The Secret to Decoding User Search Intent Examples

How to Decode Your Visitors’ Search Intent – How to Boost Your Revenue? With the Google search generative experience, which I’ve tested out by the way. Let me share with you that the user search Intent examples, which are already an important part of getting ranked on search engines, are going to be even more important than ever.

And I know you might ask our opinion if SEO is dead after all these AI changes coming to us. And I can honestly tell you that SEO is more alive than ever. For this you must see a post about WordPress SEO Tutorial for 2024, This post will walk you through SEO Complete for WordPress.

Yes, there are huge changes to how we operate as search engine professionals. Some of us are going to get affected, but overall, it’s going to benefit people searching for stuff, businesses that pay attention to SEO and their overall marketing strategy, as well as site owners who can adapt to the changes.

And it all starts with understanding the search intent of the searcher and knowing what keywords to target as a business to boost your revenue. So in this blog post, I will share with you how to decode your visitors’ search intents so you know how to tackle their problems and turn them into a customer in this new environment.

Customer Journey

All right, before we talk about search Intent and keywords, we’ve got to talk about a concept called the Customer Journey. From how a person who doesn’t know anything about your product, to discovering of your product, to researching about it, making a decision to buy it, to testing and experiencing the product, and finally to becoming a loyal customer of your brand or company. This is the concept that most marketers use to help them develop marketing strategies to drive sales.

“Depending on the phase in which the searcher finds himself, he wants information, then solutions, and finally certain products to buy. Here, the search intent types play a role, which can theoretically be arranged in a certain sequence. A trigger ensures that a user enters a research process, which can begin at different stages of the customer journey depending on the level of knowledge.”

What is search Intent?

And what is search intent? It is not something new. I’m pretty sure all of us search for something at least once every single day. Be it looking for information, looking for products, doing research, or whatever. But the reason you are searching for something is what we call Search Intent.

SEO.HELP article says “User intent plays a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO) as it directly impacts the relevancy and effectiveness of your content.”There are basically four types of search intent.

In the case of Apple, the informational search query could be How does the ECG feature work on the Apple Watch?
And the Search intent is basically to get information about the ECG feature in an Apple Watch.
Or in the case of Rank Math, an informational search query could be “How does a WordPress SEO plugin work?”
The Search intent is to know more about how a WordPress SEO plugin may benefit a business.

Then there are commercial keywords. In the case of the Apple Watch, a search query may be “Apple Watch Series 6 vs Apple Watch SE”. The search intent of the person is to identify which Apple Watch is more suitable for that person.

And in the case of Rank Math. A commercial search query could be “Rank Math vs Yoast” and that person searching for such a keyword is trying to identify if Rank Math is better or more suitable than Yoast for that person’s site. People searching for these keywords have buying intentions. I’ll let you know how this sets in the customer journey in a while. Then we have the transactional keywords

like in the case of Apple Watch, it will be “buy Apple Watch Series 6 online”. Or in the case of Rank Math, it might be by Rank Math Pro. People searching for transactional keywords typically know what they want to buy already. And then we have navigational keywords like Apple Watch support or Rank Math support.

Navigational keywords are when someone is trying to find a specific page, be it your company information, product tutorials, guides, etc.

Customer Journey + Search Intent

So when it comes to combining search intent with the customer journey, informational search intent addresses the awareness stage. However, not many keywords will lead customers towards the next stage. Like for example the keyword “Is WordPress SEO important”. This keyword doesn’t necessarily bring people to the next stage of the customer journey unless a person finds a need to. Or a keyword like “Should I hire an SEO expert?”

May not lead people to the next stage of buyers’ journey for Rank Math, but may lead people to the next stage for an SEO agency. Then the commercial keywords address the consideration stage. But again, not all keywords lead people to the next stage. Maybe some will lead people to other brands. Like: Best WordPress SEO plugins” or Rank Math vs Yoast. And then transactional keywords address the decision stage like “buy Coleman Montana 8”, which is a camping tent brand, or “buy Rank Math Pro”.

Basically, all transactional keywords help a customer purchase your product because they know what they want and for navigational keywords. Not all, but some keywords serve your existing customers in the retention stage, like “how to set up Coleman Montana 8” or “how to use Rank Math product schema”. When we talk about boosting your revenue through search intent or keywords, we are basically focusing on keywords relating to these three stages.

