User insight refers to the unexpressed true feelings and thoughts of users. In SEO, it is necessary to create content considering the user’s search intent, but fundamentally, the goal is to provide content that addresses user insights.

What exactly is user insight? Why is it important? How can we understand insights? What is the difference between user insight and search intent? These are some questions that may arise.

I will explain about user insight and the relationship between user insight and search intent here.

What is User Insight?

User insight refers to the unexpressed, true feelings and thoughts of users, which are not always conscious or even clear to the users themselves.

For example, when presented with two products and asked which one is better, it’s common for someone to say they prefer one ‘just because,’ without being able to articulate a specific reason.

This indicates that there may be a subconscious reason influencing their choice, but it’s not explicit, making it difficult to understand. However, in web marketing, it is crucial to make educated guesses about these insights when creating content.

Relationship with Search Intent

Search intent refers to the purpose behind a user’s search.

When users search on platforms like Yahoo! or Google, they always have a specific intent or purpose. Creating content that answers this ‘searching purpose’ leads to higher user satisfaction and serves as a foundation for SEO.

While user insights are not always explicit and can be challenging to discern, search intent is often articulated through words, making it somewhat easier to grasp.

By examining the queries in Google Search Console and the search results they produce, you can infer Google’s recognized search intent, which gives some insight into user motivations.

Importance of User Insight

Even if a company believes its service is outstanding, it’s not uncommon for it not to be well-received by the market. Often, this might be attributed to poor marketing, but it could also be that the service itself does not meet users’ expectations.

Every service has a target audience, and understanding this audience’s genuine insights can identify areas for improvement and lead to better outcomes.

For effective marketing, recognizing the importance of user insight is essential.

Identifying Improvement Opportunities in Services

Correctly understanding user insight means discovering the latent dissatisfaction that users may have. By analyzing these points of dissatisfaction and addressing them, it’s possible to improve services.

Achieving Better Results

Improving services often leads to better outcomes, especially in the digital realm where SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) play significant roles. Therefore, capturing and analyzing user insights directly contributes to increased sales.

Methods for Analyzing User Insights

User insights represent the latent opinions of users, and because they are not consciously aware of these insights, asking them directly may not yield clear answers.

To effectively use user insights in marketing, it’s necessary to gather data through various methods and conduct thorough analysis.

Analytical Tools

Well-known tools for web analytics include Google Analytics and Google Search Console.

Google Analytics allows you to measure page views, time on site, bounce rates, and conversion rates. Pages with longer visit times indicate that they contain information that engages users, while analyzing bounce rates can help identify pages that are causing users to leave.

Google Search Console enables you to see the actual keywords that users searched for, providing insights into their search intentions and how they use the search engine.

Heatmaps

A heatmap is a tool that visually represents where users have looked, clicked, and exited on a page, similar to thermographic imaging.

It is useful for determining user interests or disinterests by visually identifying the most viewed areas and points of exit.

Q&A Sites

Sites like Yahoo! Answers and TeachMe! Goo feature a wide variety of user queries and responses. These platforms allow for the exchange of information not typically found on official sites and often involve questions that users might be reluctant to ask openly. Here, users’ true thoughts and concerns can be somewhat discerned through anonymous interactions.

Anonymous Forums

Posting on anonymous forums is a common occurrence on the internet. These forums often feature candid expressions of users’ true opinions due to the anonymity provided.

Searching for your company or service name on these forums might reveal harsh criticisms, but these are undoubtedly genuine user opinions and can be insightful.

However, anonymous forums are also a common venue for stealth marketing and slander. Therefore, the reliability of the information isn’t guaranteed, and it shouldn’t be wholly trusted without scrutiny.

Social Listening

Social listening involves using social media to gather real-time user opinions. Similar to anonymous forums, social listening can yield a wealth of genuine feedback, including both valuable insights and harsh criticisms.

Although social media offers less anonymity than anonymous forums, it allows for the collection of a vast amount of data, making it a recommended approach for gathering user insights.

However, one must be cautious as information on social media can sometimes be skewed by influencers, requiring careful evaluation to ensure it is unbiased and reliable.

Survey Research

Conducting surveys allows you to gather direct and raw responses from users. However, careful consideration of the questions is essential to avoid unexpected answers or skewed opinions.

Especially with user insights, since these may involve unconscious aspects that even the users themselves are not aware of, it is crucial to craft questions that do not lead but instead delve deeper into their thoughts.

Inferring User Insights from Search Intent

While search intent and user insights are different, the latter can be surmised from search keywords which are the manifest expressions of latent thoughts. Understanding search intent can thus provide a good estimate of user insights.

To investigate search intent, you can use the following methods.

Suggested Keywords

When you enter a keyword into a search engine, it automatically suggests additional keywords. These suggestions, as implied by the name, are proposed by the search engine based on its estimation of the user’s search intent.

While suggested keywords do not directly represent search intent, they offer clues about what users might be looking for.

Other Keywords

When you perform a Google search, at the bottom of the page, you will see ‘Other Keywords.’ These are further keywords suggested by Google for the user to explore next.

Although Google does not disclose the logic behind this feature, it is presumed that these keywords represent what users might search for next, providing insights close to their search intent.

SERPs

SERPs stands for Search Engine Result Pages, which are the pages you see after conducting a search.

Especially with Google, which prioritizes a user-first approach, the top search results display content that is beneficial for users. This means that the articles that appear at the top are those that successfully address the user’s search objectives.

This indicates that by analyzing the content of top-ranking articles, you can deduce the search intent of users.

Summary

It’s crucial to consider search intent when writing, but understanding user insights is often more beneficial for determining the direction and purpose of your site and content. Although user insights are not always easily discernible, when your site is experiencing stagnation, it’s worthwhile to reassess your site’s objectives based on the true sentiments of your users.

Author Profile

Mr. Takeshi Amano, CEO of Admano Co., Ltd.

Mr. Takeshi Amano is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Nihon University. With 12 years of experience working in the advertising agency industry, he discovered SEO and began his research during the early days of SEO. He self-taught and conducted experiments and verifications on over 100 websites. Using this expertise, he founded Admano Co., Ltd., which is currently in its 11th year of operation. Mr. Amano handles sales, SEO consulting, web analytics (holding the Google Analytics Individual Qualification certification), coding, and website development. The company has successfully managed SEO strategies for over 2000 websites to date.

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