By following the tips in this article, you’ll be on your way to optimizing your site for potential buyers.
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We all know that strategic keyword targeting is key to the success of your SEO and paid search campaigns.
The higher your site appears in search results for relevant queries, the more visitors will be attracted to it.
But keyword optimization is more than just attracting more traffic to your site. It also plays an important role in maximizing your website conversions.
When you target buyer-targeted keywords as part of your keyword strategy, you can create a site that generates sales as well as traffic and leads.
In this article, we’ll dive into the different types of buyer-targeted keywords and provide tips on how to identify the terms that bring more conversions and sales to your business.
But first, let’s define our terms.
What are the keywords for buyer intent?
Buyer keywords are search terms people use when they are thinking about buying something.
These terms convey different levels of purchase intent depending on where the searcher is along the buyer’s journey.
For example, let’s say your business sells cannabis. A potential customer might search for the following terms in the conversion path:
- Awareness stage (awareness of the problem): “How to landscape the front yard.”
- Meditation Phase (Aware Resolution): “Best Awakened Herbalists of 2023.”
- Decision Stage (Ready to Buy): “Buy the Black & Decker Electric Weed Wacker online.”
As you can see, leads that are close to sales will use keywords with higher purchase intent.
Now let’s take a quick look at why buyer-targeted keywords should be the focal point of your keyword strategy.
Benefits of targeting keywords that target the buyer
The obvious benefit of ranking well for buyer-targeted keywords is that it puts you in front of potential customers who are considering making a purchase.
This attracts more visitors who are ready to convert to your site, which in turn increases your bottom line.
But a prominent placement in Google results doesn’t just increase your site’s visibility. It also increases his perceived credibility. Consumers doing research naturally assume that higher-rated sites are more trustworthy, making them more willing to reach for their bank cards.
Targeting buyer-targeted keywords based on your niche also helps attract more qualified visitors to your site. Although a high volume of traffic is never a bad thing for a business website, the quality of traffic has a significant impact on sales.
Instead of wasting resources attracting visitors who aren’t really interested in your business, you can improve your SEO ROI by meeting those who are actively searching for the products and services you offer.
Simply put, the better your site ranks for keywords relevant to a buyer’s interest, the more your site will attract and convert new, qualified customers.
However, it’s important to realize that optimizing for buyer-targeted keywords doesn’t mean you should exclusively target customers who are closest to making a purchase.
The goal should be to meet the needs of potential buyers at every stage of awareness to get them to convert.
Types of keywords that target buyers
We’ve already mentioned that buyer keywords express different levels of purchase intent depending on where they are in the buyer’s journey.
Prospects at different stages of consciousness have similar goals, problems, and information needs.
So we can group buyer-targeted keywords into three categories, each reflecting a different stage of the buyer’s journey.
Keywords: awareness stage
Users searching these terms are trying to better understand the problem they are facing or the goal they want to achieve. This is where they discover that companies similar to yours can provide a solution to their needs.
The keywords for the awareness stage are informational questions containing phrases such as:
- “how.”
- and what is that?”
Keywords for the consideration stage
Once potential customers learn about available solutions to their problem, they move to the consideration stage, where they begin to consider different purchasing options.
Often times, potential customers look for resources like product comparison lists, in-depth reviews, testimonials, case studies, and anything else that helps them narrow down the best option for their needs.
Questions in the reflection stage often contain words such as:
- “[Product Name] Reviews.”
- “Excellent product].”
- and “[brand name] vs [competitor].”
Keywords Decision stage
Eventually, prospects reach a point where they are willing to take action.
They have found the exact solution they want to purchase, and at most, they only need one extra push to get them over the line.
As you would expect, keywords in the decision stage convey a high level of purchase intent.
For B2C audiences, these include terms like:
- “Buy now.”
- “discount.”
- “Delivery times.”
For B2B customers (whose purchasing process typically takes longer), keywords in the decision stage might include phrases like:
- “experimental”.
- “Terms and Conditions.”
- Or “Payment Plan”.
Determine the buyer intent of your target audience
Now let’s see how to find the right keywords for your company’s buyer intent.
