The Importance of Understanding Search Intent For Effective SEO in 2019

One of the things that people often overlook while working on their website's SEO is understanding the targeted users' search intent. Good knowledge about the search intent will state the goals or intentions with which an internet user enters a certain search term into a search engine.
In this new era of the internet world, the websites that emphasize content marketing have better chances of ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and the crux of all content marketing activities lies in having a pure understanding of search intent. But, before understanding the search intent, it is important to know the basics of SEO.
In simple terms, search intent is a reason behind a search query - Why did the user search for a particular keyword? Do they want to make a purchase? Do they just want to gather more information around the keyword? Or, do they want to reach a relevant website?
TYPES OF SEARCH INTENT:
A user's search intent is classified into four categories-
1. Informational - This user is simply looking for more information on a topic. For example, "who is the president of Russia?" or a query that requires a detailed answer like "how does the stock market work?" However, one thing to note is that not every informational search is in the form of a question.
For example-
· "Cricket World Cup live updates"
· "Independence Day"
· "Java"
· "How did India got independence?"
· "Age of Amitabh Bachchan"
2. Navigational - This user already knows where they want to go. Through a navigational search intent, the user is searching for a particular website. It is often easier for the user to search for a website's login on Google than entering the entire URL into the address bar.
For example-
· "Facebook login"
· "Twitter login"
· "Amazon"
3. Transactional - This user is in his buying mode. He is looking to make a purchase. They probably know what they want to buy and are just looking for a place to buy it from.
For example-
· "buy iPhone X"
· "Girls T shirts Flipkart"
· "Affordable flight tickets to Thailand"
4. Commercial Investigation - This user is in the market and is looking for information around a specific product or service to make a final decision and finally purchase it. These users are most likely looking for comparisons, reviews, performance charts, etc.
For example-
· "Best restaurant in South Delhi"
· "Baleno vs i20 car"
· "best headphones"
HOW TO INFER SEARCH INTENT:
Most of the times, the search intent is clear from the use of words in the query.
Here are the list of words or "keyword modifiers" that indicate a type of search intent:
1. Informational - How, what, who, why, guide, tutorial, tips, learn, examples
2. Navigational - Brand names, name of product, name of service
3.Commercial Investigation - Best, top, review, compare, product atrributes like size, color, shape etc.
4. Transactional - Buy, coupon, free, order, purchase, affordable, cheap, price, cost
WHY SEARCH INTENT IS SO IMPORTANT?
The main reason behind Google's every activity is to be able to provide the users with the most relevant result for their query in the most convenient way possible.
Google's mission is to "Organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"
Before you ask "how does it affect SEO of a website?", here is the answer-
If you are looking for ranking higher in Google, you are targeting to become the most relevant result for a query, and for this, you are creating content around the keywords you are targeting. Right? How do you know what keywords you should be targeting? If you just look at the search volumes of the keyword and overlook the intent behind it, then you are probably failing at SEO.
The key to SEO success is being relevant.
So, if you are trying to rank for "home loans", don't try to force your website's landing page in the SERPs. It will fail! People who are looking for home loans will like to compare, analyze, and make decisions before applying for a home loan anywhere. Google knows what the users want to see when they search for "home loans". Therefore, to make the user's comparing process easy, provide quality information, blog posts, comparison charts, testimonials etc. to make the users trust you.
Google's quality rater guidelines states how they define the searches-
· "Know" - informational searches
· "Do" - transactional searches
· "Go" - navigational searches
Identifying user intent is necessary before targeting the relevant keywords you want to rank for in the SERPs. This process of identifying user intent is not easy, instead, it is a time taking and a continuous process because the search intent may vary from user to user. Therefore, to garner the best SEO results by targeting the right keywords, keeping in mind the user's search intent, you should hire the best SEO company in Delhi that provides modern SEO services targeting the perfect keywords that help the websites achieve higher rankings in the SERPs.