Glossary · Search Intent
Search Intent
The underlying goal a user has when typing a query — informational, navigational, transactional, or commercial investigation.
Matching search intent is the foundation of SEO. A page targeting "best plumber in Dallas" needs to satisfy commercial-investigation intent: comparison, reviews, pricing context. A page targeting "how do I fix a leaky faucet" needs to satisfy informational intent.
Pages that mismatch intent (a service page targeting an informational query, a how-to article targeting a transactional query) struggle to rank no matter how strong other signals are.