The four kinds of search intent
Search intent is what the person typing a query wants to get done. It decides what kind of page can rank: Google fills page one with whatever format best serves that goal, so a great product page won’t rank for a question, and a great guide rarely ranks for “buy”.
- Informational. They want to learn or get an answer: “how to write an invoice”, “what is a proforma invoice”.
- Commercial. They’re researching before they buy: “best invoicing app for freelancers”, “freshbooks vs quickbooks”, “wave alternatives”.
- Transactional. They’re ready to act: “buy invoicing software”, “free invoice generator”, “quickbooks discount code”.
- Navigational. They want a specific site or page: “freshbooks login”, “stripe dashboard”. Only the brand’s own site can realistically win these.
What page to build for each intent
- Informational: a guide or blog post. Answer the question near the top, then go deeper. Link to your product where it genuinely helps, not in every paragraph.
- Commercial: a comparison, alternatives or best-of page. Be fair to competitors, show the trade-offs, and say who each option suits. Readers can tell when a comparison is rigged.
- Transactional: a landing, product or pricing page. Say what it is, what it costs and how to start, with one clear next step. A long article gets in the way here.
- Navigational: your own brand pages. Make sure your login, pricing and docs pages exist and are easy to find. Targeting another company’s brand name is rarely worth it; a comparison page usually serves that searcher better.
Mixed intent
Some keywords sit between two intents. “Invoice software” could be someone comparing options or someone ready to sign up; “quickbooks pricing” is research for some people and a buying step for others. The tool flags these as mixed and shows both leading intents.
For a mixed keyword, look at what ranks and match the majority format. If page one is split, you can often serve both: a product page with a short, honest comparison section, or a guide with a clear route to try the product. If you’re grouping keywords into pages, keep keywords with different intents on different pages. The keyword clustering tool flags groups that mix intents.
How to check the results page
- Search the keyword in a private window, set to the country you’re targeting, so your own history doesn’t skew what you see.
- Look at the format of the top five results: guides, listicles, comparison pages, product or category pages, tools, videos.
- Note the SERP features: a featured snippet or “People also ask” box points to informational intent; shopping results, ads and pricing in titles point to commercial or transactional intent; a single brand’s sitelinks point to navigational.
- Build the format that dominates. If it doesn’t match the label here, trust Google’s results page.
Where to go from here
Need more keywords first? The keyword idea generator brainstorms questions, commercial, comparison and long-tail queries, each with an intent tag. Then check real search volume in Google Keyword Planner or Search Console before you write. Intent tells you what page to build; it says nothing about how many people search.