Buyer intent keywords (or buyer keywords, high-intent keywords) are search terms that indicate a user is ready to make a purchase in the near future. These users don’t just browse; they browse the web, too. They are looking for the ultimate information to make a purchasing decision.
Typically, buyer intent keywords include terms related to purchases, deals, discounts, reviews, and comparisons. These keywords can also suggest routes to finding products or services.
Content optimization or advertising using buyer keywords can help you reach people who are ready to buy. They typically result in higher conversion rates and shorter buyer journeys than other types of keywords, such as informational keywords.
High-intent keywords are typically more competitive and expensive. Therefore, SEOs and marketers often mix these with other content Type of keyword In their strategy, they use a combination of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Google Search Advertising (often called PPC).
For example, some high-intent keywords have a higher cost-per-click, but lower keyword difficulty, making them more suitable for SEO than PPC.
In this article, you’ll learn how to find buyer intent keywords, how to choose the best keywords from a long list of keyword ideas, and whether you should pursue them using SEO or PPC.
Traditionally, SEO divided buyer intent keywords into different groups. This grouping helps clarify the differences between keywords and makes organizing campaigns easier – something worth knowing if you’re new to the topic.
| type | Keyword examples |
|---|---|
| Transactional. Indicates that the user is ready to make a purchase or take a specific action, such as ordering or subscribing. | Order pizza, buy concert tickets, subscribe to fitness magazines |
| commercial. For users who are researching products or services before making a purchase decision. | The best running shoes, high-performance laptops, top-notch eco-friendly cars |
| navigation. Used when users are looking for a specific website or page. | Target Weekly Ads, Wikipedia, Prime Login |
| Based on location. For users looking for businesses, services, or products in a specific geographic area. | Dentists near me, Vegans in Brighton, Co-working spaces in Warsaw |
| Long tail. Get a handful of searches per month, which tend to be longer and more specific. | The Best Trail Running Shoes, Affordable Home Office Chairs, Small Space Organic Gardening Tips |
The most reliable way to find buyer intent keywords is to use an SEO tool that allows you to filter Search engine results page features Such as ads and product carousels.
These characteristics indicate that Google recognizes the commercial intent behind the keywords, and advertisers expect high conversion rates from these keywords. Additionally, you can find keywords that don’t have typical buyer intent modifiers.
To show you how the process works, I’ll use Keyword Browser for Ahrefs. In addition to SERP feature filters, it also has a SERP lookup feature with AI-driven intent recognition and CPC data that comes in handy when scrutinizing keywords.
- Enter some broad terms related to your business. You can ask the AI for some suggestions.
- go match term and set Search engine results page features Suitable:”on the search results page“, “Popular ads” or shopping ads (If you are an e-commerce business). Click “Apply”.
- Sort in ascending order Communist Party of China To get high-intent keywords with a higher likelihood.
- Find the keywords most relevant to your business. Save them to a keyword list so you can access them whenever you need them.
To verify the intent behind a keyword, click on the SERP button and check the purpose of the top-ranking pages. To make this easier, use Identify intent function; Ideally, most traffic should come from pages promoting products or services.
If you’re in a new niche, your keywords may not have many advertisers; SERP feature filters won’t be as effective. In this case, use typical modified keywords and double-check search intent by analyzing the top-ranking pages.
Here are some modifiers you can use: buy, order, sell, best price, best, top, review, alternative, near me, open now, in (city name).
You can learn from your competitors’ strategies and drive some of their traffic by finding high-intent keywords for which they rank and bid in Google Ads.
Here’s how to do it in Ahrefs.
- Open Ahrefs website browser and enter your competitor’s domain.
- Open organic keywords Report.
- settings Search engine results page features Suitable:”on the search results page“, “Popular ads” or shopping ads (If you are an e-commerce business). Click “Apply”.
From there, you’ll look for the same signs of relevance and business intent that we did in the previous section. Sorting by CPC will again show keywords that are more likely to have purchase intent.
If you want to monitor your competitors’ paid keywords, you can use paid keywords Report in the same tool.
