One question that often comes up is what do you mean a keyword has intent?
Answer
A keyword that has intent is simply a specific keyword that directs the Google searcher to a page that offers the exact solution to their problem.
Explanation
If you choose keywords that aren’t relevant to the service, you will struggle to rank. If you do choose keywords that are relevant to the page, but don’t have intent, you may find that your traffic increases significantly but your revenue does not. This is because you are drawing in the right audience, but not necessarily the ones that want to buy.
If we think of this by looking at a business in the car industry, you may think that ‘cars’ is a relevant keyword. Afterall, they are selling cars. If you take a minute to consider this, however, you will realise that although it does have 301k searches per month they will come from a large generic pool of Googlers. This could include:
- People interested in looking at pictures of cars
- People looking for the film Cars
- People looking for toy cars
If you were to narrow this down to cars for sale which have 246k searches per month, your traffic potential will be lower but you’re choosing a keyword that has higher intent. This means your chances of converting are higher.
At this stage, you may wish to go further and add a location to increase the intent. Cars for sale in Leicester has 2900k searches per month, but you are now hitting a customer base close to you that is looking for cars for sale. Again, the traffic will be lower than if you were to rank for cars, but your audience is more specific and is more likely to purchase.
It is important to get as granular as you can as the more specific you are, the more likely you are to sell. The above example can go even further and include the car’s state (new or used). This then directs the searcher to a page that specifically sells what they are looking for.
One of the biggest mistakes online marketers can make when starting their SEO campaign is choosing keywords that are relevant but aren’t necessarily going to convert. The aim of any online marketing activity is to generate revenue. This applies to lead generation businesses, e-commerce businesses and even charities in the form of donations.
If these insights have resonated with you, it is worth auditing your website. We can complete an audit for you if you feel an outsiders eye would find hidden gems that you may have missed. By populating your web pages with keywords that are highly relevant to the customers you serve, you can maximise the amount of revenue that can be gained through the organic search channel.
