How to determine search intent

Search intent is the reason why a user generates a query. Knowing what motivates users to input a selection of keywords will tell you if they are looking for information, a specific website page, or are deciding to buy a product or service. Crafting digital content around this search intent is crucial to creating effective PPC and SEO strategies.

We typically categorise them into four types:

• Informational
• Navigational
• Commercial
• Transactional

Each one has a unique purpose and dictates a specific type of page that users should arrive at.

We can easily identify between the types by looking at the query provided and inserting it into a platform like SEMRUSH or AHREFS. If you use their keyword tool and search for the phrase you have in mind it will tell you instantly… It can be inaccurate at times. So without those tools, here’s how we would define each type.

This is the simplest type to identify as it’s any query that desires, as you might have guessed, pure information.

Search queries of this type usually begin with “how”, “what”, “where”, and “when”. Most of the time they are formatted like a question. Because of this the best content to target informational search intent are blogs and articles. While the length and detail might of these articles might vary, the top organically ranking piece of content is usually the best to use for influencing your content.

It’s estimated that up to 80% searches made are with informational search intent in mind. So not having informational content on your site misses a significant part of building brand awareness.

Navigational is also quite simple, as it’s essentially users looking for directions to a specific site. This usually means just searching for the brand or business name. It could potentially include the country or region they are looking for.

A good example could be someone searching “Nike UK” because they want Nike’s UK version of their website.

Commercial intent sometimes referred to as “commercial investigation” is for users in a beginning stage of the buying process. These searches help users make purchase decisions.

Therefore these queries could be directly comparing two products, asking for a list of the best products, testimonials or expert reviews. The smartest sites use this as an opportunity to build a blog that acts as a landing page. This landing page will have multiple internal links to variations of their products or services and sometimes even capitalises on competitor brands. However, if they mention a competitor item, know that it will always be near the bottom of the page and their offerings sit above them at the top.

Our final type is transactional. These are for product and services pages. Users could search for a specific item, a particular membership or even a one-off service.

Some easy-to-understand examples are:

• Subscribe to Netflix
• Lawyer services near me
• iPhone 16 EE

For commercial and transactional search intent we would recommend combining both an SEO and PPC approach. You want quality landing pages for your paid campaigns, right? So these keywords are what can and will make your brand money.

But note this is only around 10% of total searches made online!

The simple answer to this is no! Every form of search intent is its own opportunity.
Remember the majority of users are searching with informational search intent rather than transactional or even commercial. Most users aren’t ready to make a purchase or become a lead right away.

If you’re not offering valuable, informative content, you’re missing the opportunity to connect with a much wider audience. So if you aren’t targeting every form of search intent you allow your competitors to dominate those key topics. This results in:

• Lost potential traffic
• Less brand awareness
• Less insights

While transactional and commercial intent focused content attracts ready-to-buy customers, every visitor brings some form of value. They might share your content, subscribe to your emails, follow your social media, or link back to you.

Without helpful articles, your site would lack content worth linking to, making it tough to rank for competitive keywords that drive revenue. Ranking with low conversion rate informational searches, means you can establish your brand authority.

While there are plenty of courses available through SEMRUSH, for actual brand results talk to the J2X team today.

Understanding search intent still requires you to be able to generate quality content and campaign structures around it!