Search intent: informational, navigational, commercial, transactional
Search intent is the goal a person has when they type a query. Two people can search the same words for different reasons, and the page that best matches the reason wins — which is why intent, not the keyword alone, should drive what you write.
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The four kinds of intent
Informational intent seeks knowledge — how something works, what a term means. Navigational intent seeks a specific site or page the searcher already has in mind. Commercial intent is research before a purchase — comparisons, reviews, best-of lists. Transactional intent is ready to act — buy, sign up, book.
These are not rigid boxes; a query can straddle two. But most queries lean clearly toward one, and recognising which tells you what kind of page the searcher expects to find.
Why matching intent beats matching keywords
A page can contain the exact keyword and still fail because it answers the wrong intent. If someone searching to learn lands on a hard sell, or someone ready to buy lands on a long explainer, they leave — and that mismatch tells engines the page is a poor answer.
The reliable way to read intent is to look at what already ranks. If the top results are all guides, the query is informational; if they are all product pages, it is transactional. The results are the search engine’s own verdict on what the query means.
Mapping intent to content types
Each intent has a natural content shape. Informational suits guides and explainers; commercial suits comparisons and reviews; transactional suits product, pricing, and sign-up pages. Aligning the format to the intent is half the battle.
Intent also maps onto the buying journey, so a full content plan covers all stages: attract with informational content, help evaluation with commercial content, and convert with transactional pages. Gaps at any stage leak potential customers.
How Kirti approaches this
Kirti is being built to classify the queries in a brand's plan by intent and check that each has a page shaped to match — proposing new content where a stage is missing, for the team to approve before drafting begins.
The agent is in active development and not yet generally available; the framework here is useful whatever process you use to plan content.