keyword intent
Also called: keyword search intent, search intent
Keyword intent (also called search intent) is the goal a searcher is trying to reach with a query, such as finding information, reaching a specific site, or making a purchase. Google's rater guidelines sort queries into four intents: Know, Do, Website, and Visit-in-person.
There are two common ways to classify the purpose behind a query, and they line up closely.
Two frameworks, one idea
Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines (section 12.7) group queries into four intents: Know (find information, with Know Simple for short factual answers), Do (accomplish a task, which includes buying), Website (reach a specific site), and Visit-in-person (find a nearby place). Most practitioners use a parallel model: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional.
The two overlap. “Know” maps to informational, “Website” to navigational, “Do” and “Visit-in-person” cover transactional, and commercial-investigation queries (best CRM 2026, X vs Y) sit between informational and transactional.
One keyword often carries more than one intent. Google describes these as the dominant, common, and minor interpretations. running shoes could mean shop for a pair, read reviews, or find a nearby store; buy running shoes is unambiguous; nike.com is navigational.
The practical rule: read the live SERP. Whatever page types Google already ranks (guides, product pages, comparison posts, a local pack) is Google telling you the intent it has settled on for that query. Match that format instead of guessing. Informational queries want articles and guides; transactional queries want product or service pages; commercial queries want comparisons and reviews.
How it affects your traffic
Intent mismatch is one of the most common reasons a technically clean page underperforms. Point a product page at an informational query like what is X, or a thin blog post at a transactional query like buy X, and you either never rank or you rank and nobody converts. Auditing each target keyword's intent (and confirming it against the live SERP) tells you what page type to build and what to put on it. Mapping keywords to the right intent and page type before spending on content or links is a core part of an SEO consulting engagement.
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