Search Intent

Search intent is the underlying goal behind a search query — what the searcher actually wants to accomplish, not just the words they typed.

The standard framework splits intent into four types: informational ("what is CAC"), navigational ("marketertools login"), commercial investigation ("best roas calculator"), and transactional ("buy running shoes"). Matching content format to intent matters more than matching keyword density — a 2,000-word essay answering a query that wants a quick calculator will underperform a genuinely useful calculator with a short explanation, regardless of how well the essay is optimized.

Google's own ranking systems are, in large part, an intent-matching machine — the fastest way to understand what intent a keyword serves is to look at what's already ranking for it. If the top 10 results are all product pages, intent is transactional; if they're all long guides, it's informational.