But this time, make sure you choose the right country. Your competitors may be running ads in different markets with different keyword CPCs.
Choosing the right buyer keywords for your website requires balancing four factors:
- transportation potential: How many clicks a given keyword can generate.
- conversion potential: How likely are visitors generated by the keyword to become customers.
- Keyword difficulty: How many backlinks from unique websites are needed to rank in the top 10?
- CPC: How much each click will cost you.
Here are some strategies you can use to solve this problem.
Prioritize conversion potential
Focus on keywords that are most likely to convert into sales or leads, even if they have moderate traffic or higher costs.
Let’s say you run an online store selling kitchen appliances. Keywords like “buy stainless steel blender online” may not have the highest search volume compared to a more general term like “blender.” However, it has high conversion potential because users searching for this term may already be ready to make a purchase.
Even if the keyword has moderate traffic or is expensive to target, focusing on customers who are ready to buy can result in a higher return on investment.
Assign scores and select the keyword with the highest overall score
To automate the scoring process, you can use ChatGPT. It can take any keyword list that contains material in these categories and map the material to a scoring system.
Here are tips you can use:
I have a list of website keywords, along with data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and CPC. I want to score these keywords based on four categories: traffic potential, conversion potential, keyword difficulty, and cost-per-click.
Make the most of long-tail keywords
Target keywords with high conversion potential but low competition and cost.
Travel agencies can focus on long-tail keywords such as “affordable family vacation packages in Europe.” This keyword is specific and more competitive than a broader term like “European vacation.” While it may attract fewer searches, users searching for it are likely looking for exactly what the agency has to offer, so the likelihood of conversion is higher.
fill competitive gaps
Identify keywords that your competitors rank for but you don’t. You can do this easily using tools like Ahrefs Competitive Analysis. All you have to do is plug in your and your competitor’s domains.
For example, a keyword we could consider is “conversion rate optimization” since it falls under the digital marketing niche and we don’t rank for it at all.
Should you use SEO or PPC to target buyer intent keywords?
After you select your keywords, you need to decide whether to target them using SEO, Google PPC, or even both.
So, on the one hand, you have development Search engine optimization content and Create link Ranking. On the other hand, write some ad copy, develop a landing page (if you don’t have one), and set aside some budget for the Google auction process. This table will help you choose the best strategy.
| Select bidding ranking | Choose SEO |
|---|---|
| You’re promoting a limited-time offer, event, or product launch. | Keywords are too expensive. |
| You want immediate, short-term results. | Your niche is limited. |
| A highly competitive SERP (search engine results page) will make it difficult to rank (i.e. put a lot of effort into content, lots of high-quality backlinks). | You have a limited budget and would rather invest time and resources than ongoing ad spend. In the long run, you want to reduce your reliance on paid advertising. |
| You want to test different keywords, ad copy, or landing pages to gather data and insights. | You are building an affiliate website. SEO is essentially free traffic, which increases your website’s ROI. |
| The traffic potential of a keyword does not justify the creation of specialized SEO content. Therefore, you can use ads to drive traffic to similar content. | Your goal is to establish your website as an industry authority through high-quality content and backlinks. That said, you can still use PPC to amplify your best content. |
| You want to add some long-tail keywords to your SEO content. Sometimes, ranking for all relevant secondary keywords takes too much effort and only gives provisional results. |
Can I use both at the same time? Of course, this is actually a smart strategy. This approach allows you to appear in multiple locations on the SERP, increasing your chances of getting clicks. Additionally, it reduces the likelihood of your competitors getting clicks.
To illustrate this point, here are some keywords that HubSpot ranks for organically but paid for (yellow line is paid traffic, blue is organic traffic).
final thoughts
Buyer intent keywords often convert better, but focusing solely on them in your search engine marketing strategy would be a mistake. Targeting early searchers will help you build brand awareness, increase website traffic, and guide your audience through the decision-making process.
Additionally, these keywords can sometimes directly lead to conversions, as some users may be more willing to purchase than they first appear. You can find more information about keyword research in our website Beginner’s Guide.
Have questions or comments? contact me LinkedIn.
