SEO Unpacked: What Is Search Intent?

SEO Unpacked is our new series on breaking down the various aspects and jargon behind SEO. Of course, we can throw a bunch of complicated sounding words and terms at you to sound smart, but honestly, SEO has a bad enough reputation and we think it’s about time it was broken down so that we can all actually understand what’s going on. We’ve already started doing this by discussing HTML versus JavaScript and getting started in SEO but we thought it was about time we put an official series together.

If you’re an SEO, a digital marketer or just generally interested in what on earth “SEO Gurus” mean when they throw out ‘agentic’ in every other sentence, SEO Unpacked is your guide to navigating the world of SEO.

In this first edition, we’re tackling search intent, and yes, we’re aware that every company, tool, person and dog has their own terms for each type of user intent, but we’re sticking to what we think are the clearest definitions.

What is search intent?

Search intent defines why a user is searching and at Koozai typically place intent under these four categories:

• Commercial
• Informational
• Navigational
• Transactional

Now you may see different terms used across the industry by different companies and tools. For example, some like to use “do, know, how, website” but regardless of how you word it, they all roughly mean the same thing. It’s very important that regardless of how you name the intents, you make sure your team and clients are informed on each, otherwise they’ll just be as confused as AIO, GEO and AEO experts being asked to explain their differences.

Why search intent matters

SEO isn’t just about simply picking out keywords with the most search volume anymore and saying “let’s pick that one”. Search engines want to return results that satisfy the user’s query. That means Google is not just looking at whether a page includes the right keywords. It is also trying to understand whether the page answers the query in the right way. Asan SEO, you need to pick the keywords with the right intent, so users not only find your page but actually stay long enough to interact.

For example, someone searching for “what is technical SEO” is probably looking for a clear explanation or beginner-friendly guide. They are unlikely to want a service page selling technical SEO and outreach.

Someone searching for “technical SEO agency”, however, is much closer to needing a provider. In that case, a commercial service page is much more likely to match the intent which means keywords relevant to commercial intent would be of more benefit not just to your SEO campaign but to the most important factor to your success: the user.

Keyword research as a whole can become a bit of a rabbit hole that quickly takes over your life when you begin to understand that intent is far deeper than just “Do they want information or do they want to buy”. One term can branch out into multiple variations, all with different intents so it’s important not to just take a tool’s word for it. Do your research too. The SERPs never lie…they’re just extremely fickle.

Anyway, less lamenting on the changing nature of search engines and more about search intent. Let’s go over what each intent means alongside a few examples. Who doesn’t love an example?

Informational intent

Informational searches happen when someone wants to learn something maybe because they’ve never heard of it before, maybe they’re checking up on a recent event people are talking about or maybe they’re just sick of overcomplicated SEO jargon and want to finally read a straightforward explanation for once.

Informational searches can take many different formats, but in our experience, a good place to start is with searches that often include words such as:

• what is
• how to
• why does
• guide
• meaning
• examples
• tips

An example would be:

“What is search intent?”

Simple right? The user is not necessarily ready to buy anything, they are looking for an explanation. For this type of query, a blog post, educational resource or a semi-sarcastic guide poking fun at the SEO industry would be a great fit.

Commercial intent

Commercial searches happen when someone is researching options before making a decision. Commercial intent sits very closely to transactional intent, with a slight difference being that the user is typically looking for information alongside the product or service they want.

These searches often include words such as:

• best
• top
• comparison
• reviews
• vs
• alternatives

An example would be:

“best SEO agency for small businesses”

The user may be ready to buy, but they are comparing options and looking for key information on why they should go with one agency over the other. This type of intent often suits comparison guides, list-style articles, product roundups or detailed category content.

Think of your website like a car dealership. The user has come to you with full intent to purchase, but they’re just not quite sure yet on what they want and equally, should they buy it. It’s your job to now sell your product or service to them.

Transactional intent

Transactional searches happen when someone is ready to take action. It’s payday and their 11pm shopping doomscroll is in full effect. They could be buying a product, requesting a quote, booking a consultation, downloading something or signing up, so you want to ensure that you are targeting keywords that match these actions.

