Commercial Intent Keywords

When it comes to picking keywords for an SEO campaign, there are two broad categories to think about.

(I can already hear the SEO guys out there telling me there’s more than that. But stick with me here as I’m covering the basics here).

Those two categories are:

Low commercial intent keywords
High commercial intent keywords

When a keyword has high commercial intent, it shows that the person using it is practically ready to buy.

Of course, low intent means the opposite. These are the keywords people use when they’re just doing some general research.

I actually had a discussion with a client recently about these two categories. This client works in the hypnotherapy space

For them, the keyword “hypnotherapy” is a very low-intent keyword. Most of the people searching for this keyword aren’t looking to buy anything.

It’s short tail and general.

But a keyword like “become a hypnotherapy trainer” is very different. This searcher’s looking for something very specific. They have high commercial intent because they’re more likely to buy a course or a package.

Now, here’s what I want you to remember…

Low-intent keywords take a lot longer to generate ROI. However, the volume you can get on them has the potential to be immense.

High-intent keywords are much more targeted, which means they can get results quicker. However, they’re also more competitive. That means you’ll have to work harder to rank organically or pay more if you’re using a PPC strategy.