Search intent
Also called query intent, user intent
What a searcher is trying to accomplish with a query — typically classified as informational, navigational, commercial or transactional. Intent decides what kind of page can rank, more reliably than any other keyword attribute.
Intent is the attribute that decides whether a page can rank at all. You can out-write everyone on a query and still lose if you have written the wrong kind of page.
The four usual categories:
- Informational — the searcher wants to understand something.
- Navigational — they want a specific site or product.
- Commercial — they are comparing options before buying.
- Transactional — they are ready to act.
Read it off the results, not the words. The reliable method is to look at what is already ranking. If the first page is nine listicles, the search engine has decided the query is commercial-comparison, and a product page will not displace them no matter how good it is. If it is documentation, a sales page is in the wrong format.
Intent moves. A query that was informational two years ago can become transactional as a category matures. This is one of the arguments for storing rank history as observations: a position that slid without your page changing is often a SERP whose intent was re-read.
Last reviewed . Also served as markdown at /glossary/search-intent.md.