analysis without getting a little deeper and checking for trends. 

That’s where this gets tricky. But luckily, you have me to make things easy for you. So let’s divide the search intent optimization into 3 steps. 

Step 1: Keyword ranking

Google helps with keyword ranking analysis and keyword density checks. This will help you understand the keywords you are using to present your data. If you are not choosing keywords technically or have selected incorrect or low-density keywords, your content will never rank. 

Step 2: Alignment of your keyword and product

You need to make sure that your content is in complete alignment with the product following the 3 C’s. These C’s are content type, its format, and presentation angle. Anything which is not aligned with one another will affect your ranking. 

Step 3: Observe top-ranking pages

To help you, Google has a separate section named “People also ask.” Now this section is very important for you to used and understand. You have to constantly look for things related to your keyword and optimize your content accordingly. 

The following diagram is an example of the “People also ask” section from Google. This helps you see what sort of queries people have made in the past related to the keyword you are working on. The results help you understand the trend, and all you need to do is to align your content with it. 

This is exactly why Google is the best helper as well, no doubt about that. You just have to learn to work your way with Google, and it will itself help you. Let me rephrase that to be more accurate; Google is made to work for you. So you need to learn how to make Google work in your favor and be least affected when it updates its core algorithms affecting the ranking system. 

In addition to People also ask, Google has another supporting feature which is called content gap. Now, this is a very simple tool that helps you find content gaps and makes you see the subsection of pages people would love to see on your website.

To do that, you have to align your content and then see what the search wants to see. Finally, you need to understand the search queries and read in between the lines for an optimized content presentation. Remember that you have to be authentic and useful all the time. 

And now here at the end of this article, I would sum up the search optimization in five points:

1. You need to be smart enough to know how people think. You should be using multiple tools to help you with your search intent optimization. You should be smart enough to understand the content impression, Click through rate and site ranking. 
2. You should analyze Google Content Gap and People and ask Tools to analyze the results and prepare your content in alignment with that. This will be helping you rank higher and quicker than usual. 
3. You have to be smart enough to think like come people imaging different things and prepare your content accordingly. You have to collect information from all search engines and then prepare your content base. This way, you will be able to publish your content with higher ranking standards across the internet and on multiple platforms simultaneously. 
4. You need to critically review your content and make a question and answer section. Ask questions as if you are reviewing your content. And then prepare the answers. This is the only way to make content that will be very close to the imagination of the users across the globe. And believe it or not, all this will lead you towards higher ranking standards on Google. 
5. If you manage to present content as per audience requirements in response to their needs instantly, your content is optimized. In addition, the easy understanding of your content makes the user feel fulfilled. 

Bottom Line

Google, following its mission statement, will never stop evolving. It will be making ineffective things obsolete and will be introducing highly productive features to impress its users. One such feature by Google in 2021 is Search Intent.

Search intent makes you present your content in the easiest and simplest ways possible for the Google search engine to find. This is also based on your method of content presentation with high accuracy, authenticity, and useability. If your content does not meet these high standards, your pages will not be ranked on the first pages anymore. 

As a business owner, an entrepreneur needs to understand the importance of content presentation with only one aspect. The aspect of how the user will query information and search engine responds with your content. Be it anything, follow the keyword density with search intent type. Then, merge the information and present your content. 

If the information is useful along with its authenticity, Google search engine will rank it on the first page, and your content might be the first thing Google shows to its users. 

You need to produce highly useful and accurate content and present it mindfully. This is the only way to ensure your top ranking on Google’s first page. 

Are you still not convinced about search intent? What makes you believe that search intent is not a key factor of ranking anymore in 2021? It is very hard for me to believe, but I am interested in knowing your reason for not using search intent even after reading this article.