Types of search intent on Google

If there is something we are used to at IDX Engine as SEO consultants, it is to understand well the search intent of the keywords that define our clients’ projects.

It is common that they have seen a keyword with many monthly searches and want to include it in a store text. But in reality, their search intent is more appropriate for that blog that they don’t have or that they have rather abandoned.

Therefore, in this post, I wanted to address this topic so that we can better understand how to use keywords in organic SEO strategy, according to their search intent .

what is search intent?

A priori it may seem an easy question, but depending on the sector or the keyword itself, it can be complicated. Briefly, the search intent is associated with what the user expects to find in the search engine results when performing a query or search.

That is, if I ask ‘What kind of wool is the best for socks’, I don’t want to see stores selling socks in the results. Because I don’t know which ones to buy, that’s precisely why I’m asking about types of wool. Or maybe I’m not even going to buy them, I’m going to knit them myself. What I want is to read information about type of wools, pros and cons, etc.

So, if you have an online store that sells wool socks, this is a perfect quest to cover with a post on your blog extensively. Because while it is true that sometimes this type of keywords can be included in the ecommerce category, it will be much more concise and oriented to the sale of your products. Not as expert information that knows your product. Which is precisely the image you will want to give in your blog.

how do I find out the search intent of a keyword?

There is a very basic and inexpensive way: do a search in your own search engine. Be it Google, Bing, or any other. Do it from an incognito window, so that the browser does not take into account your previous searches (I explain this later in the post) and simply observe the results:

what comes up the most: Stores? Blogs? Videos? Images? Because that’s the user’s search intent. Let’s look at this in more detail.

Examples of search intent

Let’s continue with the above. If I Google ‘What type of wool is best for socks’, this is what I see:

The first thing that shows up in the SERP (as that’s what the results page is called) is the carousel of ad images. That is, it has been paid to appear there, so those results are not organic and therefore we can ignore them. Because they are always going to be stores.

Below, as a highlighted fragment, part of a blog post that directly answers the question. It is a good lure for those who want to know more, to enter and read the rest, isn’t it? And if in addition from the blog you have put a link to the category of the store where you can see socks, even better.

Of the rest of the results, only a couple of them are from online stores (that’s why, as I said before, sometimes it is not superfluous to put some allusion to this type of keywords in the categories). But most of them are clearly blogs that provide information that answers the question.

And in fact, after the first results that Google has considered most relevant, a battery of questions related to the user’s search intention is highlighted. As the header clearly states: ‘Other user questions’. Depending on the query, sometimes they are closely related, and sometimes, like this one, only slightly. But if you have a blog, this way you have gained new topics to talk about, if they fit your business. So not so bad! Remember, you can read a guide on how to write good SEO content using keywords here.

As I said, this type of query involves a search for information. But other types of queries entail other types of search intent.

Types of search queries on Google

Since Google is the majority search engine, let’s see what types of information search queries are the ones it defines for us, because they are the ones it recognizes.

In a very simple way, Google divides users’ search intentions into four:

1. Know query – information searches. They can be simple, complex, mixed queries..
2. Do query – i.e. requiring an action. For example, transnationals because they want to buy something. It also includes device actions, which are those in which you have to install an app or a program on your computer, for example..
3. Website queries – the user searches for a particular website or page. For example, instead of typing the web address in the browser, the name of the store is searched for in Google. Or if you like socks from the ‘Everything for your feet’ store, you search directly for ‘Everything for your feet socks’
4. Visit in person. The user is looking for exactly where they need to go to shop, visit a place, etc.

In general, in the SEO world, we had moved to this other classification, which is somewhat more intuitive, but more or less corresponds to those mentioned above:

1. Informational keywords – as the name suggests, you’re looking for information. It can be about restaurants to go to, movies on the billboard, tips, recipes…
2. Transactional keywords – require you to perform an action or rather, a transaction. For example, and the most common in SEO, is to want to buy something.
3. Navigational – they are a bit like website queries, since you include the name of a brand or store in the search.
4. Commercial keywords – so to speak. They are not directly buying, but the user is just a few steps away from making a decision. They are the perfect example to relate search intentions to the purchase funnel.

Again, let’s look at an (invented) example that further develops the above, using the potential customer’s journey through their Internet searches.

