What is Search Intent in SEO: How Your Startup Should Use it to Write Better SEO Content

This is a complete guide to identifying and using the search intent - the person’s ultimate goal for searching for particular information - to create amazing and SERP-topping content.

Here's what you'll learn:

• What search intent is, and what it is not.
• How Google processes our search queries today.
• The two factors it uses to discern the why behind our search.
• Three methods to identify the search intent.
• A complete process for using the search intent to create better SEO content

It's a lot to cover so, let's dig in.

What is search intent?

Well, I sort of alluded at the answer in this guide's opening, referring to the search intent as the ultimate reason or goal for searching for information.

And that's pretty accurate definition, although I admit that it, probably, doesn't explain the concept fully.

So, to explain the idea behind search intent fully, I need to take you back in time, and show you how the way we search has evolved.

First, let's consider how we used to google, say, 10 - 12 years ago.

Back then, we would always type a very specific query into the search box.

We'd search for "running shoes" or "accounting software," and so on. In fact, Google wasn't able to process undefined searches back then.

That's why, we'd go through what we used to call the 10 blue links - the actual SERP results without all the additional elements there now - feature snippets, the "people also ask" section, videos, images, etc. And unless we’ve found our answer, we'd go back to the search box and refine the query.

That process would continue for as long as we needed to “hit gold” and uncover the information we were seeking.

It was arduous, I don't deny it.

But unfortunately, Google wasn’t able to determine two major aspects of our search - the intent behind it and our context.

In other words, it was us who had to try different ways of explaining Google what we want, because it wasn’t able to figure it out by itself.

That’s long gone now.

Today, Google can analyze and understand even the most complex search queries.

What’s more, it knows the context behind our search too. That context being our preferences, past search history, and more.

All this, and more, helps Google to assume what information we seek.

I use the example of a word Apple to illustrate this. Now, when you search for the word, Apple, Google can return three different type of results:

• It can be information about the fruit, naturally. And based on any additional information in the search query, it can determine what information you seek - A recipe for an apple pie, the fruit's nutrition values, or anything else relating to it.  
• But you could also be looking for information about Apple Inc. the electronics company, right?
• Or, if you’re a music buff like me, you might want to see a third type of information, one relating to Apple Records, a record label formed by the Beatles in late 60's.

By using the search intent and context like past searches, Google can determine what a user might be looking for.

Here's another example. In this case, I fed unspecific information to the search engine, and yet, it was able to return the correct answer...

What does this mean to your SEO strategy?

Well, if you want to rank for relevant phrases (mind the word relevant) you need to address the actual intent.

(Note that we have no control over the context. That includes entirely user-dependent factors like location, past search history, etc.)

Alright, so what exactly is that intent?

In simplest terms, the search intent is nothing else but the ultimate goal a person has when searching for a particular information.

It indicates why someone conducts a specific search, and that reason determines what information they are hoping to find.

Google has put an enormous amount of effort into being able to determine the search intent. And in turn, it rewards pages promising to deliver that information with better rankings.

(Now, again, it has to be said, search intent isn’t the only factor determining your rankings. But it’s one of the key ones to consider and keep in mind when writing your content.)

So, since search intent is a goal, let’s cover what those goals could be. And we usually recognize four distinct intents:

• Informational, which as the name suggests refers to a user learning something new.
• Navigational, an intent to find a particular online property like a website or online magazine.
• Commercial which is an intent to research future purchases, and
• Transactional which usually refers to searching for specific products or services to buy.

There is also another option. It’s not something that SEOs recognize as an actual intent, more like a lack of it. In other words, certain phrases might not have a definite intent. Even Google cannot discern with absolute certainty why someone searches for this information.

How to identify search intent behind a keyword or topic?

When it comes to figuring out the intent, you have several options:

Many SEO platforms can do the work for you.

They mark the intent behind each keyword on the keyword list.

Your platform can (and most likely does) analyze the intent for individual keywords:

And it (most likely) does the same for a whole groups of keywords.

That said, I’ve found this automated approach (because that’s what it is, the tool only looks for patterns in a keyword to determine the search intent) unreliable. I’ve seen many informational keywords marked as commercial and vice versa. So, as easy as this method is, I wouldn’t trust it entirely.

You can also analyze the keyword or the phrase, and that often hints at the intent.

• If a phrase contains words like "How to", well, it pretty much seems informational, right?
• If the keyword starts with words like "best" followed by a product category, it most likely, is commercial.
• If it contains phrases like "buy" or a location (i.e., "buy Hario V60 Ireland"), it's definitely transactional.

The third way is to evaluate the SERP and see what content Google ranks for the phrase already.

This is by far the most reliable way to figure out the search intent.

Granted, it’s also the least popular one, as it requires manual work and analysis.

But it works.

In this method, you need to search for the keyword (you can actually do that through an SEO platform to get results from your target location, if that’s different from where you are located) and see what information top-ranking pages cover.

And this is actually quite a simple thing to do.

Look at the SERP results, and ask yourself, are these primarily informational pages? Or maybe they are commercial landing pages?

You can actually tell a lot about that without even opening those URLs by reading their meta title and descriptions.

For example, most pages in these search results are informational blog posts. For one, most follow the "how to" format in their meta titles.

