What is User Intent?

When building a website, it’s easy to get caught up in how it looks. Does your imagery relay your brand’s values? Are you using your brand or logo colours, so the whole thing is easily recognisable as being your brand?

Well, that’s all well and good, but without putting thought into the content of your design, you’re likely to fall a tad short. Sure, your site will look great, but that doesn’t mean it’s doing its job – to generate business between you and the millions of potential users who may stumble across your website.

We often jump right into keywords and search engine optimisation when thinking about who we are aiming to draw in.  That’s a positive step – don’t get us wrong. It’s better to be actively engaged in SEO than to be ignorant of the many benefits it can offer your business.  But if you’re busy pushing your product or service all the time on your website, you might just be doing content marketing, the wrong way.

Too many companies forget that people are, well, people. They rely on search engine traffic with odd phrasing to fit in a keyword they think they should target. They don’t always search with buying in mind – that can happen later, too.

Taking the human element out of the equation will do one of two things to your content:

1. Cause it to lack the usefulness that the consumer is looking for, leading to poor engagement – which in turn contributes to…
2. Cause your website to possibly rank lower than your competitor’s site.

Ever heard the phrase “Write for humans, not for search engines”?  Here’s why that’s so important.

More than ever, Google is focused on user intent. What that means is they want to give the searcher the best experience possible, in line with what their intention is while searching. They now add these elements into measuring search engine placement, as we’ll discuss a bit later.

Three Stages of User Intent

Your journey in optimising for user intent starts with considering your customer’s core purpose when they’re searching for something using a search engine. Search marketers have broken down the motivations of searchers into three core stages of user intent:

• Informational search
• Navigational search
• Transactional search

Let’s take a closer look at each.

Informational searches

Your users will perform an informational search when they are seeking details of something specific.

Here are some examples:

• How old is Big Ben?
• What do bananas smell like?
• What is user design?

Spoiler alert: informational searches are made by users who want information. Ideally, these folks are hoping to find a simple answer to their query. They don’t want to have to chase around the internet to find what they’re looking for.

An interesting recent development is that informational searches are happening more and more in question format. That’s because today, people are using voice search more and more, asking AI assistants questions to search on their behalf. All a bit Blade Runner, isn’t it?! 

In practice though, what this means is that users are asking more sophisticated questions of search engines than was once normal. Where users used to give search engines a bit of leeway and room for machine error by typing in easily parsable phrases such as “time in Egypt”, now they might type in or ask the full question to their voice assisted Alexa or Siri. “What time is it in Egypt right now?”

So, how can you use this information to help your potential customers?

A great way to take advantage of this new wave of user intent is to anticipate your customer’s needs and answer the questions they’re most likely to ask Google. Be the go-to resource for your industry. Create a handy list of commonly asked questions and answers. Build trust by having the answers that they need. To help with this, we often recommend to use the question social network Quora and search for industry-related questions. Usually, the questions that get asked there aren’t adequately answered by Google – which means there’s a good opportunity for you to top the rankings for that question.

Maybe you sell skincare products. You might have a list of ingredients, and the knowledge about what each does. So, you write in detail about it all on your website.

Now, three months down the line, a potential customer asks Alexa “what is Hyaluronic acid?” (for example). Your website comes up, because you’ve got resources that answer those questions. By being the site that offers and anticipates your client’s question and providing them with good answers, you’ve not only built trust but also authority in their eyes. They know you had the information they were looking for. Now, they might just take a glance at your Shop to see whether you’re selling something that appeals. Result – you might just have scored your business a new customer!

Navigational Search and User Intent

Navigational search is somebody seeking direction. Whether they are looking for the location of the nearest Italian restaurant, golf course, or theater, or looking for a specific page in a website, like sitemap for IBM, it’s about trying to pinpoint something.

These are not generally customers in a buying mode. They are looking to discover the answer to their question to get on with whatever they’re doing. Now, had the golf course question been phrased like this: Where is the nearest golf pro shop that sells 9 irons? then you’ve moved into a different motivation for the buyer: transactional.

What is the Transactional Stage of User Intent?

Your potential client has realised they have a problem. They’ve gone in search of information to learn more about it. They are ready to act. They are now in the buyer’s phase or transactional stage of the customer journey.

Examples of transactional searches:

• “Buy car insurance”
• “Start free trial with scheduling software”
• “Get quote from ABC Landscape Design”

These queries all clearly show that the searchers are in a buying stage. They already know what they are seeking. Now they want to purchase it. They’ve narrowed down the choices and are now ready to solve their problem.

By considering user intent in your website content, you’ll be able to not only anticipate and be the resource they’re looking for, you can now target your long tail keywords in a way that makes more sense.

Your competitor may be targeting “car insurance” only (a very broad term, which will have loads of competition), while you’ll know to also target phrases like “car insurance quotes”, “where to buy car insurance”, and like we mentioned above about questions and answers, you might target something like, “do I need car insurance?” or “ways to save money on car insurance” by offering tips on taking a defensive driving course which may offer them a small discount or mention bundling insurance options for a lower price. These are only a few half-baked ideas, but hopefully you get the picture.

You might also consider geographical search terms. A searcher in Manchester might use the specifier “in Manchester” when looking for service providers, assuming their needs will be best serviced by local operators. Are you well-placed to rank for a search like that? Well, if your business is based in Manchester, you really should be!

Why User Intent Matters

There are important reasons to keep user intent at the forefront of any web design plans you may have for your online business.

First, you want to be the most helpful site with the best resources for your potential customers. This builds trust and authority, positioning you better in your customers’ mind. And let’s be honest, people react based on their emotions. If you are helpful to them during their research phase of their buying journey, it builds loyalty.

Secondly, Google says it matters. Okay, other search engines, too, but since Google gets the most user searches, the reality is that we need to pay attention to important changes they make. In any case, they’ve made it clear that they want the user to have the best possible experience when they search for a term or ask a question. Google wants to direct them to the website that can answer their questions and/or give the customer what they’re looking for, without having to jump back and forth between multiple websites. They are paying attention to all the signals your site puts out, whether it’s keywords, semantic phrasing, the data you offer, FAQs, and more.

Key Takeaways:

• When building your website, you’ll want to not only design how it appears, but also consider what your potential customer is looking for. Anticipating their needs sets you up to create helpful information.
• There are three main stages of user intent:
  informational, navigational, and transactional.
• Creating a user-friendly site with the resources your customer needs will help you rank higher in the search engines
• Customers are human. Stop creating webpages for robots and web crawlers, and start building them for your clients. Not only will you offer a better experience, but you’ll be rewarded in your search engine positioning.

It’s no longer a game of who can stuff in their keywords the most times in a piece of content. The dubious practices that (admittedly) used to work to get your site ranking well quickly are now all being penalised. Instead, Google and other search engines want to offer the user the smoothest, easiest experience that answers their questions and helps them find what they need.

If you’re beyond the building phase of your website, take a good look at it and consider how you can improve it to enhance the user experience. Good web design has to take all of this in mind (we conduct this sort of research all of the time on behalf of our clients), with the aim of creating a cohesive package that not only makes your business look good, but also be the best choice for potential customers.

Need help building a website perfectly targeted for different stages of user intent, or want an audit on how well your current website gets the job done? Speak to us.