Buyer Intent Keywords: A Simple Guide to Capturing More High-Intent Traffic

Why Traditional Buyer Keyword Categories Are Broken

SEO strategies that consider buyer intent often use one of two approaches:

1. The marketer looks at cost-per-click (CPC) averages to estimate buyer intent.
2. The marketer assigns keywords using a method from AltaVista.

When looking at PPC bids, a marketer assumes a higher CPC equates to a higher buyer intent.

The issue here is that the average CPC is driven by what a marketer is willing to pay to bid on a keyword. Thus this strategy only works if the keyword is relevant to your buyers and the market perfectly matches demand.

The reality is that some keywords are overpriced and others are underpriced.

To learn why this is, check out Google’s guide on how Google Ads auction works. These principles work for most PPC platforms because most use a similar approach that Google uses.

The other approach to estimating buyer intent is by using these three keyword categories:

1. Navigational keywords.
2. Informational keywords.
3. Transactional keywords.

These categories were first identified by AltaVista’s Adrien Broeir, in his 2002 peer-reviewed paper exploring what drives web search.

Here’s a definition of each keyword and why these keyword categories are not the most helpful to determine buyer intent.

What are navigational keywords? Why are they not helpful to determine buyer intent?

The primary intent of navigational terms is to help users find a particular site.

For example, internet users searching for “Greyhound Bus” are most likely looking for the bus service’s official website. Alternatively, they may want to find another official website like their Wikipedia article, a station location, or something similar.

As you might guess, the buyer intent here is all over the board. If a potential customer searches for “Greyhound Bus,” they may want to buy tickets on their website. But if they’re looking up their Wikipedia page, the person may be doing research for their college paper.

What are informational keywords? Why are they not helpful to determine buyer intent?

For information keywords, a potential customer is seeking background information about a specific topic.

Users who are seeking information about your product have a high chance of buying your product. But if they’re seeking information about an irrelevant problem your product partially solves, their buyer intent is low.

Notice how the following two questions fall into the informational category, but communicate two completely different buyer intents:

• What is SEO?
• Should I use SEO or SEM to grow my business?

The first search seeks information but doesn’t indicate that the user will take any action once they find an answer. The keywords used from the second question indicates a stronger purchase intent because the user is comparing two options.

Adam, an SEO expert at Loganix, puts it this way:

What are transactional keywords? Why are they not helpful to determine buyer intent?

Customers who use a transactional keyword are looking to complete a web-based activity, like a transaction or a sign-up. This category indicates intent, but transactional keywords can show different levels of purchase intent.

Consider the following examples:

• Buy web hosting.
• What web host offers high-performance web hosting?

The first search shows that a prospect has made their decision to buy web hosting. They don’t know from who, but they are looking to buy web hosting now. These are product aware customers, the second most likely person to buy right now. I’ll talk about this later in the article.

The second search shows that the prospect is looking for offerings, but may still need to gather information on different hosting brands. They may be ready to read an article that compares web hosting plans to learn more about each. These are solution aware customers, the third most likely person to buy right now.

The categories of keywords are a good starting point to generate traffic. Here’s how you can expand on the categories and generate sales by identifying keywords with strong purchase intent.

How the five customer stages can help you better map buyer intent

Eugene Schwartz identified the five stages of customer awareness in his 1966 book, Breakthrough Advertising. These 5 distinct stages indicate where the customer is in their decision process and their overall readiness to buy.

1. Most Aware: Your prospect now knows your product, and only needs transaction details
   
   
2. Product Aware: Your prospect is assessing if your solution is best for them
   
   
3. Solution Aware: Your prospect knows the result, but is unfamiliar with solutions
   
   
4. Problem Aware: Your prospect suspects they have a problem, but isn’t sure if there’s a solution
   
   
5. Unaware: Your prospect is not sure if they have a problem

The way a potential customer asks questions or speaks about their problem depends on where they are in the buyer’s journey.

For example, a potential enterprise buyer of digital asset management (DAM) software may ask, “how does a solution like Brandfolder compare to Bynder?”

