Understanding Search Intent: The Key to SEO Success

So listen. There’s an SEO fundamental that’s probably the most important thing, yet 99% of SEOs get it wrong – and some even ignore it. I’m talking about search intent. So it’s like this: we have a plant that’s rooted in fertile soil. Let’s call this your content – it’s foundational.

And then we have sunlight. It provides energy for the plant’s health, just like backlinks do for your site’s organic rankings. Now, despite having fertile soil and an abundance of sunlight, something crucial is missing. Water… Without it, our plant wilts – its leaves lose their luster. And growth.

.. not happening! Water is like search intent in the world of SEO. When your content doesn’t align with the searcher’s intent, your SEO efforts, much like our plant, aren’t going to make it.

And that’s because Google’s job is to give the best results for any given query.

Now, I’m going to show you how to use intent to improve your content and boost your Google rankings. But first, we need to unpack the core problem here: why aren’t SEOs getting intent right? And the answers I have might surprise you because our inability to “get it right” isn’t always our fault. But first, let’s tackle an issue that is fully in our control – laziness.

Even though we know search intent is important, we often race past this step and choose one of two lazy routes.

The Lazy Routes in SEO

Lazy route 1: We search for our target keyword. Look at the titles and think… easy. Create a blog post recommending a list of these products. Tons of experience here.

Lazy route 2: [Hmmm… Is it informational or commercial?] [Really? I think it’s transactional.] [Mmmm..

. Let’s just write down all 3.] So why is it that when we’re doing SEO, we look at intent for seconds or max… a few minutes? Understanding search intent is doing due diligence. And if you’re passing this step off as a secondary priority, no wonder we miss the mark.

And while laziness can be fixed by being proactive and using the tips I’ll share in a bit, the same can’t be said for reason two which is that search intent changes.

The Ever-Changing Nature of Search Intent

Take the keyword “how to sanitize” as an example. In March 2019, the search results were mostly about cleaning and sanitizing your kitchen because of things like raw meat. But today, intent has more to do with disinfecting your home and your phone because of COVID. Now, people’s interests change; world events happen; and therefore, Google adapts and changes the search results to give the searcher what they want then and there.

And while we can simply update our pages to better match intent when this happens, there’s a bigger reason we can’t get intent right… and it’s kind of out of our control.

The Nuanced Nature of Searcher Intent

And that’s the fact that searcher intent is extremely nuanced. Take the query, “landscaping ideas” as an example. If we go with lazy route one, we’ll look at the titles of the top results, and immediately assume… yes! We need to create a roundup post with a billion ideas that’ll end up being 40,000 words that no one wants to read.

Or if we go with lazy route 2, we’ll look at the SERP and determine that this query is purely informational because people are just looking for ideas. But I don’t think that’s the case. Look at the top of the SERP. There’s a huge image pack, suggesting that most people don’t care what you have to say. They want to see ideas for inspiration.

And when you click on the top ranking page called “75 landscaping ideas you’ll love”, it’s not a roundup post – it’s like a Pinterest board filled with images. And if we go back to the SERP and scroll down a bit, you’ll see these product results, suggesting that there is some kind of commercial intent to this topic. And this is just my 30-second interpretation which I’m sure some others might disagree with.

How to Leverage Search Intent for SEO Success

Now, even though “intent” can’t be classified into a one-size-fits-all bucket, it doesn’t mean we should just give up or settle for the bare minimum. Because here’s the deal: Intent should be what guides the things you’ll include in your content.

Not only will this help you rank higher in search engines, but you’ll be in a better position to convert visitors into customers because you’re giving them what they want. And because you’re satisfying intent, trust is built, and you have an opportunity to direct them to whatever you think they’d want or need next.

And while some of you may continue to pass off search intent as a secondary priority, those that spend a disproportionate amount of time to deeply understand who your audience is and who is actually visiting your pages will get a sneaky edge over the competition. So, here’s how you can do that.

Analyzing Google Search Results Pages

First, pay attention to everything you see in the Google search results pages.

So let’s look at the SERP again for “landscaping ideas”. And I want you to look at two things on this page. #1 are the top results. These are examples of what Google believes to be the best match for the query. And I’ll expand on this a bit later because the place you should start is on thing #2 which are SERP features.

SERP features often get ignored, but they can actually tell us a lot about micro nuances to intent.

For example, at the top, we have this massive image pack, which again, hints that searchers want visual content. So make your page very visually appealing. Now, this box right here called People also ask can be very insightful too. Because when you look for “themes” and pair it with some common sense, you can begin to understand the searcher’s desires of where they are in their informational or buying journeys or where they might want to go.

So, in this case, we have two that are about cheap ways to do landscaping – meaning, people are ready to spend money. Then there’s this one about principles, which suggests that we may have DIYers who are beginners to landscaping – hoping to learn best practices. And then this one on “low maintenance” ideas suggests that people want easy “set it and forget it” ideas. These all sound like perfectly reasonable things to keep in mind when creating our post. Now, scrolling down, we see these product recommendations which suggests that there is commercial intent to buy things like books and done for you options like raised garden beds or landscape designs.

And when we hit the bottom of the search results, you’ll see that pretty much all of the guesses we’ve made are further validated in the related searches box.

Taking a Deep Dive into Top-Ranking Pages

“Cheap,” “low maintenance,” “pictures,” “simple,” and this new one catches my eye too: “for small spaces.” We’ve basically just brainstormed what we need to include in our post, how it should be presented, and who we’re going to be writing for. And the SERP was basically our guide to getting a high-level overview of this. Now, if you think that we’ve uncovered some interesting things here, you’ll be amazed at what you can find when analyzing the top-ranking pages.

Again, the top 3 pages are Google’s picks for what they believe to be the best match for a given query. And so you should be studying what these pages are doing. What are they talking about? Are there common themes? Who are they speaking to?

And do any of these things support what we learned from SERP features?

Now, doing this manually isn’t very fun at all. So you can actually use ChatGPT to do it faster and perhaps even more accurately than we can. Just use this prompt: “Can you visit these pages and tell me commonalities between them?” – and then I’ll list the top 3 URLs.

And the response here is super-interesting. It says that the top-ranking page emphasizes the importance of low maintenance options like succulents, bushes or hedges. It also says to consider climate, budget, and available space – so basically more support of the things we learned from the SERP. Now, because ChatGPT wasn’t able to access the other pages, we can either manually try and decipher the nuances of the other pages or use Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer in conjunction with ChatGPT.

So I’ll start by searching for “landscaping ideas”, go to the Related terms report and then hit the “Also talk about” tab, which shows us popular queries that the top-ranking pages are talking about.

I’ll export the list, go back to ChatGPT and say: “Using this list of keywords, what are some important landscaping ideas I can include in my blog post for an audience that’s budget-conscious, wants low-maintenance options, and is more likely beginners?” Paste in the list, hit Return, and now I’ve got some great ideas that I think will be useful to searchers. And ChatGPT can even give you an idea of what this will look like. Nice!

Now, simply knowing what searchers want won’t be enough.

You have to actually structure, write, and design your piece to create a great user experience for your visitors. If you want to see what this intent-first approach looks like in action and how it can boost your organic rankings, then watch my video on how I tried to rank a blog post #1 in under 24 hours.