INTRODUCTIONYear on year, the number of online sales grows exponentially. With the surge in popularity of mobile devices such as tablets, this growth seems unlikely to stall within the foreseeable future.Unsurprisingly, business are keen to capitalize on this trend, since the Internet offers immense opportunity in terms of potential number of customers. But the downside of this lucrative opportunity is that there is often a lot of competition, as multiple companies chase the same customers.Consequently, effective search engine optimization (SEO) is the foundation of any successful online business. You can create a great online company with quality products or services at a reasonable price, but if you cannot attract traffic to your website then your business efforts will fail.One of the key components of SEO is knowing what keywords are pertinent to your niches, so that you can start attracting visitors using those search terms. Many Internet marketers put much time and effort into their selection of these keywords, carefully checking them for popularity and competition. But they often miss an important point.Volume of traffic is of great importance when it comes to creating a successful website, but if you are trying to create a profitable business then the quality of that traffic necessitates consideration too. One of the greatest influences on whether a keyword will generate the right kind of clicks is the intent and purpose of the people using those search terms.Here we will examine exactly why establishing the intentions of the searcher is important, how the keyword choice can reflect the purpose and how you can identify the right keywords through proper research.WHAT IS THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING INTENT AND PURPOSE?The goal for any Internet marketer is to make a sale, whether they are pushing a physical product or a digital service such as an e-course. This means that they do not want to just drive visitors to a landing page, they also want that visit to result in a transaction.The likelihood of a click converting into a sale is dependent on the intent and purpose of the visitor. A person who is planning to buy a coffee maker, for example, will not just type "coffee maker" into a search engine. They will probably start out by researching the type of products which are available, and then may progress onto reading customer or consumer reviews to find the most reliable model.Once they have completed this research phase, they are then more likely display buyer behavior. Their search terms will focus more on finding a good deal, and they may proceed with the purchase if their search yields a suitable result.The keywords used often reflect what stage a person is at within the buying cycle. Therefore, optimizing a page for "coffee maker best deals" will lead to a higher conversion rate than targeting "best coffee makers". The latter may still bring you sales, particularly if the website has a high number of visitors, but your efforts may be better focused on the former.Many Internet marketers overlook this fact when doing keyword research. While most people will look at search volume and keyword competition, they may give no thought to intent and purpose at all. We will now look at the optimal way to conduct keyword research.HOW TO IDENTIFY THE INTENT OF A KEYWORD AND USE IT FOR HIGHER CONVERSIONSWhich keywords yield the highest conversion rates will depend very much on your chosen niche. However, there are some factors which can be applied to a broad range of topics to ascertain customer intent and the likelihood of a sale.Specific Product Related TermsA significant percentage of search terms relate to the specifics of a product, such as "red coffee maker" or "bean to cup coffee maker". These type of searches indicate that the person is at a fairly advanced stage of the buyer cycle, as they do have a relatively clear idea of what type of product they are looking for, or what need they want to be met. However, they might not have a precise product in mind and there could still be room for comparison, which means that a sale is far from guaranteed.Targeting your marketing campaign on this type of keyword can be beneficial, as long as the volume of potential hits to your landing page justifies any financial outlay. After all, you are virtually guaranteed to make some sales if you expose your product to sufficient people. But these are not the highest yielding keywords in terms of conversion.Brand And Company Related SearchesThe highest converting keywords are those which relate directly to a company name or a particular brand. If the brand they are searching for is your own, it is a very good indication that the buyer has already made their mind up to make a purchase. Your only concern should be whether your landing page is adequate for facilitating that transaction.Brand related keywords should therefore form an integral part of your marketing efforts. However, you need to bear in mind that search volumes can be low in comparison to product related search terms, and that you should look to create a balance between the two when it comes to allocating promotional resources.Potential SubstitutionsAlthough brand and product specific keywords warrant the most attention, targeting some other forms of keywords can be worthwhile if you have the right budget. One type of search term which is worth looking at is potential substitution.A potential substitution keyword is one where the customer is searching for one type of product, but what you sell offers a viable alternative. To stick with the coffee maker example, this might mean that a person is looking for pod-style coffee makers and you offer them the option of a bean-to-cup coffee maker. The conversion rates will be relatively low, but it is a tactic which is worth attempting if you believe that you can give your website's visitors a compelling reason to buy your product instead.The most important thing to bear in mind with this type of keyword is that relevance is given prominence by all major search engines. Consequently, substitute products are much harder to rank in organic listings, and your only option for promotion may be methods such as pay per click advertising.Broader Niche Search TermsThe lowest conversion rates typically come from broader niche search terms. These are keywords which your target demographic might be looking for which are related to your product, but perhaps not directly. So somebody searching for "contemporary kitchen gadgets" may be intrigued by the stylish coffee makers you are selling, or a woman looking for "dating articles" may find her interest piqued by your "How To Attract Men" e-book.Focusing on these keywords is likely to give a low return in terms of sales, since the target audience may not set out with an intention to make a purchase. But if the search volume is very high and your product has a good profit margin, these keywords can form an important part of your SEO campaign.HOW TO PERFORM YOUR KEYWORD RESEARCHNow that you have a clearer comprehension of how a keyword can reflect the intentions and purpose of the person doing the search, you need to understand what the most effective way is to conduct your keyword research. The nature of your business will affect how exactly you go about creating an SEO campaign and how in depth your research needs to be, but in general the following