Tag: content creation

Search Intent Explained: How to Match Content to Rankings

If your content isn’t ranking, the problem often isn’t your writing—it’s search intent.

Search engines don’t rank pages based on effort or word count. They rank pages based on how well the content matches what the searcher actually wants.

This guide explains what search intent is, why it matters for SEO, and how to match your content to intent so it ranks.

What Is Search Intent?

Search intent is the reason behind a search query.

When someone types a phrase into Google, they’re trying to:

  • Learn something
  • Compare options
  • Complete an action

Search engines prioritize content that best satisfies that goal.

If your page doesn’t match the intent—even if it’s well-written—it won’t rank.

Why Search Intent Matters for SEO

Google’s goal is simple: deliver the best possible result for every query.

If users click your page and leave quickly, that’s a signal your content didn’t meet expectations. Over time, pages that consistently satisfy intent rise in rankings.

Matching intent leads to:

  • Higher rankings
  • Better engagement
  • More qualified traffic
  • Higher conversions

The Four Main Types of Search Intent

Most searches fall into one of four categories.

1. Informational Intent

The user wants an answer or explanation.

Examples:

Best content types:

  • Blog posts
  • Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Explainer articles

Goal: Educate clearly and thoroughly.

2. Navigational Intent

The user wants to reach a specific site or page.

Examples:

  • “Google Search Console login”
  • “WordPress dashboard”

Best content types:

  • Brand pages
  • Login or homepage links

Goal: Help users get where they want to go (this usually isn’t blog content).

3. Commercial Intent

The user is researching options before making a decision.

Examples:

  • “Best SEO content tools”
  • “Content marketing services for small businesses”
  • “SEO writer vs copywriter”

Best content types:

Goal: Help users evaluate and choose.

4. Transactional Intent

The user is ready to take action.

Examples:

  • “Hire SEO content marketer”
  • “Buy keyword research tool”

Best content types:

  • Sales pages
  • Landing pages
  • Product pages

Goal: Convert.

How to Identify Search Intent (Step-by-Step)

You don’t need fancy tools to identify intent. Start with the search results.

Step 1: Google the Keyword

Search your target keyword and look at:

  • Page titles
  • Content format
  • Type of pages ranking

Ask:

  • Are the results mostly blog posts or product pages?
  • Are they guides, lists, or comparisons?

Google is already showing you what intent it favors.

Step 2: Look for Patterns

If most results are:

  • Long guides → informational intent
  • “Best” lists → commercial intent
  • Service pages → transactional intent

Your content should match that pattern.

Step 3: Check the Language Used

Intent clues are often in the wording:

  • “How to” → informational
  • “Best” or “Top” → commercial
  • “Hire” or “Buy” → transactional

How to Match Content to Search Intent

Once you know the intent, your content should reflect it from top to bottom.

Match the Content Format

If search results are:

  • Guides → write a guide
  • Lists → write a list
  • Comparisons → write a comparison

Trying to rank a sales page for an informational keyword won’t work.

Match the Content Depth

Don’t overdo or underdeliver.

  • Simple questions need clear answers
  • Complex topics need structured depth

Look at the average length and coverage of ranking pages and aim to be more helpful, not just longer.

Match the CTA to the Intent

This is where many pages fail.

Examples:

  • Informational post → link to related guides or resources
  • Commercial post → link to case studies or services
  • Transactional page → clear conversion CTA

Your call-to-action should feel natural, not forced.

Common Search Intent Mistakes

Targeting the Wrong Intent

Writing a blog post when Google favors service pages—or vice versa.

Mixing Multiple Intents

Trying to educate, sell, and compare all in one post.

Ignoring Internal Linking

Not guiding users to the next logical step based on intent.

Search Intent and Content Strategy

Search intent should guide:

  • Topic selection
  • Content format
  • Internal linking
  • Conversion paths

When combined with keyword research and strong writing, intent alignment turns content into a ranking asset, not just a blog post.

Search Intent Is the Difference Between Ranking and Not Ranking

SEO content success isn’t about tricks or hacks. It’s about understanding users.

When your content:

  • Answers the right question
  • In the right format
  • At the right time

Search engines reward it.

Next Steps

If you’re building an SEO content strategy, start by auditing your existing posts:

  • Do they match search intent?
  • Do they guide users forward?
  • Do they support your core pillars?

Explore more resources in the SEO Content Marketing pillar to build content that ranks—and keeps ranking.

contentandcoachingbydella@gmail.com
979-985-0673
Orcas Island, Washington
98245
USA

SEO Content Marketing for Short-Term Rentals: A Complete Guide

Short-term rental marketing has become increasingly competitive. With rising ad costs and crowded booking platforms, relying solely on paid traffic or OTAs limits long-term growth. That’s where SEO content marketing for short-term rentals comes in.

