User Intent refers to the users motivations or goals for performing a search query. Some traditional intents:
- Navigation or Website query: searching for a website based on keyword
- Spelling queries: often misspelled
- Information or Know query: Searching for information or research for any topic
- Shopping or Do query: Both for product information
- News: What is new
- Discovery: Looking for something fun and new
- Transactional: “best deals on tvs”
You can find more about User Intent with relation to Google, by reading their “Raters Guidelines” that are sent to Google website raters. Section 12.7 Understanding User Intent.
Further Reading on Search Intent
- How To Build A Search Intent-First Website Architecture – Lazarina Stoy
- Researching User Intent: How to Learn What Users Really Want – Crazyegg
- What is Keyword Search Intent – BrightEdge
- What is User Search Intent? – Screpy
- How To Identify Search Intent in Organic Results: A Complete Guide – Semrush
- Why understanding user intent is key to SEO success – Metigy
- How to use user intent to build product onboarding that scales – ProductLed
- User Intent Analysis: What You Need to Know to Scale – seoClarity
- How People Search: Understanding User Intent -Search Engine Journal
- How to identify user search intent using AI and machine learning
- How to Optimize Your Website for the Right User Intent – OnCrawl