steps will facilitate the best outcome.Brainstorm Some IdeasFirst and foremost, think about what keywords you think people might be searching for. Try to put yourself in the mindset of someone who might want to buy your product or service. Write these down in a notepad or create a spreadsheet.At this stage, you do not need to worry about how exhaustive the list is or whether the keyword is too competitive. Your ideas are merely a starting point for the research.Identify Your Target DemographicIdentifying key demographics is one of the most important parts of any marketing campaign. If you already have a presence on the Internet, try to reach out to your readership through outlets such as social media in order to learn more about them. Alternatively, you can look at forums, reviews and online comments to see what types of people are making similar purchases.Knowing your audience means that you can learn what it is about the product which makes it desirable to them, or what sort of problems it resolves in their lives. Understanding the intentions of the target demographic will help you to identify the keywords which might have the highest conversions. Interacting with your audience will also clarify what terminology is in common usage, which will reflect in the keywords that they are using in their searches.What Keywords Are Popular Within Your Niche?If you already have a website, see what searches are bringing the most visitors to your webpages. Use these keywords, along with the ones which you brainstormed in the first step, to see what related terms people are looking for.Regular search engines now list suggestions for the most common similar searches, but for serious keyword research you will need to use a dedicated tool such as the Google Adwords keyword tool. If the product or service which you are promoting is targeting a specific geographic location, make sure that the tool you are using permits you to refine your search by this criteria, otherwise your research may be misleading in regards to terms used and search volume.When you are gathering data on number of searches per month, be careful to check whether the results are for exact match keywords or all related keywords. If you want to assess your traffic potential for the search term "black coffee makers" then the number of monthly searches for all related terms may give you are an overly optimistic impression of the keyword's potential, whereas the numbers for "exact match" will be more conservative and therefore more realistic.Print or download a list of all the terms which you have found in your keyword research. You can then refine these so that your marketing campaign can be refined for optimum effectiveness.REFINING YOUR KEYWORD LISTMajor companies have the resources to target many thousands of keywords in their SEO campaigns, but most Internet marketers will need to reduce their list of search terms to a more realistic number. There are no hard and fast rules about what "realistic" means, but it can be advisable to start off with a couple of dozen keywords and work your way up to a few hundred (if the size of your business justifies it).These are the most important considerations for selecting the perfect keywords.Eliminate The IrrelevantKeyword research will often throw up some related terms which offer little value or relevance to you, so manually scour the list and eliminate anything which you know is not worth targeting. For instance, a person searching for "coffee beans" probably already has a coffee machine, and therefore lacks the intention or motivation to buy one of your coffee makers.Look For Keywords With High RelevanceCheck your list of keywords for specific search terms. This can either be searches which are directly related to your brand or product, or a keyword which focuses on a specific aspect of a product. As discussed earlier, the more precise the term is, the further the customer has progressed in the buying cycle. The clearer idea a person has of what they want, the greater their intention will be to complete a purchase.Assess The Viability Of Your Chosen KeywordsNow that you have narrowed your list down to keywords which show a high sense of purpose, check that they are viable to pursue. The first metric which you will need for this is search volumes. A few thousand searches may be enough to target the keyword if you suspect that the percentage of resulting sales will be reasonable, (keep in mind that what represents a "good" number of searches will depend on the size of your niche). However, a keyword with a dozen searches is not worth pursuing as the cost per action in promoting it will not generate sufficient sales.The second metric you may want to check, depending on your area of business, is the competition. For most online marketers, the main concern is how competitive the keywords are when it comes to pay per click advertising. A high level of competition does not necessarily mean that you should discount a keyword, but you need to be prepared to allocate more resources to rank for it.Group Your Keywords By SemanticsSemantics are very important in modern SEO. Therefore, your final step in creating your keyword list should be to group your keywords semantically. This means that similar terms should be categorized together, such as "red coffee machines" and "red coffee makers".This will help you to determine whether you have covered all of the bases when it comes to targeting keywords which appeal to the intents and purposes of your customers. But primarily it will give you a head start when it comes to the next step, which will generally be to look at promotion techniques. Ad groups are typically based around semantically linked search terms.Latent semantic indexing (LSI) is also important for generating longer term traffic from means such as organic listings. The majority of your on-site SEO efforts should be based around concepts such as LSI, rather than older practices such as exact match keywords.IN CONCLUSION...Keyword research is one of the preliminary steps for any Internet marketer. However, choosing the right keywords is not as straightforward as determining which ones have the highest number of monthly searches and the lowest competition.Using search engine optimization to generate visitors almost always entails some form of cost. To recoup these promotion costs and create a profitable business, as many clicks as possible need to convert into a sale. This is why understanding the intent and purpose of your customers is so important.The mindset of your potential customers will be reflected in the terms which they are searching for. More generic keywords can look appealing because of the search volumes, but they can often indicate that a person has only a limited intent to buy. The searcher is probably still at the stage of weighing up their options, and therefore their click is less likely to lead to a purchase.Specific search terms have lower search volumes, but yield higher conversions. A customer who has already done their research and knows what they are looking for is merely looking for a retailer who can fulfill their needs - and the company for that could be yours.All businesses should know who their target audience is. Identify this demographic and use your knowledge of their intents and purposes to focus on the most profitable keywords.
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