What is Search Intent?
Search intent is the goal behind a query — what the user actually wants to accomplish. The four canonical intents are informational (learn), navigational (find a specific site), commercial (research before buying), and transactional (buy or convert). Matching intent is now the #1 ranking factor after content quality.
How Search Intent works
- Informational: "how does X work" — long-form guides, videos, FAQs.
- Navigational: "figma login" — the brand's own domain always wins; not worth targeting unless you are the brand.
- Commercial: "best X for Y" or "X vs Y" — comparison content, review roundups, listicles.
- Transactional: "buy X" or "X pricing" — product pages, pricing pages, category pages.
- The SERP itself reveals intent: look at the top 10 result formats before writing. If Google shows 8 listicles, do not publish a product page.
Example
"keyword research" is informational — SERP is dominated by Ahrefs, Moz, Backlinko guides. "keyword research tool" is commercial — SERP shifts to comparison lists and category pages. Same topic, different intent, entirely different content.
Run it on your own keyword
The pages Google ranks today tell you the intent it assigns to the query.
Read the intent from the live SERPFrequently asked questions about Search Intent
How do I identify search intent?
Read the SERP. The dominant format of the top 10 tells you the intent Google has confirmed. Ignore what you think the user wants — Google has already run the experiment.
Can one keyword have multiple intents?
Yes — "keyword research" often shows both guides (informational) and tool comparisons (commercial). Google mixes formats to serve both. Write for the dominant format and add a secondary section for the other.
What is the difference between commercial and transactional intent?
Commercial is research (still comparing options). Transactional is action-ready (has picked and wants to buy). "best CRM" is commercial; "hubspot pricing" is transactional.
Related terms
Keyword Difficulty
Keyword difficulty is a 0-100 score estimating how hard it will be to rank in Google's top 10 for a given query. It blends the authority of the sites already ranking, backlink strength, on-page depth, and SERP-feature crowding into a single number.
SERP
SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page — the page Google (or Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.) returns after a query. Modern SERPs mix classic blue links with AI Overviews, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, image packs, videos, and shopping carousels.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are specific, multi-word search queries — usually 4+ words — with lower individual search volume but sharper intent and less competition. Collectively they drive 70%+ of all Google searches and convert at 2-5x the rate of head terms.