Types Of Keyword Intent

1. Informational Intent

The vast majority of search queries are seeking information. The user — the person searching — has a question and needs an answer. Think about your own searches on Google or on YouTube. Odds are good that most of the time you want information. Maybe you have a problem, so you search for a solution.  People with an informational intent have a specific question or want to know more about a certain topic.

While keywords with informational intent are not likely to lead to a sale immediately, they represent an opportunity to engage with potential customers.

This could be in the form of a how-to guide, a recipe, or a definition. It’s one of the most common search intents, as users can look for answers to an infinite number of questions. That said, not all informational terms are questions. Users searching for simply “Bill Gates” are most likely looking for information about Bill Gates.

Examples:

• How to boil an egg
• What is a crater
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg
• Directions to JFK Airport

Queries with purely informational intent could contain the following modifiers:

How to . . .
Why . . .
Best way to . . .
History of . . .
Anatomy of . . .
What . . . means

With this in mind, it can be a good idea to develop content on a blog or on YouTube that answers questions related to your industry segment. Often this content takes the form of a how-to video or article.

A blog post about how to carve ham might not sell knives today, but it is a way to connect with potential customers.

As an example, if you searched on Pinterest, which is a go-to place for cooking and recipes, for “how to carve a ham,” one of the responses you would likely get is a link to a Williams-Sonoma blog post.

Williams-Sonoma’s marketing team might be wise to promote this pin around Easter and Christmas or, perhaps, buy pay-per-click ads for the keyword phrase on Google and Bing.

2. Commercial “high intent” intent

This type can also be referred to as “buy now” intent. It signifies a strong intention on the part of the searcher to act (to buy, join, subscribe, etc.). Usually, these will be keyword phrases containing the following modifiers:

•  Buy (online)
•  Coupon (code)
•  Deals
•  Free shipping, etc.

People are most likely to commit to purchase as a result of these types of searches.

3.  Transactional Intent

Transactional intent lies somewhere in the middle of commercial and informational intent. Simply put, these queries can represent both the purpose to buy and to read more about the concept. With the right content and setup, these searchers may buy things or be convinced to buy somewhere further into the conversion funnel. These queries can contain words like:

• . . . Reviews
• . . . vs . . .
• Best . . .
• Top 10 . . .

4. Navigational Intent

Keywords that contain brand names signal navigational intent, meaning a searcher knows exactly where they’re headed. Brand name searches are your assets. If a person types in your brand name when searching, they already know exactly what they want; you just need to give that to them.