How to Determine Search Intent and Optimize for It

Most SEOs and marketers think of determining search intent as an exercise when doing keyword research or creating content briefs to hand over to their writers to produce content. They start the process by checking a keyword in an SEO tool like Ahrefs or Semrush to see whether it is labeled “informational,” “commercial,” “transactional,” or “navigational.”

But the point of determining search intent isn’t just to fill in a column in your keyword spreadsheet or the content brief document, it’s to understand what you actually need to create to rank for a term and drive business results from that content.

The problem with relying on those labels is that a keyword labeled “informational” might just require a definition or a glossary page, a detailed guide or product tutorial, or a comparison of different products and approaches. If you treat all “informational” keywords the same way, you’ll end up creating generic content for broad intent categories and mostly beginner-level “what is” posts when your users actually need expert-level guidance that can help them solve a specific pain point.

If you’re working with a SaaS or B2B company, the goal of determining search intent should be to understand what type of content Google wants to rank for a given keyword, and whether that keyword is even worth targeting based on its potential to drive conversions, not just traffic. This also matters for AI search visibility, as understanding search intent helps you identify queries that LLMs might reference when generating responses about your product category.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What the four types of search intent actually mean and where most marketers go wrong when using them
• How to determine search intent so you know what kind of content to create for your target keywords
• How to optimize for search intent to rank your target keywords and drive conversions from the content

What is Search Intent (and Where Most Marketers Go Wrong)

Search intent (also known as user intent or keyword intent) is the reason behind why someone searches a keyword or a phrase on a search engine like Google. It can be anything from trying to find an answer to a question, comparing different products and services, making a purchase or signing up for a service. 

The concept of search intent traces back to information retrieval research, most notably Andrei Broder’s 2002 taxonomy of informational, navigational, and transactional queries. Google and the SEO community later adopted and expanded this framework, and today most SEOs recognize four main types of search intent:

• Informational intent: searchers want to find an answer or learn something. These are mostly the “how to,” “what is,” and “why does” queries, where the searcher might not necessarily be looking to buy anything.
• Navigational intent: searchers are looking for a specific website or page. These are keywords like “Facebook login” or “Ahrefs pricing page” where a user already knows where they want to go and is searching for the URL or a link to get to the website or a page.
• Commercial intent: searchers are comparing products or services to make a purchase. These are keywords like “best CRM software” or “Mailchimp vs Convertkit” where a user wants to evaluate different options but hasn’t made a decision yet.
• Transactional intent: searchers are ready to take an action, like signing up for a service or making a purchase. These can be keywords like “buy iPhone 15 case” or “sign up for Notion” because they’ve already decided what they want and are looking for a way to complete the action.

This simple four-category framework is useful as a starting point if you are learning how to do keyword research, write content or create a content strategy, but they miss critical differences in intent within one of the four categories. Most marketers simply pass these labels to their writers without much additional context, which is required to determine whether to produce an article, a landing page or a product page and what content format or depth the page needs to be. This leads to several problems.

We already mentioned earlier that there can be two keywords with the same intent that might require completely different types of pages or content. For example, “What is a CRM” and “How to choose a CRM for a sales team” are both “informational” intent keywords on the surface, but the first one simply requires a definition to fulfill user intent, while the second keyword needs a detailed guide that walks through criteria, CRM options, and tradeoffs.

If there’s no additional context provided about these keywords, writers could treat them the same, and you might end up wasting resources in producing content that doesn’t rank or convert.

We have also noticed that a lot of marketers assume that the same keyword modifiers always indicate the same intent.  Or, similarly, SEO tools often misclassify intent based on keyword patterns. A keyword with “how to” might get labeled as informational even when the top results are product pages, or a keyword might be labeled commercial when Google is actually ranking educational content. The patterns these tools use to assign labels don’t always reflect what’s actually ranking in SERPs. 

Even though the keyword modifier is the same, two keywords can have completely different intent and conversion potential depending on the context, which is why you can not really shortcut this by matching keyword modifier patterns.