Real-life User search intent Example

Let me walk you through an example. Real-life Example Say, I’m using the Samsung S20 phone. It is an old phone. The last time I dropped it, I couldn’t use the back camera function anymore. True story. But I have no intention of buying another phone because I rather use the back camera function anyway.

But somehow, somewhere, maybe Facebook, TikTok, Samsung, or whoever is tracking me started displaying ads related to Samsung S23 and iPhone 14. When I searched for keywords like “how to repair a Samsung S20 camera”, Google started displaying ads for the Samsung S23. So I got to get one of those man. In terms of Apple and Samsung’s customer journey, I am in the awareness stage. Now for the following stages as a potential customer, I still don’t know if the Samsung S23 is better or the iPhone 14 is better.

So every stage of the customer journey, I’ll be searching different keywords, but the search intent for each stage is clear.
For example, in the consideration stage, I will probably be searching for keywords like “Is iPhone 14 good?”, “iPhone 14 vs iPhone 14 Pro” “Samsung S23 vs iPhone 14 Pro”, “Samsung S23 vs S23 plus versus S23 ultra.

At this stage, all the keywords I’ll be searching for will help me make a decision on what product to buy. So the search intent is basically to know if I should buy this or that product. And, when I shift to the next stage, the decision stage, I will already know what product to buy. Let’s say that I’ve decided to buy just the normal Samsung S23 because I don’t need the additional functions and I don’t need a huge phone. So I will probably search for keywords like “best place to buy Samsung S23” or “cheapest Samsung S23”, or “Samsung S23 discount code”.

You get the idea. The search intent is I want to buy a Samsung S23 at the best price. If you are a business owner, a marketer, or a site owner, understanding search intent and where they belong to your customer journey is going to be more important than ever because of the Google search generative experience.

Current Search Environment

Let me do one example in the current search environment to explain the search intent and then I will switch to the Google search generative experience so you understand what I mean.

For example, let’s say that I’m going on a camping trip with my family and I want to know what I should prepare. In the current search environment, usually what we will do is to search for something like “What do I need to prepare for a camping trip?” And in this case, Google provides a rich snippet, giving you direct answers.

At this stage, I am in the awareness stage because I have no intention of buying anything. I just need information. And let’s say that I’ve checked everything on this list, but my camping tent broke in my previous venture and I need to buy a new one. So I would search for the best camping tents to buy. Now this is a commercial keyword and we are in the consideration stage because I’m considering buying a tent.

I’ll be visiting a couple of sites, maybe browsing through to see what brands there are, maybe browsing through what brands people are recommending, and maybe I’ll do another search, say best camping tent brands.

And since I’m familiar with the Coleman brand, I may search for “best Coleman tent for 5”. Visit this page, that page, and read through a couple of sites, trying to understand which is the best Coleman Tent for me. And then maybe after reading a couple of articles, I’m interested in Coleman Montana 8.

So I’ll search for its review, read a couple of articles, and then maybe I want to check how Coleman Montana is compared to other brands. I will consume all this information here. But if I’ve decided to buy a product, which means I am in the decision stage and I want to get the best deal out of it, I’ll be searching for keywords like “buy Coleman Montana 8”, “Coleman Montana 8 discount code”, “Cheapest Coleman Montana 8”, “Buy Coleman Montana 8 near me”, etc.

New Search Environment

This is how we currently do research on products to eventually buy them. But with the Google Search generative experience, everything changes. So assuming we start from where we were earlier, we are going on a camping trip and I want to know what I need to prepare.
I’ll search for what to prepare for a camping trip. With Google Search Generative Experience, it will provide a list of items I need to prepare.

Good. Nothing has changed up to this point. And then let’s say that I want to dive deeper into knowing what types of tents to buy for a family of five with kids. So I’ll ask a follow-up question, say “what to look out for when buying a tent for a family of five with kids”. Give Google a while and it will suggest that a family of five needs an 8-person tent.

The quality needs to be good. It should be waterproof, lightweight, and easy to set up, and I should be aware of the budget.

So I will refine my search to “best eight-person tent that is waterproof, lightweight, easy to set up, and below $500.” And just like that, Google recommends that I consider more things and then it recommends a couple of eight-person tents.

For some people, they will want to read more before looking for possible tents. So they might expand this to read a couple of articles that helped Google generate the answer.

