If you’re reading this, you know something about SEO. That means you probably also know that the slightest problem can make users click away from your site.
What you might not know? How to leverage the newest SEO strategy to keep those visitors from bouncing away.
It’s called user intent, and it means “giving your user what they actually want.” For you, it means more site visits and fewer click-aways.
Do you want to capture your users’ attention, increase conversion rates, and keep them coming back? If so, keep reading. We’ll break down how to harness the power of user intent, get valuable user intent insights, and apply them to your site.
What’s User Intent?
User intent is a strategy that pinpoints what the user is actually looking for in a specific search query. It asks, “Why is the user making this search query?”
Other SEO strategies focus on making sure your content corresponds to popular searches so that it stays nice and visible on the front page of the Internet. But user intent goes deeper. It analyzes search queries that lead users to your site, but also at how your content can better fit what they really want.
Wait, What About Keywords?
If you’re in the SEO world, you know how to use a keyword strategy: just tailor your content to popular search terms, and more users will find you when they search.
A keyword-based strategy is about matching. Pick your favorite keyword research tool, discover the hottest search keywords in your industry, and create articles to match them. Boom — increased online visibility, increased traffic to your site.
The problem is that just because users see your site in the top ranking for their search, it doesn’t guarantee they’ll click on it. And if they do, it doesn’t guarantee they’ll buy, sign up, or take any other action on your site.
That’s because keywords alone don’t tell you what your user is really looking for. And if you don’t know that, how are you supposed to give it to them?
From Keywords to User Intent
User intent is an SEO strategy that makes sure the right content reaches the right users.
If you want clicks to turn into conversions, you have to give your users what they are actually looking for. And to do that, you have to know more than what words they’re using — you have to understand the underlying motivation for their search.
Make User Intent Work for You
The good news: understanding why a user is searching what they’re searching isn’t as hard as it sounds. Use these simple questions to start creating your user intent strategy.
1. What Queries Drive Your Site’s Traffic?
This is the easy part. With familiar tools like Google Webmaster Tools, you can find out what search terms are bringing users to your site.
2. What Do Those Users Want?
Once you know which search queries bring users to your site, find out what’s behind them. Then, make sure your site is supplying those needs.
To keep it simple, think of search queries as belonging to three categories: navigational, informational, and transactional. For every popular search term, you discover, think about which category they belong to. That will determine how you can best respond to them.
Navigational
A navigational query is a search term whose only purpose is to bring the user to your site. Someone’s heard about you, so they search a few keywords and find you online.
For example: imagine you run a site for a bakery called Kathy’s Krispy Kreations, and you discover that one of your top search terms is “kathys kreations.” Clearly, users are plugging these words into their search engine because they want to navigate to your site. Congratulations, you’re popular!
From an SEO perspective, you don’t need to do much in response to this user intent. Simply have a great landing page so that your would-be customers can find exactly what they’re looking for: you.
Informational
If one of the top queries that bring users to your site is something like “best cupcake recipes,” your users have an informational need. They want to learn. Now that you know their intention, how best can you respond?
First of all, make sure that the keyword string leads to an informative page on your site: a great cupcake recipe.
Second, fill that article with high-quality content: tips, tricks, and anything that meets that need for information. But also realize that this is the right place to include a call to action to download your new ebook, “Ultimate Guide to Baking For Beginners.” It’s also the right place to squeeze in a link to another great blog article, “12 Easy Cupcake Recipes With a Wow Factor.”
Knowing that your user is looking for information means you know what to give them so they keep clicking, keep reading, and stay interested.
Transactional
This is the real meat of the user intent strategy.
In a transactional query, a user is actively looking to buy, sign up, or get a free trial of a product — your product.
Find out what search terms are leading your users to land on your site with the intent to buy. And then make sure that those queries lead them right to your “Buy Now” page, or else you’ve let would-be customers slip through your fingers.
For example, a search like “professional cupcakes nyc” shouldn’t lead your user to a long-winded article. Instead, take them to a page that has a mouthwatering-looking cupcake center stage, shows its best qualities at a glance, and makes them want to hit that “Order Now!” button.
3. Are You Ready to Level Up?
The digital world is always developing. Nobody keeps up with SEO strategy like the pros.
If you’re looking to seriously improve your online visibility with high-quality UI analysis, go to a pro UI agency like decibel.com. They’ll deliver the user intent analysis you need to get ahead in the crowded online world.
Conquering User Intent
To stay competitive in search engine rankings, make sure you use every strategy you can. With this simple guide, you’ll be ready to take your site to the next SEO level with a winning user intent strategy.
Looking for more insights to help you get ahead in the SEO world? Check out our blog for more.
