Optimising Your Website for Search Intent
As a business, you want more customers.
First of all, your site has to attract more people, and more importantly the right people.
One of the first steps to doing this is to understand the concept of search intent.
In its most basic and powerful form, search intent is when someone carries out a specific search on the internet. We probably do it several times a day and don’t even think about it.
As we know, searching for an answer to a question is the main reason folks go online however therein lies the problem: there are countless different types of searches!
Google has been working hard on this, altering its algorithms to work out how people search. The other side of this is that Google wants to ensure it gets the best match to a search by finding that article, content, post, landing page or similar.
Helping Your Understand ‘Searching’
This blog will uncover the following key elements:
- It will reveal four different types of online searches
- It will give you some ideas as to how to optimise your site for these searches
- It will dispel a myth about selling
Drilling Down
So, we understand the concept and basically, this is how Google operates. This powerful search engine wants to give its users the best experience in finding the best answer in the best time to a user’s query.
Yet to help you climb those Google search rankings, you need to know the different types of search that people do.
These can be broken down into four main areas, although it is safe to say that there will be overlaps with them.
I Want My (Potential Customers) To Find My Products
Well, ultimately you do, of course.
However, you have to be careful that your content matches the intentions of the searcher. This is the trickiest part.
As well as optimising your site for search intent with SEO (Digital Zest can do this for you), you might also want to consider other tools, such as landing pages, newsletter sign-ups and optimising your product pages.
I Just Want to Sell My Stuff!
Naturally, any business needs to sell its products and services.
However, in order to do this successfully, you need to get more traffic to your website or eCommerce platform first.
This will increase the chances of visitors converting into a loyal customer.
Search Categories
Earlier in this blog, we’ve mentioned there are four different types of search.
Let’s tackle three of the first and we’ll touch upon the fourth one later in this article.
Commercial or consumer search: you need a new car; you’re looking for a good vacuum cleaner; you are looking to book a holiday … these searches would, in the main, be a purchase that would need some time to ‘bed in’. A customer might search for some time for a car that suits their needs (size of the car; price; hybrid etc).
Transactional: for eCommerce businesses, this is the biggie. This is usually when a customer is ready to purchase or buy.
Don’t Forget Your Keywords …
While we are discussing how people search on the web, the key is to anticipate these searches by considering which keywords will ‘fit the bill’.
We’ll give you some examples to help you.
Digital Zest has considerable expertise in this area, and we can research, and refine the best keyword search terms.
For someone wish to make a transaction, they might use words like a discount or buy.
If they are searching for information, for example, if they want to install a roller blind, they might type in: ‘how to’, or ‘the best way to’ …
May The Fourth Be With You
Navigational searches: usually when a customer is looking for a specific website.
Information searches: Broad and vast, this is when a customer is looking for information. From the films of Keanu Reeves to where to find a great web design agency, Google is very clever here. So, if you search for example, what is a Venetian blind, Google will also throw up informative, related results such as a video of ‘how to fit a window blind.’
Now, why not give us a call?
There’s a lot to take in here and there are many ways that you can improve and optimise. And you don’t need to do this by yourself.
Give us a call today on 0330 900 1633 to find out how we can do all this … and more … for you!