Search Intent
Last updated September 2026
Search intent is the underlying goal behind a query, whether the searcher wants information, a specific site, to compare options, or to make a purchase. Matching content to the correct intent, informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional, matters more to ranking than matching the keyword's exact wording.
Two searches can use similar words and want completely different things. "Best CRM software" is someone comparing options before deciding. "Salesforce login" is someone who already knows exactly where they are going. Search intent describes that underlying goal, and search engines organize results around satisfying it, not just around word matching.
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The four intent categories
Informational intent seeks an answer or explanation, "how does local SEO work." Navigational intent seeks a specific known site or page, "Conduit Digital login." Commercial intent seeks comparison before a decision, "best white label SEO providers." Transactional intent seeks to complete an action right now, "hire white label SEO agency." Each category tends to reward a different content format.
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How to read intent from the SERP itself
The most reliable way to check intent is to look at what is already ranking for a term, not the keyword in isolation. If the current results are all product or service pages, the intent is likely transactional and a blog post will struggle to compete regardless of quality. If results are all long-form guides, the intent is informational and a thin product page will underperform there too. The SERP tells you the format Google has already decided the query wants.
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A blog post targeting a term the SERP treats as transactional (service pages dominate results)
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A product page targeting a term the SERP treats as purely informational (guides and articles dominate results)
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A generic homepage targeting a navigational query meant for a specific known destination
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Why it matters for agencies
Intent mapping needs to happen before a single piece of content is briefed, not after it underperforms. Conduit's content planning checks the current SERP for a target term before recommending a format, because no amount of on-page or technical optimization compensates for the wrong content type sitting on the wrong intent, the ranking factors never even get evaluated if the format itself doesn't match what the query wants.
