SEO is Not About Keywords. It’s About Intent

Last month I was in a client meeting with a brand you’ve definitely heard of.

Their first question wasn’t “how are we growing?” or “what’s driving conversions?”

It was — “why isn’t this keyword ranking yet?“

That one question tells you everything wrong with how most people think about SEO.

SEO has been reduced to three things — keywords, backlinks, and technical fixes. Agencies sell it this way. Clients measure it this way. Even good marketers think this way.

But none of these three things are actually SEO.

SEO is one word — USER.

Let me show you what I mean.

My Brand offers Personalised Gifts – the product range is photo frames, mugs, keychains, and multiple things. 

Now what should I focus on — personalised mugs, personalised photo frames, surely I should focus on these. 

But what can be the user’s intent here, they wants a specific product for “someone”

So, why not focus on someone that the user is searching for. That someone can be a friend, can be a mother, father, girlfriend, boyfriend, brother or sister or any other relation we human relationship we hold.

Cool, we’ll focus on these – For SEO perspective I will have pages for:

• personalised mugs, 
• personalised photo frames. 

But the real intent is hidden here:

• Personalised Gifts for girlfriends
• Unique gifts for girlfriend’s birthday
• Romantic gifts ideas for girlfriend
• Personalised Gifts for mother’s birthday.

Now you may not find keywords or search volume for many of these queries, but users search this way. 

And these are data validated Google Search Console queries.

Nobody was searching for a ‘personalised mug.’ They were searching for ‘gift for girlfriend’s birthday.’ Same product. Completely different intent. That gap is where most SEO fails.

Understand the product the business is offering and understand who wants it for whom and target “who” or “whom”.

This isn’t a rigid formula. Every brand is different. But start here — understand what your user is buying for, and who they’re buying it for. Then build from that.

Stop asking which keywords to rank for. Start asking who your user is buying for, and why today.