But for others, for example, if I’m familiar with the brand Coleman and as you can see here, there are two Coleman tents recommended.

So I will refine my search to Coleman person SkyDome vs Coleman Montana. And, immediately I can see the comparison between the two tents.

But I’m still not sure what are the key differences between these two tents, because both have an eight-person sleeping capacity, and they both have similar user ratings, just that Coleman Montana is more expensive. So I went further to ask the key differences between Coleman person SkyDome vs Coleman Montana and this is the answer I got.

The Coleman person SkyDome is in a dome-shaped design so you can stand comfortably, while the Coleman Montana is a cabin-style tent that is suitable for really tall people and helps prevent puddles. And assuming that I really like Coleman Montana because of its cabin style and allowing me to keep puddles at bay, I still want to know how it compares to other brands.

So I would ask cabin cabin-style tents. Like Coleman Montana 8 below $500 and I will get some other suggestions maybe I want to find out is better than Coleman Montana 8? And I’ll get some insights into this tent, plus it is a little pricey.

So I’m leaning towards Coleman Montana 8. And if I decide to buy Coleman Montana 8, I’ll ask where to buy Coleman Montana 8 and it will bring me to some websites where I can get the tent.

You see, the entire research phase is done on Google without visiting any websites. The same is true for Microsoft Bing as well. It can handle complex queries and provide relatively accurate answers.

Our Thoughts on the New Search Environment

So did you realize that the landscape of search has changed drastically? In the past, you needed to do a search, visit a couple of sites, narrow down the search and then visit a couple more sites before you make a decision to buy. But with the Google search generative experience and the Microsoft Bing Chat, as you’re searching for keywords related to the consideration phase, it will already try to pull you towards the decision phase by recommending products straight from the search.

So currently when you want to write content, you’ll be focused on keyword research. You’ll try to find the best keyword that has search volume, is not hard to rank for, and with buying intents like “Best Camping Tents for 6 people” because it has 150 search volume per month with a keyword difficulty of below 40, which is a good keyword.

You will not target a keyword like “Best Camping Tents for 5” because there is no search volume. But in the Google Search Generative Experience. As you saw, people will likely not search for a keyword and visit sites. They would search for something based on their needs.

They would search for something like the best 8-person tent that is waterproof, lightweight, easy to set up and below $500 because people know that Google can handle more complex queries. And if you put this keyword in any of the available keyword research tools, you will not get any search volume.

Well, these are the keywords we would typically search for with the Google Search Generative Experience and Bing Chat.

Introduction to Customer Persona

So as marketers, content creators, and business owners, you need to identify your customer persona. In other words, a fictional human profile that represents a particular target customer of your business. For example, if I own the brand Coleman, a target customer persona would look like this.

You will pen down what you know about your customer. This persona basically represents most working dads at the age of 33 who may likely go on a camping trip with their family of five and their other behavioral identifiers. You could have multiple personas like having another person who is a single working male around the age of 23, another persona for a single female, etc. Simply speaking, a persona is an imaginary person who represents the needs and wants of a group of people in your target market.

In other words, you should create multiple customer personas for each segment of your customer base so you can identify the conversational keywords they will be looking for. If you want to know how to create a customer persona, we have left a link here.

So the new way of deciding what content to create is going to heavily depend on your customer persona and having smart guesses as to what kind of keywords they will search for through the first search and the follow-up searches. For businesses and product owners, listen closely because this is a huge opportunity for you to create content around how your product or services will solve the problems of users.

And if the AI doesn’t know how your product is going to solve anyone’s problem, it is not going to recommend it to its searchers. So it’s either you adapt or you get left behind. The same goes for niche sites. The new search environment is only going to affect niche sites that do not use AI to their advantage. By the way, on top of Rank Math’s Content AI, they will soon have new AI tools available for you, so make sure that you follow them.

To rank your pages for Google is essential and nowadays very hard to rank a page on Google’s first page this is because new bloggers make some SEO mistakes, To know some common SEO mistakes you need to see my post on it.

Anyway, Google and Bing are making your job much easier because they are basically laying out the entire customer journey for you. You can see what potential customers are looking at based on their first search and you can predict what your customer may ask in the follow-up questions based on your customer’s persona. We will share a lot more content relating to SEO and its developments.

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