What is search intent and what are its four types?

Search intent is the term used to describe the purpose of an online search. It’s the reason why a user types a particular query into a search engine.

Understanding search intents help site owners and SEOs structure their content strategies so they can better serve users up and down the buying funnel.

DataForSEO Labs Search Intent API has been trained to detect the four types of search intent:

1Informational – seeking information or answers to certain questions. These keywords often contain phrases like “what is” or “how to”;

2Navigational – looking for a specific site or page, for instance, “Facebook login page”;

3Commercial – do research before making a purchase decision. These terms usually have comparative words, such as “best SEO tools”;

4Transactional – completing a specific action, usually a purchase, for example, “buy SEO software.”

The above types are most commonly used, but you can come across different classifications that include more or fewer intent types or assign different names to intent labels.

In the API response, along with keyword_intent results our system provides secondary_keyword_intents. The array contains other possible search intents for the specified keyword. For example, "SEO tools" has commercial intent, but it also has a 0.46 probability to be transactional.

In addition, you can find the search_intent_info object in the responses of the following DataForSEO Labs Google endpoints:

• Keywords For Site
• Related Keywords
• Keyword Suggestions
• Keyword Ideas
• Keywords For Categories
• Top Searches
• Ranked Keywords
• Page Intersection

Example:

              "search_intent_info": {
                "se_type": "google",
                "main_intent": "informational",
                "foreign_intent": null,
                "last_updated_time": "2023-03-03 16:01:12 +00:00"
              }