What is a "Search Mindset"?

SEOs love talking about search intent, but I don't see ANYONE talking about "search mindset".

SEOs love talking about search intent, but I don't see ANYONE talking about "search mindset".

• Search intent → Their main goal.
• Search mindset → Their hopes and fears.

By rooting your content in your reader's mindset, you neutralize their fears and serve their hopes.

It helps you create from a place of strength.

Here's an example:

Imagine someone in your target audience is looking for new software.

They head to Google and type "Best Marketing Automation Tools".

Okay, cool, their intent is clearly to do commercial research to find the best tool in this category.

But their mindset?

As a marketer, employee, and human, we know this searcher:

• ✅ Wants to look good.
• ✅ Wants up-to-date info.
• ✅ Fears complex software.
• ✅ Is sick of "SEO" content by now.
• ✅ Likely doesn't trust reviews blindly.
• ✅ Already knows G2, Hubspot, and Zapier.
• ✅ Definitely expects you to be biased to yourself.

These are all SUPER useful data points.

We can take them and feed them into our strategy.

1. They fear complex setups? → Focus on simple software.
2. They're sick of SEO content? → Double down on quality.
3. They're low on trust? → Do more "show", less "tell".
4. They want up-to-date info? → Include the current year in the title.

Another way to build empathy for the searcher is to actually search that keyword yourself.

What content is there? Does it seem helpful? What does the SERP look like? Does all the content seem the same? Is it hard to choose which one to dive into?

SEO has never been more competitive, to win attention you need to be way more empathetic than "search intent".

You need to channel the searcher's mindset.

Three Ways I Can Help You:

1. Scale Package: Learn to Build a Scalable, High-Converting SEO Operation (Use code: FRIENDS10 to get a 10% discount.)
2. Fix Up Your Strategy: Book a Power Hour With Me
3. Let's Work Together: I'll build your search-first content strategy and my team of (amazing!) writers will execute it. Email me at ben@thefxck.com to chat.

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