A few examples include words such as:

• buy
• quote
• pricing
• book
• near me
• services
• agency

An example would be:

“SEO agency for ecommerce websites” or “size 9 red Adidas Sambas”

This type of query is more likely to serve a direct or related need and is best suited to a service page, product page, category page or landing page with a clear conversion path. SEOs can sometimes get too wrapped up in the infinite possibilities of keyword variations and related topics, so don’t be afraid to try and rank for the actual service or product you’re trying to promote.

Navigational intent

Navigational searches happen when someone is looking for a specific website, brand, product or page.

Examples include:

• “Koozai SEO services”
• “Google Search Console”
• “Sitebulb pricing”

In these cases, the user already knows where they want to go. We would call these types of terms ‘brand’ terms as the user is directly mentioning the company or brand that they want to see, assuming it’s your company or client’s company to begin with. Now, there’s a bit of a caveat here when it comes to brand mentions. Instead of throwing a small essay at you, I’ve split these out below.

If the brand is your or your client’s company

If for example you work for Adidas, and Adidas is either your client or your employer, this is essentially your own brand or a ‘brand term’ which SEO’s don’t typically focus on too much as the ‘real’ competition is usually ‘non-brand’ terms that don’t specifically name a brand and hold much more search demand. Your job as an SEO at this point is to simply ensure that the content matches the correct intent. For example, for ‘Adidas shoes’ you want to ensure your product pages are properly optimised for this term.

SEO is a competitive game, so if you’re not optimised and ranking for your own brand, somebody else will, especially for larger brands with products sold by others such as Adidas.

If the brand isn’t your company

If the brand is simply a product or a service that you or your client provides, such as a footwear store that sells Adidas shoes, then your goal is to treat this as a ‘non-brand’ term and again, optimise your site so that only product pages rank for this term as users looking to buy Adidas shoes won’t stay very long on an article comparing Adidas to Converse.

Why search intent affects page type

Now that you know what search intent is and how it can be influenced by brand and non-brand situations, one of the biggest mistakes in SEO is trying to rank the wrong type of page for the wrong intent. We’ve touched upon this a little, but we don’t want you leaving without a thorough explanation.

An example of a search intent conflict is if the search results for a keyword are mostly guides and blog posts,  but you’re trying to rank a sales-heavy service page. Google is already showing that users expect educational content. Not only are you trying to get the wrong audience to your page, but you’re asking Google to rank that page when its results suggest users probably are not looking for it. Imagine going to a charity shop and asking the owner if they could refer their customers to your casino. It just doesn’t work.

Likewise, if the results are mostly product pages or service pages, a long informational blog post may not be the best fit.

Before creating or optimising a page, look at what is already ranking. It’s easy to get caught up in these multi-step AI backed, API filled ‘free’ keyword research courses on LinkedIn but nothing beats going to the source and simply looking on a search engine’s results page. Search something related to the audience you’re trying to attract and review the results then ask yourself:

• Are the top results blog posts, service pages, category pages or product pages?
• Are they short and direct, or long and detailed?
• Are they educational, commercial or transactional?
• What questions do they answer?
• What format does Google seem to prefer?
• Is there an AI summary at the top?
• Are there a lot of snippets?
• What are the snippets?
• Are they mostly products or forum results?

This does not mean you should copy what is ranking, but it does help you understand what users are likely expecting, and more importantly, what Google is serving to this audience. Is there key product information being served in the AI overview that you don’t cover? Does the ‘people also ask’ contain questions that you haven’t answered? These are great snippets of content opportunities.

Search intent and keyword targeting

Search intent should also shape how you choose and group keywords. Two keywords might look similar, but if the intent is different, they may need separate pages or dedicated content.

For example:

“what is internal linking” is informational.
“internal linking strategy” may be more practical and strategic.
“technical SEO agency” is commercial or transactional.

