Search intent also referred to as audience intent or user intent. It is used to describe the purpose of online search. It explains the reason why people search on the internet. Some people have questions and they want answers  for that. Some people want to buy something that is why they browse the websites. There are alot of these kinds of searches people make every single day.

 Over the years Google did very hard work to improve its  algorithm so that it can be able to determine people’s search intent. Google wants to rank high those pages which matches the best with the search intent of users. This is the reason why you need to make your page in such a way that it matches the search intent of your audience. 

What are types of SEO search intent?

These types of intents are commonly used:

• Informational intent

Various searches are done by people to seek the information about something. The information could be about the weather, different locations, about education, about jobs, and information about SEO as well. Users can have questions regarding any specific things and want more information regarding that topic. Below is the example of informational search intent:

You should be aware that Google’s understanding of intent goes much further than simply showing results that give information about a specific term. It knows, for instance, that people searching “tomato sauce” are looking for recipes, not for the sauce’s culinary history. It understands that most people typing in “Mercury” are looking for the planet, not the element. Google even understands that for some terms like how to build a bird feeder, it’s helpful  to include videos and images.

• Navigational Intent

Second type of intent is navigational intent. Navigational intent means people want to search for a specific topic or particular website. For instance people searching for instagram is a navigational intent or we can say that Amazon is a big website.

This intent is only useful for organic traffic if your site is the site that the people are searching for.  

• Transactional intent

Every business has an online presence these days. If you want to do shopping you can browse the sites. This kind of intent is called transactional intent. People browse many sites for their shopping and to find the best shop to buy the things.

• Commercial investigation 

Some people have the intention to buy in the future and use the web to do their research. For instance, someone looking to buy a washing machine would search what is the best washing machine? These individuals also have transactional intent but need some time and convincing. These types of search intents are called commercial investigating intents.

• Keyword intent

There are many words that people use to search for various topics, and certain words give us an idea of the user’s intent. These search queries help you determine keywords to use for different search intent. 

Transactional intent may include words such as:

• Product name 
• Discount
• Buy
• Deal

Informational search intent can contain words like:

• How to
• Where 
• What 
• Who
• Best way to
• Why 

How to optimize your content for search intent?

Your landing page should fit the search intent of visitors. For instance, if people come to your website for information, you do not want to show them a product page. At least not immediately. If visitors want to purchase your product then  do not bore them with long articles. Lead them to your shop page. 

Optimizing your page for more commercial driven keywords is a good idea. For example let’s say you sell beds for  kids then you could optimize the product page for beds for  kids. May you also have an article describing what kind of bed you should choose for kids then you could optimize it for “choosing an appropriate bed for your kid”.