What is search audience targeting?

SEO Lead / Consultant @ Conversem

Ruben Remy

Search Audience Targeting (SAT) applies the concept of “product/market fit” to webpages and search intents. It is an empirical search marketing methodology that results in strategic content creation to fill gaps in search intent and the consumer decision journey.

The Search Audience Targeting methodology seeks to match all your individual webpage purposes with the (searcher’s) user intent and the exact search keywords visitors use that reveal their intent.

In Search Audience Targeting we define both the page purpose and search intent into a handful of the same dimensions. Each dimension has attributes to choose from which has to match to realize harmony between the multidimensional goal of the page and the multidimensional expectation of the searcher. SAT is a powerful online marketing model that realizes the same decision making results across team members.

This way of doing audience targeting instead of just keyword research has many benefits for your online marketing operations:

1. Reproducibility of decision making results in streamlined teamwork and a cumulative knowledge build-up in keyword research. Your content strategy becomes much better and can be more and more automated/scaled.
2. Websites and webpages get better organized and aligned with the customer decision journey (CDJ). You visitors’ needs are better met. However you need the other dimensions to give context to the CDJ.
3. With Webpage Audience Targeting (WAT) data available for every webpage, you can report marketing insights instead of raw analytics data. Your decision making will improve, stakeholders align faster and the need for meetings will be reduced.

How we got here and why we need search audience targeting

Search intent is not a new concept, and there have been mostly shallow attempts to capture the idea of search intent with only one dimension. However, a one dimensional search intent is not useful to capture the context of a search intent as universal yet complete as possible.

In 2022, when I was working interim for Philips, it dawned on me that there must be a model, a fixed pattern of dimensions that can be used to capture intent in a way that can also relate to page purpose. I figured a search intent model that is both universally applicable to any webpage, yet also as complete as possible to give sufficient context to a user’s intent, opens up new possibilities in scaling and automating keyword research and keyword to page mapping as has not been done before. The reason technology has been stuck in automating keyword to webpage mapping is because the industry has been blinded by technology like LLMs without first thinking out the actual marketing steps that lead to reproducible conclusions.

I found out the pattern back then and started using it with clients. Since then I’ve been training content teams to do keyword research themselves using this new Search Audience Targeting method to be able to get reproducible results.

Reproducibility means moving keyword research away from art towards science which leads towards automation and scalability. It means that everyone who uses the SAT model correctly will always get to the exact same interpretations and therefore also to the same downstream conclusions in keyword/webpage mapping and strategic content creation.

Some years passed I can confidently say this method and way of looking at webpages and keywords has absolutely transformed content SEO very positively in teams. So I’m happy to share this model as a tested and proven method to the wider public. First of all as a digital marketing method, and next as a content strategy decision making automation. A SaaS is being built as we speak.

Anyway, enough history, let’s spill the beans!

The multidimensional search intent

In the Seach Audience Targeting (SAT) model, I have defined 5 dimensions that together determine the multidimensional search intent. These dimensions are:

• Commercial Intent
• Brand Intent
• Audience Action
• Time Sensitivity
• Customer Decision Journey

I’ve purposely left out locality as a dimension as it is disputed if you should build local pages or not. However, you can see locality (local, non-local) as an optional dimension, depending on the type of business you are in.

Together, commercial intent, brand intent, audience action, time sensitivity and the customer decision journey form the multidimensional search intent we use to understand and target the search audience with our webpages.

We will get to explaining how to apply this method, but first we need to show the webpage side of the “product/market fit” or as we now call it, the webpage purpose/search intent fit.

Create pages to fulfill their inherent page purpose

Every page type inherently serves a specific purpose. Webpage Audience Targeting (WAT) uses the same dimensions as SAT to define these inherent characteristics clearly. Interpreting the Webpage Audience Targeting is not just relevant for Search Audience Targeting, it is actually crucial to align everyone involved in what kind of page types to design and what kind of features need to be part of a page type or template. When you have clarity on the multidimensional purpose of a webpage, you now also have clarity on the multidimensional need it fulfills for prospective users of that page. Let’s look at how Webpage Audience Targeting looks like in the illustration below.

