Little Glossary · Measurement and search

Search intent

Search intent is the goal behind a search engine query: learning something, reaching a specific website, comparing options or buying. It's what users expect to find, beyond the words they type.

Updated October 5, 2026

The usual types

  • Informational: wants to learn or answer a question. "What is churn", "how to calculate CAC".
  • Navigational: looking for a specific website or brand. "HubSpot login".
  • Commercial: researching before deciding. "Best payroll software for small businesses", "Asana vs Monday".
  • Transactional: wants to act now. "Pricing for…", "free trial of…".

Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines use their own classification (Know, Do, Website and Visit-in-person), but the underlying idea is the same.

How to identify it

The best clue is the results page itself. Search for the keyword and look at what Google shows:

  • If you see guides and definitions, the intent is informational.
  • If you see comparisons and lists, it's commercial.
  • If you see product and pricing pages, it's transactional.
  • If featured snippets or generated answers appear, many searches will end without a click.

Which page fits each intent on a B2B tech website

  • Informational: articles, glossary, guides.
  • Commercial: comparisons, alternatives pages, use cases, industry pages.
  • Transactional: product, pricing, demo, sign-up.
  • Navigational: homepage and login pages properly indexed for the brand name.

Common mistakes

  • Choosing keywords by volume alone, without looking at intent.
  • Trying to make one page answer different intents.
  • Sending all informational traffic straight to "Book a demo" when the person just wanted to understand a concept.

Related terms

Sources

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