Whatever industry you are in, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of keywords you could attempt to target with an SEO strategy. For most businesses, though, even those with large budgets, this is not possible. The approach instead is to prioritise the best keywords and focus your resources on those. There are several ways you can do this, including concentrating on buyer intent.

In fact, using buyer intent is the best method of prioritising SEO keywords to target. Despite this, there are many businesses that don’t. You may even have encountered an SEO company in Auckland that doesn’t use buyer intent – they are out there.

Seduced by Size

Rather than using buyer intent, people often look simply at the raw numbers, i.e. they prioritise the keywords that have the most searches.

In other words, they go for quantity rather than quality.

Quantity is important, but you need quality as well. As a result, it’s essential you factor buyer intent into your SEO strategy.

How People Use Search Engines

People use Google search for a range of different reasons. This includes finding a product to purchase and it includes finding a company or person to provide a service. These are only two of the reasons people use Google for, however.

They could be doing initial research on a service or product they might need but may never end up purchasing. They could also be simply finding out information with no intention whatsoever of making a purchase or finding a service provider.

In addition, many keywords have double meanings. So, somebody using a keyword you believe relates to your business might actually be searching for something completely different.

What is Buyer Intent?

Of all search motivations, the most important to your business is undoubtedly the people using Google to find a product or service.

Also Read: Lead Magnets – How to Get More Leads from Your Website

Targeting these people involves focusing on keywords that have buyer intent, i.e. keywords that give a strong indication the person is close, or getting close, to making a buying decision.

Ensuring Your SEO Strategy Delivers a Return on Investment

There are a number of measurements of success for SEO strategies:

• Improving your ranking in Google search for important keywords
• Achieving a higher position in Google search than your main competitors
• Getting more traffic to your website

However, there is another metric you should also use to measure success – conversions. In other words, are you getting more sales or leads as a result of your SEO strategy?

How do you achieve the above objectives?

• Improving your ranking for important keywords – targeting keywords that are most relevant to your business, even if they don’t get high volumes of monthly searches
• Achieving a higher ranking than your competitors – targeting flagship keywords
• Getting more traffic – targeting keywords with a high search volume
• Getting more sales/leads – targeting keywords with buyer intent

In other words, the keywords that are most likely to generate sales for your business are those with buyer intent.

Characteristics of Keywords with Buyer Intent

• Focused rather than general
• Often product or service specific
• Often include a location, i.e. SEO Auckland if you are looking for SEO services in Auckland
• Can include brand names
• Usually longtail, i.e. keywords with four-plus words

While you shouldn’t focus exclusively on keywords with buyer intent, the should be part of your SEO strategy.