This is an example of a product-aware question. As a result, Brandfolder should create a page comparing the solutions, and highlighting how it is a better option for the enterprise buyer.

The company could target the keyword phrase “brandfolder vs bynder" or "bynder alternatives".

If the question was only solution aware, one stage earlier in the buyer journey, they might instead ask, “what are the best enterprise digital asset management solutions?” 

i.e. the user knows what solution they are looking for, but have yet to narrow down the search to a shortlist of products for consideration. 

Because potential customers are asking this question, it’s worth writing content for a relevant keyword phrase, regardless of the volume.

Yes, even if SEMrush (aff) or Ahrefs estimates there is “0” keyword volume, it’s still worthwhile because of the high buyer intent.

I think of SEO as an effective way to scale a sales team. John E. Kennedy, a father of modern advertising, said, “Good advertising is salesmanship in print. Multiplied mechanically, by the printing press.”

Your SEO strategy attracts the right customers. It’s then up to your content to educate and sell this audience, even if the “sale” is to sign up to your lead form.

Now that you have a brief overview of the five buyer stages, let’s do a deep dive on how to target each one.

How to Create Content that Generates Traffic With Higher Buyer Intent

How to help most aware customers

As mentioned, prospects in this stage are familiar with your product, and are ready to buy. Chances are they’re an existing customer, subscribed to your email list, or came across several of your ads or articles.

My recommendation is to create urgency or show social proof to seal the deal.

Prospects in this stage just need a clear go-ahead to buy.

Your most-aware prospects may think to themselves, “I keep expecting to see a BUY NOW type of button.” Or, “This endless promo page was doing exactly what you said the product would defeat. Sounding like everyone else promising stuff and going so overboard that I was oversold. Now I'm so far at the other end of the decision scale I'm delirious!”

For most aware customers, you need to make a clear offer to your prospect, giving them the option to buy now. If your offerings involve discounts or coupons, you can consider making pages to target those keywords. Otherwise, just make sure you don't put your call-to-action button 10’ deep.

How to help product aware customers

Product aware customers know what you sell, and often what the competition sells. But they aren’t 100% sure if it’s right for them.

At this stage, you need to create a compelling reason why your offering is best for their needs.

This is where brand positioning is critical. Positioning is how your customers remember your brand in relationship to other brands.

This isn’t an article on positioning (this one I wrote is). But if you want to understand your current positioning, you should get on a call with your customers. You can then ask them questions like:

• How have you tried to solve {{problem}} in the past? Why did that not work?
• What competitors have you used in the past, or are you using alongside our product now? What did you like most about them? What was your biggest complaint? Was that the reason you left them?

I recommend educating the customer about why you are clearly different and better than what your competition offers. To do this, I recommend creating comparison content for product aware keywords.

Here are a few product aware keywords:

“[Competitor] Alternative” (Example: Slack Alternative)
“[Competitor] Review.” (Example: Asana Review)
“[Competitor 1] vs [Competitor 2]”. (Example: Hubspot vs. Salesforce)

Competitor articles, like landing pages and blog posts, can explain how your product is different from other offerings.

This might surprise you, but you can rank landing pages in Google and get a sizable amount of traffic too. Podia’s thinkific alternative page not only ranks in a top spot for the keyword “Thinkific alternative,” it also ranks for the Thinkific branded term:

Sure, most people who search for Thinkific are going to their website. But you can bet your bottom dollar Podia still picks up several new customers this way.

If you have a specific edge over your competitors, perhaps superior technology or a robust support feature, use this unique selling position (USP) to your advantage.

Your USP goes further than a traditional value proposition. It can place your brand securely in your target audience’s mind in a way that your competitors can’t replicate.

You can post competitor review content, and point out product substitutes or alternatives. If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out these examples:

1. Looking for a Frame.io alternative?
2. Fiverr Review: Is Fiverr Worth It for Hiring?
3. SEMrush Review: 38 Practical User Cases
4. SEO vs. SEM: Difference Between Organic Search Versus AdWords
5. LastPass vs 1Password: Which One Wins?
6. 7 Best Mailchimp Alternatives in 2020 (Tried and Tested)

How to help solution aware customers

Your customer knows the result they want in this stage. But may not be aware of your product, or that it provides the results they’re looking for. These buyers are often looking for specific product features.

