Search intent has become a hot phrase in the past year. I just want to touch on it a bit. Some of it seems obvious, but it is good to understand to properly approach your keyword strategy properly, especially for small businesses. Though we all want the success at the end of the tunnel, sometimes focusing on the highest search volume keywords is inefficient and a more painful tactic. Moz has a great deep dive on search intent that you can check out here, but I just want to touch on a few points that I think people sometimes misunderstand or don’t understand when it comes to search intent.
Why Does Search Intent Matter for Your Small Biz?
In the Moz example linked to above, they talk about the search phrase “log cabin”. When people use broad searches like that, Google has the difficult task of basically answering “what are you getting at?”. Do they want to stay in a log cabin? Do they want to build a log cabin? Do they want the log cabin condiment? Perhaps they just want pictures of log cabins?
This brings us to a phrase that has been around for the nearly 20 years I have worked on SEO. Long-tail keywords. These are basically referring to more specific searches that show more user intent. Applied to the above, longer tail search phrases that might not be searched as often, but may show what the user wants a bit more, would be “log cabin rentals”, or “log cabin pictures”. Just adding that one extra word gives us a huge clue as to what the intent is. A small business renting log cabins is far more interested in the “rentals” search than the “pictures” search.
Dangers of Chasing The Highest Volume Keywords Only
Typically the terms that are searched the most are the hardest to rank for. I learned very on in my career that everybody comes to you wanting to rank #1 for the most searched keywords. In Google Ads and Pay Per Click search advertising, you can do that immediately. It costs money, but you can directly rank for those high volume terms right away. For SEO, it takes work. Even more these days, you have to build site and topic authority and will typically rank for less popular keywords first, on your path to success. These days, it is almost a required path. But for a business stepping to SEO, it is better to start generating some traffic for relevant keywords than to generate nothing, so you find lower-hanging fruit that can get you in front of customers sooner.
The good news is just switching from targeting “log cabin” to “log cabin rentals in New Hampshire” would drastically change your competitive landscape. You have gotten closer to your true market (if you provide log cabins rentals in New Hampshire) and eliminated a large number of potential competitors. As SEO has evolved though, things have gotten even more competitive for these longer tail keywords and the ones that really convert tend to need to have supporting content on your site to help you rank for the bread and butter terms. This is what “topic authority” is about. You can learn more about topic authority here, but it essentially means that Google trusts that your website has shown itself to be trustworthy, by having a lot of “helpful content” (literally the accepted name of Google algorithm updates) around a subject area. For small businesses chasing the direct terms that convert the most directly, it is better to build a foundation on your website by providing that “helpful content” with lots of information that helps your user believe that you are the best solution to their problem.
Helpful Content is the Foundation for Conversion Intent Keywords
So though it is not obvious to many, the best path to rank for those conversion keywords is to also write content that helps answer, and ranks for, those less straightforward searches people have as they are researching before making purchases. Moz gets into “commercial research” intent as a separate category from “transactional intent”. But if you capture the user in their research phase, Google and the user may like you better because you have already helped them along the way. One way we help clients with this is to help them answer FAQ’s or write blog posts based on the People Also Ask questions from Google. These are research intent phrases like “how much”, “how long”, “What is the difference”, etc. that people tend to ask before they settle on their purchase decision. If you can answer and rank for these searches, then you are already there for them when they are ready to pull the trigger on the purchase. They may even go back directly to your site or you may convince them just from that content to buy right away. I always say remove the hurdles people may have to buying. Can they trust you? Do you deal with their specific issue? Do they understand how much it costs and why? Do you have a history of success? Are you qualified? All of these are supporting content you provide to build the foundation to start ranking for the higher volume and higher converting, more broadly searched terms.
If you need help with your search strategy, please give us a call. We have been successfully helping small businesses get found for nearly 20 years and have a 5-star Google review average.
