What is Search Intent?
The reason behind a search query — informational, navigational, commercial-investigation, or transactional. Matching intent is the #1 ranking factor in modern SEO.
Search intent is what a user actually wants when they type a query. The four canonical types: (1) **Informational** — learning something ("what is json-ld"). (2) **Navigational** — going somewhere specific ("vercel docs"). (3) **Commercial investigation** — comparing before buying ("webflow alternative"). (4) **Transactional** — ready to act ("buy iphone 15"). Modern Google ranks pages that match intent over pages with better keyword density. To check intent: search the query yourself and look at what already ranks. If page-1 results are all comparison articles, write a comparison; if they're tools, build a tool. Mismatching intent guarantees you don't rank — a product page won't beat tutorial pages on "how to" queries no matter how optimized it is.