Last Updated on January 2, 2022 by scottkandh
Keyword research, specifically looking at Content. In this keyword research post I’ll be talking about two terms that are closely related called Search intent and content intent.
In addition, since the title of this post is Keyword Research Content we’ll look at how to turn your keyword list into different types of content on your blog. Specially, we’ll look at cornerstone content and product pages.
This is the seventh article I’ve written about keyword research strategy. In the previous posts I wrote about:
- A Keyword Research Glossary for Bloggers
- Need more Traffic Focus on using a Holistic SEO Approach
- The importance of using a Holistic SEO approach
- How to improve your SEO score with Keyword Research
- Keyword Research Strategy to defining your blog’s mission and USPs
- Keyword Research – How to make Conversions
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Table of Contents
Two important terms: Search intent and content intent
What is search intent?
In the previous post called Keyword Research – How to make Conversions hopefully you’ll recall that when you make your keyword list you need to keep your audience in mind as to what they are looking for on their search.
When it boils down to creating your posts you’re going to break it down even further as to “exactly” what you expect your audience to find in their search. That way you’ll be creating the page with their expectations in mind.
When people type into their search browser for something they’re on the hunt for and expect to find answers for their query this is called search intent. It’s what they’re looking for. What you need to keep in the back of the mind are answers to four (4) questions:
- Why are they searching?
- What exactly are they looking for?
- Do they have questions that they’re trying to find the answers for?
- Are they in the hunt to buy something?
When people type into their search browser for something they’re on the hunt for and expect to find answers for their query this is called search intent. It’s what they’re looking for. What you need to keep in the back of the mind are answers to four (4) questions:
We’re only going to spend a moment discussing content intent which we’ll get to shortly. For now, we’re going to take a look at the four different types of search intent called: 1) Informational intent 2) Navigational Intent 3) Commercial Intent and 4) Transactional Intent.
The reason that I’m bringing this to your attention for these four types of search intent is that it’s essentially important when you write your post or page that it fits the search intent of your visitors. I found two images on the Internet to help illustrate these different types of search intent. The first one is from rebootonline.com called: What is User Intent and Why is it Important? And I’ve created a third one just because.
The second image (below) is from Keyword Research for SEO. I picked this image for it’s colorfulness and it’s easier to remember (link has been removed because it’s been broken).
Now that we have the illustrations here’s a quick wrap up with a table of the four types of intent.
| Type of intent | People want to… |
| Informational intent | Find information on a specific topic |
| Navigational intent | Access a specific website by entering the term in a search engine (i.e. PinArtwork). |
| Commercial intent | Doing research before making a purchase |
| Transactional intent | Buying something, after they’ve done their commercial intent searches |
It’s time to optimize your posts, ensure that your post is providing the content that people expect. To do this you’ll need to analyze the keywords so that they match the type of intent as well as what do people want when their doing their search.
Now that we have the illustrations here’s a quick wrap up with a table of the four types of intent.
Keyphrase Research – Content Intent
For the most intent you’re going to take one step forward now with content intent. As I mentioned earlier, we’re going to be looking at three types of content: cornerstone content, product pages, and blog posts. Content intent is the process of lining up your content with the expectations of your audience. I’ve written many posts on how to grow your blog so in addition to this post you may want to consider looking at those posts as well.
When I write my blog posts, I’m keeping new bloggers in the back of my mind for my audience. So this next part you can skim over if you’re a intermediate blogger and pertains to landing pages.
This process is something that I specifically haven’t done yet because I haven’t reviewed my keyword bank with a fine-tooth comb. The point I’m trying to make is that a way to grow your blog is by examining your keyword list (or keyword bank) and turning it into landing pages. That way when people visit your landing page, you’ll have a very well sales funnel for your blog. When people are doing a search for their keyword you want them to land on your landing page for the pages with the most important keywords.
Why do you want them to land on your landing pages?
- To rank good in search engines
- So that your landing pages can be found
- To convert your visitors
- To prevent your visitors from bouncing
- Keep visitors on your site longer
Your mission Mr. Phelps if you decide to accept it is to look at every keyword and have at least one page that it ranks for (with that keyword). It’s not necessary to create a landing page right away for all of your keywords. It’ll probably take quite some time in order to rank for all of your keywords and more than likely is going to be a long-term project.
