Understanding Search Intent for SEO

When you do an online search, you generally have an end goal. Perhaps you’re comparing hotel prices for a vacation, identifying a pair of jeans you want to buy, or looking for a photographer to hire for an event. 

The catalyst for any search is known as search intent. If you want to bring more traffic to your website and keep visitors’ attention, understanding the search intent of your audience is key. 

This can inform your search engine optimization (SEO) and artificial intelligence optimization (AIO) strategies, and help you tailor your website to ideal potential visitors. Being thoughtful about search intent can boost your organic visibility and attract the right kind of traffic, leading to new customers and more business. 

What is search intent?

Search intent, or user intent, is the motivation behind online search queries. This includes what you’re searching for online and your end goal for conducting the search. 

The “what” you’re searching for is often straightforward. For example, you might look for a “chill music playlist,” search for “best bootcut blue jeans” or seek a “freelance photographer.” 

The “why” of a search is often more nuanced. For example, you might be looking for chill music to inspire your own playlist or to find a premade one. A search for a certain kind of blue jeans might be to compare your options or make a purchase right away. A freelance photographer search could be focused on finding a local photographer or to compare rates across a few options. 

Over time, search engines learn the common intent behind search queries based on the links people click from results. This improves the quality of search results and ensures they’re relevant. 

Why search intent matters in SEO

When you launch a website, you want people to find it. That’s why SEO is a crucial part of any marketing strategy. This requires optimizing your website copy to rank higher on search engines like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo. 

Identifying keywords or phrases relevant to your business is a major part of SEO. You might phrase a blog headline in a specific way (“Tips for Hiring the Perfect Wedding Photographer”) or create answers that address common questions people search for.

Incorporating search intent into your SEO strategy also helps you create copy and web pages more strategically to reach your ideal customers. It’s not just about anticipating the questions or phrases a client might use to find your business, but what they want to get out of that search. Are they looking for an idea of what their options are, comparing pricing, or just trying to understand how picking a wedding photographer works? Once you understand that, you can then incorporate it into your copy. 

For example, a photographer might include where they’re based to capture people looking for a local photographer on their About Me page. On their Services page, they might list their niches (weddings, engagement shoots, school pictures) to attract people looking for professionals in any of these categories.

Search intent in AIO

Search engines are changing to incorporate AI-driven search results, like Google’s AI Overviews. As a result, consumer search habits are evolving. People are using chatbots powered by AI, like Gemini, Perplexity, or ChatGPT, to do research, compare products and prices, and make shopping lists. 

Think of artificial intelligence optimization (AIO) as an offshoot of SEO. It’s about optimizing your website so it’s picked up via these AI-driven search results. Search intent impacts what responses someone might get from AI platforms. One search might lead to a conversational response explaining how to use a product and citing your website, while another might lead to a response highlighting one of your product listings. 

Since AI results often pull directly from your website copy, it’s important to provide thorough copy with quality information. For example, your product page should include not just a name and a keyword-rich description but also dimensions or measurements, price, material, and benefits.

The 5 types of search intent

Every online search has a different motivation, each requiring a different type or level of information to satisfy it. As you do more research, your searches become more targeted and precise. These different search motivations can be roughly bucketed into five main search intents.

1. Informational: With this kind of search intent, someone is looking for facts and information about a topic. Example phrases might be “what is a website builder” or “how to find a wedding photographer.”

2. Commercial: This search intent occurs when you’re further along in the browsing stage and you’re gathering information to help you make a buying decision. This includes searches like, “average cost for wedding photographer,” “affordable birthday cakes,” or “best candle businesses.” 

3. Navigational: Navigational search is more focused and direct. You are looking for a particular website, online retailer, or brand. Within that, you might be looking for a specific piece of information. For example, “shipping options for [brand],” or “hours for [restaurant],” or “Squarespace online stores.”  

4. Transactional: With this type, you are looking to take action, like buying something, subscribing to a newsletter, or hiring a freelancer. This kind of search intent contains action words (“purchase,” “buy, “hire”) or things associated with a sale (“discount codes,” “lowest price”).

