What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘Artificial Intelligence’? Is it the movie ‘Avatar’ or any other Scientific Fiction that you loved watching? Let me tell you, Artificial Intelligence is no more restricted to the cinema alone. It is expanding its importance in all industries, be it Medical Science or self-driving cars.

But if you are not a common man and create content for the internet, or even better, you are acquainted with the SEO world, you must be aware of the word ‘RankBrain’. It was a nightmare for a lot of black hat SEO back in 2015. RankBrain is Google’s algorithm that is more user intent oriented.

Search Engines like Google have come up with features that will make you stay more on their platform and they have proved this time and again. Features like featured snippets, local listing, and mobile-first indexing are all user search-intent oriented and giving what the searcher is looking for, makes Google stand out.

How Google has incorporated AI?

In the previous section, we talked a bit about RankBrain, but there are a lot more algorithms that Google has introduced to make AI important in search. Let us look at some of them:

1. Hummingbird: this was the stepping stone of giving user experience a priority. It was released in the year 2013. Hummingbird centered around 3 major components:
   
   [A] Conversational search: Google enabled users to search using their natural way of speaking. Getting results for both short and long keywords became easier.
   
   [B] Human search: searching for renowned personalities became easier. If you searched the term ‘President of England’ in 2012, you wouldn’t have got the answer that you sought.
   
   [C] Foundation of Voice Search: conversational search and understanding human intent are the stepping stones of precise local results which was the first step of voice search that we are able to do today.
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2. RankBrain: launched just two years after Hummingbird, RankBrain helped Google to better the understanding of user intent. Wondering how? Without getting into the technicalities, let us say that Google did this using Machine Learning.
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3. BERT: whenever we get the exact result for our query, it is due to BERT. Through this update, Google started understanding the overall intent of the searcher instead of looking at them as isolated keywords.

These revolutions have increased Google’s usage and popularity, thus increasing opportunities for specialists like us.

Impact of Artificial Intelligence on SEO

It must be clear to you by now that Google gives priority to its users. Creating content that satisfies the user’s intent will help you rank higher on the SERP because your page time increases. By being consistent with this approach, you build authority among your audience.

1. On user intent and content

As previously said, Google aims at serving its user by understanding their query and delivering the correct content. So, in order to stand out, you need to understand the motive of your target audience before creating content. One way of doing so is by competitive keyword research. 

Keyword Research helps you uncover the exact terms used by your target audience in order to land on your page. Along with this, keep optimizing your existing pages with the keywords in trend to rank on the SERPs.

Our tool GetKeywords.io is specially designed to help you find the keywords that are focused on user intent. This is the only tool that gives city-level data, helping you target the local audience for your business.

You see, understanding user intent in SEO is necessary more than ever because Google uses AI and you will have to use it too in order to rank on the SERPs.

2. On semantic search and analysis

Did you know that even without specific keywords in the search query, Google is capable enough to show what you are exactly looking for? Yes, That’s true. The Artificial Intelligence advances incorporated by Google are very very user-oriented. 

Wondering how? It is because Google forms connections between the relevant search results and queries even without any specific keyword. If you are an SEO-enthusiast, you must have heard the specialists say that you should no longer chase each and every keyword because SERP is intelligent enough to take care of that. 

Google processes the semantic meaning of the query and offers content according to your intent. For example, let us say that you want to know the price of Iced Americano at Starbucks, you may type something like ‘iced americano at Starbucks price’, and Google will show you the results of transactional intent.

3. Create stronger analytics and reporting

This is one of the biggest benefits of AI: creating real-time analytics. Let us see how important it is to use analytics to up your game, using analytics, you can:

1. Measure your website’s traffic and make informed decisions
2. Create visual analysis to understand the trends and data better
3. Develop buyer persona and use this in your marketing strategy
4. Track conversions and other Key Performance Indicators for your website

Marketers can segment the audience into various clusters and audit your landing pages to generate more income. When all your data is at a place, analyzing them becomes a lot easier.

Conclusion

We saw how Google evolved during the past decade and how Artificial Intelligence played an important role in its evolution. Always focus on user intent and even without going into the technicalities, you will be able to rank on SERP and get good traffic organically.

Let me summarize everything that we saw in this blog:

1. Do keyword research to fill in the gaps and identify the opportunities.
2. Customer intent should be your utmost priority.
3. Content Creation
4. Stick to your niche so that Google can classify your website.

We hope you have understood why Artificial Intelligence is a new trend in SEO and how you can tackle it and stay at the top. Comment below your experience and any issues that you have and our team will reach out to you soon!

We have a purpose for which we search online. It may be to know the match scores, price of the latest iPhone model, visit a specific website, or to know how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. This very purpose is known as keyword intent (search intent or audience intent).

