All about Search Intent & SEO

Search intent is the primary goal someone has when entering a search query into a search engine.

One thing is certain: a user searches with a specific purpose, and search engines aim to show the most relevant search results possible.

Whether it’s finding information, buying a product, finding a restaurant, or simply visiting a specific website: every search query has an underlying intention.

Being able to meet the right intent is crucial for the success of your SEO strategy.

Do you want to have a chance of appearing in the search results? First, check the search intent of relevant search queries!

We’ll explain it to you.

What is Search Intent?

Simply put, search intent is the reason behind a search query.

The user uses a search engine like Google with a purpose. Maybe the user wants to buy something, make a reservation, or perhaps someone just wants an answer to a simple question.

Search engines compile the search results based on the most relevant intent. Do you want to have any chance of appearing in the search results? Then your page MUST meet the search intent.

So it’s no longer as simple as just choosing a few keywords and incorporating them into your pages. Search engines are becoming more intuitive when it comes to understanding and ranking content. An important factor in this story is really context.

Let’s look at an example, the keyword ‘boxspring‘:

The top 10 search results consist of pages where you can buy a boxspring. This means that people searching for the term ‘boxspring’ are doing so because they want to buy a boxspring.

An informative page about the history of the boxspring will therefore not appear in the top 10 search results, as this is not the most relevant intent of the searcher.

Unfortunately, it can happen that the most relevant search intent changes, causing search engines to compile the search results differently.

The result is that a very good, extensive page that ranks high in the search results no longer meets the changed search intent and therefore drops in the search results.

Are you suddenly losing positions and it’s not due to a core update? Then it’s quite possible that the search intent has changed. If the search intent shifts, it’s good to respond to this to maintain your positions.

Unfortunately, it’s not always possible. If you don’t sell products and the search intent has changed to completely transactional, you really won’t be able to compete.

What Types of Search Intents are there?

Informational

With an informational search intent, the user is looking for information on a specific topic. The user wants answers to his or her questions.

The keyword combinations for an informational search intent often (but certainly not always) contain question words. They might start with ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘why’, etc.

Examples of informational search terms:

• Eurovision Song Contest results
• How to bake an apple pie?
• Why is the sky blue?

The search results for an informational search intent often contain featured snippets. A featured snippet is a highlighted piece of text that appears at the top of Google’s search results with a concise answer to the question. This answer often appears at the top of the search results page so people can find the answer to their question quickly and easily.

For an informational search intent, think of blog pages or news pages.

Navigational

With a navigational search intent, the user is looking for a specific website or page. The user already knows where they want to go and uses a search engine to get there. Good examples are brand names and specific websites.

Examples of navigational search terms:

• YouTube
• Login Netflix
• Government

For a navigational search intent, homepages or login pages often come up.

Commercial

With a commercial search intent, the user is still in the orientation phase and wants to inform themselves about certain products, services, or brands.

They do research before making a purchase. People at this stage are interested in comparing different options, prices, and features.

This way, they can determine which product or service best fits their needs. Reviews, product comparisons, and good descriptions are very helpful here.

Examples of commercial search terms:

• Best laptop 2024
• Apple vs Samsung
• Cheap activity Amsterdam

For a commercial search intent, comparison pages might come up.

Transactional

Users with a transactional search intent plan to perform a specific action. For example, they want to make a purchase, make an appointment, or make a reservation.

Users who search with a transactional intent are actively looking for a specific product or service.

Examples of transactional search terms:

• Buy iPhone
• Lowlands ticket
• Enroll HvA

For a transactional search intent, think of product pages or registration pages.

Why is Search Intent so Important?

Everything stands or falls with relevance for search engines. When you’re looking for a new iPhone (to buy) and you end up on a page that beautifully tells how long the iPhone has existed and how well it works, the content doesn’t match the intent.

Imagine this: you walk into a physical store, ask the employee if the newest Nike Air Max is available in size 44, and you’re directed to all Nike shoes. Not what you were looking for, so you leave quickly!

That’s why from an SEO perspective, search intent is incredibly important.

Search engine users want to be able to find what they need as quickly as possible.

If they end up on a page with the wrong intent, they are not satisfied with the search result and thus not with Google. It’s not surprising that it’s vital for Google to show search results that meet the right intent. And they’re getting better at this.

How Do I Determine the Search Intent?

As discussed, it’s very important to determine the search intent of your keywords before you really start working on your SEO strategy.

But how do you do that?

Sometimes the search intent is obvious, but often you really need to do some research yourself. You can work and look at which search intent aligns with the top 10 search results. This is a good indication of the search intent that Google currently prefers.

Be careful with words that are a bit more ‘tricky’. Take ‘apple’ for example. Are more people looking for products from the Apple brand or are users looking for information about the fruit?

Search intents can certainly be mixed as well. Try searching for ‘coffee bean’. Websites where you can buy coffee beans come up, but also informative pages about the coffee bean.

With the following ChatGPT prompt, you can find out the intent for important single and multiple keywords:

‘Analyze the first 10 search results for the keyword combination ‘………’ and categorize them based on search intent: informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional.’

In our other blog, we provide even more ways you can use ChatGPT for SEO.

Of course, you can also look closely at the search results of the various keywords to see what kind of content is shown.

Conclusion

Search intent is extremely important to determine whether or not you can be found for certain keywords. Just being found with your content is not going to happen.

We can therefore say that if you haven’t looked at search intent before, it’s high time to do so. Only then does your SEO strategy have a chance of success.

Do you need help optimizing your online marketing strategy? Online Presence has 20+ years of online marketing experience and has helped many companies achieve great results.

Feel free to contact with us and we will be happy to help you!