Once you know what keywords people use when they want to buy something in your niche, you can incorporate these terms into your SEO content strategy and paid advertising campaigns.
Remember, the goal of this exercise is to find customers who are on the verge of making a purchasing decision.
Sure, targeting high-volume keywords is important to attract more visitors to your site, but targeting terms with different levels of purchase intent turns those visitors into paying customers, and will improve your ability to churn.
With that in mind, here are some things to consider when creating a keyword list that matches your buyer’s desire.
Think about the needs of your ideal customers
Start by addressing the different pain points your product or service has for potential customers. After all, search users use Google to find content and offers that help them achieve their goals.
Ask yourself: What challenges do your target customers face? What is their motivation? What concerns do they raise before making a purchase?
Once you’ve identified the different problems your company can solve for customers, both practically and emotionally, you’ll have a tentative set of topics to base your target keywords on, and a list can be made.
Research your current customer base
The next step is to understand which search queries actually bring visitors to your site and lead to conversions. This will help you determine what types of buyer intent you’re already targeting and what types you’re missing.
If you find that certain keywords are driving disproportionate sales on your site, you may decide to further upgrade your content to truly tap into their conversion potential.
Similar to this, identifying underperforming keywords will show areas that can be improved.
You can check your Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts to see which keywords are driving the most traffic and conversions to the site.
These tools tell you how users are currently interacting with your site and show which queries get the most clicks and how many times users convert after visiting different pages.
Also, if you’re running a paid search campaign, it’s important to dig into your Google Ads account to get more information about the types of search queries that perform best.
Analyze search engine behavior and user queries
Another way to discover buyer-targeted keywords is to search for queries that people in your niche are searching for.
While there are many keyword research tools that can help with this process (we’ll talk about that later), you can start building a good picture of search demand in your niche by manually searching Google for related topics.
When you enter a query into the search bar, pay attention to the keywords that Google automatically suggests and note the “Related Searches” section at the bottom of each results page.
It’s also a good practice to test your assumptions about the level of buyer intent behind different keywords. You might expect a particular query to yield high-intent results, but in reality, the search engine results page (SERP) is full of low-intent results (or vice versa).
You may also discover that some queries generate a large amount of results that meet multiple categories of purposes. In these situations, it’s probably best to prioritize keywords with more specific buyer intent.
Use a variety of sources to learn about buyer intent
Finally, when researching keywords and topics relevant to your target customers, don’t forget to leverage a number of different sources of influence.
Your sales and customer service teams likely have a treasure trove of customer insights to add to your keyword strategy.
You can learn more about your target audience’s pain points and motivations in comments on relevant YouTube videos, Amazon reviews, social media posts, Quora discussions, etc.
Remember, the goal is to understand the issues users face at different stages of the buyer’s journey, so you can create content and optimize your site to meet their search needs.
Find and optimize buyer-targeted keywords
Now let’s look at some ways to help you identify the right keywords for your buyer’s intent and prioritize them to target.
Choose the right tools to research and evaluate buyers’ needs
As mentioned, manually checking search results for related queries is valuable, but it is not an effective way to create a comprehensive list of target keywords.
Instead, it’s worth investing in a subscription to a premium search tool like Ahrfuss or Simrush.
These tools provide comprehensive keyword suggestions, search volume, and ranking difficulty data that you can use to identify high-potential terms.
What’s more, these tools allow you to analyze which queries bring the most traffic to your competitors’ sites so you can mimic strategies that work for them.
Think of different types of keywords to optimize
Finally, if you run a brick-and-mortar business, it definitely pays to incorporate local keywords into your content marketing strategy.
Local keywords with high purchase intent include terms like “[product/service] near me,” “[retailer type] open now,” and “[business type] in [location].”
Check out our GMB Optimization Guide to learn more about increasing your site’s visibility in local searches.
Final thoughts
Targeting buyer-oriented keywords is one of the most effective ways to reach a wider pool of potential customers, improve conversion rates on your website, and increase your business revenue.
By following the tips above, you’ll be on your way to optimizing your site for buyers who are ready to buy.
But remember, like all aspects of SEO, lasting results depend on strategic planning, careful execution, and constant course correction.