What Are Users Intentions With Their Queries
Hi Folks
I read an interesting article today about 'User Intent', and the psychology behind it that you must be aware of. Here is the gist of that article.
If anyone reading this blog has gone through the WA training they will know by now that you must always, and without exception, be writing your articles for users and not search engines.
This is simply because if users like your content, search engines will as well.
You should also always write in a way that meets customers’ needs.
The buyer journey is important, and nowhere is it better reflected than in the queries they make online.
The Do-Know-Go segmentation is very clear on this:
Do: These are your typical transactional queries. The user wants to do something.
For example - buy a new car or hire a contractor to remodel their kitchen.
Know: These are informational queries. The user wants to learn something. A great example would be - Where is the best place to buy a Tuxedo in Edinburgh?
Go: These are navigation queries. The user wants to go to a specific place online.
Have you ever typed Facebook in your browser instead of facebook.com? This is a perfect example of a navigation query. They are also used when you can’t remember the exact website of the company you're looking for.
Depending on the type of query they make, users will be shown different special results.
After all, its Google’s mission to organize the internet and provide relevant results. And users can see this from the first result, special or otherwise.
How You Should Be Creating Your Content
First off, it means that you should know exactly who your target audience is, and where in their buyer journey they are.
For example - Optimizing for 'How To Remodel Your Kitchen' could be a wee bit tricky to find keywords for. Its ok for buyers in the first stages of their journey. You can write a piece that ultimately tells them they should hire you. But keep in mind that this is an informational query and you may end up with readers that are set on DIY.
If you're a contractor and you want to cater to people in the first stages of the buying cycle, a better keyword phrase would be 'Top Kitchen Trends Of 2019'.
For other stages of the buying cycle, you should optimize locally, and make sure to add a variable.
Example: Edinburgh Luxury Kitchen Remodelling Contractor, Edinburgh Cheap Kitchen Remodel.
Its not hard to write for user intent folks. All it takes is for you to put a little thought behind it before you create your article.
Anyone with any other tips to pass on to the membership can of course do so via a comment below.
Have a great day and be successful.
Robert Allan
Recent Comments
39
We must always remember that we are sharing, with real people, behind every screen!
I liked the breakdowns, and visual help, with most learning styles.
Good post, Robert!
Barb
Hi Barbara and thank you for dropping by.
Hope you took away a tip or two from the blog that will help you.
Enjoy your Friday and the weekend to come.
Robert
Hello Fran, thank you for stopping by.
Yes indeed, there are all sorts of things to learn and take heed of and a lot of the time we will get it wrong simply because we don't have enough info.
So what do we do?
We go on the internet and conduct our own search and Google gives us the results based on our own query.
Was it the right info we where looking for?
Was our intent clear enough?
You can see where I'm going with this and if not then read the blog again lol.
Have a good one Fran.
Robert
Robert, thank you for this. I honestly not thought of segmented searching before this, at least not very thoroughly. This is a great example that I'll keep in mind. All the best.
Hi Tim, thank you for reading.
Always best to bookmark the blogs you know will help you later on.
Enjoy your day.
Robert
I admit to often having a fairly loose concept of my users, always tending more towards "people interested in topic x" than thinking much about gender, age, nationality. One blog post that did well with users was related to the forest fires in the western US, where interest was quite emotional.
Yes, forest fires can be quite emotional. I grew up in Oregon and was quite concerned about the Eagle Creek fire which burned 50,000 acres and took 3 months to contain. I was concerned because not only was it within 25 miles of my boyhood home, it burned in the Columbia River Gorge.
Hello Rosana and thank you for reading.
I'm afraid being over here in the UK I didn't hear about the forest fires but you're right it could have been distressing to a lot of people.
Thank you for reading my blog and have a great Thursday.
Robert
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Thank you for sharing Robert I really appreciate the helpful information.
All the best and have a great day
Jennifer
No probs Jennifer and thank you for reading.
Hope your day is going well.
Onwards and upwards.
Robert
Thank you Robert
Yes onward and upwards
Have a great weekend
Jennifer
You as well
Thank you