With every year, search engines grow in their ability to respond to users’ searches. The latest development on that front has given search engines an ability to recognise the intent behind a user’s search.
Google, of course, is at the forefront of that development. As Search Engine Journal’s Chris Giarratana puts it, “Google has evolved in rewarding content that is valuable and relevant to readers.”
Since that’s the case, SEO professionals need to create content that targets the intent behind users who search for products like the one they promote. When they succeed in doing so, they not only will rank better in searches, but they will also lure more people to the product or service they want to market.
Use Customer Profiles to Determine User Intent
One of the best ways SEO professionals can determine their target customers’ intent is with customer profiles, says Giarrantana. Interviews with past customers, as well as customers that you’d like to attract, can help you build such a profile. That way, you can build a case that will tell those people how your product can help them conquer their challenges.
In addition to your target customers’ demographics and personalities, you should also include the following characteristics:
- The customer’s most pressing challenges (pain points)
- What products they have used to solve their problem
- What those products did or did not do to solve their problem
- If they are still using those products
- What kinds of products will they rule out to solve their problem
Some SEO firms even name their target customer persona to help them focus their content on the personality and needs of their target customer.
Put Yourself in Your Customer’s Shoes to Create Appealing Content
Let’s look at this from the viewpoint of your target customer. Suppose your customer, a car dealer who wants to have a better selection of environmentally friendly cars in her inventory, searches for ‘best green cars australia’. What she’s really asking is, ‘could you please find out which cars have the lowest impact on the environment, use energy more efficiently, and have a long range before one has to plug them in, and are available to car dealers in Australia’?
When you know your target persona, then you can target your customers to rank better in searches by avoiding the clunky wording of old-school SEO content to insert LSI keywords (synonyms and related words) to write content that your customer will actually read, instead of:
‘If you’re looking for the best green cars Australia, come to Green Cars Wholesale for the best green cars in the continent’.
That kind of content won’t just cause your customer to pass you by because your content looks cheap and contrived (and your target customer will think your cars are, too). It will also cause the search engines to pass you up. Today’s search engines can recognise what your target customers are really looking for—and you should produce content that gives them just that.
Google can look at a user’s past searches, as well as similar searches by similar users (since they have access to a wide range of demographic information on each user) to discover what each person is actually looking for.
Use Related Keywords and Demographic Information to Target User Intent
Using related keywords, as well as some of your customers’ demographic information, in your content can yield powerful copy that will grab the attention of search engines—and your target customers.
Copy like this:
‘If your car dealership has lagged behind in sales because you don’t have enough eco-friendly cars on your lot, we can help’.
You’ve just hooked your target customer.
You can extend this strategy to not only website content, blog posts, and social media, but to your advertising as well. Once you learn your customer’s intent on each type of media, you can tailor your content to reach out to them wherever they are online. Give them what they want—where they want it—and you’ll have loyal customers for life.
To discover more about how Amire can raise your profile all over the Web, contact the customer care team at Amire today.