It’s also important not to rely just on SEO tools when classifying search intent and to actually do SERP analysis yourself.  Keyword research and SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush use automated systems to assign intent labels, which they might often get wrong, especially when the keywords have mixed, ambiguous, or dual intent or when the keywords have very low search volume (in such cases, these tools might not have any data). 

We have also noticed that most content that does not rank well on traditional search only focuses on the primary intent when there might be mixed motivations for the searchers. 

For example, when a user is searching for a keyword like “how to choose CRM software,” they are mostly looking for different factors and ways to evaluate other tools, but product recommendations are also extremely helpful for them. If you only focus on the educational part without mentioning any specific tools, you might not be able to fully satisfy what the searcher needs. The pages that rank well on Google and other search engines for these kinds of queries usually address both.

How to determine search intent for your target keywords

The process of determining search intent should go beyond just checking what an SEO tool says or matching keyword modifiers into different intent categories. 

Here’s how we approach it:

1. Do SERP Analysis

The most reliable way to determine search intent is to look at what is already ranking, so that you can see all the naunces of what search engines have decided are the best results for a query, based on their data on how millions of users have interacted with those search results.

We have written a complete guide on how we do SERP analysis, but in short, we recommend you start by reading the titles of the search results that are ranking on page 1. This alone will give you a lot of ideas about what Google might be thinking is best for the users. 

For example, if you’re an accounting software company, you might think “accounting best practices” would be a good keyword to target. But if you look at the titles, you’ll see a mix of tips posts, GAAP compliance discussions, and podcasts — there’s mixed intent and not much buying intent. Compare that to “best accounting software” where almost every result is a list of software options. The intent is clear, and you know exactly what you need to create to rank.

Titles also help you catch nuances that matter for your content. For a keyword like “tree care techniques,” you might notice that half the titles mention pruning specifically, which tells you that your content should probably address pruning as a significant component even though the keyword doesn’t explicitly mention it.

After you’ve scanned the titles, read through the top results and take notes on what they’re covering. Look at what topics they all have in common, what they’re doing well, what’s missing, and how they’ve organized their content. Most keywords have multiple layers of intent — someone searching “best accounting software” wants a list of options, but they also want to understand what makes one option better than another. Your job is to identify all the layers and address each one.

You should also pay attention to the SERP features Google includes as well. People Also Ask and Related Searches show you what other questions searchers have around your keyword, which can inform both what to cover in your content and what other keywords might be worth targeting. 

Featured snippets tell you that Google wants a clear, direct answer to a specific question, often a definition or a list of steps. If you see videos ranking prominently, that suggests searchers may prefer video content for that topic; however, if they’re lower on the page, you can likely rank with a detailed post instead.

SERP analysis helps you understand the baseline requirements for rankings (format, depth, and structure) that search engines expect. You can use this analysis to precisely determine what searches are needed and combine it with original insights, specific expertise, or perspective that comes from your company, and not copy what everyone else has written so your content can stand out. 

2. Use SEO or keyword research tools (with caution)

As we mentioned above, if you need a quick and dirty way of assessing search intent, SEO tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can show you an intent label for most keywords, which can be a helpful starting point if you’re working through a long list of keywords and need to sort them quickly. 

If you are using Ahrefs, you can find the intent of any keyword by searching it on the Keyword Explorer tool. Once you enter a keyword, look for the “Intents” column in the “Keywords” table.  

If you are using Semrush, you can go to the “Keyword Magic Tool” and search for your keyword. You’ll also see an “Intent” column where you’ll be able to find what intent the tool says the keyword might be. 

Note that these labels are generated by automated systems that look at keyword patterns more than search results, and as we showed with examples at the top of this article, they can often get it wrong, not really show you any intent, or show different intent depending on what tool you are using. This is especially true for bottom of the funnel keywords or keywords that might have low search volume or those that might have mixed intent. 

