What is keyword research?

Keyword research is a process that identifies the search terms that people use when looking for your products or services online. Using keyword research, you can find popular queries, and statistics, learn about the competition, and determine how difficult it is to rank them.

According to Google:

"Fun fact: 15% of all Google searches have never been searched before."

Source: https://twitter.com/Google/status/1493681643290300425?lang=en 

This means, there are some keywords for which there is no historical data, so it's almost impossible to optimize for them.

What is keyword intent, and why is it important?

Whenever people type something on Google.com, they expect a specific response. This is the keyword intent— how visitors expect Google.com (or another search engine) to answer a query.

There can be differences between keywords, for instance using keywords in a specific order can change the intent.

If you properly understand keyword intent, you can create content that is specifically tailored to what people are searching for.

Let's take an example: "SF books." It could be "science fiction books," "top science fiction books," "I want to read an SF book," "I want to read classical/modern SF books," or "new SF books." People searching for "SF books" could have various intents.

Types of keyword intent and how to optimize for them

Commercial - for people who want to make a purchase ("buy an SF book").

Informational: for people wanting to learn more about a topic (e.g., "What does SF mean?").

Transactional - visitors who want to do something (download, subscribe to a newsletter, etc., such as "download Star Wars poster").

Navigational - online users who want to navigate to a website address (site.com) or a physical location (store address, for example - "Where is Disneyland located?").

You should optimize for such content based on the goals of visitors and your website.

If you wish to grow your blog, you could create informational articles. These articles could include links to products, but their main intent should be informational.

Online stores generally have commercial intent.

How to create content?

First, you should determine some keywords in a specific niche.

Consider creating a user persona to see what visitors might use for different searches.

Try to find out what kind of intent is related to each keyword.

Explore some related keywords and queries. This should help you learn what kinds of words people are using. Using keyword research tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner can help. Tools like AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked can help you understand what people are searching for, and what kind of questions they have.

Analyze the competition - find out how hard/easy it is to rank keywords.

Write the content, create product pages, and create static pages on your website to answer those queries.

Link to the newly created content from your website and external sources.

Using KPIs, track the performance of the content.

What should the content quality level be?

Try your best to be better than your competition. This does not mean writing a long blog post,instead, try to answer most of the questions your visitors might have. Also, use visuals and be as detailed as possible. Use emotion to make your audience connect with the content and ensure you solve the visitor's problem.

Conclusions

In conclusion, understanding the psychology behind search intent is essential for creating compelling content that resonates with your target audience.

Whether optimizing product pages or crafting informative articles, understanding search intent combined with strategies to optimize your landing pages for better conversions can significantly elevate your digital presence.