Have you ever found that despite hours of effort on your content and link building initiativesstill need help ranking for your target keywords? It may be time to revise the topic of the research goal.

Search targeting is one of the most important aspects to consider whenever you're trying to optimize your on-page content, perform effective link building, or do anything else related to SEO.

Let's take a closer look at the role of search intent in SEO and how you can use it for more effective link building strategies.

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Types of research purpose

Google has dominated the search market over the years because it is the best at serving its users the content they are looking for. It is essential to ensure that the content you publish is not only relevant to the keywords you are targeting, but also provides a very important solution to the problems searchers are facing. To give you a better idea of ​​how this works in a SEO campaignLet's take a look at the four main types of keyword intent:

Informative intent

One of the most common types of keyword intent targeting, the goal of informational researchcovers keywords used by people looking to answer a question or find a particular piece of information.

Informational keywords are often keywords that begin with “how,” “why,” “what,” etc. For example, the keyword “how to start a YouTube channel” will indicate that the user wants to learn about the process involved in starting a YouTube channel and perhaps find some helpful tips on optimizing it for success.

Floating target

Floating search target used by people who want to go from Google to a certain page on a certain site. An example of a navigation intent keyword would be “Entrepreneur login”, which indicates that the searcher wants to log in to their Entrepreneur account.

The purpose of the transaction

Transaction intent covers keywords that indicate a user intends to convert with a particular business. An example of a transaction intent keyword might include “buy Acer laptop” or “Spotify Premium subscription.”

These can be very competitive and performing for these types of keywords often requires organic and paid advertising.

Commercial purpose

Commercial purpose keywords fall somewhere between informational and transactional purpose keywords. They are generally searched for by users who want to learn more about a particular product or service but aren't 100% sure they want to commit to a purchase, as they might be with transactional keywords.

Commercial search terms are often used to find reviews or detailed information about a specific product or to compare different purchase options within a certain category. Common commercial intent keywords might include “iPhone vs Samsung” or “best smart TVs.”

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Using search intent in link building

Aligning the content on your site with keyword intent is simple enough, but what happens when it comes to planning and executing your link building? Here are some scenarios where you can use search intent to strengthen your link building efforts.

Highly targeted outreach

Understanding the informational intent behind given keywords can help you target your link building reach more effectively. This can improve the chances that the submitted articles will be accepted by your target referral site and that the relevance of the content to your site will create a stronger link.

Let's say, for example, that you are running an e-commerce site specializing in eco-friendly products. If you're looking for relevant link opportunities for your target audience, you can search for informational keywords like “eco-friendly household products” or “sustainable living tips” and then create content around them.

With the basic framework of the program in place, you can search for potential referral blogs with an audience that will exhibit the same search intent and present a highly relevant content idea, for example, “10 Easy Ways to make your lifestyle more sustainable.” Aligning your reach with a specific search intent will help the chances of your proposal being accepted and make it easier to include a natural, relevant link on the campaign's target page yours.

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Construction of related assets

Keyword research can give you a great starting point to build highly relevant content, such as written guides, infographics, and online tools, that can be tailored to your audience's needs.

If, for example, you're offering digital marketing services through your website, you can research informational or commercial keywords like “improve online traffic” or “digital marketing tools.”

From there, you can create highly relevant assets tailored to meet the intent of your keywords. These can include written content like definitive guides, valuable infographics or, if you're feeling more ambitious, an interactive tool that helps solve a problem alluded to in your target keywords.

Once you have a linked asset that directly fulfills the purpose of a keyword, it will become much easier to create a compelling pitch aimed at building quality links to your website and assuring webmasters of referring sites that your content will be useful to their users.

Building links to resource pages

Resource pages can be a great source of backlinks if you frequently produce quality, authoritative content that provides specific information or solutions to specific problems. Keyword intent research can help you create tailored content for certain resource pages and maximize your chances of earning a link from them.

If, for example, you are running a website dedicated to financial planning, you can compile a list of financial advice websites that contain resource pages. From there, you can research informative keywords like “financial planning guide,” develop relevant content for that term, and reach out to the resource sites you've listed to offer your content as a valuable resource that they to connect with .

With content related to the search intent of a particular resource page, you will encounter less resistance in your steps and be able to accumulate links in a shorter space of time.