We’ve been working on a series of articles about how online marketing can drive me crazy. We’ve talked about several things so far, and today’s topic is all about searcher intent.

Whenever someone gets onto the search engines like Google, and enters a search query, they are looking for one thing: the answer to their problem. In their head, they have a desired solution or target end point that will lead to their desired state. Their problem may be any or all of a set of conclusions, including:

  • The name and contact information of someone or a business to solve that problem (dentists, car repair, web designers, etc.)
  • Information on how to solve the problem themselves
  • Comparitive information to make a better-informed decision on something (like a purchase) including price, features, reviews, etc.
  • Information on a topic (what is it, how does it work, how is it used, etc.)

This list could go on of course.

So now think about your own website and your own efforts to market online. The perfect state of any search engine optimization is to show up at “the top” of Google’s search engine results page (SERP) when someone types in a search phrase that’s relevant to our business. Of course, as I’ve written before, there is no “top” of the search engines anymore for many reasons.

Setting that aside, let’s think about the search phrases that we so diligently research and try to find.

Let’s say you’re a dentist in San Francisco, California, and one of your primary search phrases that you want to get found for is san francisco dentist. Let’s further suppose that you’ve done a good job at your SEO efforts, and your web page shows up near “the top” of Google’s SERP. Yay for you. This presumes that you have a landing page on your website about being a great San Francisco dentist, and when someone clicks the link from Google, they’ll find out all the great stuff about how you’re a great San Francisco dentist.

But wait, is that really what the searcher wanted? What if the searcher was looking for a pediatric dentist? Or a cosmetic dentist? Or an emergency dentist with weekend hours? Or a periodontist to get a root canal? Are you all of those things? Probably not. So how do you optimize your page of content to fit what you can deliver, and exclude those items that you don’t?

Here’s another example. If someone types into the search bar, toyota tacoma pickup truck, are they looking to buy a new one? A used one? For the bed dimensions? Accessories? Reviews? Dealers? Parts? A repair facility?

You get the idea.

Never assume that you understand what’s in the searcher’s head when you think you want to be found for a particular search phrase.

Google has further complicated (or simplified?) things for us with an update that came out last year called Google Hummingbird. It was so named because it’s supposed to be “precise and quick”. Hummingbird is intended to do a better job of delivering the relevant SERP results based upon the context of previous searches (assuming they’re related) and the actual context of the individual search terms used. Search Engine Land came out with A Complete Guide To The Essentials Of Post-Hummingbird SEO in April.

So let me boil all this down. Doing keyword research is still an inexact “science” because we really don’t know what’s in the searcher’s head, even when they type a phrase into the search bar. Therefore, it’s pointless to obsess about whether we show up for a particular phrase or not.

Instead, we should be focusing on creating great content, regardless of the search phrases’ intents, and get it published. The more we do this, the more varied phrases we’ll show up for, no matter what. Many studies have confirmed that more content is better. “Content is King” still rules. I personally don’t care where I show up on the search engines. My main focus is getting found in lots of ways – search engines, social media, e-mail newsletters, and so on.

That, in the end, is going to win the day.

What are your thoughts? Am I way off base in your mind? Please let me know in the comments below.