The Importance of Search Intent
The more I think about this topic, the more it feels like one of those discussions that you would assume to be standard practice for any online advertiser hoping to get the most from their marketing efforts. Investing time in learning the actual search intent of your visitors is actually not nearly as common as it should be. My belief is that this is often overlooked due to that fact that most advertisers assume that they already know the intent of their visitors because not only were they able to locate their ad but they made a conscious decision to click it and visit the site. If it were this simple, then why is it that most site visits don’t convert to sales or leads? Could it be that maybe the searchers intentions were simply to gather information or could they have been searching for an altogether different product or service? Before you get the wrong impression please understand that I am not implying that in order to be successful at online marketing you need some sort of psychic abilities to read your visitors minds to determine their true intent… although that might be fun. But I digress.
A great starting point would be to understand the three types of search; navigational, information and transactional. Navigational searches usually involve the surfer looking for a needed resource, whereas information would be a search for directions or an address. Transactional is well, you guessed it, a transaction such as a purchase. By considering your website and its content you can determine which of these three search types are the best match for your business. By knowing the type of searches are being executed by those seeking your service, you will be able to outsmart your competitors by constructing a keyword list most often used by your targeted search type.
Determining the search intent of the web surfers that land on your site is one of the most critical aspects of building a profitable marketing campaign. Collecting this information is easier then you may think. It should be fairly safe to assume that the majority of those running advertising campaigns, SEO or PPC, are using some form of analytics. By analyzing the search query reports they contain, you can begin to piece together what the intent may have been for each visitor. For example, if the keyword that received the click was remodeling yet the search query shows the typed phrase was “ find home remodeling quotes” this helps you determine that the surfer in only shopping for quotes right now and not necessarily looking to buy anything.. If your site offers remodeling tools or something totally opposite of this query then you may want to consider either adjusting your ad title, description or maybe even making keyword changes. The purpose is to narrow the scope so that your ad reaches only those with the intent to find your product or service. The obvious benefit of reviewing search query data and finding true search intent is that it leads to a much better conversion ratio and less money wasted on untargeted clicks.