How Do Search Engine Results Pages Understand User Intent?

User intent is at the core of how Google’s search rankings operate. Rather than simply relying on keywords – which would be privileging a business-centric approach to the web – Google is committed to focusing its algorithm’s efforts on user intent, which means evolving search parameters with the semantic variability of its users.

In a recent deep dive on user intent, G2 discusses how Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s) discern the goals underlying users’ queries. There are all sorts of wrenches that can obscure a user’s actual intent. Verbal and topic ambiguity can result from homonyms, acronyms and ambiguous language. Fractured intent means a partially written search query or a vague query that is written in search of something hyper-specific.

Chances are, your customer’s intent is either to know, to find, to compare or to do something. In the past, I’ve written about the complexity of the customer journey – crafting a very clear, relatable content strategy that eases the barrier of entry between your user and their desired intent is a crucial way to navigate SERP’s. When it comes to verbal ambiguity, you’re competing with other, similar businesses’ pages and with different, possibly irrelevant interests.

SERP’s are constantly evolving, meaning that SEO needs to be treated as an ongoing project to continue to connect users’ intent with their search engine interaction. Make ASTRALCOM your partner in content marketing and SEO management to help you rise above the competition – in every sense. Reach out to learn more about us.