It goes without saying that SEO forms the very basis of creating a name of a company in the digital world. Even if you have a website that’s responsive, very appealing, it wouldn’t be able to garner the attention you require, if you’re not getting the best SEO Services in New York.
However, another important factor here, which most people tend to do, is knowing about search intent. For the uninitiated, search intent is the main reason why a user performs a search. It also includes why the user has used the words in their search query. Are they looking for an answer, definition, information or their search query is for buying a product?
Simply put, getting sufficient information about search intent is important. And this is exactly where this article is going to help.
Search intend is based on keywords used in the search query. These keywords are divided into four main categories. Here, we have discussed different them in detail. Take a look at them:
Navigational Keywords
Ask yourself how many times you have entered www.facebook.com,www.gmail.com or www.wikipedia.com?
A lot of people don’t bother typing the exact URL of a website on the address bar. They simply enter the name of the website (often incomplete) in the search/address bar and hit enter. Google then shows the website on top of search results. This is an example of navigational keywords as they navigate the user to a particular website.
Most brands use these keywords since they represent their brand. There’s no use for competitors to target navigational keywords since they can’t rank with these keywords. You won’t find Instagram in search results if you are typing Facebook in the search engine.
Informational Keywords
Informational keywords, as the name suggests, are used by internet users to get some information on the internet. For example, a lot of just enter a word to know its definition of meaning. Similarly, people search for a brand, movie, series or an individual’s name to find details about them. They too fall in the informational keywords category.
Weather information, timings of a particular place, and other relevant searches are also examples of informational keywords.
Transactional Keywords
It is another major type of keywords used for search intent. The main use of these keywords is to make a purchase, not to get information or be redirected to a particular website. And companies that sell products usually contend for top spots in search results of these keywords.
For example, if you want to buy a new property, you would search for “buy property in Brooklyn”. This is a transactional keyword as it shows you want to make a transaction. Similarly, keywords such as “Amazon Prime Subscription”, “buy Samsung Galaxy” etc. also fall under the category
This type of keywords is usually the most interesting for anyone running an online business as the results for these keywords decide where the purchase will be made.
Commercial Keywords
Commercial keywords cover the difference between informational and transactional keywords. Sometimes the user makes a search query to get information about a product with an intention of buying it later or for some other purpose. This comes under commercial keywords.
Simply put, it can be said that keywords that a user uses before making a real transaction are commercial keywords. For instance, “iPhone 12 review”, “top 5 Samsung tablets”, are commercial keywords. If you are reading a review of iPhone 12, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to purchase it immediately but you can make up your mind of buying it based on the review.
There you have it! These keywords clearly define search intent. However, there’s another type of search intent not many people know about. It is practically known as “unknown search intent”. Keywords used for some search queries are considered ambivalent because it is hard to know about their search intent without getting further information. This can be due to the fact that the terms used for the search are rather general or convey more than one meaning.
Take for example, Alexa. There can be different intentions behind making this search. The user could mean to browse the official Amazon Echo website or buy the device. Other than that, their intention could be to find the meaning of the name Alexa. Such words are termed as keywords with unknown search intent.
Final Thoughts
To sum it up, it is important to develop an understanding of the search intent and different types of keywords to improve the rankings of your website. While relying on a local SEO agency is certainly a wise decision, getting this information will also come in handy for you.