By creating search-optimized, traveler-focused content, short-term rental businesses can attract guests earlier in the booking journey, build trust, and generate consistent, organic bookings over time.

This guide breaks down exactly how SEO content marketing works for short-term rentals—and how to use it effectively.

What Is SEO Content Marketing for Short-Term Rentals?

SEO content marketing combines search engine optimization with strategic content creation to attract travelers through organic search.

Instead of promoting listings directly, SEO content focuses on:

  • Answering traveler questions
  • Highlighting destinations and experiences
  • Building authority around a location or niche

For short-term rentals, this often includes:

  • Destination guides
  • Local activity roundups
  • Seasonal travel content
  • Booking-related informational posts

All optimized to rank in search engines and guide users toward booking.

Why SEO Content Matters for Short-Term Rental Businesses

Most travelers don’t start with “book now.” They begin with research.

Examples:

  • “Best places to stay near [destination]”
  • “Things to do in [location]”
  • “Best time to visit [island/city]”

SEO content allows you to show up before travelers are comparing listings.

Benefits of SEO Content for Short-Term Rentals

  • Reduces dependency on paid ads
  • Builds trust before the booking stage
  • Supports direct bookings
  • Creates long-term, compounding traffic
  • Positions your brand as a local expert

Understanding Traveler Search Intent

Effective SEO content starts with search intent.

Short-term rental search intent typically falls into three categories:

1. Informational Intent

Users researching:

  • Things to do
  • Local tips
  • Travel planning

Examples:

  • “Things to do in [destination]”
  • “Is [destination] worth visiting?”

2. Commercial Intent

Users comparing options:

  • “Best short-term rentals in [destination]”
  • “Where to stay in [location]”

3. Transactional Intent

Users ready to book:

  • “Book short-term rental in [destination]”

Your SEO content strategy should prioritize informational and commercial intent, then internally link toward booking or listing pages.

Best Types of SEO Content for Short-Term Rentals

Destination Guides

Foundational content that introduces your location.

Examples:

  • “Complete Guide to Visiting [Destination]”
  • “First-Time Visitor Guide to [Location]”

These pages often become high-traffic evergreen assets.

Local Experience Content

Content that showcases what makes your area unique.

Examples:

  • “Best Beaches Near [Destination]”
  • “Top Restaurants in [Location]”
  • “Hidden Gems Only Locals Know”

This content builds trust and demonstrates local expertise. It also elevates your brand when accompanied by great reviews! In 2026, experts such as Steve Schwab, CEO of Vacasa/Casago, say the focus for short-term rentals should be on operational excellence. One way you demonstrate operational excellence is through consistently positive reviews, as well as responding to negative reviews. Show your prospects that you offer a great experience, and that your team strives to correct issues immediately, and you will establish the positive brand image that accompanies operational excellence.

Seasonal Travel Content

Tourism is seasonal—your content should reflect that.

Examples:

  • “Best Time to Visit [Destination]”
  • “Winter Travel Guide to [Location]”
  • “Summer Events in [Destination]”

Update these annually to maintain rankings.

Booking-Support Content

Content that helps users choose you.

Examples:

  • “Where to Stay in [Destination]”
  • “Short-Term Rental vs Hotel in [Location]”
  • “Best Areas to Stay in [City/Island]”

These posts should include strong internal links to booking pages.

Keyword Research for Short-Term Rental SEO Content

Keyword research for tourism SEO focuses on:

  • Location-based keywords
  • Long-tail travel queries
  • Experience-focused searches

Tips:

  • Combine destinations with experiences (“kayaking in [destination]”)
  • Look for keywords with clear traveler intent
  • Don’t ignore lower-volume keywords—they often convert better

Avoid over-optimizing for “short-term rental” keywords only. Travelers search for experiences first, accommodations second.

On-Page SEO Best Practices for Rental Content

Every post should include:

  • One clear primary keyword
  • Optimized title tag and meta description
  • Proper heading structure (H1–H3)
  • Internal links to:
    • Destination pillar pages
    • Booking or listing pages
  • Optimized images with descriptive alt text

Content should be helpful first, optimized second.

Internal Linking: Turning Content into Bookings

Internal linking is where SEO content drives real results.

Best practices:

  • Link informational content to booking-focused pages
  • Use natural anchor text (“places to stay in [destination]”)
  • Link related blog posts together to build topical authority

This structure helps search engines understand your site—and guides users closer to booking.

Measuring SEO Content Success for Short-Term Rentals

SEO content success isn’t just traffic.

Key metrics:

  • Organic traffic growth
  • Rankings for destination keywords
  • Time on page
  • Clicks to booking pages
  • Direct bookings influenced by content

Results compound over time, especially with consistent publishing and updates.

