Developing an effective content strategy involves crafting pieces with appealing and brand-aligned design, a communication tone that mirrors the brand’s personality, and utilizing the right channels, among other factors that are crucial to its success.
One of these factors is considering the user’s search intent. By understanding their intent, we can comprehend their needs and provide appropriate content at the right moment, thus guiding them through the conversion funnel.
What is Search Intent?
Search intent refers to the type of results that a user expects to find when conducting a search on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any social media platform’s search engine. The user may not know the specific information they are seeking, but they have clarity regarding the type of information they desire.
For instance, if a user searches for “the most luxurious car in the world,” they expect to find a result that specifies this vehicle, where it is located, who owns it, and all the information about this search term. Therefore, a website selling cars would go unnoticed since it does not meet their immediate requirement.
When we comprehend and consider the user’s search intent, we can plan and produce content that meets the needs of the target audience, attracting more traffic and establishing a stronger bond with the audience.
Building on the previous example, let’s say you have an auto accessories store. How can you leverage the search term “the world’s most luxurious car”? You could craft a blog post on your website, produce a TikTok video, or create an infographic for an Instagram carousel.
Within these posts, you can include information about accessories such as luxury rims or cutting-edge sound systems available in your store. This way, you’re providing the information the user is seeking and equipping them with resources to advance through the conversion funnel.
Es importante que al desarrollar tu contenido, ya sea en tu sitio web o en redes sociales, analices las palabras clave que vas a utilizar, pues más allá de tener un buen volúmen de búsqueda, debes entender con qué intención de búsqueda están asociadas para darle al usuario el contenido que espera encontrar.
When developing your content, whether on your website or social media, it’s crucial to analyze the keywords you’ll use. Beyond just having a high search volume, you must understand the search intent associated with them to provide users with the content they expect to find.
Types of Search Intent
There are four groups into which we divide users’ search intent: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial. Each has unique characteristics, so it’s essential to create specific content that aligns with their individual properties.
- Informational: This arises when users seek further details about a topic, usually in response to queries such as what, how, when, where, why, examples, tips, etc. Examples could include “how to replace an electric shower” or “2016 Oscar winner for Best Picture”.
- Navigational: Users are aware of the website they want to visit and the information they require, but they use the search engine because they either don’t know or don’t remember the URL of their destination. This type of search typically includes keywords such as product names, brand names, or website names. For example: “Instagram Login” or “Nexgard Flea Control”.
- Transactional: In this kind of search, the user intends to purchase a product or service but doesn’t have a specific store in mind to acquire it. Examples of such searches could include searches like “personal branding courses in Bogota” or “Buy iPhone 15”.
- Commercial: In this search type, the user is aware of what they want to purchase but seeks information to help them in the decision-making process. For instance, searches such as “Oppo Reno 11 review” or “Best smartwatches 2024” are of this nature.
In addition to this categorization, we can group search intentions into two major types: explicit intentions and fractured intentions. Let me explain what each entails:
- Explicit Intentions
This category of search refers to precise terms that users can search into Google according to their needs, and match search results. For example, if someone is searching for Nike Air Force 1 sneakers in size 8.5 US in white color, it represents an explicit intention.
Within this group, we can identify commercial search intent, as it includes keywords with brand names and more specific specifications. Content targeted towards making a purchase should be created within this group.
- Fractured Intentions
This refers to ambiguous or open-ended terms that facilitate the exploration of communication models with diverse content. This type of intention has broad match, as it does not refer to anything specific.
Within this category, we can group informational, navigational, and transactional intentions to create content that assists users in finding what they are looking for to address their needs. In this group, it’s essential to generate consideration content that enables users to move towards making a purchase.
This is how you should structure your content according to search intent:
Considering search intent allows you to devise and implement a content strategy suitable for SEO, paid media, advertising, and organic content on social media. Remember, people don’t just search on Google; they also do so on other platforms.
To structure your content according to search intent, it’s important to map out the conversion funnel with a deep understanding of the user through the buyer persona, the customer journey, and the empathy map.
Taking this into account, we should understand that fractured intent represents the awareness and consideration stages, whereas explicit intent refers to
the moment of purchase. Therefore, a good proportion would be 90% of content geared towards understanding and 10% towards making a purchase.
Why does this ratio seem unbalanced? It’s because the most effective way to get a user to encourage a user to make a purchase isn’t by constantly bombarding them with price, product, discount, and location information. Instead, the most effective way to convince them is through content tailored to their needs, helping them understand that our product or service has the features to fully satisfy them.
