Key Takeaways
Search Intent Importance: Understanding search intent, especially informational intent, is key to aligning content with user needs and improving Google rankings.
Informational Search Intent: This involves creating content that seeks to inform, categorized by Google as “Know” and “Know Simple” queries. The former addresses comprehensive informational needs while the latter answers brief, direct questions.
Content Strategy: Effective informational content should be relevant, comprehensive, and adhere to SEO best practices, including keyword research and consistent publishing.
Leveraging Google Features: Targeting Featured Snippets and People Also Ask sections is crucial, as these boost visibility for informational queries.
Diverse Content and Tools: Utilize various formats like blog posts, videos, and infographics. Employ free tools like Google’s PAA, AnswerThePublic, and Keyword Sheeter for discovering relevant queries and conducting competitive research.
What is Search Intent?
Search intent, also known as user or keyword intent, is the purpose behind a search query.
It’s interesting how a seemingly simple concept can drastically impact content effectiveness if misunderstood.
How does a mismatch occur?
If the content fails to align with search intent, it doesn’t meet the searcher’s needs.
Google’s algorithm doesn’t arbitrarily determine search intent. Instead, it evaluates content’s relevance through user interactions in search results.
Consider this analogy: If you ask, “What’s the time, Tomislav?” and I respond with a philosophical definition of time rather than the actual time, I’ve missed the mark.
Although the physics of time is fascinating, such an answer is irrelevant to your query.
A significant misalignment with search intent can cause Google to rank content poorly in search results.
Search intent is categorized into four types:
- Navigational
- Informational
- Commercial
- Transactional
For a comprehensive understanding of search intent, refer to my detailed article on the subject.
This article will primarily focus on informational search intent and its optimization.
What is Informational Search Intent?
Informational search intent is about seeking information on a topic.
In their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, Google labels this as “Know” user intent, differentiating it from “Know Simple” queries.
“Know Simple” queries seek brief, direct answers like facts, diagrams, or short lists.
Basically, anything answerable in a couple of sentences falls under Know Simple queries.
All other informational queries are classified as Know queries.
Here are examples of both Know Simple and Know queries, along with explanations.
The emphasis on these distinctions indicates Google’s efforts to accurately interpret search intent.
With algorithms increasingly capable of understanding linguistic nuances, search intent is becoming a pivotal focus area.
How to Leverage Informational Search Intent for Your Content Marketing Efforts
Informational content is crucial to content marketing.
It involves creating valuable content that addresses your audience’s problems.
Benefits of targeting informational search intent:
- Increased Traffic: Content meeting informational needs attracts more viewers.
- More Indexed Pages and Keywords: This leads to greater visibility in search results.
- Longer Engagement: Informational content keeps visitors on your site longer, boosting SEO metrics.
- More Backlinks: Informative content earns links, unlike sales-focused pages.
- Brand Building: Assisting your audience establishes a strong brand presence.
- Trust and Relationship Building: Valuable content fosters audience trust without direct selling.
Content tailored to informational search intent aligns seamlessly with content marketing goals.
They complement each other perfectly.
For a detailed analysis of optimizing content around search intent, see my in-depth article.
How to Optimize Your Content for Informational Search Intent
Optimizing for informational search intent is all about maximizing value.
With millions of articles published daily, your content must stand out through relevance and comprehensiveness.
Content Relevance: This means solving specific problems for specific audience segments. Generalized content often misses the mark.
Content Comprehensiveness: Provide all necessary information for problem-solving.
In addition to relevance and depth, adhere to SEO best practices.
I prefer a practical SEO approach rather than overly complex tactics. The 80:20 SEO approach involves:
- Keyword Research
- Creating relevant, comprehensive content
- Optimizing titles and meta tags
- Interlinking content
- Enhancing your domain’s backlink profile
- Using relevant images and videos
- Maintaining a mobile-friendly site
- Consistent publishing schedule
This list might seem lengthy, but routine practice makes these tasks manageable without excessive time or effort.
How to Optimize Your Content for Featured Snippets and People Also Ask Section
Seeing a Featured Snippet and People Also Ask section is a clear indicator of an informational query.
These features are part of Google’s strategy to retain searchers on their platform for longer durations.
In early 2020, Featured Snippets underwent a change: if your content is in the featured snippet, it won’t appear again on the first page.
Previously, content creators aimed for the featured snippet to secure both the snippet and the top rank.
Despite the update, securing a featured snippet is still advantageous, especially if ranking first is challenging for your content.
In essence, it’s better to land the featured snippet than to rank 7th on the first page.
To aim for the featured snippet, focus on providing succinct, useful answers to queries.
The same approach applies to targeting the People Also Ask section.
Writing the best paragraph-long answers for questions in this section can elevate your content’s visibility.
Best Content Types for Informational Search Intent
Quality content comes in various forms.
It’s wise to consider advice about content creation critically.
Ultimately, the goal is to create content that delivers maximum value to your audience.
Nonetheless, here are some content types generally successful for informational queries:
- Videos – particularly effective when visuals are essential.
- Blog posts – including How-to, Where, What, Why, Guides, Tutorials, Lists, Reviews, etc.
- Case studies – showcase your expertise and results.
- Success stories and cautionary tales – both are relatable and tend to perform well.
- Infographics – offer an alternative consumption format and are excellent for backlinks.
For more insights on the best content marketing types and their repurposing, refer to my article on the subject here.
Free Tools for Discovering Informational Search Queries
As previously noted, informational content is about providing value and answering audience questions.
At times, you might need assistance in finding new angles to approach your topics.
Given the importance of comprehensiveness as a ranking factor, it’s wise to seek help wherever possible.
Fortunately, there are free tools that offer relevant data effortlessly.
Here are some free tools and techniques for discovering informational search queries:
- Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) section: Search your keyword or topic on Google to find related questions in the PAA section.
- Google’s Related Searches section: Similar to PAA, this offers related keyword suggestions instead of questions.
- AnswerThePublic: A superb free tool that compiles questions and keywords from Google and Bing, categorizing them for easy consumption. For an in-depth guide on using AnswerThePublic, refer to my article on the subject.
- Keyword Sheeter: A free tool for keyword research that provides a plethora of related keywords, helping to identify topic opportunities that can add value for your audience.
- Competitive research: Search your keyword or topic on Google, review all first-page results (excluding ads), and assess how well your competitors have covered the topic. Spot content gaps and strive to create content that surpasses existing offerings.