Search intent is the goal behind a search: what the person is actually trying to do. Match your page to that goal and you can rank; miss it and no amount of optimisation saves you. Read intent from the words in the query and, more reliably, from the pages already ranking for it.
What is search intent?
Search intent, sometimes called user intent, is the reason behind a search. Two people can type the same words wanting very different things, and Google's whole job is to serve the one it thinks they mean. That is why intent, not just the keyword, decides whether your page ranks. This guide goes deeper on the intent step of keyword research.
What are the four types of intent?
Almost every query falls into one of four, and each wants a different response:
| Intent | The searcher wants to | Typical wording | Page to serve |
|---|---|---|---|
| Informational | Learn something | what is, how to, guide, ideas | A guide or explainer |
| Commercial | Compare before buying | best, top, vs, review, alternatives | A comparison or round-up |
| Transactional | Act or buy now | buy, price, pricing, near me, sign up | A product or pricing page |
| Navigational | Reach a specific site | a brand or product name | Their own site; do not intercept |
How do you work out a keyword's intent?
Two signals, in order of reliability:
- The wording. Modifiers usually give it away, as in the table above. "How to" is informational, "best" is commercial, "pricing" is transactional.
- The results page. This is the more reliable test. Search the term and look at what already ranks. If the first page is all guides, Google has judged the intent informational; if it is product pages, it is transactional. The ranking pages are Google's own verdict on what people want, so trust them over your assumptions.
Watch for mixed intent, where the results page shows a blend. That tells you to lead with the dominant intent and cover the rest within the page.
How do you match a page to the intent?
Once you know the intent, give it the format it expects. An informational query wants a clear guide that answers the question; a commercial query wants an honest comparison; a transactional query wants a product or pricing page that lets the person act. Google's guidance on people-first content is really a plea to do exactly this: help the person do what they came to do, in the form they expect it.
What happens if you get intent wrong?
The page stalls, no matter how good it is. Point a sales or product page at an informational query and it will not rank, because Google can see people want to learn, not buy. Write a long guide for a transactional query and you miss the person who was ready to act. Intent mismatch is one of the most common and most fixable reasons content underperforms: often the fix is not more effort, but the right kind of page. And because intent decides which pages compete, getting it right also helps you avoid keyword cannibalisation. For AI search, the informational, question-shaped intents are the ones worth framing for citation in Answer Engine Optimisation.