If you really want to get conversions, you need to be a mind reader.
I’m not even kidding.
Understanding what users want (known as user intent) has become a driving force in search engine optimization (SEO) and search marketing to help bring more people to your site.
Unless you nail it, there’s a whole bunch of traffic you will never see, with the obvious impact on conversions.
Image: Pixabay
[tweet_box design=”box_4″]Researching User Intent: What Users Really Want by @SHurleyHall[/tweet_box]
In contrast, help users to find what they want when they search, deliver on your promise with your web content, and you’ll get more people taking up your offer.
So how do you figure out what user intent is?
Let’s take a real example. Say you’re thinking of upgrading your smartphone. You’ve had your current phone for a while, so you need to find out what your options are and what’s changed since last you made a smartphone purchase.
At the start, you’ll be looking for general information about smartphones. After a while, you’ll probably narrow down your options and you’ll get more specific about the makes and models that are real contenders. You may go to a site you’ve already heard of to learn more about those phones. And finally, you will be ready to buy and will be looking for the best deals.
At each stage of the process, you will type different words and phrases into search engines, and those reveal what you want at different times. That’s user intent.
Search Engine Land says, “Every user has an intent.” They outline three types of user intent:
- navigational
- informational
- transactional
Using the example above, when you were searching for general smartphone features and details on makes and models, you would use informational keywords. When you looked for a specific site, you would use navigational keywords and when you were looking for a deal, you would use transactional keywords.
All of these types of search tell you something about user intent that you can use to improve conversions. Let’s look at them in a bit more depth and see how you can use information you’re already collecting to find out more.
Unlocking Navigational User Intent for Better Conversions
Keeping tabs on navigational search terms can be a good way to figure out if your branding is working. If someone types related phrases into a search box then they have already heard of you and are coming to see what you have to offer.
[tweet_box design=”box_7″]Is your branding working? Here’s how to discover #userintent[/tweet_box]
To find navigational search terms, visit Google Analytics and navigate to Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels in the dashboard. Then click on Organic Search and you will see the keyword phrases people have used. The ones relating to your brand or company are the navigational ones.
You can find similar information in Google Search Console. Click on the name of the website you want to check, and navigate to Search Traffic > Search Analytics to see the top search queries. You can also filter your queries to show only the navigational keywords.
The good news is that, with navigational queries, if people are looking for you and find you, they will click. However, you do need to make sure they can find you and they see the right pages when they search. To check, try using some of the same search terms and see what the search results look like.
If you get links to your site and social media profiles or an in-depth result showing plenty of site pages, then you are catering to navigational searchers. If those site links also include some of your key conversion magnets (like in the example below), that’s even better.
Finding Informational Phrases to Give Users What They Need
What about informational keywords? Jeremy Smith points out the conversion potential of informational search. He outlines a 3-step process:
The user’s intent is_
I create a page that provides_
I develop calls to action that meet the user’s desire for_
Even if the user isn’t looking to buy immediately, meeting their need for information can help them trust you and later make a decision.
[tweet_box design=”box_7″]Help users trust you by providing the info they need #userintent[/tweet_box]
Here are a couple of examples. On my site, the informational keywords shown in Google Analytics are:
Some time ago, I found these phrases, so I did two things:
- I changed the description for my writing services and rates page so it better matched the information people were searching for.
- I wrote an article on how to hire a professional blogger.
Follow the steps outlined in section 1 to find the informational keywords people are already using to find your site. Then see if your site is delivering by plugging in the same search terms and seeing what they find.
In the example, below, my content shows up, but if I want it to be in one of the top three positions, I still have work to do.
You can go one step further and use the Google Adwords Keyword Planner to find more informational keywords to weave into your content. Here, you want to look for broader terms related to your niche. Semantic search has become more important with the use of voice search on mobile devices, so look out for how-tos, questions and conversational-style search queries.
Here’s another tool you can try. It’s called KeywordTool.io. You’ll need to pay for a pro subscription to get search volume data, but even the free version provides valuable information.
Here are some of the informational phrases I found when I typed “learn a foreign language” into the KeywordTool.io search box:
If I had a language learning site, by creating content to answer those questions, I would match user intent and make my site more relevant and interesting.
Transactional Keywords and the Buy Button
Dig into your keyword data and you will find transactional phrases — the ones that mean that users are ready to buy. In the example from my site above, the phrase “hire a professional blogger” can be informational, but it can also be transactional.
When people are ready to make a purchase, the phrases they use change. Here are some examples using results from KeywordTool.io:
Note that the search phrases used are specific about makes, models and details (like “unlocked”) and include the words “price,” “purchase” and “buy.”
[tweet_box design=”box_7″]When users are ready to buy, help them find what they need #userintent[/tweet_box]
To figure out your conversion potential, see whether users are finding the right content when they use transactional keywords and whether they continue on to convert. The Users Flow report in Google Analytics can help with this.
When I looked at my “hire a professional blogger post,” I could see that of 36 people who landed there in the last month, most left after reading the post (suggesting they were just looking for information). However, some people went on to browse the site, with 3 people visiting the about page, the rates page and the contact page.
This is a good way to see what happens to users after they arrive on your site and to identify areas where you might be losing conversions. Tweaking your pages to provide what users want will help.
Other Ways to Find User Intent
Of course, user intent is not just about keywords. Using the tools outlined in this article will help, but you also need a holistic picture of what users want. The best way to find out is to ask them.
This is where you can mix the data you gain from the search terms users use with information gained from:
- customer surveys (exit surveys are very useful)
- polls
- social media
- reviews
[tweet_box design=”box_7″] #userintent is not just about #keywords and #analytics. Ask your customers via surveys and polls. [/tweet_box]
When customers give their opinion, check to see if this has any implications for how your site is set up or how it runs on different devices. Maybe there’s a small change you could make that will increase your conversion potential.
The bottom line: users are already telling you what they want — all you have to do is deliver.
Have you been using user intent research to boost conversions? What results did you get?
Read other Crazy Egg articles by Sharon Hurley Hall.
