Search Intent
Informational, commercial, transactional.
What Is Search Intent?
Search intent is the reason behind a query. Two people typing different words may want the same thing, and the same words can hide different goals.
Google now ranks pages mostly by how well they satisfy intent, not by keyword density. If your page mismatches intent, no amount of optimization will rank it.
The Four Intent Types
Most queries fall into four buckets. Knowing which one you face decides the page format you must create.
Get this wrong and you build a blog post when searchers wanted a product page, or vice versa.
INFORMATIONAL -> learn something ("how to brew cold coffee")
NAVIGATIONAL -> reach a brand ("netflix login")
COMMERCIAL -> compare options ("best running shoes 2024")
TRANSACTIONAL -> buy / act ("buy nike pegasus 41")