SEO Content Is a Long-Term Asset

Short-term rental SEO content isn’t about quick wins—it’s about owning your destination online.

When done correctly, SEO content:

  • Works year-round
  • Supports direct bookings
  • Reduces marketing costs
  • Builds lasting authority for your brand

Want Help Building SEO Content for Your Short-Term Rental?

If you want to attract travelers earlier, rank for destination searches, and turn content into bookings, SEO content marketing is one of the most effective strategies available.

Explore more resources in the Destination Marketing SEO pillar or reach out to learn how a tailored SEO content strategy can support your short-term rental business.

contentandcoachingbydella@gmail.com
979-985-0673
Orcas Island, Washington
98245
USA

How to Write SEO Blog Posts That Rank (Step-by-Step)

To succeed as an SEO content marketer, you must balance expertise, proof, and search demand. Writing a blog post that ranks on page one in 2026 requires moving beyond simple word counts and focusing on high-intent informational keywords that position you as an authority in your niche.

This step-by-step guide walks you through the foundational process of creating content that satisfies both search engines and human readers.

Step 1: Identify Search Intent

Before writing a single word, you must understand search intent—the “why” behind a user’s query. To rank effectively, your content must match what the user is looking for, whether it is educational information, a specific product, or a guide. If your post doesn’t align with the intent of the top-ranking results, it will struggle to gain traction regardless of how well it is written.

Step 2: Conduct Keyword Research

Effective keyword research for bloggers involves finding a balance between search volume and competition. Focus on:

• Primary Keywords: Your main topic (e.g., “SEO blog writing”).

• Secondary Keywords: Related terms that provide context (e.g., “on-page SEO for blogs,” “content marketing strategy”).

• Niche Relevance: Especially if you are in a specialized field like destination marketing or short-term rentals, targeting lower-competition, high-relevance terms helps you rank faster.

Step 3: Structure for Readability and Depth

Search engines favor content that is well-structured and easy to navigate. Use a clear hierarchy of headings (H1, H2, H3) to organize your thoughts:

• H1: Your main title, including your primary keyword.

• H2s: Sub-topics that break down the process (e.g., “How SEO Content Marketing Works” or “Measuring Success”).

• Formatting: Use bullet points, short paragraphs, and bold text to improve readability for “scanners”.

Step 4: Execute On-Page SEO Best Practices

Once your content is drafted, optimize the technical elements to ensure search engines can crawl and understand your post:

• URL Slugs: Keep them short and keyword-rich.

• Meta Titles and Descriptions: Write compelling snippets that encourage clicks from the search results page.

• Internal Linking: Follow a hub-and-spoke model. Link back to your SEO Content Marketing Pillar Page and connect your new post to at least 1–2 other related articles to distribute “link equity” across your site.

Step 5: Plan for Regular Updates

SEO is not “set it and forget it.” High-ranking content requires a content refresh strategy. Plan to update your posts every 6–9 months by adding new keywords, refreshing outdated information, and checking your internal links to maintain your rankings.

——————————————————————————–

About the Author Della O’Brien is an SEO content marketer and blog writer with experience in SEO-driven content marketing since 2019. She specializes in creating blog content that drives traffic, engagement, and bookings, specifically within the destination marketing and short-term rental niches.

Ready to master your strategy? Explore our suggestions for 24 Blog Post Ideas to Showcase Your Vacation Rental to learn how to build a high-performing blog from the ground up.

contentandcoachingbydella@gmail.com
979-985-0673
Eastsound, Wa
98245
USA

Blogger Tutorial: How to Design a Content Creation Guide for Your Blog

One of the biggest benefits of blogging is SEO. This blogger tutorial walks you through how to create a content creation guide for your blog.

The last time I posted, we went over the benefits of blogging, and I mentioned using your results from Answer the Public (or a similar website) to create a map for your website. Then, you can use it as a guide for content creation. 

What are some of the biggest benefits of blogging?

Blogging enhances your site’s SEO.

Search Engine Optimization is vital for your website because a website optimized well for the search engines ranks higher on the SERP. Since many people won’t scroll through to page two of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP), most wellness bloggers aim for page one of the search results for the keywords most relevant to their target customer.

When you write blog posts designed for SEO and your target customer, your customers can find you and your content is more engaging. If your blog posts are not optimized for search, you’ll only get your content in front of your target customer if you use ads or if you are using social media powerfully.

Establish credibility.

Writing SEO blog posts shows search engines that you have content that addresses your target customers’ critical issues. More importantly, you set yourself up as an expert in your field. This helps with many things, one of which is your trust score on Google.

Earn Google’s trust.

Google’s trust is imperative because if Google doesn’t think you know what you’re talking about, it will not suggest your content to your target customers.