Their meta descriptions also focus on revealing what the person is going to learn when they read the content.

Of course, these meta tags could be misleading. It's unlikely but you can always verify your assumptions by visiting those pages and checking what information they cover.

As I mentioned, it’s quite a simple process and the more you do it, the quicker you get at discerning that intent this way.

So, that’s how you find the search intent. But what do you do with that information?

Basically, the intent tells you several things about what content you need to create to target that phrase:

What direction or angle should you take with the content?

The intent can tell you whether your content should:

• focus on beginners or present advanced information?
• educate or sell?
• present in-depth information or just provide a general overview?
• Include practical or theoretical information, or both?  

For example, let's say, I've chosen this keyword, "employee survey tool."

Based on the intent analysis, (see the screenshot below) I know that:

• The keyword has a distinct Commercial potential.  After all, practically all pages at the top of the SERP focus on delivering commercial information.
• However, it does not have a strong Transactional intent. Again, looking at top-ranking pages, I can see that there are almost no sales landing pages present. Just commercial content presenting options and tool recommendations. This tells me that people searching for this and other related keywords are at a research stage, meaning that they haven't selected any tool to purchase yet (this is important!)
• Almost all top-ranking content uses the form of a listicle to deliver the information (which also suggests a Commercial intent.)

Here's what all this information tells me about the content that I need to write:

• The content should focus on presenting the options a person looking for such a tool has.
• It should use the listicle format, ideally.
• The content shouldn't dive too deep into each tool. Since I am writing for people who are only at the research stage, I should focus on presenting tool overviews, rather than in-depth reviews or tutorials. Most people will look for those separately, when they've shortlisted tools they'd like to find out more about.

How you should structure the advice, what format would work best to present it, etc.

Another aspect of your content driven almost entirely by the search intent is the format. Based on the intent, you can discern how to structure your content to deliver the exact advice the intent requires.

And so, by understanding the intent behind the query, you can determine whether you need to create a how to piece, a tutorial, a walkthrough, an explainer or a guide, or perhaps a listicle or even a commercial landing page would work better.  

TIP: Sometimes, it's actually easier to discern the best format by visiting and analyzing the top-ranking pages, than just looking at meta tags in the SERP. That's because, sometimes, you might see tags focusing on one format but the actual page using a completely different one. This happens particularly often when the query doesn't have a clearly defined intent or focuses on a broader concept.

What information you should include to match the intent (and what NOT TO INCLUDE.)

Similarly, by understanding the intent, you can quickly decide what information your content should cover.

But, and this is important, there is more to it than just looking up what top-ranking pages have said on the topic.

Sure, other people's content is a great place to start understanding the depth of the intent.

IMPORTANT: Top-ranking content can serve as a good indicator of the remits of the intent (something super important because the last thing you want is to blab about stuff that's irrelevant to the intent, after all.)  

But by all means, it shouldn't be your ultimate template to copy. Quite the opposite, in fact.

For one, Google will have no incentive to rank such a piece, since it covers only what others have said. To put it bluntly, the search engine wouldn't have any incentive at all to replace already ranking content with yours, then.

But also, such content wouldn't stand out for readers, too. All they'd see is the information they've already found on other pages.

You should only use the top-ranking content to determine what type of information matches the intent.

But then, you should use your topical expertise to figure out the best way to provide that information, and truly help your target audience.

Finally, how detailed your answer should be and how long your content should be.

This, probably, is the most confusing aspect of using search intent to write SEO content. And that's because most startup founders approach this too rigidly.

The common way to do this is to figure out the average length of the top 2-3 ranking pages, and go with that.

Which is actually pretty stupid. (Sorry!)

For one, trying to put the exact numerical value on content length makes no sense, and that's for several reasons.

• Google doesn't work like that. It's not like the search engine's algorithm does a similar calculation, and checks whether your page is exactly 1371 words or whatever and if not, kicks you out of the SERP. Seriously...
• The length actually doesn't matter. What matters is the information you include within the remits of the length that's needed to provide it. So, for example, if you are writing a definition to a concept, naturally, such definition will be relatively short. There is no point in trying to answer what a Bill of Materials is over 3000 words or so. There's not enough information in the definition to cover such word count. To do so, you have to start beating around the bush, which again, makes no sense, and makes your content bloated and not on topic.

But I did say, within the remits of the length, and what I mean by it is that you can determine the overall size of the piece that's needed to target the intent.

However, instead of focusing on a specific length, I recommend you use these criteria as a guideline:

• Standard length (up to 1000-1500 words)
• Long-form (up to around 2500 words)
• Pillar (anything longer than above.)

So, when analyzing the intent, you can determine whether you need a Standard length piece, or rather to cover the entire topic, you need a Pillar.

But you don't have to decide any specific length. Just a rough guideline of how much information you need to include.

And that's it...

Because let’s face it, once you have that information, creating the actual page isn’t actually that difficult. Sure, you need to write it, of course. But at this stage, you know:

• Why are you writing this?
• For whom?
• What do these people expect and what will make them satisfied with your content?
• What information to include, and what to avoid.
• How much information to include.
• And what format to use.

The rest is just putting all this together in the form of SEO content.

Good luck!

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