Query intent is the user's intent to find or learn something when they enter a search query into Google. In the article, we will understand how it is related to the optimization of search promotion, what types exist and how to determine.
I often type "poplar" into the Google search bar. No, I'm not interested in the tree. It is much more important when the new album of Antitila will be released, with Taras Topolya as the soloist.
Despite the rapid development of technology, search engines have not yet learned to read our thoughts, but over the years of work they have accumulated gigantic statistical data. If you are logged in to the same Google, the system will create a portrait of you, take into account your interests and generate a search result based on them.
As for new or unauthorized users, where there is not yet such a volume of collected data, here the search engines rely, again, on their statistics and give the maximum number of places in the top 10 output to the most frequent and, as a result, the most likely intent of the given cluster.
Intent value for search promotion
It is a mistake to think that only business is interested in understanding and satisfying customer needs. Search engines want the results of their output to be not just useful sites, but specifically those that correspond to current requests.
For example, it is no longer enough for the algorithms to receive the input of the request "plastic windows". Now they look for and find regularities between the words and word forms included in the phrase, plus they work with synonymization. It is important for them to understand what the user wants: simply to understand what kind of windows these are, or to find out who sells them in the region. Everyone will find something for themselves if the PS has worked out the intent correctly and found sites that satisfy the client.
Why do webmasters need to monitor questions? Simply, the degree of relevance of this or that web page to the needs of the user (not just key phrases, but real intentions) directly affects its ranking in search engines. The latter affect the CTR, the duration of the user's stay on the site's landing page and other behavioral factors.
There is one big "BUT". If even you were able to achieve high scores for the parameters described above, and the text and graphic content on the site leaves much to be desired (simple fictions, long introductory parts, images poor quality), the page can quickly disappear from the top 10 search radar.
The conclusion is simple: in SEO, it's time to leave the paradigm of simply throwing keywords around the text and move on to learning to understand the intent of search queries. And on the basis of this understanding, preparing content is a task for copywriters, web designers, and sometimes developers.
Understanding the content of requests provides:
- maximum relevance pages in search results;
- reduction of bounce rate, i.e. rejection rate;
- conversion growth;
- growth and maintenance (!) of a high level of content quality;
- hitting the top lines of search results;
- high audience loyalty.
Let's take the "clinic" request for the promotion of a private medical institution. Not only is it super high-frequency, but many users enter it to find and watch the popular American series of the same name.
As you can see, understanding the intent also helps in cleaning the semantic core from garbage phrases.
Types of intents
All user needs can be reduced to three questions:
- what it is?
- where it is?
- how do i do it
Therefore, search requests are grouped.
Information requests
The largest volumetric group. Users are looking for information on a certain topic, learn something about products — goods and services. Businesses start content marketing because they want to give users useful and expert information and gain their trust in order to sell later.
Examples of information requests: "which video card to choose for games", "how to clean silver at home", "why moss grows on the north side of trees".
Navigation requests
A similar group of requests is entered when they want to learn about a certain resource, manufacturer, brand. In other words, the user may not need goods in general, he is interested in goods from a specific company.
Examples of navigation queries: "Reno showroom in Kyiv", "tiktok", "Ariston refrigerators".
Commercial (transactional) inquiries
Such requests reflect the intentions of users to take a targeted action — buy, order, leave response or comment etc.
For a site dealing with sales (for example, online stores and marketplaces), commercial inquiries are critical, because they are the ones that can attract a loyal audience who can buy the offered product.
Examples of commercial requests: "bbk 32lex-7289/ts2c price", "buy samsung a12", "order roles in Kyiv".
How to determine the intent of a search query
On the Internet, in order to understand the expectations of users (and your future buyers), you must literally study all the key phrases of your semantic cores under a magnifying glass, enter them into search engines and see which pages appear in the top. And also analyze what you yourself expected to see there and find on the pages that opened.
Let's not argue: this kind of work is hard work. However, when you get the necessary data, you will be able to understand how correctly and cost-effectively it is to promote the site for certain requests.
Understanding intent is becoming a marketer in the classic sense of the word, a turn from purely technical progress to marketing, advertising, and selling in a "grown-up" way.
Conclusion
Understand the intent of the users and you are much more likely to get to the top of Google. You just need to understand that today users want one thing, and tomorrow - with the same requests - well, something else altogether.
Collect keywords and work out their intent, display it in the titles and main texts on the web pages of your sites, study synonyms. Make sure that the concentration of key phrases is within the limits of common sense. When the user's intent is understood and worked out, they will be located in texts in the most natural way.
Pay special attention to content so that your site is useful, interesting and sells what you want to sell - from rubber pigs to wooden houses.