Blogger Tutorial: Use Answer the Public to Design a Content Creation Guide for Your Blog.

Friendly reminder: I am using Answer the Public as my example of a keyword tool, but there are many others, one of which is Ubersuggest by Neil Patel.

The video above illustrates the instructions, numbers 1-6.
  1. Go to Answer the Public. If you have a Pro Account, you can log in. Otherwise, you can use the free version.
  2.  In the search bar, type in a word or two to get a list of popular related terms. For our example, I’ll use the phrase “wellness tips.”
  3. Select your country and language.
  4. Click “Search.”
  5. You’ll notice several questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related. There is also the option to Download CSV. And underneath those options is a diagram of the questions typed into search.
  6. Here, we will download the CSV.

On the Excel Sheet

  1. After downloading the CSV, the terms will be saved in an Excel sheet. Open the sheet and look at Column A.
    • As you follow the column to the bottom of the screen, you will see that the column indicates whether the suggestions are questions, propositions, comparisons, or alphabetical suggestions.
    • Column B has the modifier. For example, the first modifier listed is “Are.” And Column C has the suggested keyword or keyword phrase.
    • Moving over, Column F has keywords listed. After glancing at all the info and getting accustomed to where everything is, you might think of a way of organizing this information differently than I suggest. That is ok. However, I recommend deleting all columns except the Suggestions column and the Keywords. It’s easier to find everything.

Then, add Page Name to the top of the next column. You might choose to color code the page names if that makes finding info on the spreadsheet easier.

Then, you’ll go through the page and find a few suggested keyword phrases that have something in common. You will use the commonality as your page name/topic on the sheet. For example, I chose to have a page titled “Natural Wellness” because it’s listed several times on the sheet.

However, after further inspection, I realized the term “natural wellness” was repeated, verbatim, in each of its appearances on the sheet. With no need to see the term multiple times, you will have a better visualization if you delete the repetitive phrases.

You can find the repeated suggestions either by

  • typing CTR+F on your keyboard
  • clicking analyze data and arranging by suggestions
  • clicking data, then remove duplicates.

Then, go through and find another commonality. Keep labeling until every suggestion has a Page Name/Topic assigned. Finding the commonalities is easier when you choose the second option above for finding the repeated suggestions- clicking analyze data and arranging by suggestions- because the suggestions column will be listed in alphabetical order.

You might choose to color-code by page name to make it easier to visualize the number of suggestions per page name.

In the image below, notice there is a page named “Top 5 X_[Post Title Idea]”. This is a post title that is a catchy for the reader. Readers love to select list posts like that.

In the image below, you can see that some of the page names simply say “any”. That’s because these suggestions could work on many different page types.

The image below shows a page titled “calendar”. The suggestions with this page name assigned to them are all relevant to months of the year, 2021 (which you can change to 2022), or specific holidays. Depending on how many posts you choose to write for each suggestion, you might have 1 calendar page for the whole year, or you could choose to have 1 calendar page for each month.

The image below has a page named “BRANDED CONTENT (insert your name)”. To use the suggestion, simply insert your name at the end, leaving a page named “health and wellness tips by Della”, for example.

The image below has a page named “posts on other platforms”. That’s because this suggestion is for Instagram. You will find a couple of other suggestions for other platforms on this page.

The image below is another instance of branded content.

The image below shows a page named “Landing Page/FREE Giveaway PDF”. Here is an opportunity to offer something valuable to your target customer- something that is a quick fix for one of their problems- in exchange for their email address. This is great for building your email list so you can begin email marketing, which is still a fabulously successful tactic.

Once you have several suggestions for something that you think you are, hands down, the best person to answer questions about, you will know that you have the keywords ready for your first post, second, etc.

Bear in mind that you still need a customer journey for your readers.

A customer journey defines the topics your customer needs to master to reach their goals. Once you have the content creation guide created with SEO (like in this tutorial), align your content with the customer journey.

This allows you to solve a problem for your readers, so they keep coming back to read more or take the next step in their journey with you. Maybe they book a wellness coaching appointment, a training session, or whatever service you offer for them. This could also include purchasing products- However you define your wellness business success.

What’s next?

With your initial keyword research complete and a few page names created with the keyword phrases to match, you have plenty of content suggestions. The next time I post, we’ll go over the customer journey.

Have questions or comments? Please feel free to post them in the comments section. Or you can send them to me in a contact form.

Della O'Brien, Content Marketer's avatar

Della O’Brien is a wellness writer with three years of writing experience in the industry and over 20 years of experience working with various wellness products. You might have seen her work in Extraction Magazine, Terpenes and Testing Magazine, or CBD Health and Wellness Magazine, among other publications. Della offers writing and consulting services for those wanting to build a successful business through content creation.

Della O’Brien, Content Marketer

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