Knowing about the search intent of the user is the very first thing you will have to think about before publishing content. Google has really worked hard to determine search intent and improved its algorithm.

The 4 types of Keyword Intent

Let us see the types of search intent followed by how to optimize your webpage for each one of them.

1. Informational Intent

A vast majority of people have an intention of getting information. Typical queries with informational intent answer the interrogative terms like ‘how, what, where, and why.’ The search query need not contain these terms because Google is intelligent enough to understand your intent.

For example, when you search ‘Jeff Bezos’, Google knows that you want to know about ‘Who is Jeff Bezos’ and will show results accordingly.

2. Transactional Intent

When people search with the intention of making a conversion, it is known as transactional intent. Some of the conversions may be to signup for an email newsletter, visiting a store (by searching for the directions), or even buying something.

For example, ‘Netflix premium price’, ‘iPhone 12 pro price in the USA.’

3. Navigational Intent

People with navigational intent already know which website they want to visit like, the brands that you want to visit. This type of intent is good for organic traffic. You tell me when you want to buy something from Amazon, do you type the entire URL or just type ‘Amazon’ in the search bar?

Some other examples are: ‘GetKeywords Dashboard’, ‘Facebook Login’.

4. Commercial Investigation

Before purchasing something, we search on the internet for the ‘perfect’ product that fits into our needs as well as our budget because we want the best product or service available in the market. This search or rather ‘investigation’ is what we call a commercial investigation. 

Some of the examples are: ‘best mobile phone under $500’, ‘best school in Michigan’.

How to optimize for Keyword Intent

Let us understand keyword modifiers. Each intent type has its own set of keyword modifiers, using which you will be able to drive your target audience.

Although it is important to use the right keywords according to the intent to attract the right audience, it is equally important to not use keywords of other intents if you are not solving the purpose. If you have posted a review article on ‘best tomato sauce’, you would not want to drive traffic of people who were looking for ‘how to make tomato sauce at home.’

Here is a cheatsheet of keyword modifiers based on the four types of intent that we saw in the previous section:

1. Informational: what, who, were, why, how, guide, resource, tips, examples
2. Transactional: coupon code, order, buy, cheap, purchase, price
3. Navigational: website names, name of service, name of the product, name of the brand
4. Commercial: review, comparison, top, best, cheapest, attribute of the product

You may use GetKeywords to use the feature of keyword intent available in the ‘Keyword Filter’ option. Here is how:

Step 1: Decide the keyword intent that you want to serve.

Step 2: Type your title in the search bar of the tool.

Step 3: Copy the keyword modifiers according to the intent that you want to serve in the ‘Include’ section by clicking on the filter icon.

Step 4: You are done! Really. Just copy-paste the results somewhere and use them.

Benefits of Keyword Intent in SEO

It is no rocket science that when we get what we want, we tend to make conversions and trust the brand more. Similarly, when your audience will get what they are looking for, chances are high that the conversion rate of your website will increase. So, is search intent helpful for transactional and commercial intent only?

A simple answer: NO. In fact, every brand and organization post some informational posts for the following reasons:

1. More audience: let us say that you created a guide on ‘how to dice tomatoes using the best knife’. This guide will appear when people will search for ‘how to dice tomatoes’ and related terms, and also when people will search for ‘best knife to dice tomatoes’. So you hit two birds with one stone: solve the purpose of two audience bases.
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2. Appear on answer boxes: has your website appeared on the answer boxes? If not, now it can. By creating content for solving the intent of the audience, Google will feature it in snippets, making it highly clickable by your audience as it will appear at the top. Having various featured snippets will show results that will blow your mind. 
   
   If you don’t know what answer boxes are, search ‘how to water plants’ and the first thing that appears on search results is a featured snippet. People are more likely to click on the featured snippets.
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3. More views: we started off this section with the same question that will you not make a conversion on a website that meets your intent. Your on-page time will increase and people are more likely to share your blogs in their social circles. 
   
   For example, let us say you are a fitness trainer and you posted an article on ‘how to maintain a calorie deficit.’ Not only the people who are on a weight-loss journey but also those who know someone on a weight-loss journey will also see your article. 
   
   Sometimes, your already existing content may need a little tweak to solve the intent of people.

Conclusion

We have seen search intent meaning and examples, and what is search intent in SEO. As a business owner, your worst nightmare will be that your website doesn’t rank. Try to incorporate what we said in this blog on your existing websites and let the magic begin! 

Remember that you can’t fool Google. Even if your website ranks today, and it is not worth it, your page will rank down eventually. So, if you want to be a long-term player, make sure to create content based on the user’s intent. Also, don’t forget to check out our tool GetKeywords and avail the benefits without even signing up.

Comment down below your thoughts on search intent, experiences, and issues that you are facing and we will get back to you!