When it comes to creating a content strategy that targets search intent, crucially important is to take into account different stages of buyers’ journey.
Search intent describes the main goal of online search. It refers to user expectations when searching on Google.
Google algorithm understands well users’ intent (the purpose behind their search). More importantly, Google shapes the search results based on the user’s search intent to enhance user experience and help them find relevant information easily and quickly.
Thus, understanding search intent is crucial for SEO specialists and marketers when it comes to determining SEO and content strategy.
Why is optimizing a content strategy that targets search intent critically important?
Content marketing is a highly effective way for attracting prospects and increase brand exposure. If optimized for search intent, content would benefit SEO and improve the website rank position. It would bring more relevant traffic to the website and improve the overall user experience which results in more engagement and conversion rates. Furthermore, content that is optimized for search intent lowers bounce rate.
Bear in mind that website visitors are at the different phases of the buyers’ journey and have different search intents, so make sure your website provides the content for different search intents. Even the most quality content is for nothing if it’s not created around search intent and doesn’t match users’ needs.
In this article, Aleph Website discusses how to create a content strategy that targets search intent in order to bring relevant traffic to the website and drive more conversions.
1. Define your target audience clearly in order to create a content strategy that targets search intent
When creating website content, you need to know who your target audience is and the purpose of their search – search intent. Understand what they’re searching for, whether they looking for more information, for a specific product or a service or they’re ready to make a conversion.
Then you can focus on creating a list of keywords you’re targeting, so you can start with conducting keyword research.
Keyword research is the process of finding popular terms related to your business that your target audience is searching for. Once you create a list with these terms, you can identify high-volume keywords and incorporate them into the website content. This way you make your website more visible on Google and reach more of the target audience.
When it comes to creating a keyword list, make sure longtail keywords are included. Longtail keywords are longer (usually contain three or more words), and specific key phrases have less competition and lower search volume.
They reflect clearer search intent than short-tail keywords. Put it differently, longtail keywords drive higher-quality traffic to the website since these terms are searched by people who are looking for something specific, and who are ready to make a conversion.
With content that includes specific longtail keywords, you target users who are at the consideration and decision phases of the buyers’ journey, and their search intents are transactional, navigational, or commercial.
2. Do SERP Analysis before you create a content strategy that targets search intent
Once you have identified keywords that you’ll include in your website, a good idea is to do a SERPs (search engine results pages) analysis and see what your competitors do.
SERP Features are many and they are very important for every SEO strategy. This is especially true when choosing long tail keywords for specific search intent.
There are many SEO tools you can use for engine optimization and studying keyword phrases. Here are a few:
- SEM Rush
- Keyword Planner
- Google Trends
- Yoast
- PAA (people also ask) section in google results
Take a look at the top-performing SERP results and try to analyze how they use keywords, what content they provide, what their website look like, what they have in common, etc.
Analyzing SERP can help you understand what Google sees as relevant content, and more importantly, reveal the types of search intents you should target with your content. You can just look at the results Google provides for a particular keyword phrase and recognize the users’ search intent.
For instance, if the first results on the SERP are knowledge panels, instant answers, and ‘People also ask’, you can recognize the Informational intention.
When you know the search intent, then you can create valuable content that targets the needs of your target audience.
3. Proceed with Creating Content for Each Type of Search Intent
As we said, every type of search intent refers to a different stage in the buyer’s journey. Therefore, it’s important to create content for all of them to ensure the website provides content for different search intents.
Conditions for success:
Prior to building your assets, there are a few technical steps you need to ensure success:
- Make sure you’re doing on-page SEO and building specific pages with exact-match meta titles and descriptions
- Understand Local Search that pertains to the searcher who is looking for geo-specific information
- Blogging will help you build a lot of content that can be then used to match different search intents
- Stay within a single niche! Might sound redundant, but it is crucial to increasing your domain authority; which entails helps with your rankings
- Avoid duplicate content
Create Content for Informational Search Intent
Those who are at the awareness stage need information that can help and educate them. They are still not considering making a conversion, so they’re not searching for specific products, prices, reviews, etc.
When it comes to informational intent (awareness phase of buyers’ journey), you should focus on creating:
- What-is and How-to blogs
- Infographics
- Tutorials
- Guides, etc.
The purpose of these types of content is to answer questions, educate and provide help.
To enhance the content for informational intent, make sure to use the questions users ask, and include the entire phrases in meta tags, URL, and page title.
Also, try to have an answer to this question at the beginning of the article, so both Google and users recognize the article as a valuable resource.
Create Content for Navigational Search Intent
Navigational search queries are used by people who are in the ‘consideration’ stage. These users are searching for more specific information about a particular brand or website, so their intention is to find a specific website or a webpage.
For instance: Aleph Website blog
In order to optimize the website for this search, have effective landing pages for your products or services, and a clear homepage that provides crucial information about your business and company.
Make sure the website is easy to navigate!
Create Content for Commercial Search Intent
People who have commercial search intent are interested in brands, products, or services, so they’re at the decision stage of the buyers’ journey.
Content types that target commercial search intent are:
- Comparison articles
- Product pages
- Product reviews, etc
Create Content for Transactional Search Intent
Transactional search indicates that the user is ready to take an action on the website. (Whether it’s signing up for an email list, making a purchase, booking, etc).
In order to optimize content for this type of search query, you need to focus on creating highly-converting landing pages that answer users’ questions directly and encourage them to take an action.
When optimizing a page for transactional search intent, you should use less, but direct text, product descriptions, and a clear call to action.
Also, include entire longtail keywords in the page’s meta tags, headings, and image alt text to ensure Google recognizes the page as relevant for users who are searching for that keyword.
CONCLUSION: how to create a content strategy that targets search intent
An effective website needs to include content that is optimized for search intent in order to provide a good user experience and improve the ranking position on Google.
Since website visitors are on different buyers’ journeys, they need different types of content that target their search intents. Users think, feel and behave differently at each stage of buyers’ journey, so they need different information.
That’s the reason why you need to focus on creating a content strategy that targets different search intents (informational, navigational, transactional, commercial) in order to lead users towards the bottom of the funnel and encourage them to make a conversion.
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- Effective User Experience Measuring: How Does Google Evaluate UX?
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