Search intent: What the person typing a search actually wants — to learn something, to compare options, to buy, or to reach a particular site. Two queries with different words can share one intent, and the reverse.
Why it matters
Search intent decides what kind of page can rank, which is often more important than the exact words. Someone searching “hiking boots” mostly wants to browse and buy, so an outdoor-gear shop’s category page has a better chance than a 3,000-word history of boot-making. Someone searching “how to waterproof hiking boots” wants instructions, and a product grid will not satisfy them however well it is optimised.
SEO writers usually sort intent into four rough buckets: informational (learn), commercial investigation (compare), transactional (buy or sign up) and navigational (reach a specific site or page). These are a convenience, not an official taxonomy, and many searches mix them. “Best dog food for puppies” is part research, part shopping.
How to check it
Search the phrase yourself, signed out or in a private window, and look at what ranks. Lists? How-to guides? Product pages? Videos? Local map results for a plumber? The first page of results is the clearest evidence you have of what Google thinks the searcher wants. Then look at the queries a page already gets in Search Console’s Performance report: if a recipe post is getting impressions for “sourdough starter ratio” but the ratio is buried in paragraph nine, the intent is telling you what to move up.
Intent and internal links
Intent is the test for keyword cannibalization: two pages that share words but not intent can both rank, while two pages with the same intent compete. It also shapes linking. A post answering an informational question is a natural place to link onward to the comparison or product page, which is how a topic cluster moves a reader from learning to deciding. Our guide on spotting posts that compete for the same search leans on intent to tell real competition from harmless overlap.