Search intent: the one idea that decides which page can rank

A store selling trail shoes publishes a long, careful guide titled "trail running shoes" and waits. Months later it still hasn't reached the first page, while sparse-looking category pages from bigger retailers sit at the top. The guide isn't worse than those pages. It is the wrong kind of page for that search, and Google settled that before it weighed a word of the writing. Search intent is what the person typing a query is trying to do, and Google ranks the pages that do that thing.

Google ranks the kind of page that satisfies the search

Google's own description of how it ranks results starts with working out the meaning behind the words typed, and it says it uses aggregated, anonymised interaction data to judge whether the results it showed were relevant. Across an enormous number of searches that produces a settled reading of what someone typing a given phrase wants, and the results page fills with the kind of page that delivers it.

That is the mechanism behind the trail shoe guide. People who type "trail running shoes" mostly want to see shoes they can buy, so the page type that wins is a category page with products, filters and prices. A guide, however good, is the wrong shape, and Google won't put it in a slot a category page satisfies better. The same shop's guide could rank for "how to choose trail running shoes", because that searcher wants to read before buying.

So the first thing to ask about any keyword is not how hard it is, but what kind of page Google shows for it, and whether you have one.

The four intents and the words that signal them

Most searches fall into one of four intents, and each wants a different page.

Informational searches want to learn something: "how to", "what is", "why does", "ideas for". They want a guide or a direct answer. Navigational searches want a specific site or brand: a company name, a product name, "login". Only the site being looked for can win those. Commercial searches are research before a purchase: "best", "vs", "review", "top", "alternatives". They want a comparison or a shortlist with reasons. Transactional searches are ready to act: "buy", "price", "near me", "book", "hire", a service plus a city. They want a product, service or booking page.

Local intent cuts across all four. A city name or "near me" tells Google to show the map pack and local pages, which is why a national guide can't rank for "emergency plumber Leeds" however thorough it is.

Intent belongs to the searcher, not to your page. "Wedding dress hire" is transactional whether or not you have a page selling it, which tells you what kind of page to build rather than what to write on the one you have. Intent also shifts as the world does, and the results page follows, so when a page that used to rank slips, re-check the intent before you rewrite.

Read intent from the results page

You don't have to guess. The results page is Google's answer, and you can read it in a few minutes.

1. Search the keyword in a private browser window, in the country you sell to, so personalisation and your own history don't colour what you see.
2. Note what kind of pages hold the top positions: category pages, product pages, guides, comparisons, brand homepages, forum threads.
3. Note the features Google added. A map pack means local intent, shopping results mean buying intent, and People Also Ask boxes list the questions that sit around the phrase.
4. Read the titles. "Best", "vs", "how to", "buy", a brand name: the words that dominate the titles are the words that match the intent.
5. Decide the dominant intent. When the page is a mix, say a few guides among mostly product pages, Google is hedging between two intents. Pick the type you can match best, and accept that the other type holds some of the slots.

Build the page the intent asks for

Once you know the intent, the page almost designs itself.

An informational search wants the answer in the first screen, then the detail, then the related questions. A commercial search wants criteria, a shortlist and a recommendation, with the honest trade-offs that make it believable. A transactional search wants the product or service, the price, availability and a way to act, with reassurance close by. A navigational search for someone else's brand isn't yours to win.

Two rules keep pages from competing with each other. One intent per page: a category page that opens with a long guide serves neither searcher, and a guide that keeps pushing a product reads as an advert. And when a keyword's results are genuinely mixed, build two pages, one per intent, and link them to each other so the searcher can switch.

The next chapter turns this into a system: sorting keywords by how close the searcher is to paying in The buying-intent ladder, and giving each one a home in Mapping keywords to pages.

What to take away

• Google decides which kind of page satisfies a search from how people behave, and a page of the wrong kind cannot rank however well it's written.
• Searches are informational, navigational, commercial or transactional, and the words in the query usually tell you which.
• The results page is the authoritative reading of intent: the page types, the features and the titles tell you what to build.
• One intent per page, and when the results are mixed, two linked pages beat one page that tries to do both.

Next

Knowing which page can rank is half the answer; the other half is what moves it up once it's the right kind. Continue with What actually moves rankings.