When designing page types, first determine the webpage purpose using the same dimensions: Commercial Intent, Audience Action, Brand Intent, Time Sensitivity, and Customer Decision Journey. When doing this, you make it easier to design fit-for-purpose page types and hit the nail every time for every page its content strategy, and targeting of the right audiences across marketing channels.

For example:

• Product pages inherently have commercial intent, conversion action and customer decision journey (CDJ), product-branded and most often timeless.
• Blog posts typically serve a reading action in the awareness and consideration CDJ with a more time sensitive character, while articles also serve read action, the awareness and consideration CDJ, while being evergreen.
• Product category pages serve a commercial evaluation intent with a click action and is mostly timeless.

As you see, every page type has these dimensions backed into them even if you weren’t explicitly aware of them. Therefore potentially any combination of audience targeting attributes could be a different page type.

As an exercise guess what page type this could be?

A page type that is non-commercial with a click action, is non-branded, timeless and in the consideration phase.

If you reason through this exercise you will figure out that a click action page is a category or hub. Non-commercial means the hub leads to read action pages, not to conversion action pages. So it would be a content category. Then you’ll know it is a non-branded content category in the consideration phase. Given the consideration phase there should be an awareness category and maybe awareness content that comes prior to this consideration category. Therefore we are speaking of a content sub-category page type on which there are links to non-commercial, evergreen content articles. Makes sense?

Webpage audience targeting uncovers missing page types

When you look through the lense of WAT into your page types you will likely uncover gaps. E.g. I’ve seen a client only had non-branded product category pages because they wanted to focus on SEO. Ironically this made them forget to build and publish product-branded category pages. This mismatch is illustrated below.

As a result, users with a search intent in the product-branded evaluation phase were landing on product detail pages while they were still evaluating different model options within the same product-brand scope. The non-branded category pages didn’t rank as the client wanted to. This was not a good user experience because the intended webpages had a brand intent mismatch, thus there was no page purpose/search intent fit.

Another example is a website that has a lot of non-commercial evergreen content. They are great at it, but somehow the site misses a blog, which means they don’t have a perfect place to publish non-commercial, time sensitive, read action content in the awareness, consideration and loyalty phase. The evergreen article section wouldn’t be the right place, but the press release section would also not make sense. Something was missing, but before this decision making model exposed what exactly, it was hard for them to see it.

As you see in these short examples, using Webpage Audience Targeting should be a mandatory part of your page type and component design process.

Using WAT, marketers can identify gaps and prevent inconsistent webpage types or “Frankenstein pages” as a colleague would call it.

Market webpages to search audiences that fit

Search Audience Targeting (SAT) complements Webpage Audience Targeting (WAT) by mapping the multidimensional search intent onto the multidimensional webpage purpose. Each search query carries the specific attributes that needs to match with the Webpage Audience Targeting attributes to get to the right webpage purpose/search intent fit. This we can now call the digital version of the product/market fit.

By matching SAT and WAT dimensions when doing keyword research, we bring back marketing in SEO. This method enhances user satisfaction, increases relevance to the right audience, improves SEO performance, and aids in optimizing conversion rates. As you see, this is about much more than SEO, this is about doing digital marketing right and will positively impact all digital channels by targeting the right audience intent.

How to interpret the search audience of a search query

You might be wondering: how do I interpret the dimensions of a search query? The search query often doesn’t provide enough context to interpret all of them correctly.

The search user expresses their need through the search query, and then the search results are a great proxy that reveal their intent in fuller context.

That means we can:

• Draw conclusions from the search query itself.
• Draw conclusions based on the competitor pages on the SERP.

This way, your search audience targeting decision-making is externally validated and aligned with Google’s point of view. We can safely assume that Google’s point of view reflects the actual search intent as we know that Google learns from user behavior. Even if Google were wrong, your commercial category page still wouldn’t rank on a SERP filled with non-commercial content—so you’ll need to adapt either way if you want to reach the audience behind that search query.