• ‘What type of wool is best for socks’ – is an informational keyword, whose search intent is to read blog articles.
• ‘Best sheep wool socks’ – is an informative keyword, whose search intent is again to read a blog. But in this case you are already looking for more precise information, you need it to know that you are not going to make a mistake in a possible purchase. It is partly informative and partly commercial
• ‘Price of sheep wool socks’ – is a commercial keyword. If you want to know price, it’s because you’re already considering the purchase. Depending on what you see, you will do it or not. Therefore, it is a purchase search intent.
• ‘Where to buy sheep wool socks’ – clearly a transactional keyword, isn’t it. You want to buy socks and so, in principle, what we’ll see in the results mostly will be stores. But (and this is where the trick comes in) you may also get blog posts that recommend physical or online stores to buy them from based on price, customer service, etc.
• ‘Sheep wool socks brand X’ – navigation keyword. Finally, the customer knows where he wants to buy them and has decided to do so.

Therefore, we always insist that it is necessary to have a corporate blog, because it can be the gateway to new customers. Without forgetting to work the brand image through Social Media, for example. Since no one can search for you by website if they don’t know you or haven’t seen you anywhere.

how does all this affect SEO?

As is almost always the case, one thing is theory and another is practice, and nothing is as easy as it seems. Many times, search intentions are not clear, as in the longtail ‘Where to buy sheep wool socks’. In these cases, depending on the sector, the specific e-commerce, etc., we will have to decide what use to give to that keyword and what search intent to opt for in our strategy: mostly store but also get a link on a blog that recommends sites? This could be a solution.

So on the one hand, you have to see what is the most appropriate use for those search intentions that are not clear. And on the other hand, you have to see what are the SERPs for those keywords or searches.

The SERP is nothing more or less than the list of results that we see when we make a query or search on the Internet. A long time ago, there were 10 blue links and the user would click on the one that caught his attention.

Today this is rarely the case. Search results, as mentioned, also show carousels of images, videos, question blocks, rich snippets… Which means that in some cases, having a keyword in position 1 does not always mean the same thing anymore. Depending on the SERP results, it can be at the top or be “buried” under video or question blocks. So its visibility is lower.

why does this happen? Because depending on the search intent that Google interprets, it shows one set of results or another. Let’s look at another example.

On one side, our old friends socks. On the other, a search for ‘crafts for kids’. Notice where the first link appears to click on. Below a block of videos and a block of images. So, if you want to get SEO results for that keyword, don’t limit yourself to just writing a blog, because what the user really wants to see, are videos. And of course, in your blog, don’t forget to include the keyword and its variations in the alt text of the photos you use with the text. Because that’s how you’re going to come up in the image block. Even if you have positioned the keyword ‘Crafts for kids’ in the first place, if you are using it only in a blog post, you will see that it will not bring you hardly any traffic. Because the first link to the blog is way down the page.

That is, depending on what users demand, Google has learned to show some results or others.

How Google interprets search intentions

In the previous section it is clear that the search engine will show you in a prominent way what it considers relevant based on user searches. But in another section, I told you that to know a search intent, open a new window in incognito browsing mode. And now I’ll explain why.

For some time now, Google has been using both the user’s search history and artificial intelligence to better define the search intent and provide a result as close as possible to what the user is really looking for.

For example, if you are a passionate traveler, and you search for ‘four seasons’, the search engine will offer you the hotel brand’s website as the main result, directly. Because it understands, thanks to your previous searches, that this is what you are looking for. If you are an English learner and you spend your life searching for vocabulary meanings, the first thing it will offer you is the translation of the expression as ‘four seasons’. But by browsing incognito, you will avoid this happening.

Seasonality and time also determine what Google knows what to show. If a term or activity with a common name becomes trendy, such as ‘eating candy’, which is now suddenly a super trendy mobile game, when people search for ‘eating candy’, Google will have learned to show that result first, and not the consequences of eating candy. Because it knows that now, that’s what people are mostly looking for.

And in this case, what it will show in the SERPs will be a bunch of links from where you can download the game, instead of pictures of (for example) happy kids eating candy.

Conclusion

In this post I wanted to bring you closer to this important concept so that you understand that it’s not just about using a keyword search tool, seeing the volume and using the most searched ones and that’s it. There are many things to take into account when determining the search intent and where to use those keywords.

So before including keywords in your store or blog, analyze well what Google understands when the user makes that query and above all, what your potential customer wants.