User intention as a factor in SEO and CRO
You'll agree that the intent of the user (User Intent) is not only a factor in search engine optimization, but a guide to action to optimize conversions. Although for some reason User Intents are used in SEO, but not in CRO (conversation rate optimization).
The author of the popular blog CrazyEgg shared his thoughts on how user intent can be used to optimize conversion.
His thesis is simple, like all brilliant:
User Intent is the starting point for a high conversion. If you are not able to anticipate the customer's intention, then forget about the conversion.
What is the intent of the user?
You can not equate the user intention and the search query, which he puts into a search engine. Ultimately request is just a bunch of words, while, as the intention is the reason for which the user went to search.
There are three types of user intents:
navigation - when a user searches for a particular site,
information - when the user requires information,
transaction - when the user is ready to take some action on the site (buy, subscribe, etc.)
The key idea is that anyone who is looking for something on the Internet, has a specific intent. And the content that appears in the search results must match the user intention.
User intention and search engine optimization
Most often, marketers use user intent for SEO. This is logical: if you know the people's need, you can create useful content. Thus relevance and indicators of behavioral factors increased and ultimately site receives more traffic.
User intention is a concept that shows a serious change in internet marketing. There is no longer any Search Engine Optimization as a thing in itself. Instead of this SEO borrowed techniques from all areas of marketing, including CRO.
When you start to build SEO-strategy based on user intent, then create content that they really need. And this is the main principle of marketing - to give the consumer what he wants.
The intentions of the users and optimizing conversions
User intention works at optimizing conversions on the landing page. How?
1. Identify the queries through which users reach your site
The easiest step is to identify the queries that generate traffic. This can be done in the reports of contextual advertising systems, system analysts from Google or Google Webmaster Tools.
2. Decode the intention that is hidden under the search query
To understand what is actually required by the user, remember the three types of user intents: navigational, transactional and information.
We think you can easily distinguish which of the types the requests that you have identified in the first phase, belong to. And if you are in doubt - type the request to the Google search engine and look at the results, it is able to fairly accurately guess the user's preferences.
3. Optimize conversion through the user intentions
We can distinguish the following stages of CRO based intents:
Identify the intent,
Create a page that would meet the requirements,
Embed the relevant calls to action (CTA).
It is important that your proposal was proportionate to user readiness. It is obvious that it would be inappropriate to offer the visitor a paid product for the information request. Let's say someone types in the search for "a review of services in instagram posting deferred" and the visitor comes from a specific service. This visitor has come for information, so the offer to download an overview of the basic services will be a better solution than forcing to sign up.
Transactional queries is a fertile ground for the creation of the number of pages and writing calls to action on their basis. Create a landing page for each transaction request, so you make your offer more relevant to the user's needs.
Answering the main question
SEO inevitably entails an increase in the conversion. To get high positions you will certainly need to modify your site so that it was clear, easy to use and answer queries of visitors.
There are many other factors that affect the conversion more than SEO, but that does not mean that search engine optimization is absolutely useless when it comes to sales and applications.