This directly shows why keyword research without validation through the SERPs lacks context and I’ve seen experienced SEOs make mistakes because of it, and have seen stakeholders wanting to rank on non-commercial queries with commercial pages because they didn’t validate the keyword-to-page mapping using the SERPs.

The search audience targeting dimensions explained in detail

We have now established that every webpage has a specific purpose, and every search query carries a multidimensional intent. And to create a successful search strategy, these two must align perfectly in a multidimensional way.

However, we need to work with the same definitions to get reproducible results of the interpretations regardless of who is doing them.

Let’s go over each SAT/WAT dimension one by one with the definition of each dimension and their attributes and some examples.

1. Commercial Intent

Definition

Search queries can be commercial or non-commercial, so do webpages. A commercial search is from a person who has already decided to have an unmet need and now wants to evaluate alternatives to meet that need. Within the commercial evaluation phase, users read product reviews, blog expert opinions and top lists. In the evaluation phase, users also click through product or service category and detail pages to first expand their options and then narrow them down.

Why & How It Matches Page Purpose

• Commercial Intent search users want pages that aid their purchasing decision, such as product category and detail pages. However, we won’t define product detail pages as evaluation, because the final purpose of a product detail page is to convert. The final purpose of a product or service category page is the click action to a product page as part of the evaluation phase.
• Non-commercial Intent search users require pages that inform or educate, such as articles, blogs, news, or support and loyalty content. Non-commercial page types can be awareness, consideration and loyalty page types.

Since all pages exist within a commercial or non-commercial context, a mismatch between the commercial perspective of search intent and page purpose leads to not being able to rank high for keywords without match. A product page optimized for a purely informational query won’t satisfy users and won’t rank, just as a blog post for a “buy xyz” query will fail to rank in Google.

Examples

2. Audience Action

Definition

Each query and landing page signals a different type of action:

• Click Action: The user is comparing multiple options and wants to scroll and click.
• Read Action: The user is seeking to consume information to be informed and make up their mind in needing to act or not.
• Conversion Action: The user wants to take action (purchase, sign up, subscribe, book, etc.).

You could argue for more actions such as watch action, however I’ve limited any content consumption action for now to read action in this model but this might change in the future. Reason is I mostly see client pages have mixed informational content types on read action pages and queries. The need behind is the same, to inform or be informed.

Why & How It Matches Page Purpose

• Click Action pages should offer product catalogs, comparison tables, best-of lists and more of the page types where users are aided to browse and click to the next step in their decision journey.
• Read Action pages should provide information which may be timeless/evergreen or time sensitive. An important distinction within the read action is if the content is evergreen (article page) or time sensitive, such as blog and news content. News is very time sensitive and can spike for a day, whereas blog content is moderately time sensitive and can stay relevant as long as a product cycle last.
• Conversion Action pages must feature a final action to end the commercial intent into a need met. On conversion action pages this likely happens with an add to cart, subscribe, book, form submit, or download action.

Since every page type must fulfill a user action, misalignment leads to irritations and bounces back to the search results page.

Examples

3. Brand intent

Definition

A search query can be:

• (Company) Branded: Mentions a company alongside a generic product category (e.g., “Nike male sneakers”). Indicating an interest in the brand that may or may not be commercially charged. Just branded queries can also be navigational to get to the homepage or a section of the site to start the journey there.
• Product-Branded: Mentions a specific product or model of a brand (e.g., “Nike Jordan collection” or “philips 3300 series LatteGo”). This indicates more likely a commercial intent and the evaluation/conversion customer journey, depending on how specific the query is and if the query is a product range or one specific model.
• Non-Branded: No mention of a specific brand, focusing on general information or a product type in general (e.g., female shoes). Also the earlier parts of the evaluation phase where there is no brand interest or brand commitment yet or simply won’t be. For example, looking for the lowest energy rates for your home more likely trigger searches without brand intent. While aesthetic products like fashion are more likely branded and product-branded. A good example is the Philips OneBlade. Some products brands are a category of its own which means a category page with other types of razors won’t meet the user expectation.

