You might have heard the phrase "user intent" before, you might not have, but either way knowing what user intent is and how it relates to your website content is critical for so many reasons.
I wanted to share my thoughts as integrating user intent into your content can bring so many benefits which will ultimately help your online business flourish.
While we're going to look at the importance of user intent in relation to website content here, it should also be a consideration through all of your marketing such as e-mail marketing and socials too.
User Intent - A Summary
If you've never heard of user intent before, you might be wondering why we feel the need to cover it here. Well, to put it simply, user intent is about understanding the intention of the user when they visit a page on your website.
Is the user looking for information, to find or to buy a product? Depending on the intent of a user they may have differing needs and understanding this can help you improve your website.
When to Consider User Intent
Now we have a better understanding of what user intent is and how it can help us, it's also worth knowing when you need to consider user intent.
In creating content for your website and other content outlets such as social media channels, you really should be considering user intent from the moment you're conceiving your content ideas. After all, if you don't know or consider what the user is looking to achieve, how can you give them the right information to help them make a choice?
This should also apply to all parts of the user journey too, as the user's intent changes when the user moves through the buying journey. A user who's just discovering your brand will need very different content compared to a user who's on the verge of making a purchase.
Benefits of Considering User Intent
If you've never given a thought to how user intent can be factored in to your content approach then you've probably never given a thought to the potential benefits it can bring either.
So here's our take on the advantages that thinking about user intent can bring.
Improved Experience for the User
By thinking about the intention of the user when creating landing pages or other content, you'll create a better experience as the user finds the type of information they're looking for more easily.
Frustration will be redcuced as they will not have to keep searching for additional detail.
Get the Right Content to the Right User
As we mentioned earlier, someone who is just in the discovery stage of their buying journey will want very different content to someone who's on the verge of buying from you.
By integrating user intent into your content, you'll focus on keeping discovery content information based to target users who want information on your brand or product.
On the other hand, product content will be more aligned to providing detail on the benefits of your product or service.
Finally conversion content will show the user why your product will make their lives or work better. The result of all of this means that the right user is given the right information to help move them closer to buying from them.
Improves Quality of Traffic on a Page
A huge advantage of focusing on user intent comes from SEO and the focus Google also has on serving the right content to the right user at the right time. By integrating user intent into your content, you should also see improvements on the traffic to your landing pages from Google.
We have first hand experience of this working on an e-commerce fashion website, which previously only had product list page for their users for each brand. We ran a test in which we updated two of these brand category pages with content aligned to a more commercial intent.
This was supplemented with a separate page featuring discovery content about the brand (their history, ethics etc) and a final page about how to style that season's products.
The outcome of this was a 195% and 203% increase in revenue for the 2 brands tested.
Helps Inform Content Strategy & Requirements
Whether you have a content strategy or not, considering user intent can help you understand the kind of content oyu need to be creating. Historically your approach may just have been about creating blogs, in which case taking a step back and looking at user intent might help you realise you need more conversion content.
Knowing the type of content you have and are missing, aligned to the user needs will help you to plan and create the kind of content that will help you sell more.
Drives increased sales
Perhaps the biggest benefit of integrating user intent is driving revenue. Whether you improve conversion rates or just drive more traffic while maintaining conversion rates the outcome is more revenue for your business.