Trying to target all of these on one page could make the page unclear. A better approach is to map keywords to the most appropriate page based on what the user is trying to do and more importantly, how much depth the user is looking for.

For example you may have a page selling a large red hoodie, so you will naturally target “large red hoodie” which falls under both commercial and transactional. Those users may also want to know if the hoodie is machine washable so they may search “machine washable hoodie” or “are hoodies machine washable”.

Now, this user is very unlikely to be looking for a four page long article on if your hoodie is machine washable or not, and so creating an article simply because it’s informational would create a lot of wasted work for no reward. Instead, you can blend commercial and informational terms together to strengthen a page.

In this case, we’d build product description content that primarily targets commercially related terms in order to rank for product related searches such as “large red hoodie” and “size large red hoodie”. We’d then use informational keywords to build out helpful content such as ‘specifications’ ‘product details’ ‘washing instructions’ and supporting FAQs. This ultimately benefits the user by matching their intent and following up with helpful information, but it also helps your general organic performance as you’re feeding additional information to search engines and AI tools which helps them rank you and match you up with those users.

If that isn’t enough bang for your buck, we’ve also included some additional examples below of how to format content related to search intent:

• A “what is” query may need a clear definition, simple explanation and examples.
• A “how to” query may need a step-by-step guide.
• A “best” query may need comparisons, pros and cons, and decision-making support.
• A service-led query may need proof, trust signals, case studies, FAQs and a clear call to action.

With the above knowledge, you now know how to combine related intents to support a page and ensure it performs stronger organically. This is especially important on larger websites where there are multiple pages covering products and similar topics. Without clear intent mapping, pages can start competing with each other or send mixed signals about which page should rank or you could end up creating yourself an infinite backlog of new pages to create, trying to match every individual’s unique intent.

Common search intent mistakes

We’ve all made mistakes, it’s part of the learning process. One common mistake, especially for newer SEOs, is choosing keywords based only on search volume. High-volume keywords can look attractive, but they are not always the most valuable. If the intent is too broad or too early in the buying journey, the traffic may not convert. If you’ve spotted a term with over 20,000 searches per month, the likelihood is that hundreds of others have spotted it too, making it far more difficult to compete for.

Another mistake is trying to make one page do too much. A page that tries to be a beginner guide, comparison article and sales page all at once can become unclear. Remember, SEO is done best when approaching it from the customer’s perspective. What would you expect to see on a page? Would a guide help you make a decision process or would it confuse you more? Asking yourself these questions not only helps you make an informed decision, but it also helps you make your case to stakeholders.

A third mistake is ignoring the client’s commercial goals. Sometimes the best SEO opportunity is not the keyword with the biggest search volume. It may be a lower-volume keyword that better matches a priority service, profitable product or high-quality lead. A business can sometimes live and breathe on one or two hero products, marketing teams may set goals to support a new product or a business may just have a great reputation for a very specific product or service.

These are the realities of SEO, and so while the SEO playbook may say you should go after those big opportunity terms, ultimately you’ll benefit the most from aligning with what makes the business the most money. This is not to say that you can’t make a case if you strongly believe there are bigger opportunities elsewhere, but in our experience SEO is a team game and it always works best when performed alongside other teams.

So what on earth does this mean?

Search intent is about understanding the reason behind the search as much as understanding how many people search it. For SEOs, it helps bridge the gap between keyword research and useful content. It tells you what type of page to create, what information to include, how to structure the content and what action the user may want to take next.

It’s extremely easy to get stuck following SEO principles and focusing only on what Google might like. Ultimately, it falls down to what the customer likes and what they want to see.

The key takeaway is simple: do not just ask, “What keyword are we targeting?” Ask, “What does the user actually want, what would I expect to see if I was in their place and does this page give it to them?”

Google is adapting daily, gone are the days of just matching keywords with what users are searching and calling the job done. Google and AI tools are prioritising their core purpose, and that is serving content that the user actually finds helpful. That is what makes search intent so important, and ensuring it’s a key factor behind your SEO.