Why & How It Matches Page Purpose

• Branded search users expect official brand pages or high-authority resellers.
• Product-Branded search users expect detailed product pages or product-brand catalogs or guides that focus on a specific model or collection.
• Non-Branded search users expect general informational content or broad product lists without brand preference.

Since every page either aligns with a brand, a specific product, or a general audience, a mismatch in keyword targeting will not result in good search rankings.

Examples

4. Time Sensitivity

Definition

Searches can be:

• Timeless/Evergreen: Content that will stay relevant over time (e.g., “how to tie running shoes”).
• Time-Sensitive: Driven by trends, events, or seasonal needs (e.g., “Black Friday running shoe deals 2025”). Time sensitive pages are e.g. blog content, news, press releases and campaign pages around holidays and events.

Why & How It Matches Page Purpose

• Evergreen pages should be optimized for long-term ranking and consistent traffic.
• Time-sensitive pages should be optimized for seasonal searches, promotions, and timely trends. In time-sensitive pages, a distinction between a content page and blog page is important. Blogs feature dates and content that become dated. E.g. Every year, a comparison of the latest smartphones will be a new set of smartphones that will be released that year. Whereas a content page without a date, such as “everything you can clean with baking soda” won’t need entire new content every year. The content may be optimized or refreshed, but the essence remains the same.

Since every webpage exists in a timeless or time-bound context, mismatches can cause discrepancies where the page type doesn’t fit the search intent, and might not even fit the page content. E.g. time sensitive blog content on an evergreen article page type without date feels off. Evergreen content in a blog post likewise is incorrectly situated on your website. When both evergreen and time sensitive content are published on the same blog, you will confuse both your human audience as well as search engine algorithms.

Examples

5. Customer Decision Journey

There are many different customer journey models that compete, such as AIDA, RACE, and The Loop. For relating to page types on one hand and search audiences on the other hand, I’ve concluded that the McKinsey consumer decision journey best corresponds to how you want to design your webpages and target search audiences. I can write a philosophical essay about why AIDA and RACE are not fit for purpose, but instead will give a reason for each and then simply go ahead with the customer decision journey as below defined.

1. AIDA doesn’t have a post-purchase category for support type pages and intents.
2. RACE is simply highly irrational to map page types and search audiences on and is meant for a very different use case. Still then I think RACE is overlapping its own vague categories and therefore only helpful to confuse already confused marketers. Please don’t use it to make sense of your webpages.
3. The Loop from the Pedowitz Group has many more steps that go beyond page purpose and search intent. We already have 4 other dimensions to give more helpful context relating to webpage purpose and search intent.

Definition

A user’s search intent fits into one of five customer decision journeys:

• Awareness: Becoming aware of a topic or potential need.
• Consideration: Considering if this is my need or not really.
• Evaluation: Evaluating (commercial) options, brands, product models, styles, services, price ranges within the scope of seeking to fullfil a specific need.
• Conversion: Ready to purchase or meet the need with a concrete solution.
• Loyalty: Post-purchase engagement such as support content.

Why & How It Matches Page Purpose

• Awareness pages should focus on education and discovery (e.g., content articles and content categories).
• Consideration pages should offer more horizontal content and content categories within the scope of a need. For example, why content, pros and cons content, comparing different ways to solve a problem (e.g. “gasoline vs electic cars, pros and cons”). As you notice in this example, the user is not yet commercially active, but if they keep going on this journey, they will become commercially active after finalizing the consideration phase. They are informing themselves on if they have a need and if yes, in what way they want to meet that need. That is why I define the consideration phase as the consideration to become commercially active or not.
• Evaluation pages are for commercially active users. Often commercial category pages, product comparison blogposts to aid users to narrow down to a single product. For example, they already know they want to buy a new smartphone, but now need to narrow down on which smartphone to buy exactly. Users will scroll through product catalog pages, read reviews, opinion content on blogs, and forums to shape and narrow down their desire to convert.
• Conversion pages is where the commercial journey will be fulfilled into a purchase of a product or service, a download or any other type of conversion destination. The page should have strong CTAs and purchasing options.
• Loyalty pages should cater to existing customers, offering support content and customer service. Post-purchase a blog can keep your audience engaged and part of loyalty is to make users aware of cross-sale options within the brand experience they’ve already got to like.