We suggest you only use the intent labels as a starting guide to get a rough sense of a keyword if you are working through a list of a lot of keywords, but make sure to always verify it with SERP analysis before you decide what kind of page or content to create for your target keyword. 

How to optimize for search intent?

Once you’ve determined the search intent for a keyword, the next step is to create content that can satisfy that intent so that it can rank and generate results you created the page for. This is where most content fails — not because the writers didn’t understand what searchers wanted, but because they didn’t execute on that understanding in a way that search engines want.

When you are optimizing for search intent, you should be able to decide on the format, depth, angle, and structure based on what you learned from analyzing the SERP. It also means being deliberate about what pages you create and how you position them to rank for specific queries rather than trying to make one page do too many things at once.

Here’s how we approach it:

1. Match content type and format to what’s ranking

If the top results for a keyword are all landing pages or product pages, the safest approach is to create a similar page type. But that doesn’t mean a blog post can’t rank. We’ve helped clients rank with articles and blog posts on keywords where most of page one consisted of landing pages. What matters is whether your content addresses the searcher’s actual intent.

The more common mistake isn’t choosing the wrong format but creating content that doesn’t address what the searcher actually wants. This may seem obvious, but it’s a mistake we often see. A company wants to rank for a keyword like “project management software,” so they write a blog post about project management best practices. But when you look at the SERP, the top results are all product category pages and comparison lists. The blog post never had a chance because it was the wrong content type for that query.

When it comes to content format (listicle vs guide, comparison post vs tutorial), focus on what the user needs and present it in a way that makes sense. If they want to compare different product options, a list with pros and cons about each option works. If they need to understand a process, a step-by-step guide is probably better. The format should follow from what the searcher is trying to accomplish, not from copying whatever structure the top results happen to use.

2. Address all layers of intent

Most keywords have more than one layer of intent, and the content that ranks the highest usually addresses all of them.

Someone searching “best CRM software” wants a list of options, but they also want to understand what makes one CRM better than another. They might also want to know how much these tools cost, what features matter most for their use case, and how the options compare to each other. If your content only provides a list of names without addressing these secondary questions, you’re leaving gaps that competitors will fill.

The People Also Ask boxes and Related Searches at the bottom of the SERP are useful signals for what these secondary layers might be. If you see questions like “What is the easiest CRM to use?” or “How much does CRM software cost?” showing up, that tells you searchers care about those things and your content should probably address them.

The goal is to fully satisfy what the searcher came for so they don’t need to go back to Google and click on another result. If you can do that better than the pages currently ranking, you have a good chance of outranking them.

3. Use the right content angle

Content angle is about the specific perspective or hook that makes your content relevant to the searcher. It’s not just about covering the right topics — it’s about framing them in a way that matches what searchers actually care about.

For example, if you look at a keyword like “best project management tools” and notice that most of the top results emphasize “for small teams” or “for remote work” in their titles, that tells you something about who’s searching and what they’re looking for. If you write a generic comparison that doesn’t speak to a specific audience, you might struggle to compete with content that does.

Freshness is another angle that matters for certain queries. If the top results all include the current year in their titles, that’s a signal that searchers want up-to-date information and Google is prioritizing recent content. For keywords like “best laptops” or “top marketing tools,” outdated content often drops in rankings as newer posts get published.

When you’re deciding on your angle, think about what would make someone click on your result over the others. If you’re writing for a SaaS or B2B audience, consider whether there’s a specific segment or use case you can speak to more directly than the generic posts that already exist.

4. Create dedicated pages for specific intents

If a keyword has a specific intent, it usually needs its own dedicated page. Trying to rank one page for multiple different intents rarely works because you end up with content that doesn’t fully satisfy any of them.

For example, “what is CRM software” and “best CRM software” have different intents. The first one needs an explainer that defines what CRM is and how it works. The second one needs a comparison of options with recommendations. If you try to combine both into a single page, you’ll end up with an awkward hybrid that doesn’t do either job well — and Google will likely rank dedicated pages from competitors above yours for both queries.