5. Local: Local search intent is limited to a specific geographic area. You might be looking for the address or phone number of a local business or want to hire someone to work in person. This frequently has the name of a city plus the occupation (i.e., “freelance writer in Cleveland,” “tailors in Springfield,” “best wedding photographers in Chicago”). 

How to identify search intents for your website

Paid tools can help you do keyword research and refine your website text with an eye toward search intent. But you can also discover search intent by thoughtful analysis of free resources.  

1. Identify your ideal visitor 

Your website copy will change depending on who you’re trying to attract as a customer. For example, if you edit books, you’ll want to tailor your services to authors. Narrowing your focus will also help narrow down the copy related to search intent. 

Using the book editor example, consider what types of searches and search intents would send clients to your website. What will they need to learn before deciding to hire you? That might lead you to create content describing your services for transactional search intents and blogs like “How to choose an editor for your book” for informational searchers.

2. Look at your website analytics

Your website analytics can provide clues to customer behavior. For example:

• What phrases are bringing people to your website? 

• What pages are people visiting first or spending the most time on? 

• Is one page drawing more traffic than the others? 

Taken together, these items describe the customer journey to your website and reveal insights into search intent. Less popular pages can show you where you might have gaps in addressing search intent, for example.

3. Review top-ranking websites

Conduct a competitive analysis of the content on top-ranked websites in your niche on different search engines. 

• What do they have in common? 

• What differentiates them? 

• What pages do they include you might not? 

Look for common keywords and phrases they use and see which ones make sense for your website. Are there phrases that indicate the search intents their pages address? Does your website adequately cover those search intents?

4. Analyze the type of results on search

Try searching for keywords related to your business and see what you find. Consider the types of searches that your ideal follower or customer would make on the way to buying something you offer, and try those too. 

Does your page rank high, or does it bring up competitors instead? You can adjust your copy accordingly depending on results. This analysis can also help you identify keyword and search intent gaps that don’t have as much competition where you might be able to rank.   

How to optimize content for search intent

Once you’ve figured out the keywords and search intents that might send someone to your website, review the pages and copy on your website to ensure they’re set up to satisfy people who find you through search or AI.

• Align search intent with the type and format of content. Prioritize content that answers the likely search intent your page answers. For example, product pages benefit from including a photo next to descriptive text that shows off its benefits. A writer might include testimonials and links to work samples that demonstrate how you helped a client solve a problem.

• Cover subtopics and answer related questions.  Create pages with keyword-rich headlines that answer a question (“Why hire me as a freelance writer?”) or an FAQ with answers to commonly asked questions to address informational searches. 

• Keep context in mind. Someone could be looking to buy flowers for a happy occasion or a sad one. Remember this when writing your website copy so you can appeal to not just the “why” behind a search intent, but the “what.” 

• Structure content for readability and user experience. This standard SEO practice can also help you emphasize certain aspects of your business to more clearly address different search intents, such as your services or benefits. It also makes it easier for search engines and AI platforms to understand and surface your website content. 

• Optimize title tags and meta descriptions. Using meta descriptions on a specific page gives you a chance to describe your business or services in a way that matches the search intent of that page. For example, you might mention comparing wedding photography services in a description to capture transactional searches.

• Incorporate social media. Search engines also pick up content from social media channels. Include keywords or search terms related to search intent into things like your Instagram captions, as this can lead people to discover your website.

Best practices for applying search intent to your copy

Search intent is just one component of SEO and AIO. It should inform your overall strategy, but not overtake it. Keep these things in mind when thinking through your keywords and page copy.

• Avoid making your copy too general. With search intent, the more precise your content, the better the results. You’re trying to attract the right people to your business and deliver content that’s targeted to their needs rather than cast a wide net. 

• Don’t focus on just one type of search intent. Even with analytics on your side, it can be hard to predict how customers find your website. Search algorithms can also change suddenly and affect your website traffic. As you’re writing copy, take multiple types of search intent into account.

• Weave keywords into your copy thoughtfully. It might be tempting to stuff keywords into every possible place on your website. However, this can backfire and make potential customers feel like they are being given a hard sell or feel inauthentic. Be thoughtful about how you talk about your business and SEO in a natural way.