Why Search Intent Is *EVERYTHING* (if you wanna make sales)
It took me years to understand search intent... but once you get it, it'll completely revolutionise how you run your business.
It'll change how you do keyword research, create content, choose affiliate products and communicate with your audience.
Yes it really is that big of a deal!
But what is it?
Simply put: Search intent is the "WHY" behind the search.
Google performs 8.5 billion searches a day and each and every one of them has a search intent/reason/motivation/goal behind them.
There are 4 main types of search intent:
1) Informational: where searchers just want more info on a specific topic
2) Navigational: where searchers just want to get a certain page or website
3) Commercial: where they're close to buying but need to do a bit of research first
4) Transactional: Credit card in hand, they're ready to buy!
As affiliate marketers looking to make as many sales and commissions as possible, we want to choose more commercial and transactional keywords as these have buyer intent.
So take a look at your current content plan. Are you focusing too much on informational and navigational type posts?
If so, adding more content with commercial and transactional intent will most definitely boost your sales and conversion rates.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this guys! Are you applying the concept of search intent in your business?
Recent Comments
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Great to see Simon now on WA videos too!
The topic you talk in the video is probably the single most important thing in affiliate marketing.
It took me quite a long time originally to understand this thing with affiliate marketing but since I got it made a big difference.
Hey, thanks Roope! Yeah it took me years to "get it" too and realise how fundamental it really is!
Excellent vid Simon and great breakdown of search intent. This ties in very well to the customer purchase lifecycle, and attracting people within the most appropriate phase of that lifecycle to maximize conversions.
For example, someone that is looking to build a business online might start off with a search like "make money", a very generic and early intent search.
The flow of search behaviour as they do research may look like this.
1. "Make Money" (early stage intent)
2. "Ways to Make Money"
3. "Online Money Making Opportunities"
4. "Affiliate Marketing"
5. "Wealthy Affiliate"
6. "Wealthy Affiliate Reviews" (high commercial intent)
If you capture traffic at the "make money" phase it is going to be much more difficult to convert than capturing someone when they have researched the industry, understand how making money online works, understand affiliate marketing, and have product awareness of WA and are ready to make the leap.
Great video, Simon.
When I first started affiliate marketing, I used more commercial and transactional posts, and I made some good sales. Last year I focused more on informational content and my sales decreased. This year I will try adding more transactional posts, it's important to have the right balance.
Right on Jenny, couldn't agree more. It's always good to have a nice mix of content and as I say, you can make sales with informational content as well.
It's always a turn-off for me when I see a site with ONLY review-style posts and no helpful how-tos or anything else.
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Hi Simon,
Superb video. To the point and brief. I didn’t look before at intent from the perspective you shared. I feel the best approach is to write posts that cover each of these 4 categories in a balanced way. To me it seems they should be weighted more heavily towards the 3rd and 4th categories. Can you share what ratio you have used in your websites?
Thanks.
Edwin
Honestly, I've gone all over the place. I used to do 100% reviews (transactional) and now I'm doing about 75% helpful how-tos (informational) with 25% "money keywords". It's working well for me so far.
And you're on the right track - I think a nice mix works well.