Search Intent and the Organic Funnel — Whiteboard Friday

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses how search intent relates to the organic SEO funnel and how this can guide keyword research. It covers the different stages of the funnel - informational, commercial, transactional, and navigational - and the challenges and opportunities for marketers in each phase.

🙋 Q&A

[01] Informational Search Intent

1. What is the key takeaway about informational search intent?

• Informational search intent has the lowest share of voice for organic results, with only 43.6% organic share of voice.
• There is increasingly little space for traditional organic results, as featured snippets, knowledge graphs, and "People Also Ask" sections often take up the above-the-fold space.
• To target informational intent, the article suggests looking for keywords where organic results still appear in position 1, or trying to win featured snippets, even though it's not guaranteed.

2. Why does the author suggest trying to win featured snippets, even if the effort may not be worthwhile?

• The author suggests that winning featured snippets can be worthwhile, even if the effort may not always pay off, because of the value of impressions for SEO, not just clicks.

[02] Commercial Search Intent

1. What are the key characteristics of commercial search intent?

• Commercial intent is indicated by keyword modifiers like "best", "compare", "top", "reviews".
• There is tough organic competition for commercial intent keywords, with strong performance from sites like Reddit and Amazon.
• Google updates like product review and helpful content updates have disproportionately impacted commercial rankings, making this a "dangerous place to play" for reliable organic marketing.

2. What does the article suggest looking for in keyword research for commercial intent?

• The article suggests looking for commercial intent keywords that also have "winnable features" like image or video results, as a way to appear in the SERPs alongside the tough organic competition.

[03] Transactional Search Intent

1. What is the key insight about transactional search intent?

• Transactional searches, where people are looking to immediately convert, have a strong correlation with local searches and local packs appearing in the results.
• This makes sense, as many transactional searches are for products or services that involve a local component, like visiting a store or hiring a tradesperson.

2. What does the article say about the organic competition for transactional searches?

• The average Domain Authority in the top 10 results for transactional searches is only 75, compared to 82 for commercial searches.
• This suggests there are organic opportunities for transactional searches, as the competition is lower, even though they appear alongside local packs and ads.

[04] Navigational Search Intent

1. How does the article describe navigational search intent?

• Navigational search intent is described as the "post-conversion" stage, where someone is looking to buy from a brand again or engage with their content.
• The author suggests this goes to the "bottom of the funnel" in terms of traditional marketing funnels.

2. What does the article recommend for controlling branded search results?

• For navigational searches around a brand's own name, the article recommends dominating the organic results not just with the brand's own domain, but also with their other online properties like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
• This allows the brand to control the various features that appear in the branded search results, like Twitter and video carousels.