Keyword Intent: The Key to Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Website

You always have an intention behind searching for something on the search engine, no?

Like, say you want to buy shoes. So you search on Google “Where can I buy shoes online?”

And your search results look somewhat like this:

screenshot of google search on how can I buy shoes online

Now, if you decode this search result, you’ll see websites which you can buy shoes from. You got exactly what you wanted. This is because of keyword intent.

Let’s understand more.

What Is Keyword Intent?

Keyword intent refers to the purpose or goal behind what people enter into a search engine like Google. In other words, it's the reason why someone is searching for something online.

Think about your intention behind searching “where to buy shoes online” on Google.

You searched that because you wanted to know which websites you could buy shoes from. This was your intention. And we know this because of keyword intent. The same way the product pages and e-commerce platforms that ranked on the search result knew by adding keywords with similar intent on their pages.

Why is Keyword Intent Important?

Understanding keyword intent can help you create more effective content, marketing, and advertising campaigns, as well as improve the user experience on your website. And when it comes to SEO, keyword intent is the most important concept to keep in mind.

Why?

Keyword Intent Improves User Experience:

It helps you better meet your users' needs and tailor your content to match their needs. By understanding the intent behind a search query, you can create content that meets the needs and expectations of the person searching. This can lead to a better user experience as you give them exactly what they ask for.

For example,

You want to find a digital marketing course that offers placement, so you search on Google, “digital marketing course with placement ”.

And this comes up:

Screenshot Demonstration of keyword intent being used by Kraftshala

Since you got exactly what you wanted, your chances of getting convinced are higher. And this, in turn, reduces bounce rates, improves user engagement, and increases the chances of conversions.

Keyword Intent Sets the Base for Your Blog

By understanding the intent behind the keywords and phrases used by your target audience, you can create blog content that is more likely to meet their needs and interests. This can help you create content that is more relevant, engaging, and useful to your readers.

And you know what this leads to, right? Increased traffic, engagement, and conversion! But there’s more.

Keyword intent can also help you select topics for your content strategy.

Identifying the intent behind popular keywords and phrases can help you identify popular topics and trends within your industry. This allows you to select topics that your target audience will resonate with and drive more traffic to your blog.

For example, our audience had doubts regarding part-time courses since that’s a less explored area.

Keyword Intent to help give ideas for blog topics

And through this, we found an opportunity to use this as a topic for our blog on "should I take up a part-time digital marketing course ".

Everything Eventually Leads to More Traffic and Conversions and Growth

As you target your audience better by applying keyword intent through blogs, and product pages, Google treats you as a useful commodity to rank higher on search results. And this improves your search engine rankings and drives more traffic to your website.

So now that you understand the impact, let’s explore the different types of keyword intent.

What Are the Types of Keywords Intent?

Informational Intent Keywords:

As the name suggests, here, the user is trying to find information on something - it could be a concept, a product category, or a service that they are interested in. They want to know more about them as they are probably interested in them.

In the consumer acquisition funnel - informational keywords belong to the top of the funnel - in the awareness stage.

And our main objective here is to get people to read our content in terms of blogs and help them grasp the information that we provide.

Some keywords with an informational intent start with:

How to…
Why…
What…
Best way to…
History…

For example,

Let's say that you wrote a blog on the kind of hair care products that reduce hair fall for Mamaearth. Your intent is now to get people who are interested in knowing how to reduce hair fall, meaning that you want to provide that information.

What will make your target audience come to your blog? Keywords that contain the objective of your blog, i.e., “Hair Care Products That Reduce Hair Fall”. Or "how to reduce hair fall" as they all contain the primary intent - reduce hair fall.

Consideration Intent Keywords:

Keywords with a consideration intent lie in the consideration stage. We can predict that the user is now convinced about a purchase decision but still needs reassurance about their decision.

In the consumer acquisition funnel, transactional intent keywords fall into the consideration stage.

Some keywords with a transactional intent start with:

Reviews of…
… vs … (Eg: Mamaearth vs Plum Goodness)
Best…
Top 10…

For example,

Say the user has read the blog you wrote about hair fall and hair care products. Now, they’ve almost decided to go with the Essential Anti-Hair Fall Kit . But they need a nudge to act on the decision they’ve almost made.

Here come the content pieces that cater to keywords with transactional intent.

For the user to absolutely buy the Mamaearth product, they will go on to search “reviews of Essential Anti-Hair Fall Kit”. Or they might even search “top 10 anti-hair fall products”.

Purchase Intent Keywords:

This type of keyword intent is a high intent keyword where the consumer is sure that they want to make a purchase.

Purchase intent keywords cater to the conversion stage of the consumer acquisition funnel - simply because people in this stage are most likely to commit to their purchase decision.

Some keywords with a purchase intent start with:

Buy
Join
Subscribe

An example:

Now, the user has gone through your blog about hair loss treatment for Mamaearth. They’ve also researched enough on which product suits them best to cure hair loss.

That way, your goal should be to make them "buy" your product. So "buy anti-hair fall products" becomes a keyword with the right intent that you use.

A pointer here: We could have used "buy" as a keyword too. But "buy" as a stand-alone word could mean anything. It could mean "buy a course" or "buy a book". It loses its meaning. And that's why we added a context to the keyword which is relevant to what you are offering, i.e., anti-hair fall products.

Navigational Intent Keywords:

Take the word ‘navigation’ at its face value. The word means - the process of following a route or a map.

Now, a user with a navigational intent knows what they are looking for. They know exactly what they want and who they want it from. So when they search for a specific product or service, they even go to the lengths of including the brand name they want the product or service from.

In the consumer acquisition funnel, the keywords with navigational intent fall into the bottom of the funnel category - the loyalty stage. And this is exactly what brands aim to reach.

And all you need to make sure of is when the user searches specifically for you, you need to be present there and they should land on your site. Your goal should be to rank in the top 3 for the keywords with a navigational intent.

For example,

Let’s consider that the user who researched anti-hair fall products finally bought your product - Essential Anti-Hair Fall Kit . After using your product, they liked it and wanted to purchase the same product again.

What will their route of purchasing the product be?

It’s likely that they’ll search for “Mamaearth Essential Anti-Hair Fall Kit” this time. And this is the keyword you should absolutely rank for.

Like this:

Navigational Keyword Intent for Mamaearth

Keyword Intent

Keywords