Your Guide to Understanding Search Intent

When marketing your products or services, it’s easy to focus on only one type of search intent: transactional. However, customers actually have three other search intentions on their journey which are often overlooked. 

If you start to invest resources in targeting users in other types of search intent, you can optimise not only your SEO but all other marketing channels. Once all search intentions are targeted, you can reach a wider audience and build a stronger relationship with them now you understand their customer demands in every step of their customer journey. 

This handy guide will help you understand all the different search intentions and how you can use these to optimise your marketing strategies. But firstly, let’s begin by understanding what search intent is and how we can target each stage of the customer journey. 

What is Search Intent?

In simple words, search intent refers to the “what” and the “why” of a user’s search query. Search intent can be broken down into four key search types:

• Informational – Searching for information with the intent to learn something new
• Navigational – Searching for a location or directions with the intent of going somewhere
• Investigational – Searching for something with the intent of browsing or learning more about that service or product
• Transactional –  Searching for a product or service with the intention of buying it

Understanding the different search intentions your customer may have will help you predict what your customers need on their journey. 

Targeting Search Intent in a Customer Journey

When you optimise your website based on search intent, the goal is not only about your Google rankings. Target all potential intents your customer may have so they feel like their needs have been seen and met by you. 

So, when we break down the search intentions and target these throughout our website, we create touchpoints with a customer. Every time your customer searches on Google with a different intent – for example, information on a topic – your website should pop up with an informative page to help assist them in this search. 

Even if their intent is not to buy, creating these touchpoints with your customer convinces them that you understand their needs, which builds a relationship between them and your brand. This will eventually affect their decision when they search with the intent to buy because they are already familiar with your website and the goods or services you provide. 

Use search intent to determine your marketing strategy 

When you create your marketing strategy, each search intent can determine what approach you use. For example, when you plan your PPC strategy, you can map your keywords by intent which will broaden your keyword results and make you stand out to the customer. 

You can also use search intent to determine your SEO or Digital PR strategy by creating informative and solution-oriented content for queries. If you understand your user’s search intent, creating your content should be pretty straightforward. 

Just remember your content needs to be inspirational and engaging so the user remembers these touchpoints with your website when it comes time to buy. 

Get Help with Your Content Strategy from Peaky Digital

If you’re looking for help with your business’s online presence, Peaky Digital is a marketing agency full of content marketing specialists who can help you.

Contact us now to find out more, or browse our case studies to discover the happy clients we’ve worked with in the past.