Keyword User vs. User-Intent optimisation? 

We have spent so many years focusing on keyword optimisation, however, with Google at the forefront of search and the changes they are making, search is changing quickly and we need to understand how the new search formats – of keywords combined with user-intent works and why we need to start to include these in our SEO strategy. 

Essentially, the difference between Keyword User and Intent Optimisation lies in their focus and approach – here’s a breakdown of each:

Keyword Optimisation

We are familiar with this one, however, it’s good to recap to emphasis the difference. This is where Search engines focus on optimising content around specific keywords and when you do this and make it easier for the Search engine to find, your search rankings will improve.

  • In order to do this you probably use Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush or similar tools to help you select your keywords and identify high traffic areas.
  • When you have identified your keywords you then have to balance adding the keywords and avoid keyword stuffing (which could lead to you being penalised).
  • The reason you are adding keywords it to ensure the search engines can find the most relevant content when users enter a search query.

Here’s an example of keywords for this blog

This blog is about the “best online marketing tools,” so optimising the most relevant keywords would involve ensuring that the phrase “best online marketing tools” appears prominently and naturally in the content, headings and of course, the metadata.

User-Intent Optimisation

This is the new way that search engines are going to find your most relevant content. Its all around the intent behind a user’s search query 

First of all you need to determine the type of intent the user is using – ask yourself what is the information the user is trying to find:

  1. Are they looking for information? This is informational intent
  2. Do they want to buy something? This is transactional intent
  3. Do they want to comparing options? This is navigational intent

Again you must produce relevant content so you have to answer these queries directly and with as much comprehensive information as you can.  This type of search focuses on what the user is searching for not just a keyword.

As with all optimisation tasks, you need to structure the content so that it can be easily read and viewed quickly, adding images will help, however, must the content needs to load quickly so ensure the images are optimised to avoid any issues with load times. 

The main aim of these intent searches is to match with the searcher’s intent and provide a higher engagement rate and potentially higher conversion rate.

Here’s an example of optimising keywords for this blog

For the query  for the “best online marketing tools,” we would need to optimise our content to include more details e.g.  comparisons, reviews and recommendations and adding more detail around the actual content, rather than adding or even stuffing the page with the keywords.

So to summarise the key differences

What you should find,  is that if you combine both of these  approaches – keyword and intent together –  you should get a much higher impact and user engagement. This makes sense if you think that they keywords throw out a large net of options and bring users to your pages and this combined with the type of intent the user is looking for, you should see an impact on your rankings and hopefully conversions.  

AspectKeyword OptimisationUser-Intent Optimisation
GoalRank for specific keywords.Satisfy the user’s intent.
FocusSeeding keywords in the contentUser needs and content relevance.
ApproachSEO-driven, focusing on search engines.User-driven, focusing on searchers.
Tools UsedKeyword research tools – Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Keyword plannerAnalytics, search query analysis and UX tools. Google Analytics,
Example Query“Best online marketing tools.”Is the user looking to buy, compare or learn?

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