Complete Guide To Understanding keywords intent | Top Tips To Take Note Of

The importance of targeting high intent keywords:

Put it this way: without a clear understanding of keyword intent, you would certainly not achieve your marketing goals, EVEN if your campaign were the most funded Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign.

Succeeding in this area will give you a much higher chance to leverage on PPC advertising and target qualified prospects, and bring the right kind of traffic to your website, and in turn drive more sales for your business.

There are in general 3 types of keywords intent categories namely:
1. Informational intent keywords
2. Navigational intent keywords
3. High Intent Keywords

Table of Contents

The 3 main types of keywords intent categories

(1) Informational Intent Keywords

They include search terms that are performed primarily to learn more about a subject matter. Essentially, the user is just looking for answers and information to his or her question.

Examples:

  • How to clean my office efficiently/ top tips on cleaning
  • What is office deep cleaning
  • Signs that I need an office cleaner
  • Who is _
  • President PM Lee
 

(2) Navigational Intent Keywords

Navigational keywords represent users who already know exactly where they want to go; where they usually have 1 exact place that they are looking to go into. Most of the time, it is easier for the user to key in these keywords into the search bar compared to typing out the full url.

Examples:

  • Brand keywords: NBT Digital Singapore
  • Gmail login
  • Apple official
  • Gary V Instagram
  • Moz guide to SEO
  • Tony Robbins program
 

(3) High Intent Keywords (Buy Now Keywords)

In contrast to low intent keywords, high intent keywords are keywords that are used with the consideration of making a purchase or transaction.

Examples (Products):

  • Brush cleaner price
  • Buy brush cleaner
  • Buy brush cleaner below $200 (long-tail and very specific)
  • Brush cleaner deals / sale
  • Brush cleaner free shipping
  • Affordable brush cleaner

Examples (Services):

  • Office cleaning services
  • Office cleaning services near me
  • Office cleaning Singapore (might be mix intent)

Mix Intent

Some might call it a transactional or commercial investigation intent kind of keyword. This means that the user can have both the purpose to buy or the user is just looking to learn more about a certain concept. With the right content triggers, this could help to move the user down the funnel and the user might make a purchase eventually.

Users who fall within this category in other words; have yet to make a final decision and are just looking for a suitable fit for their solution. Some of them might just be weighing up their options.

Examples:

  • Office cleaning reviews
  • Cheapest office cleaning products
  • Cleaning companies comparison
  • Top / Best office cleaning services

For a pay per click campaign, there is no harm in targeting this type of keywords, as long as you have the right content to address users who fall into this category. End of the day, what you really need to do is to test it out and see if the targeted keywords are contributing to your campaign’s objective, and adjust accordingly..

How To Check Google’s Perception of Keywords Intent

Look at the ‘People Also Ask’ (PAA) section (near the top)

 

understanding keywords intent - people also ask

The PAA section will help you determine the top queries related to your keyword phase. For “Cleaning services Singapore”, the queries related to this keyword phase is price!

The PAA section will help you identify such search patterns to identify your cornerstone content, and to help you structure your site’s content. Your content should seek to:
– Address the what (e.g. definitions)
– Address high-intend queries
– Address competitive research queries (e.g. product A Vs. product B)
– Address navigational intent queries
– Address the how-to

Look at the ‘Searches Related To…’ section (at the bottom)

understanding keywords intent - searches related to

This will allow you to view Google’s perception of other keyword phrases that are related to your current keyword phrase. In this instance, “cleaning services Singapore” is highly related to keyword phrases such as: “list of cleaning companies”, “house cleaning service”, etc.

What to take note of when selecting your targeted keywords

As much as keywords intent plays a big part in your keywords selection, the other three factors that play a part to help you attain a healthy ROI are:
– Search Volume
– Average Cost Per Click (Competitiveness)
– Selecting a strategic keywords match type

How To Organize Your Website To Address Different Users’ Intent

  • FAQs > Informational
  • Blog > Informational
  • Branded Keywords > Navigational (Home Page / About Us)
  • Services > High / Mix Intent
  • Pricing > High / Mix Intent
  • Contact / Ask Us A Question > (Mid To High / Mix Intent)

Filtering out low intend users

One of the ways to filter out low intend users via Pay Per Click is through adding negative keywords to your Search campaign.

For example, if you are marketing cleaning services, you can add these negative keywords to your negative keywords list, so that you do not show your search ads to users searching for such search queries:

Sample:

  • Lazada cleaning equipment (navigational)
  • How to clean my toilet (informational)
  • Top cleaning tips (informational)
  • What is office cleaning for (mixed intent)
  • Why do I need a office cleaner (mixed intent)