Every webpage must be built for a phase in the decision journey, or it will fail to meet the users need and to move them to the next step of their journey.

Examples

Another customer decision making example leading to a product purchase:

Because every page type inherently contains each audience targeting dimension, marketers who use this method are able to ensure perfect alignment between search intent and page purpose. When users land on the right type of page that meet their multidimensional intent, you have a perfect strategic fit and will perform better in search for the right scope of keywords.

How to apply search audience targeting in content marketing

The benefit of having a method which leads to reproducible results is that you can build a WAT database of your webpages, where each webpage has its multidimensional page purpose interpreted. This helps you to see if your page template/types actually fit the page purpose and is the starting point to assign search queries that perfectly match your webpage purpose.

How it works:

1. Build a Webpage Audience Targeting (WAT) database where each page has their WAT attributes interpreted.
2. Interpret the SAT of each search keyword as part of keyword research.
3. Map keywords to webpages where the audience targeting of the webpage matches the audience targeting factors of the keyword perfectly. In short, the keyword its relevance to the webpage is confirmed when WAT = SAT.

1. Build a webpage audience targeting (WAT) database

Building a Webpage Audience Targeting database can be a laborious work as each webpage needs to be interpreted. A hack is to interpret each page template you have in your CMS, if it’s that straightforward. But even then you will find pages where the page type doesn’t even match the content on the page. E.g. when a content page type is hacked together to look more like a content category page. You would normally need to do this manually, however fret not. At Conversem we have automated this process with our propriety AI solution.

We can automate interpreting all your webpages their audience targeting factors.

2. Add search audience targeting interpretations to your keyword research

The next step is to interpret every keyword its Search Audience Targeting. You do this by looking at both the keyword itself and what kind of pages are ranking in Google. The top search results will confirm what the search intent is. If you see mostly commercial category pages, you know the search query is commercial, click action, evaluation and evergreen. If the keyword does not include any brand, it is non-branded. Now you have interpreted the search intent profile based on the Search Audience Targeting model!

At Conversem we have also automated the Search Audience Targeting of search queries for our clients.

3. Map keywords to landing pages and map SAT to WAT

Now you know the SAT interpretation of your keyword and the WAT interpretation of relevant webpages, you make the final decision using the SAT = WAT formula. The highest relevance webpage that also have the exact same SAT and WAT attributes is the right match. Now you can officially assign that keyword to that landing page in your SAT database.

From here on you can see webpage gaps for relevant keywords. Those are keywords without webpages with the same audience targeting factors. When you have all the keywords and pages interpreted you will see that the webpages that struggle to rank often have a mismatch as the root cause in its WAT not being SAT.

An often occuring example is when a webshop only has evaluation and conversion pages but lack awareness and consideration content that naturally leads to the evaluation phase.

Another example is when you have a webshop with mostly branded category pages, but there are many opportunities left by creating new non-branded category pages for your products. The other way around also happens where you might have mostly non-branded category pages but not the branded and product-branded category pages yet. As you see the rigorous SAT model shows page gaps you could fill within the audience journey.

Automated WAT and SAT interpretations to streamline content strategy

At Conversem we have proprietary AI enabled technology to automate webpage and Search Audience Targeting interpretation and keyword mapping.

We are releasing this automation in phases. First to benefit our clients, then as API, and lastly as SaaS as part of an integrated content SEO workflow.

If you are interested in getting started, we are still open to work and offer SAT interpretations as part of our E2E content SEO workflow which can be used both in-house and by digital marketing agencies.