I’ve read that it’s possible to optimize one page for multiple keywords. If I knew how to do that I’d gladly share that with you.
I personally have spent some considerable time to create a nice-looking homepage. In most respects it serves as my principal landing page because from there it’s very easy to navigate the rest of my website. But I’m going to take another hard look at it and other posts to see which of my posts would serve better as landing pages. For example, I’ve got more than 8,000 Social Shares coming to my Star Trek post so that would be a very good starting point for me to add some more navigational buttons on that post.
Keyphrase Research – Creating Cornerstone Content
I’ve already written a pretty good post on cornerstone content. So, without further ado here’s a link to that post called: How to do a SEO Cornerstone Approach and here’s a link to my Top 25 blog posts called: 25 Cornerstone content (important) posts to grow your blog.
Before moving on to the next topic here are couple more pointers regarding cornerstone content:
I looked to see whether or not the Free version of Yoast SEO allows you to mark your posts/pages as cornerstone content and I couldn’t tell if it does or doesn’t. But I know that you can do it for sure with the Premium version of Yoast.
Carefully choose the posts that you want to mark as cornerstone content. They should be the posts that you want people to read first on your website. Then you can branch out and send internal links from your cornerstone content to your other posts and ensure that there aren’t any orphaned posts.
The cornerstone posts need to be updated on a regular basis. Periodically check those blog posts and/or pages that you’ve marked cornerstone to ensure that they’re current and up to date.
Keyword Research – Creating product pages
The obvious thing about a product page is that you’re trying to convince your blog visitor to buy something on your blog post.
cornerstone posts need to be updated on a regular basis. Periodically check those blog posts and/or pages that you’ve marked cornerstone to ensure that they’re current and up to date.
In a previous post called Keyword Research Strategy to defining your blog’s mission and USPs I talked about USPs (Unique Selling Points). With the use of USPs you can increase your chance of conversions. After all, the most important goal that you have on your product page is that you want your visitor to buy your product. But you must be tactful about it because you don’t want to twist this arm off in the process of trying to sell your product too hard.
Let’s review what we talked about earlier for our search intent so that it matches your product page.
If people are looking for products (but aren’t ready to buy yet) and are only in the research mode of searching they are in the transactional intent.
Therefore, your product page needs to differentiate from your informational post (finding information on a specific topic). I almost feel like I’m talking in circles when it comes to the various search intent methods. But keep in mind that the purpose for your product page is that it’s necessary to help your visitors get “product” information and then to persuade them why they’ll want to buy the product.
Characteristics of a strong product page
The product page should always contain:
- The product name.
- A description of the product.
- Image of the product
- The product’s price
- Clear call-to-action – bring your visitor to the cart or checkout.
- Reassurance to your visitors (i.e., testimonials from other customers, star ratings, or reviews from products).
To have your product page stand out against your competition use USPs. Below are the USPs that I’ve identified on my website that I’m in the middle of revising:
Some of the factors to help you stand out (and the examples on my website) are:
- A very unique product – Free Mini Blogging Course
- Expertise within my niche – Pinterest and SEO
- My Blog content – Star Trek, Norman Rockwell, Creative pins, and lots more (i.e. Blogtober posts)
Update: I’ve just added my USPs to my homepage. This is the current version until I might revise it at a later time.
You can add checkmarks to your USPs too and put them at the top of your page. (I haven’t placed mine there yet, because I’m still revising them at the moment – but they should be there shortly). I don’t think that WordPress will let you use checkmarks, so you might have to make a graphic with the checkmarks in the graphic.
By placing them at the top of your page your visitors won’t miss your USPs.
Although I don’t use tables in my product pages, I’ve read that using comparison tables is another great way to compare products. Here’s a great post called Comprehensive Guide to Pricing Tables to give you some ideas for you to brainstorm. One idea that’s already come to mind is to make a comparison table for Domain hosts like Bluehost and SiteGround.
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