When we talk about keywords, what are we really talking about? In short, we’re talking about the questions people ask. We’re talking about the concept of user intent.
Keyword Jeopardy
The old game show Jeopardy is a good way to understand the process of keyword research. A contestant is given an answer and must come up with the question that gives that answer.
Keyword research is the process of figuring out the questions people are asking on their browsers, smartphones, and other devices. You create blog posts, videos, and other content to answer the questions, using the same words: keywords.
Putting Keywords into Context
Keywords are the link between the questions a searcher asks and the answers provided by content on the internet. Keywords tell search engines like Google what a blog post, video, or other content is about. If you search for the keyword apple, Google will look for content containing the word apple.
In ancient times (i.e. 2010), the only way Google knew how to do this was to count the number of times a keyword appeared in a blog post: If it contained the word apple ten times, it was probably about apples.
So that’s what you did — use the word apple a lot when writing a blog post. Google used a measurement called keyword density — the number of times per hundred words the keyword apple appeared — reasoning that a 500-word post mentioning apples 20 times was more likely to be about apples than one mentioning apples twice, where apples could be incidental.
You can see the flaws in this reasoning; quantity does not equal quality. What you wanted was good information about apples.
Which could be hard to find. You’ve guessed (correctly) that keyword stuffing was a highly profitable way for unscrupulous folk to game the system by including little to no content except the keywords themselves, just to rank higher (a so-called “black hat” tactic). So you clicked through to a lot of empty, worthless content in those days. Google started fighting this problem in 2012 with the so-called Penguin algorithm update. (No need to remember algorithm updates unless you’re a geek like the authors.)
All you need to know is that since then, Google has not merely defeated keyword stuffing but learned to read, understand, and write natural, spoken language at least as well as most humans. Keyword density can still be a useful measurement, but it’s not how people talk in real life.
How Keywords Have Changed
Today, keyword density is insignificant compared to plurals, synonyms, variations, and context—the way people talk and write naturally. The keyword density of old reads now like keyword-stuffed or AI-generated writing, and Google will devalue it appropriately.
When people search, they search semantically, which simply means: conversationally, like a question they’d ask another person. You wouldn’t ask a friend, “Best pie apple?” You’d ask, “What’s the best type of apple to use for baking an apple pie?”
That’s what you’d ask Google, Alexa, Siri, or any other device you can ask a question. Voice search with natural language is the present and the future.
Unlike keyword density, synonyms and variations sound natural and human, and Google has always said to write for human readers first, not search engines.
But natural language still contains keywords.
User Intent: An Introduction
Keywords are at heart questions, and when people want to buy something, they ask different questions at each stage of their customer journey—a progression called user intent in Google-speak.
Google is all about user intent. They completely redesigned Google Analytics to track user intent, and although I have yet to meet anyone who likes the new GA4 (different story), it may ultimately prove more useful because it tracks the customer journey better.
User intent is critical to consider in keyword research. As a customer gets closer to buying, they’re trying to learn different things, so they ask different questions—which means they’re using different keywords.
In short: User intent mirrors the customer journey.
User Intent: An Example
I recently searched on Google and the first item on the search engine results page (SERP) was a blog post entitled: Why You Wake Up At 4am Or the Same Time Every Night?
My question was: “Why do I keep waking up at 4 am?” Here are some other posts that appeared:
- Reduce Stress And Stop Waking Up At 4 AM
- Here’s why you keep waking up at 4am
- 4 Reasons Why You’re Waking Up at 4 a.m.
- Why Do I Keep Waking Up at 4 AM? We Asked a Sleep Doctor
Here’s what some other people asked:
- How can I get back to sleep at 4am?
- Why do I wake up at 4 every morning?
- Why am I waking up at 4am and can’t go back to sleep?
- Why do I wake up between 3 and 4 am?
- Is my liver waking me up at 4am?
The other searchers and I were all at the start of our customer journey, looking for basic answers. We weren’t ready to buy anything yet, just looking for information, some answers so we could get some sleep! All we knew was the problem. Google would say we had informational intent.
The point is, the blog authors all knew exactly what question—the exact words—sleepless people are asking themselves at four in the morning, just looking for some basic answers.
They knew because they did their keyword research, then created content—with our keywords in the title—that answered our questions at that stage of our customer journey.
User Intent: The Whole Journey
Let’s finish the journey. Google recognizes five user intents:
- Informational
- Commercial
- Transactional
- Navigational
- Local
To understand user intent, think about your own process for deciding what to buy. You probably go through the following stages in order:
Informational
It all starts with a need. You know the problem, but not the solution, and you may not fully understand the problem either. In short, you lack information—about the problem, the solution, all of it.