This also applies to keywords that seem similar but have subtle differences in intent. “CRM for small business” and “enterprise CRM software” might both be commercial intent keywords, but the searchers have different needs and are evaluating different criteria. Creating separate pages for each allows you to match the specific intent more closely and rank for both.

5. Align Title Tags, Meta Descriptions and Schema with Intent

Your title tag should align with what searchers expect to see based on the intent. If the top results for a keyword all include specific phrases like “2024” or “for beginners” or a number of items in a list, consider whether including something similar would help your result stand out and get clicked. The title is often the first thing a searcher sees, and if it doesn’t match what they’re looking for, they’ll skip it regardless of how good your content is.

Meta descriptions don’t directly affect rankings, but they do affect click-through rate. Use the description to reinforce that your page delivers on the intent — if someone is searching for a comparison, mention that you compare the top options; if they want a step-by-step guide, say that’s what they’ll get.

Schema markup can also help Google understand your content and display it with rich features in the search results. If you’re publishing a how-to guide, recipe, FAQ, or product review, adding the appropriate schema can make your result more visible and informative in the SERP.

6. Include relevant visuals and media

If videos or images are ranking prominently for a keyword, that’s a signal that searchers want visual content, and including it can help your page perform better.

For some queries, Google shows a video carousel near the top of the results. If you’re targeting one of these keywords, creating a video or embedding a relevant one can help you capture that space. For other queries, image packs or featured images are prominent, which suggests that visual assets are important to searchers.

Even when the SERP doesn’t show dedicated media features, visuals can improve engagement with your content. Screenshots, diagrams, comparison tables, and infographics help break up text and make information easier to digest. If you’re writing a tutorial, step-by-step screenshots can be the difference between content that’s actually useful and content that leaves readers confused.

The key is to look at what the top results are doing and consider whether adding similar visual elements would help your content better satisfy the intent.

Using Search Intent Analysis to Drive Conversions, Not Just Traffic

Finally, most guides on search intent focus on how to create content that ranks. But ranking is only useful if the content generates business results — and that depends on which keywords you’re targeting in the first place.

At Grow and Convert, we use search intent analysis not just to figure out what content to create, but to identify which keywords are worth creating content for. This is the foundation of our Pain Point SEO framework, which prioritizes keywords based on conversion potential rather than search volume.

The traditional approach to keyword research is to (1) find high-volume terms, (2) determine their intent, and (3) create content that matches. The problem is that most high-volume keywords are top-of-funnel queries where the searcher isn’t anywhere close to making a purchase decision. You can rank for these terms and still see almost no leads from the content.

Our approach flips the order of these steps. We start by identifying keywords where the searcher has a problem our client’s product solves — what we call Category, Comparison, and Jobs-to-be-Done keywords. Then, we do a detailed SERP analysis to understand exactly what type of content, format, and angle is required to rank. The result is content that satisfies search intent and drives conversions, not just traffic.

This is also why we use interview-based content creation. When you’re targeting high-intent keywords, generic content doesn’t cut it. Searchers evaluating products or solutions need specific, expert-level information that helps them make a decision. If someone is searching for “Best IT security software for SMBs” they want nuanced and techncial discussion of product differences. Just regurgitating what everyone else is saying on a topic (i.e. a “Google research paper”) isn’t going to cut it. By interviewing our clients’ internal experts, we create content that satisfies search intent in a way that competitors copying surface-level information can’t match.

The difference shows up in the numbers. Across 64 articles we produced for Geekbot, bottom of the funnel content converted at 4.78% compared to 0.19% for top-of-funnel content, a 25x difference in conversion rate. Despite receiving 7x less traffic, the bottom of the funnel posts generated more than 3x the total conversions. This is why we prioritize keywords where the intent aligns with buying, not just browsing.

If you want to learn more about how we approach content marketing and SEO, you can read about our Pain Point SEO framework or see case studies from clients we’ve worked with.