maspillera

M Posted 9 years 2 months ago

t 9 min read

Understanding user intent is the cornerstone of modern SEO. Brands that want to succeed need to make sure that they have a firm understanding of what customers search for and what they want to see when they enter these queries. If you want to succeed with modern SEO, you have to understand user intent. Best practices for SEO continue to evolve and mature, seemingly at lightning speed. In just the past few years we have seen the dominance - now 57% of web traffic according to our research - of mobile, the growth of voice search, and the incorporation of RankBrain.

In the wake of these advancements in both technology and consumer expectations, brands have had to adapt their strategies for creating and optimizing content for visitors. The goal of the search engines has been provide the best possible search experience for users. Google in particular has been continually looking for ways to better understand search intent, including the push towards optimizing for micro-moments and differentiating SERPs based upon the anticipated content desires of the users. Brands that learn how to pull away from their competition and dominate the SERPs understand how to interpret the needs of the user so that the content directly addresses what they seek.  

Breaking down search intent

Search intent means understanding what motivates the user. It requires going beyond simple one-to-one keyword matching and instead interpreting the meaning behind search terms to better understand what the person wants to achieve. This could mean that they want to find something, go somewhere, buy a product or service, or learn something. The micro-moments, which we've discussed a few times previously, comprise an important piece of this process. These micro-moments articulate the general stages that people go through to satisfy their needs. They can happen in any order at any time. Google has classified these moments as the following:

• The I-want-to-go moment
• The I-want-to-buy moment
• The I-want-to-do moment
• The I-want-to-know moment

How search engines began to understand user intent

When search engines first began, they had no ability to understand user intent. Instead, search results were based purely upon connecting the strings of letters in the query with the strings of letters in the results pages. SERPs were generated based upon the matches of these strings, rather than trying to understand the nuances of why different people might use similar keywords and keyword phrases. After a few years, the algorithms began to evolve and better understand what people meant when they typed in particular queries as well as how different words interacted with each other. This led to the introduction of the Knowledge Graph for Google, and the increasing ability of the algorithms to understand complex ideas conveyed through written language. As Amit Singhal of Google announced:

[...] we’ve been working on an intelligent model—in geek-speak, a “graph”—that understands real-world entities and their relationships to one another: things, not strings.

This was the beginning of Google’s attempt to understand natural language. In 2015, we saw another leap forward with Google’s introduction of RankBrain, the AI portion of the ranking algorithm. RankBrain works to help Google better understand the meaning and intention of words and queries, particularly the new queries that the algorithm sees. Since its introduction, RankBrain has risen to be the third most important ranking factor. These changes mean that marketers need to focus on user intent more than keywords. Exact match still matters, but Google doesn't just look to match keywords in queries with those in the website text. The algorithm works to understand the whole idea behind the query, including the intention of the searcher. Websites must similarly follow this pattern to provide the optimal user experience.  

How does search intent impact page rankings and SERPs?

Google wants to provide the optimal search experience for users, which means connecting them quickly with the content that answers their needs. This impacts how the search engine constructs the SERP layout and how they rank the websites within the results page.   

Google displays a variety of combinations of types of content including local 3-packs, featured snippets, videos, images, and carousels to connect people quickly with the information they need. Google’s ranking factors themselves also see influence based on user needs. Look at site speed. The search algorithm gives preference to quick sites because that's what human end users wants to experience. Humans also process images faster than text and elicit positive responses to the inclusion of images with text-based content. Thus, images with alt text can also benefit SEO. Across all of these factors, the common denominator is prioritizing user needs and intentions.  

The role of personas when optimizing for user intent

Marketers who want to properly optimize their content need to understand buyer personas, the customer journey, and how they fit together with search intent. Different keywords can have different intentions behind them depending upon the persona. Consider someone searching for the term “fried chicken”. If that user is a college student, they might just be looking for the closest location to buy a bucket. On the other hand, if the searcher is a cook or even just an adult trying to get dinner on the table, they might be more interested in finding recipes.

SEO practitioners and content marketers must work together to align their marketing personas and user interests with relevant content. Technology that allows them to understand different terms and the likely intentions and personas behind them, such as BrightEdge Content IQ, make it even easier to accomplish this goal. Optimal search practices mean not only understanding search intent, but also creating relevant content that draws in the targeted customers. Note that search and content marketing are unique in their capacity to directly assist prospective customers this way. Other forms of advertising are more disruptive, reliant on hopefully hitting customers at the right time in their journey or at least building brand recognition that may factor into a future buying decision. Search marketing is designed to consistently hit customers at the right moment in their journey and give them the content and information they need at the decisive moment.

Optimize content for user intent

To properly optimize content for search intent, there are a few key steps that you should follow.

