Why User Intent Matters More Than Keywords in Modern SEO

Have you noticed how technology is keeping up with the level of knowledge humans have? Don’t get us wrong here—it only means that technology is ready to be a companion of humans in the future, and not to replace us.

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, has evolved too and is why search engines have become smarter and maybe a bit more attuned to the user’s culture.

This is because search engines nowadays focus on understanding why someone is searching for something rather than just what they are searching for. According to Impressive Digital SEO agency, this is what we call user intent.

What is user intent?

User intent, or what is sometimes known as search intent, refers to the reason behind the search query of a user, and the search engine prioritises what matches best for your query. There are main types, and these are:

• Informational intent, or when someone is asking for answers, guides, and even explanations to what they are looking for, makes valuable content a good way for users to trust your website.
• Navigational intent, or those who already know where they want to go—that’s why they are specific to the search so your users can find you easily.
• Transactional or commercial intent is for when users are looking to buy products and compare their options with one another, which is a plus when you are a business that sells products or services.

Why User Intent is More Important Than Keywords Alone

User intent gives meaning to searches in lots of different ways, and here’s why:

Search engines prioritise relevance over exact keywords. Today’s algorithms are not just about finding the exact match of words or phrases, and they understand related topics and synonyms as well, just like how our language is. This is why businesses are highly encouraged to use the natural language of the target audience.

Better engagement and lower bounce rates. Having the intent means knowing the importance of value—and this goes for contents as well. Surprisingly enough, when users feel that your website is useful and relevant to them, they are interested in engaging for longer periods.

Higher conversion rates. Conversion rate means that you are not only helping the users answer the questions they seek, but you are also making your users into customers that can purchase the products and services you offer.

Voice search and AI are changing the game. User intent is also what fuels voice assistants because it makes searches more conversational and natural.

How to Optimise for User Intent

User intent is easy to understand; however, the challenge comes in technology because they are not naturally taught to be human-like. Here is how you can optimise it for your business:

• Your audience will be your customers in the long term if you know what they want and how they want it.
• The content of your website should match the intent of the user. Things like blog posts, contact pages, and products with prices are things that can be of great convenience to your users.
• Natural phrasing and related terms beat exact-match keywords. This means that the search engines will recognise your content as something relevant to what the user is looking for, especially when you shuffle the terms and make posts about one single topic.
• User experience is crucial as it creates the impression of good intent to your users. To do this, just keep your website mobile-friendly and organise your content in a concise way so that the load times are fast and efficient.
• Always keep track of what’s working and what’s not on your website so that you’ll know where you need to adjust and where you need to sustain your content.

Why user searches are more important than knowing what they search for.

Valuable, relevant, and engaging. Users are getting more and more curious about the world they live in, and understanding this idea would make your website genuine, natural, and sensitive to the needs of the users.

In the real-world setting, this is not what we call “strategy” but socialising and engaging with the community. In the real-world setting, this is easy, but most of your business’ target users will be coming from the online world and it would be hard for them to know what your business really is. User intent bridges the connection gap that your brand and the users have. So the next time you plan your SEO strategy, why not shift your focus to making engaging and relevant content like this?