Reframing keyword research to prioritize search intent over mere keyword relevance leads to a more balanced strategy that enhances conversion rates.
Search engines continue to evolve, yet SEO strategies often need to catch up.
Traditionally, we’ve relied on keyword research to identify specific searches to target. However, this approach frequently needs to emphasize the right objectives.
When executed effectively, keyword research helps develop a balanced strategy tailored to your target market and personas. It prioritizes keywords that drive traffic that is likely to convert into customers.
Conversely, poorly executed keyword research focuses on high-volume, low-intent searches, neglecting purchase-intent searches that are more likely to convert.
While conversion-focused SEO campaigns aren’t suitable for every scenario, conversion should be the primary goal for eCommerce, service businesses, lead generation, and any SEO campaign aiming to impact key business metrics.
The Keyword Research Trap
Too often, marketers pursue keywords with high search volume, resulting in a list of keywords that are merely relevant but don’t convert.
This is the keyword research trap – chasing high-volume keywords while ignoring the intent behind the search.
Years ago, I worked for a company specializing in corporate team-building events. They offered one program called “Write a Country Song Like Taylor Swift.” The page for this service attracted plenty of organic traffic. However, most visitors wanted information about Swift’s music, not corporate team-building.
The Swifties visiting the site would never book a corporate team-building event. They were precisely the wrong audience for our offerings.
While this disconnect was obvious, such mismatches are often less apparent or even ignored by marketers.
The keyword research trap will become more dangerous as consumers adopt generative search engines like Google AI Overviews and Perplexity.ai.
Keyword Research is Overrated
Early search engines looked for keywords on web pages, returning a list of pages that mention those keywords.
Modern search engines are much more sophisticated. They understand the relationships between the searcher’s intent and the pages that best satisfy it.
It’s time to modernize SEO methods, including keyword research, developed for the first generation of search engines.
For example, we advised banks to offer donor-advised fund (DAF) accounts. DAFs allow wealthy donors to accelerate tax deductions for charitable contributions.
After conducting keyword research, the bank targeted the keyword “donor-advised fund.”
While this keyword is broadly relevant, it’s crucial to consider who is searching for it and, most importantly, what they are searching for.
Our research revealed that searchers were looking for:
- General information about DAFs
- A CPA who understands DAFs
- How to file their DIY tax return with a DAF
- A donor-advised fund account
The bank should target searchers looking to open a donor-advised fund account. These keywords are searched by people intending to open a DAF account. However, most searches the bank wanted to target had no intention of opening an account.
There are better keywords, like “open a donor-advised fund account,” that are more likely to generate high-value traffic. While these keywords have much less search volume than “donor-advised fund” and higher competition, they are more likely to attract searchers intending to open an account.
Substituting Relevance for Intent
Many marketers need to understand the relationship between relevance and intent.
While relevance and intent are essential, prioritizing intent is crucial for attracting qualified traffic that is more likely to convert into customers.
Keywords embody both relevance and intent. Search intent is related to relevance, but it’s an entirely different concept.
Relevance refers to the similarity between keywords and your content or products. Intent describes the searcher’s goal and the momentum to carry them to the next step in their journey.
Intent indicates the trajectory of the search, capturing what the searcher aims to achieve.
This momentum can be both a blessing and a curse. If your content satisfies the intent, it will propel the visitor to the next step in the buying process. The momentum makes redirecting the searcher’s attention challenging if it doesn’t.
Understanding search intent is crucial because it defines what post-search outcomes are possible.
For instance, Taylor Swift fans are unlikely to book corporate team-building events. They’re more inclined to purchase concert tickets.
Keyword research and analytics tools help you choose relevant keywords. However, they need more guidance on selecting keywords with the right intent. Prioritizing intent over mere relevance ensures your content aligns with what searchers aim to achieve, leading to higher conversion rates.
How Keyword Research Fails
Like most marketers, you probably start your SEO campaigns with keyword research. You compile an exhaustive list of relevant terms and prioritize them based on search volume and competition.
Let’s be clear: while considering keyword relevance, volume, and competition is essential, this approach can mislead you and blunt your SEO campaign’s targeting.
How keyword research selection criteria can mislead you:
- Relevance: Relevant keywords may not be searched by your best customers with intent to purchase. For example, the keyword “skiing” is relevant for an e-commerce site selling skis and a ski resort, but it may not attract the right audience.
- Search Volume: High-volume keywords often encompass many different intents. The search volume for the specific purpose you are targeting might be a tiny fraction of the total volume for a keyword.
- Competition: It’s hard to rank for competitive keywords, but they are competitive precisely because they convert well. Conversely, low-competition keywords usually don’t convert well.
Keyword research is more challenging than most marketers think. These metrics can lead you astray if not applied correctly.
You must skillfully balance the relevance, volume, and competition trade-offs to avoid the keyword research trap. Otherwise, you might invest significant resources into optimizing SEO content for keywords that drive traffic but fail to convert.
Fixing Keyword Research with Intent
Many SEO campaigns are doomed from the start, especially when marketers choose keywords before identifying the search intents that are most likely to convert.
Don’t start your SEO campaign with keyword research.
Start with customer research.
Before selecting keywords, you must understand your best customers’ search intents and which of those intents is most likely to convert.
The order of operations is essential: identify search intents first, then select keywords.
Use search intent as a filter. Select keywords that align with your target search intents.
Once you understand your customers’ search intent, you can choose keywords and write content that aligns with their needs. Focus on intents you can satisfy with content or a product.
Begin your SEO campaign by collecting insights from customer conversations, sales calls, or social media to understand:
- The customer journey
- The questions your customers ask
- The information your customers need
- What triggers customers to convert
These insights will help you understand what information your customers search for when purchasing. These are the search intents you should target.
Here’s a better approach to keyword research:
- Start with customer research
- Map the customer journey
- Identify search intents
- Compile relevant keywords
- Filter the keyword list based on the intent
- Develop content for each intent
Prioritizing search intent over keywords leads to more compelling content that talks directly to your audience’s needs andincreases conversion rates.
Conversion-Focused SEO
Traditional keyword research often optimizes for metrics that can mislead you.
Well-targeted SEO campaigns deliver content and brand messaging to prospects actively researching a purchase. Precise campaign targeting improves conversion.
Focusing on intent offers benefits beyond just improving rankings and traffic:
- Higher Conversion Rates: Targeting high-intent keywords enhances organic conversion rates by providing visitors with content that directly satisfies their queries.
- Marketing Efficiency: Concentrating on searchers actively looking for your products reduces resources spent on broadly targeted content.
- Cross-Channel Insights: Search intent analysis offers valuable insights into customer behavior that can be applied across all your marketing channels, not just SEO.
High-impact SEO campaigns optimize for conversions and sales, not just rankings and traffic. They prioritize search intents first and keywords second. If you still find it challenging, check out our monthly SEO packages and let the experts help you.
