Editorial Staff
Research found that 93% of all the online experiences start with a search engine.
This means, 93% of the internet users begin their online browsing by typing any queries using the search engine, while the remaining 7% go straight to the specific website from the URL address.
Google processes approximately 63 thousands search queries per second, or equal to 5.6 billion searches per day.
From all of these tons of search queries on the web, search engine classified the search queries based on the search intent.
What is Search Intent?
Search intent is a term that used to describe the purpose of a search behind it.
In other words, it’s telling why someone conduct a research.
All the internet users are actually hoping to find something from their research.
Is it an answer to a question? Is it to buy something?
Google Algorithm in Understanding Search Intent
Over the years, Google has improved its algorithm to be able to understand people search intent.
From here, Google determine which pages should rank higher on each specific search intent.
Google algorithm has the ability to understand search intent much further than simply showing result that is related to the term.
For example, they know that people that are looking for “pasta sauce” is most likely looking for a food recipe.
Another example, they also know that people that are searching for “Apple” is most likely looking for the Apple brand instead of the fruit.
Types of Search Intent
Now, let’s have a look on 4 most common types of search intent:
1. Informational Intent
People are looking for some information online.
This information could be anything, such as SEO, types of dogs, any many more.
People that search for informational intent have an intention to know more about a certain topic such as what, why, where, when, who and how.
Usually, informational intent comes in a single term or added with 5W 1H.
Here are some of the examples of informational intent:
- “Who is Donald Trump?
- “HTML5”
- “Football scores”
- “Where is Dead Lake”
2. Navigational Intent
Navigational intent is happening when a user already know a specific website and type it in the SERP instead of using the URL bar to go.
It’s probably quicker and easier for them to Google it instead of typing the entire URL in the address bar.
For example, John is planning to visit www.lifehack-solution.com. However, A prefer to Google “Life Hack Solution” instead of typing www.lifehack-solution.com in the address bar.
This way, it is easier for John and also help him in case he is unsure of the exact URL address.
Navigational intent comes in the form of brand or website name.
Here are some of the examples of navigational intent:
- “Facebook”
- “Search Engine Mentor”
- “Asus”
- “Reddit”
3. Transactional Intent
Transactional intent is any search term that is leading to a purchase.
The users that are searching using this transactional intent are most likely ready to make a purchase or in buying mode.
Most of the time, they are already know what are they going to buy.
Transactional intent comes in a product or service term plus the transactional term.
Here are some of the examples of transactional intent:
- “Buy MacBook”
- “Netflix plan price”
- “Ikea PS 2014 lamp”
- “Microsoft Surface Pro Cheap”
4. Commercial Investigation Intent
In the marketing funnel, people are usually in the stage of consideration before they’re stepping to a conversion stage.
Consideration stage is when a user have intention to buy in the (near) future, but currently are researching to convince them to buy the product or service.
During the consideration stage, the user will use commercial investigation intent as their search query type.
Normally, commercial investigation intent comes in the form of product or service term plus the comparison/review words.
Here are some of the examples of commercial investigation intent:
- “Best affordable gaming laptop”
- “Asus vs Lenovo”
- “Pat burger reviews”
- “Top restaurant in Florida”
Search Intent Trigger
From the points above, you can see that the search intent is often obvious from the wording of the queries.
For example, the search term “buy laptop”, it is obvious that the user is in the strong intention to buy laptop (transactional search intent).
Or, if the search term is “how to rank in SERP”, it is obvious that the users is searching for some information to rank in SERP (informational search intent).
Here are some term that actually trigger how a search query falls into which category of search intent:
How does The Search Engine Use The Search Intent?
Now, you’ve learnt all the 4 types of search intents.
By understanding which queries falls into which category of search intent, the search engine will then show the best result that is suitable for the user.
This explain why search engine shows a different result just by adding one trigger word in your search queries.
Below is the example:
From the search query of “headphones”, Google then predict that the user is most likely going to make a purchase of headphone.
Hence, Google shows the shopping result SERP feature, instead of a blog pages about headphones.