So your first task is to inform yourself, and at this stage of your customer journey, you’ll be asking a wide range of general questions.
Let’s go back to my question. The results we got before would be a good place to start:
- Reduce Stress And Stop Waking Up At 4 AM
- Here’s why you keep waking up at 4am
- 4 Reasons Why You’re Waking Up at 4 a.m.
- Why Do I Keep Waking Up at 4 AM? We Asked a Sleep Doctor
You’re looking for information about the problem: what causes it, what are possible treatments—and probably learning about sleep itself: why the body needs it, what happens when you don’t get enough. What kind of sleeper are you? And so on.
With informational intent, you’re just trying to get the lay of the land. You’re collecting data without much concern about where it’s leading or what to do with it.
Eventually you’ll reach a saturation point. You’ll know enough, and feel ready to move to the next step.
Commercial
This is sometimes called comparison intent because the customer is basically comparison shopping: intending to buy but not ready just yet.
With informational intent you’re researching the problem; with commercial intent you’re researching solutions, considering options.
From a keyword research standpoint, you’re asking different questions to get a different kind of answers. Your keyword-questions now include words like best, review, and compare.
Transactional
When you’re ready to buy, you have transactional intent: Where can I buy the sleep mask I want?
Again, a new set of questions and keywords, e.g. buy, sale, and discount.
Navigational
Navigational intent means you know where you want to go, and you type in the business name or URL and go there. Searching for a business by name — or any search with the business name in it—is called a branded search.
This is what you do if you’re a current client or customer, or you’ve decided where to buy and now just need to get to the proper website. You type Amazon into the search bar; no need to search for the most comprehensive online shopping site each time. Navigational intent: you navigate straight to it.
Local
Local intent is a little different, as it’s not necessarily a sequential stage of the customer journey. But it is if you want to shop locally.
Nearly half (46%) of all Google searches are people looking for things in their local area. When Google detects a local intent, it employs an entirely different algorithm to determine rankings and visibility. If you’re hungry for pizza; you just want the place that’s closest or delivers fastest without going through the other stages.
Local intent indicates a high readiness to buy, which puts it at the end of the customer journey (“bottom of funnel”), and it’s often indicated by keyword modifiers like “near me” and “open now.”
The Long and Short of Keywords
User intent is closely related to the length of the keywords you use. Keywords come in two basic lengths:
- Short (“short-tail” “fat-head” “head term”) — 1-2 words
- Long (“long-tail”) — 3-5 or more words
There can be great keyword opportunities in the middle of the range (3-4 words) and these are sometimes called “medium-tail” keywords, but short-tail and long-tail are enough to give you the picture.
Let’s start with a simple example, the keyword: Philadelphia
With one word, this is a head term, or short-tail keyword, a very broad category. If you search for it, you’ll get top-10 results for:
- The city in Pennsylvania
- The movie starring Tom Hanks
- A brand of cream cheese
In other words, Google has no idea what you’re looking for. So let’s add some words:
- Sights to see in Philadelphia
- What are the cheapest flights to Philadelphia?
- Who starred in the movie Philadelphia?
- Is Philadelphia on Netflix?
- How is Philadelphia cream cheese made?
Now we’re getting somewhere! These new long-tail keywords are going to get us some useful answers. In this instance, long-tail keywords help distinguish among broad topics (head terms) where the user’s intent is unclear.
Mostly, though, lengthening a keyword like this is how you drill down into a topic or the customer journey (they’re related).
- Short-tail (head term): blog
- Medium-tail (stupid term, but whatever): what is blog hosting
- Long-tail: what’s the best blog hosting service
Understanding the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords is critical for creating a keyword strategy. The riches are in the niches, as they say, and that’s true of keywords as well as businesses. Long-tail keywords are niches.
They’re also bottom-of-funnel. A local tour operator will never rank for a vague, general head term like Philadelphia — but it may blow its real-life competitors out of the water with “best historical walking tours in Philadelphia.” And if people are searching for that, they’re probably ready to buy.
Wrapping Up
In this chapter we’ve looked at keywords from two different perspectives: length and intent. They are related.
As your customers spiral inexorably down through their customer journey funnel, the questions they ask are not merely different at each stage, they’re more specific and often longer. Long-tail keywords are more specific, closer to the bottom of the funnel.
Short-tail, head term queries like sleep problems become lengthy and specific queries like what’s the safest over-the-counter sleeping pill?
The essence of creating business content is providing helpful answers to the different questions your potential customers have at each stage of their customer journey.
Order Start With Keywords: The First Step to Ranking Higher on Google as a Kindle paperback or ebook.
