Here is a thing that happened to me on my vegan blog.
I wrote an article about vegan cheese. It ranked. People found it, clicked, and then left, almost immediately, because what they got was me explaining at length why vegan cheese is terrible and why they should avoid it for at least six months after going vegan while their taste buds recalibrate.
Which, for the record, is useful advice. But it is not, apparently, what someone googling “vegan cheese” wants to read.
They wanted recommendations. Maybe a buying guide. A comparison of brands. Something that would help them choose a product. What they got was a persuasive essay from someone who had strong opinions about a food they hadn’t asked to be talked out of. The sort of content that would do very well on Reddit, as it happens. Just not on a blog, where people arrive from search with a specific job they want done.
That is search intent. And getting it wrong is the most common reason a well-optimised post — one with the right keyword, the right structure, the right word count — still doesn’t rank, or ranks briefly and then slides back down.
So what is search intent, exactly?
Search intent is the reason behind a search. Not just what someone typed, but what they were trying to do when they typed it.
Researchers have been studying this since at least 2007, when a landmark study by Jansen, Booth and Spink analysed over 1.5 million real search queries and found that more than 80% of web queries are informational in nature, with about 10% each being navigational and transactional. The framework they established — informational, navigational, transactional — is still the foundation of how Google thinks about search today, nearly two decades later. The fact that a study from 2007 is still being cited across the SEO industry tells you something about how fundamental this concept is.
Google’s job is to match the searcher to exactly the right type of content for what they’re trying to do. If your content is the wrong type — even if it’s beautifully written and technically optimised — Google will eventually figure that out from how people behave when they land on it. High bounce rate. Low time on page. Back to the search results. Over and over. That’s the signal that you got intent wrong.
The four types of search intent
Most search queries fall into one of four categories. Knowing which one you’re writing for before you start is one of the most useful habits you can build.
Informational intent — they want to learn something.
This is by far the most common type of search, and the one most relevant to bloggers. “Why are my pothos leaves yellow.” “How does keyword research work.” “What is the difference between Monstera and Philodendron.” The person isn’t looking to buy anything or go anywhere specific. They have a question and they want it answered.
What to write: a guide, an explainer, a how-to. Something that answers the question thoroughly and directly.
Navigational intent — they want to find a specific site or page.
“ConvertKit login.” “Ubersuggest free tool.” “Pinterest home feed.” They already know where they want to go — they’re just using Google to get there faster than typing the URL. There’s no point targeting these keywords. You’re not going to outrank the brand for their own name.
What to write: nothing. Move on.
Commercial intent — they’re comparing options before making a decision.
“Best web hosting for bloggers.” “WPX vs SiteGround.” “GeneratePress review.” The person is close to a decision but not there yet. They want to weigh up their options.
What to write: a comparison post, a review, a roundup. Something that helps them decide. This is also where affiliate content lives — done well, it serves the reader at exactly the right moment in their decision-making process.
Transactional intent — they’re ready to act.
“Buy GeneratePress Premium.” “Download Canva Pro.” “Sign up for Mediavine.” The decision is made. They just need to get there.
What to write: a landing page, a direct review with a clear call to action, or an affiliate link post. Keep it focused and don’t get in the way.
Why intent matters more than keywords
The vegan cheese situation is a good illustration of something that trips up a lot of bloggers: the keyword was fine. “Vegan cheese” has real search volume. The article ranked. The problem was that I’d written informational content — opinionated, essayistic, discursive — for an audience with commercial intent. They didn’t want my opinion on whether vegan cheese was worth eating. They wanted to know which one to buy.
The mismatch between what I published and what they were looking for sent them straight back to the search results. Google noticed. The ranking didn’t stick.
This is the bit that most beginner SEO advice glosses over. You can do everything else right — keyword in the title, meta description optimised, internal links in place, word count reasonable — and still write the wrong article entirely if you haven’t thought about what the person on the other end of that search is actually trying to do.
How to identify intent before you write
The good news is that you don’t need any special tools for this. Google tells you exactly what intent it’s reading for a keyword, right there on the results page.
Search your target keyword and look at what’s already ranking in the top five results. Ask yourself:
What format are they? If the top results are all listicles (“10 best pothos varieties for beginners”), write a listicle. If they’re all step-by-step guides, write a guide. If they’re all product review pages, write a review. Google has already figured out what searchers want for this keyword. Work with that, not against it.
What’s the angle? Are the results for “vegan cheese” mostly buying guides and product roundups? Commercial intent. Are the results for “how to care for pothos” mostly care guides with lots of subheadings and specific instructions? Informational intent. The angle of the ranking content tells you the angle you need.
What would you expect if you typed this? This is the simplest check of all and it takes about three seconds. If you typed your keyword into Google right now, what would you hope to find? Whatever your honest answer is, that’s probably what your reader wants too.
A note on intent and AI search
It’s worth knowing that search intent is shifting as more people use AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity alongside Google. Recent data from Profound, analysing tens of millions of real ChatGPT interactions, found that 37% of all ChatGPT prompts are “generative intent” — people asking AI to create or do something directly, rather than find information. Navigational intent, which accounts for around 32% of traditional Google searches, collapsed to just 2% in ChatGPT interactions — because when you’re inside an AI tool, you don’t need to navigate anywhere.
What this means for bloggers is that the informational content that makes up most of what we write — guides, explainers, how-tos — is exactly the content AI tools pull from to answer questions. Getting intent right doesn’t just help you rank on Google. It makes your content more useful as a source for AI-generated answers too. The fundamentals haven’t changed; if anything, they’ve become more important.
The practical version of all of this
Before you write any post, take two minutes to do this:
Search your target keyword in an incognito window. Look at the top five results. Answer three questions:
- What format are these posts? (List, guide, review, comparison?)
- What angle are they taking? (Beginner explainer, product recommendation, deep dive?)
- Does my planned article match both of those things?
If the answer to question three is no, either adjust your angle or choose a different keyword. It sounds obvious when you lay it out like this. But the number of posts that fail because the writer skipped this step is genuinely staggering — including, for a while, mine.
What to read next
Intent is one piece of the puzzle. The other is knowing how to find keywords worth targeting in the first place — Article 20: What Is Keyword Research and Why Does It Matter for Bloggers? covers why it matters, and Article 21: How to Do Basic Keyword Research for Free walks through the exact process step by step.
Once you know your keyword and your intent, the next question is what type of post to write — Article 24: What Types of Blog Posts Get the Most Traffic? goes into that in detail.
Frequently asked questions
What is search intent in simple terms?
It’s the reason someone did a search — what they were actually trying to do when they typed those words into Google. Understanding it helps you write the right kind of article for the right kind of reader, rather than just the right keyword.
Does search intent affect Google rankings?
Yes, significantly. Google tracks how people behave on search results — how long they stay on a page, whether they go back to the results page immediately. If searchers consistently leave your article quickly, Google interprets that as a sign your content didn’t match what they were looking for, and your ranking suffers.
How do I know what search intent is for my keyword?
Search the keyword yourself and look at what’s already ranking. The format and angle of the top five results tells you exactly what Google has decided searchers want for that term.
Can the same keyword have multiple intents?
Sometimes, yes. “Pothos care” could be someone who just bought their first plant (informational) or someone looking for a specific product to help their plant (commercial). When a keyword is ambiguous, Google often ranks a mix of content types. In those cases, write for the intent that best matches your audience and your site.