What Is Keyword Intent & How to Align Keywords with User Needs

What Is Keyword Intent?

Keyword intent, also known as search intent, is what searchers want to achieve after they conduct a specific search.

For example, when someone searches “buy orchid seeds,” the intent behind that search is probably to make a purchase.

But someone searching just “orchid seeds” might not want to make a purchase. It’s possible that they just want to learn more about orchid seeds.

Google’s goal is to answer searcher’s queries as efficiently as possible. So, if your content answers a keyword’s search intent, you’re more likely to rank for that keyword.

This is why it’s important to identify keyword intent before you create a piece of content to target a specific keyword.

Let’s elaborate on that.

Why Understanding Keyword Intent Is So Valuable in SEO

Understanding and addressing keyword intent will increase your chances of ranking for the keywords you want to target.

In other words, Google uses keyword intent to determine what should appear for which searches. So searchers can get to the pages that can best address their queries.

Let’s use the examples above to illustrate.

Someone searching for “buy orchid seeds” likely wants to make a purchase. So here’s what the results page looks like:

The first result is Amazon. Because Google knows the searcher wants to buy.

Someone searching for just “orchid seeds,” on the other hand, might want to buy. Or might want more information about orchid seeds.

So here’s what the results look like:

Amazon is still number...