I recommend educating these prospects about your offering and features. Feature pages, demos, webinars, are very helpful at this stage. However, you can also provide this information in other forms, like posting case studies.

Prospects are likely inquiring about specific product feature keywords. If you offer a sales CRM, product keywords might look like this:

• Sales Pipeline CRM
• Sales Activity Tracker
• Sales Reporting Software
• Sales Automation Tool
• Deal Management Software

For these keywords, I recommend creating pages and writing articles which explain the benefits of your product features.

For Decibite, I created a product page for high performance web hosting. The goal was to educate potential customers about how Decibite helps entrepreneurs get 15% or faster hosting.

Case studies are another type of content for solution aware customers. Listicle articles that target keywords related to your product category work well here too.

Here are some examples of solution aware content:

1. Gmail Email Signatures
2. Sales Activity Trackers
3. Creative Review and Approval Software
4. Best Podcast Microphones
5. Best Apps for Field Sales Reps
6. Call Automation Software for a CRM

How to help problem aware customers

Prospects in this stage are somewhat early in their buyer’s journey. But, they can continue to move deeper into their buyer’s journey with the right information.

Most blog content falls in this stage, which is why you’ll hear some bloggers say, “I’m getting traffic, but it’s not converting into sales!” The issue is most problem aware customers are not ready to buy today.

This stage is an excellent opportunity to help prospects become more familiar with what you do. Quality content at this stage helps prospects learn how you solve their problem. You’ll earn email subscribers by educating these prospects.

Problem aware customers are asking simple questions like “what is [keyword]?” or “how to [solve problem]?”

Simple examples of problem-aware content:
Product Marketing: How to Market a Product to Get Sales Faster
Why You’re Look at Product Adoption All Wrong
11 Easy Steps to Start a Blog to Make Money
What Is Inbound Marketing?

These customers may also encounter an old problem and want it solved in a new way. For example, let’s say Black Friday is coming up and you want to decide on your social media plan. You might come across this black friday article in your search. Because Black Friday tends to be an eCommerce event, Common Thread knows most who read it are eCommerce stores.

To find content similar to this article, you may Google, “What is purchase intent,” or “How can I find keywords with higher buyer intent?”

The main drive is to create content about your company and offerings. Write articles related to what you do. Offer a lead magnet that gives information to move through the buyer journey.

How to help unaware customers (even if you target “tire kicker” keywords)

Unaware customers may have purchase intent, but because they’re at the very beginning of their buyer journey, it’s not easy to get them to buy right now.

Think of this audience like someone who has an illness, but a doctor has not diagnosed the issue. Thus they are unsure that they even have a problem.

Your goal at this stage is to get a lot of traffic.

What does unaware content look like?

You may remember in the early 2010’s, many companies wanted to create “viral content” to rapidly increase brand awareness. That’s what you’re wanting to do here. This content often starts off with something that has very little to do with your product.

For example, you might create a list of motivation quotes to attract new entrepreneurs.

Often targeting unaware customers attracts a bunch of tire kickers, or customers who have no intent to buy. This is why effective unaware content often works well if you have a freemium plan or a free trial.

Some great examples of unaware content are the Harmon Brothers ads for the Purple mattress, Tomas Laurinavicius list of life-changing books, or Buffer’s productivity hacks.

Bridging the Gap Between Traffic and Sales

Remember, it’s great to generate more traffic. But at the end of the day, it’s sales which pay the bills.

Attracting users with higher purchase intent bridges the gap between traffic and sales.

To do this, begin by creating content for customers further down the five customers stages. Those five stages are most aware, product aware, solution aware, problem aware, and unaware.

If you’d like more product marketing advice like this, check out this free 14-day email series on product marketing. It will teach you the 14 principles of how I grew a startup’s annualized revenue by +127% in six months.