At the beginning of April, we had a pleasure of attending Brighton SEO, world’s biggest (and best – we’re not biased!) search marketing conference. In the spirit of knowledge sharing, we’ll be publishing a series of blog posts covering the learnings and the latest SEO trends we’ve found the most useful.
This week, we’re starting with the ultimate gold mine for converting your organic traffic – search intent for B2B and targeting low volume keywords.
B2B vs B2C search intent
You might be wondering whether search intent is just another fancy new buzzword in the world of SEO or if it has really become a valid SEO business tool for attracting more qualified prospects, driving more sales and generating more leads?
Let’s start from the definition of search intent…
Although sounds like a fancy term, search intent represents quite a simple concept – a reason behind a search query, i.e. why a user types a word or phrase into a search bar.
For example, typing ‘tofu recipes’ simply indicates that a user or a consumer is looking for tofu recipes, in other words informational content to inspire their dinner plans.
But, how can we apply search intent for B2B businesses? How do you determine the type of search intent behind the keyword?
Google it.
Yes, we mean it, Google it.
Not all the keywords will relate to B2B businesses. From the example below we can see that ‘where can I buy tofu’ brings out results aimed at end users or B2C customers.
Consequently, if you find that the results have nothing to do with your business – whether it’s informational content or a completely different industry – adjust your keywords.
Answer The Public and AlsoAsked are some good tools to use what people are asking about.
Then, Google it again.
‘Where can I buy tofu in bulk’ brings out results with B2B offering, directed more at restaurants rather than consumers only.
Finding related keywords – is it worth targeting keywords with low monthly search volume?
Now, you’ve found your long tail seed keyword, it’s important to find your related terms. Obviously, most of us marketeers want to find high-volume, high-converting, low-competition keywords. But, what about the little guys?
Here are some examples:
- tofu wholesale price – 90
- wholesale tofu uk – 50
- tofu wholesale – 10
Many will automatically disregard these terms, assigning them low value and no conversion potential.
This is far from the truth. Think differently – focus on relevance and intent above search volume.
Take our tofu example. This is still relatively a small and niche market, therefore the volumes won’t be that big yet. But, we all know the vegan market is growing rapidly. According to research, the global vegan food market is expected to reach over 22 billion U.S. dollars in 2025, from 16 billion U.S. in 2021. This means a lot more vegan restaurants opening over the next few years, as well as spots broadening their offering with plant-based options.
This MEANS the tofu market is growing, and with that the volumes.
Other benefits of targeting low-search-volume keywords include:
- Super-relevance – Extremely targeted which means users are looking for a very specific thing.
- Low competition – Opportunity to compete with the big boys in the market. ‘Tofu’ alone has over 40,000 monthly searches.
- Stronger commercial intent – As mentioned, those keywords are extremely targeted which means stronger commercial intent. This will apply to the entire buying cycle, and while you may not see the results right away, ranking for those terms will help you convert a smaller number of users into customers.
Need more convincing?
According to the Search Demand Curve, 70% of all searches consist of long-tail keywords. That means popular search terms that most businesses focus on, only account for approximately 30%. Head-scratcher, isn’t?
How to create content that matches search intent
Google it.
The key is to create something similar to what’s popping up already if you want to rank. For our tofu example, most results represent shopping destinations, perfect for wholesalers. Therefore, an article about buying tofu in bulk won’t work that well. This is a highly intentional keyword that suggests transactional intent.
As a result, creating content should be more about understanding the consumer’s needs, so you can market more accurately. A user’s search intent says a lot about their intentions, so creating content that is in line with their requirements is key.
Takeaways
As we mentioned in our previous article about search intent, Google’s algorithm is extremely clever and no longer has to rely on keywords to judge what the content is about.
It’s not enough to stuff your website with keywords as they don’t provide enough context. It’s all about creating the most relevant content, be it a blog, video, or a product page, that answers a particular search query.
Always think about what your potential customers are looking for and how you can meet their needs.
If you have any questions about our approach to content marketing and search intent trends in 2022, or would like to know more about any of our other services, please get in touch with our team of experts
Source: quibble.digital
