Ch. 6: The Intent Check That Stopped Me Wasting Articles

Ch. 6: The Intent Check That Stopped Me Wasting Articles

I wrote a 2,000-word guide for a keyword Google wanted to answer with a tool. It never ranked because I mismatched intent. Now I run this before writing.

— Google the exact keyword, look at the format of the top 5: listicle? single product? tool? video?
— If the top 5 are all listicles and I planned a single review — I match them or I don't rank
— Check the SERP features: shopping carousel = transactional, People Also Ask = informational
— Note the median word count — Google's signal of how deep this query needs to go
— Decide the format BEFORE the outline, not after

Since adding this 5-minute check, my page-1 hit rate went from roughly 40% to 70%.

Lesson banked: you can write the best article on earth in the wrong format and rank nowhere. Match the SERP's shape first.