Keywords and search intent

Search terms or keywords are one of the fundamental areas that every SEO or SEM professional needs to master. These are the words we want to rank for or use in our campaigns, and the ones users type into Google or other search engines to find us.

Types of Keywords

When carrying out a keyword study (also known as Keyword Research), we will notice that some keywords are made up of more words than others. Depending on the number of words used, we can classify them as short tail or long tail keywords.

Short tail keywords are usually searched for far more often, but they are very hard to rank for. They also do a poor job of describing what the user actually intends to do (unlike long tail keywords).

For example:
If someone searches for dog on Google, we will see a range of results, covering definitions, benefits, photos, videos and so on, but no specific result geared towards an action.

Long tail keywords are the complete opposite of short tail ones. They get far fewer searches, but they are usually much easier to rank for, there is greater variety, and they tell us much more about the user’s intended action or need.

For example:
If someone searches for buy a dog in Valencia on Google, we will see that the results are fairly similar and are mostly shops focused on selling dogs.

The search intent behind keywords

Each keyword is usually geared towards a different search intent. In other words, the user’s goal varies depending on the word or words used to search.

We can classify these search intents as follows:

• Informational: searches looking for information about something. Example: «what do dogs eat».
• Transactional: any query aiming to make a purchase, hire a service or request a quote for one. Example: «buy a dog».
• Location: searches looking for specific locations. Example: «dogs in valencia».
• Multiple: these refer to several search intents at once, as they are usually very generic, short keywords. Example: «dogs».

There are more types of search intent, but they are generally linked to other actions.

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