Search intent
What the searcher actually wants behind the words they typed: to learn, to reach a specific site, to compare options, or to buy right now.
See it
What it is
Four usual buckets: informational ('how does dithering work'), navigational ('figma login'), commercial investigation ('best note apps'), and transactional ('buy standing desk'). Matching intent is the cheapest ranking lever there is, because a page in the wrong format cannot win regardless of quality. A product page will not beat tutorials for 'how to', and a 3,000 word essay will not beat a pricing page for 'buy'.
You do not guess intent, you read it off the SERP. Whatever mix of formats ranks today is the engine's own answer about what the query means, derived from what millions of people clicked. Query modifiers help too: 'how', 'what is', 'vs', 'best', 'near me', 'buy', 'template', 'pricing'.
Two things people get wrong. Intent drifts: a query can turn commercial in a season, and a page that ranked happily for two years quietly loses to a new format. And one page cannot serve two intents at once. When you catch yourself bolting a buy button onto a definition article, that is two pages, not one.
Ask AI for it
Classify the search intent of each query below as informational, navigational, commercial investigation, or transactional, using the live SERP result types and the query modifiers as evidence. For each query give me the page type that should win (tutorial, comparison list, product page, pricing page, free tool, glossary entry), the format the top results share, and the single next action the searcher wants to take. Flag every query where my existing page type does not match the intent, and say what to change.