# Search intent

> The four intent categories, why intent decides page format before it decides content, and how to read intent off a SERP rather than off the words.

Source: https://netweft.com/glossary/search-intent
Updated: 2026-03-05

**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](/blog/snapshots-not-recomputation): a position that
slid without your page changing is often a [SERP](/glossary/serp) whose intent
was re-read.