1. Make sure that queries direct users towards pages that will be helpful for them. For example, queries with purchase intent should be directed towards product pages.
2. Use available technology, such as the BrightEdge StoryBuilder, to track how prospects move through content and monitor the micro-moments to see how customers interact with the material and the website.
3. Perform research with features like the BrightEdge Data Cube to better target demand. You can then create content that is more aligned with the applicable user intent.
4. Optimize the meta descriptions and the title tags on your pages. This will provide searchers with a better idea of what they will see on your page, helping you better target the right visitors.
5. Consider the customers who might be looking for rapid information on certain topics. You can optimize for these visitors by creating full question and answer sections on some pages. This can also help you earn positions with Quick Answers for certain queries on Google, capturing the I-want-to-know population, as well as for optimizing for the increasingly popular voice search.
6. Monitor your dwell time throughout the process. Although marketers tend to pay attention to bounce rate as an indicator of engagement, dwell time - the amount of time people spend looking at the page they clicked on - can be a better indicator of how well you met the needs of the searcher. Even if the user only reads one page before leaving, if they spend sufficient time on the page it demonstrates that your content met their needs and you made an impression.
7. Optimize all content based on data. Use data to guide your entire content creation process. Data can tell you what topics will be popular with your target audience, the likely intention of those users, and then how well your content meets those needs.

User intent is the cornerstone of modern content marketing. Although best practices and technology seem to change at lightning speed, they continue to progress towards a common goal: understanding what the user wants to see so that the search engine can provide it to them. Brands that focus on this goal will find it significantly easier to develop their rankings and traffic while also avoiding potential algorithm penalties.

enewton@brightedge.com

M Posted 9 years 2 months ago

t 9 min read

The marketing career path offers room for dedicated workers to achieve their goals, but there are two main areas they need to focus on in their professional development. With the modern shift in consumer-brand relations, digital marketers are more important than ever before. Brands need to find ways to get their sites found and promoted, and this trend will not be slowing down. Our research has found that 51% of the traffic to your website is organic, which means that your placement on the SERPs remains a critical component of the attention and engagement your site receives.

Customers have also begun to rely on the internet with increasing frequency when determining the products and services they need as well as the brands to patronize. Eighty-one percent of customers report that they use the internet to research prospective purchases, and 94% of B2B buyers do the same. The strengthening of the industry means that motivated professionals can find success through the marketing career path. Dedicated junior marketing team members can make their way to leadership positions by improving their understanding of the marketing landscape by molding themselves into qualified hybrid marketers and remaining abreast of the latest changes.  

The importance of the hybrid marketer on the marketing career path

SEO has become an increasingly precise and quantitative exercise. When the industry was first born, it was possible to gain coveted positions on the SERP through the use of intuition and some guesswork. Now, with the increasingly competitive landscape, marketers must understand how to meet the needs of customers in their micro-moment with the exact type of content they want to see to address their pain point.

Google also continues to adjust their SERPs, customizing them for the likely intent of the user and the micro-moment they inhabit at any given moment. When brands also know the keywords and queries that are most likely to be used with particular micro-moments, they can better target prospects with particular intents, such as those interested in making a purchase. This level of precision requires coordination between the SEO professionals, content marketers, video specialists, PPC experts, and data analysts. Marketers who can bring a hybrid skill set from various disciplines make it easier for an organization to achieve this level of coordination and success.  

Hybrid marketers have a solid understanding of the strategies and goals of at least two of these different areas, such as SEO and analytics, strengthening the team and helping them accomplish this goal. Marketers who understand how to balance these different moving parts, and have skills in a few different areas, can help bring their organizations forward, at the same time enhancing their own marketing career path. Those who want to thrive within the industry need to focus on building their expertise across these different areas to become a truly modern marketer: someone who stretches beyond the stereotypical marketing silos. Reading industry books is critical to keeping knowledge up to date.

There are a variety of resources available for marketers to build out their credentials. Google Analytics Academy, for example, can help marketers begin to learn how to analyze site data and then put those insights to work. The BrightEdge certification can also help marketers learn more about the practical uses of analytics as well as how to use our enterprise-level SEO and content platform within your organization. Those who want to succeed on the marketing career path can also take advantage of webinars and similar resources to build their understanding of related aspects of marketing. Looking for more ways to continue your education? Here are a few resources to get started.  

Staying abreast of the latest trends

Marketing continues to change at lightning speed. Those interested in succeeding on the marketing career path need to understand what these changes are and show a keen understanding of the industry to be able to predict what areas might become more important in the near future. Over just the past few years, we have seen the rise of mobile search - which now exceeds desktop at 57% - and it has been followed by the rise in voice search.

Consumers are becoming increasingly dependent upon their devices while multitasking - such as typing searches while riding on a train, asking their personal assistant devices for help while cooking, or looking up information while out with friends.  Those who find success on the marketing career path will also understand how to prepare their websites for these rising trends, such as becoming mobile friendly before Google made it officially part of the algorithm, or creating content in a question-and-answer format once the rising popularity of voice search became apparent. Right now, marketers should be paying attention to a variety of rising trends, including the following:

• The increasing usage of AI to help brands produce effective content that takes rising search interests into account
• The upcoming mobile-first algorithm, which we expect Google to release by 2018
• The importance of data in guiding digital marketing strategies
• Creating content that works well for voice search
• Creating content for hyperlocal customers interested in content on-the-go

To remain up-to-date on these various trends, people interested in the marketing career path should subscribe to blogs and other publications written by thought leaders in the field as well as attending conferences and webinars that will help them move forward. Fine a detailed description of 12 key marketing roles in this blog post. The marketing career path offers room for success for dedicated professionals willing to put in the effort needed to reach the top. Those who focus on developing hybrid skills and remaining up to date on the latest changes and advancements in the industry will position themselves best for their dream job.