Behind every online search, there is a user’s intent – the information they are looking for, the product they want to buy or the service they want to use. If you are looking to improve the results of your eCommerce PPC and SEO efforts, you should create and optimize your content with your users’ and potential buyers’ search intent keywords.
To clarify, keyword intent represents one of the most important elements of SEO and paid search. This is why you should know how to properly identify it and make the best out of it.
Keep reading to learn how can you boost your traffic and sales with proper identification and implementation of intent-driven search keywords.
What does search intent mean?
Search intent represents the reason, aim or objective of search engine users when they are trying to find relevant results. It can be either new information, specific website, product or any other result that will satisfy their need.
Search engines, like Google, have a mission to organize and provide relevant, accessible and useful information to their users, either through paid or organic search results.
Types of search intent
Online merchants, content writers, SEO, and PPC professionals need to provide their potential customers with relevant and useful content. It’s important to know the types of user’s search intent and to recognize and differentiate them. In short, there are four types of search intent: informational, commercial, transactional and navigational.
Informational Intent
There is a lot of information you can find on the internet today and informational intent is at the top of the search intent funnel. Those searches represent the lowest likelihood for conversions since users are just looking for specific information, answers or want to learn more about a certain topic.
Even if it is at the top of the funnel, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore it in your marketing efforts – it represents the start of purchase and could lead you to conversion in later stages of the customer’s journey.
How to identify informational intent?
Informational intent searches are easy to identify. They are usually made of modifiers such as “how”, “what”, “who”, “why”, “where”, “tips”, “tricks”, “examples”, “guide” etc. Not all informational searches are made of question modifiers.
Examples of informational search intent keywords:
- “How to boost eCommerce sales?”
- “What is SEO?”
- “How to plant a tree?”
- “Gardening tips”
- “NBA scores”
Commercial Intent
Lots of users are browsing the internet with the intention to buy in the near future. Before they make a decision which product to buy, which one is the best and where should they buy it, they need some time to investigate the best (or the cheapest) option for them before they make a final decision. It is why this type of search intent is sometimes called commercial investigating intent.
These types of queries represent a closer point to conversions. That’s why it is important to optimize your pages to help them in their detailed investigations and research by giving them relevant information that will help them decide to buy your product or service.
How to identify commercial intent?
Commercial intent search queries usually contain words such as “best”, “vs”, “review”, “top”, “comparison”, etc.
Examples of commercial search intent keywords:
- “best e-commerce agency”
- “Huawei p30 pro vs Galaxy S10”
- “red dead redemption 2 reviews”
- “top hotels in Croatia”
- “Smart TV’s comparison”
Transactional Intent
Transactional search intent (including navigational) is the most likely to result in a conversion. Users who have the intention to buy are searching the internet with queries and terms that are including brand, price, location, etc.
At this point users already decided and know what they want to buy. Therefore, they just need to compare prices, find the best deal and the place to buy desired items or the nearest store location.
How to identify transactional intent?
Transactional intent searches are made of modifier words like “buy”, “order”, “shop”, “purchase” “cheap”, “cheapest”, “discount”, “top”, “price”, “pricing” etc.
Examples of Transactional search intent keywords:
- “Buy cardboard box”
- “Cheapest laptop”
- “Order shoes online”
- “Magento 2 migration pricing”
- “Best deal for furniture in Illinois”
Navigational Intent
This type of search intent is specific because users already know what they are looking for. With this intent, they are searching for a specific website. Those types of searches have the highest likelihood for conversion.
It doesn’t make sense if you rank for a navigational term that will drive irrelevant traffic. It is only beneficial if users are searching for your site/service/product.
How to identify navigational intent?
Navigational intent searches are also easy to identify. They usually contain a brand, product or service name.
Examples of Navigational search intent keywords
- “Inchoo services”
- “Facebook login”
- “Magento official website”
- “Gmail”
How can I find the right keywords?
There are a lot of free and paid tools that can help you with finding the right keywords to implement in your SEO and PPC strategy. Keyword research is the cornerstone of every digital marketing activity, so, here is a list of some of the best tools out there to find high intent keywords:
- Google Keyword Planner (free)
- Google Search Console (free)
- SEMRush (paid)
- Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (paid)
- Moz Keyword Explorer (paid)
- Answer The Public (free)
- Ubersuggest (free)
- Keywords Everywhere (free – plugin)
Summary
To sum up, if you want to make sure your pages or ads rank high and are relevant to the search intent, make sure to give potential users the results they want.
To do so, you need to identify their intent and optimize either your ads or content on your pages. A clear message, optimized page titles and headings, relevant page descriptions, product images, and descriptions will surely help you get better results. To learn how to optimize for search intent, improve the organic traffic to your website, and learn more about digital marketing in eCommerce, a good idea would be to read our blog posts. 🙂
If you find all of this overwhelming and need help with your eCommerce SEO or PPC efforts, reach out to us. Our team of Google and Magento certified experts will gladly help you improve your marketing performance.
