Do you truly know your users? A brief introduction of search intent

As digital marketing becomes increasingly popular, a large number of companies are focusing their marketing strategies on optimizing online marketing. How can you make your website provide useful information that will convince your target audience to spend money or repurchase on your website? An essential element is understanding the search intent of your users.

When the search engine receives the search information provided by users, the search engine will be classified according to the search query. Query interpretations fall into three categories:

• Dominant Interpretations: Most users want to find a particular target. Eg. Most users searching “Auckland” for the city.
• Common Interpretations: Search queries may contain multiple interpretations. For example, the users type a search query “kiwi” which can be either kiwi fruits or kiwi birds.
• Minor Interpretations: Less common interpretation, usually related to locale and context.

These three categories help merchants understand search intent, especially for content creators. Please remember that keywords and jargon really can help your rank, but content should not only be relevant but also be satisfied with the search intent of users.

What is search intent?

Search intent can be described as the reason behind users’ search for a specific query, word or phrase. In other words, why are they searching? In General, the types of search intent contain navigation, information, transaction, and business.

Search intent and search query

The users enter a question, phrase, or keyword in the search box. Depended on this information, the search query will generate a list of results that users can quickly choose the matched information they need.

Why is it important to understand users’ search intent?

There is a common question about search intent that a search query may include multiple meanings. For example, users may be seeking pictures of kiwi birds, comparing prices of kiwi fruits, or learning more about New Zealanders when they search the word ‘kiwi’.

For users, they desire to search for accurate and practicable information. In the same way, merchants that attempt to appeal to the target users need to provide them with valuable information. For instance, if users are searching for “McDonald’s Auckland” or “Burgers Melbourne”, they are most likely looking for a nearby fast-food shop, instead of the HQ of McDonald in the US. If the information of your store appears on the Google Search engine results page (SERP), there is a high probability that users will go and complete the transactions.

How to understand users’ search intent?

Marketers always adopt ‘Do-Know-Go’ to try to understand the search intent of users. According to the type of sentence search queries, there are roughly three categories.

Do: Generally, for transactions, users complete a purchase or booking service online. Eg: a user buys a ticket to Brisbane. Modifying keywords include ‘buy’, ‘order’, ‘coupons’ etc.

Know: Users search for more relevant information on a particular topic. Eg: The history of the Sydney Opera House. Modifying keywords include ‘how’ ‘what’, or ‘tips’ etc.

Go: Users try to visit a website. It belongs to the navigational category. Eg: After searching for ‘Webzilla’, users can directly access the Webzilla official website. Modifying keywords include ‘name of a brand’, ‘name of products’, or ‘name of a service’ etc.

In 2015, Google introduced the concept of the “micro-moment,” which emphasizes merchants need to focus on consumers’ interests and concerns and be able to communicate them clearly and effectively. With “voice search” on the rise, merchants are requested to understand the demand of users and optimize their voice search and mobile marketing strategies to win every “micro-moment” of consumers.

In addition to SEO, search intent is also an integral part of digital marketing. Merchants should spend some time optimizing their website by studying the search query that their target users are likely to enter. If you would like to improve your content or learn more about how search intent applies in practice, please contact Webzilla today, our professional and experienced digital marketing specialists will help you!