Empathy.
Walk in the other persons shoes.
You'll need to build these skills because this is what search intent is all about.
It doesn't matter if you're targeting a keywords on...
- Google for SEO
- PPC campaigns
- YouTube
- Amazon shopping
- Ebay
Anywhere a person types a search query into an input... there is a unique search intent behind their key strokes.
Search Intent Definition
Search intent is simply a guess behind what the searcher is looking for when they type a query into the search input bar. (But it's based on psychological clues!)
- What are they really looking for?
- What are the clues behind the word itself?
It's technically called context. What is the context of their search?
You Are Battling AI
You can skip this part if you want. It's more just an interesting fact.
I wouldn't really call it AI. That's debatable because what is intelligence? I digress...
You are battling AI to figure out the search intent. Here's what I mean.
Google has an AI algorithm called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers). I don't know what that means either.
Essentially they have a machine learning process that is constantly getting better at figuring out the context of the search being performed.
Think of words that have multiple meanings:
- Bond
- May
- Bank
There are many words that mean different things given the context in which they are used.
Google, and pretty much every large tech company, has an AI that is ingesting all our search and phone data to better understand us.
This should play to our advantage. We are us.
Let's look at some examples of search intent in the "real world" with some real search queries.
I don't think AI is going to go into the psychological depths we are about to go.
Search Term 1: "golf shoes"
In the United States, Google says this term gets searched 100k to 1 million times per month.
Potentially a lot of traffic.
But imagine you searched for "golf shoes"...
What Does Golf Shoes Mean To You?
To me, this terms is mostly informational.
I think the person typing in "golf shoes" is new to golf. They don't know the brands or what type of golf shoes are available.
This is a step 1 search to get the ball rolling when the person doesn't know a specific search to go for.
When I search for "golf shoes" I get a TON of shopping ads and shopping listings.
It actually makes things worse because now the searcher is overwhelmed with options. But I did notice something interesting... a Top Stories section with headlines like:
- These Casual Golf Shoes Pass The Comfort Test
- The New FootJoy Tour Alpha Golf Shoes Are Absolutely Loaded With Tech
These news articles could grab the searchers attention, especially the comfort article. Who does't want a comfortable golf shoe?
Back To The Search Bar For A More Refined Search
The searcher goes back to the search bar and types in some variation of "best golf shoes for beginners".
They need help making sense of all these options. There are too many to decide on one of the dozens listed. The search query needs to be refined.
When you search for "best golf shoes for beginners", the first organic result is a website called Golfing Tips For Beginners... and an article called "Golf Shoes 101: How To Choose, Buy And Maintain.
Seems relevant huh?
How many searches does this term (approximately get)?
100 to 1,000 according to the Keyword Tool in Google.
This term to me is 70% informational but can easily lead to a purchase decision. The site owner is only monetizing their site with banner ads.
Imagine if they were a private affiliate for FootJoy, Nike or New Balance golf. They would talk about the type of shoe a beginner should get and then recommend a specific shoe with a strong call to action.
It would be a money maker in my opinion.
Search Term 2: "dygma raise black with silent browns"
What the heck is a Dygma Raise ?
It's the company that makes the split keyboard I use every day at my day job and when I'm in my home nerd office.
Read my full Dygma Raise review.
Let's look at this keyword.
What do you notice?
It's very specific. In fact there are two things going on...
- A brand name is being mentioned
- A specific type of key switch is also being mentioned
Silent browns refer to Kiehl's silent brown switches for the keys. These are (obviously) silent but still give a nice tactile bump when you press the switch.
I know I'm NERDING out on you with some keyboard stuff... but notice the difference.
This keyword is highly specific and relevant to one product.
It's a buyer keyword.
Who cares how many times it's searched every single month. If you're an affiliate or you're Dygma the company... you want to rank #1 for this term. If you're wondering, Google says it's searched 0 to 10 times per month.
If there is enough PPC traffic to enable the keyword... go for that too. If not.. then go all in on SEO.
Just to give you another example of search intent based off this keyword... "kiehl's silet brown reviews".
The actual results are mixed in Google because there's apparently a skincare product with the same name. The point is to think about the word, "reviews".
What do you think about that word?
Keyword Intent Is Everything When You Want The Right Traffic
You have sit back... and enter the conversation going on in the searchers head.
This is the key to all marketing actually.
The conversation in your prospects head reveals all the secrets about...
- What's important to them in the moment.
- What hot button topics matter most.
- How to talk to them.
- Maybe the questions they're asking themselves.
- Plus where they are in buyer cycle.
Here's how you can practice thinking about keyword intent.
Go To Google Trends
Search for a general term that you're interested in.
Scroll down to "Related Searches" and pick one of those keywords
Head to Google's Keyword Tool
You do need an Adwords account for this. If you have a site you need this tool... even if you never use Google Ads.
Research the term you picked in the Keyword Tool and look at the related terms.
Start Thinking About What The Search Term Means
Practice, practice, practice.
I hope this little post helped. You know... the only way to be sure of the keyword intent is to...
- Purchase traffic from Google for that keyword.
- Send it to a highly relevant landing page that communicates how you think the keyword intent was interpreted.
- And find out if you can get conversions.
I think in future posts, we will do this with little $100 budgets. Send some traffic to a landing page and see if we can get a decent conversion rate.
Sounds fun!