Let’s be honest: A lot of SEO is guesswork. 

Luckily, there are some things that can lessen the amount of guessin’ we have to do.

One of those things is keyword intent. 

And that’s exactly what we’re breaking down today.

Grab some coffee (or something stronger), and get that scrolling finger ready. 

Here we go.

A Useful Guide To Keyword Search Intent

First and foremost, let’s look at what keywords are.

What Are Keywords?

I won’t harp on this too much, because right now it’s not the most important thing in this article.

Essentially, keywords are the terms or phrases that users type into search engines when they’re looking for something. 

You get three types of keywords:

• • Short-tail: Single terms, like “cat”

• • Medium-tail: Longer terms, usually stuff like “cats meowing”

• • Long-tail: Anything longer than medium-tail, usually stuff like “why are my cats meowing after I’ve fed them this is ridiculous the ungrateful dicks”

(That’s a pretty lengthy example for a long-tail keyword, but we’ve had to search for it before. So it counts).

Right, let’s move on.

What Is Keyword Intent?

Also known as search intent, keyword intent is the underlying purpose driving a search.

In simpler terms, with search intent, we’re figuring out why somebody’s searching for something.

Why Is Keyword Intent Important?

Keyword search intent is important because people are bombarded with content on a daily basis. 

And the majority of that content’s shit. 

Why? 

Because that content uses a keyword, but doesn’t actually satisfy the user because there’s no topical relevance. 

AKA it doesn’t answer the question.
Essentially, it’s not relevant. 

The result is that people very quickly leave the site — which is bad for your site. So keyword intent in SEO is pretty important.

Anyways, there are 4 types of keyword intent — let’s take a look at ’em.

Before we do, though, here’s a quick visual to save you some time if you’re just skimming.

Before we keep going, though, we need to talk about micro intent. 

What The F*ck Is Micro Intent?

While intent gives you a broad why, micro intent goes into more detail. There are 12 types of micro intent in total. We’ll throw them in underneath their relevant keyword intents.

P.S. – commercial and transactional intent share the same micro intents, so we’ll be looking at them below transactional intent.

Informational Intent Keywords

Informational keywords are the ones people use when they’re looking for answers or knowledge. 

These keywords usually have terms like where, when, how, and why attached to them. Informational intent keywords are also sometimes referred to as “low intent keywords”, because people aren’t really going to make a purchase or anything at this stage.

For example, “how to herd cats” has informational search intent. The user wants a guide to herding cats. For some reason.

Informational Micro Intent

There are 5 types of informational micro intent. Let’s take a look.

Entertainment

With this micro intent, people are looking for something to pass the time.
For this one, bite-sized content like memes and video clips are great.

Definition

This micro intent indicates that users are looking to understand the basis of something before getting into more detail. Wikipedia is the perfect example of content that meets this micro intent, so that’s the kinda stuff you’d want to put out.

Expansion

Expansional micro intent means that people want you to cover everything. We’re not just talking about how to herd cats. We’re talking about:

• • The history of cat herding

• • Why people want to herd them

• • If they can be herded

• • How to herd them

• • Techniques from around the world

Enablement

For this micro intent, people are looking for guidance on something specific. The kinda stuff you’d be creating here should answer all of the “how do I” questions in a step-by-step kinda way.

Aggregation/Overview

For this, the user’s looking for a neutral overview of a topic. Your content here should be informative, while remaining short and clear.

For these ones, you want to create comprehensive, relevant content that’d give a person literally everything they need to know about herding cats.

Navigational Intent Keywords

Navigational keywords are used by people who know exactly where they want to go. 

The easiest way to tell if a keyword is navigational is to see whether or not there’s a brand in there somewhere.

For example, “linkedin login” has navigational search intent.

Navigational Micro Intent

There are 3 types of navigational micro intent.

Support

If you see this micro intent, it means you should be aware that users are looking for instructions on how to use a product. So instructional content around how to use a product, and FAQs around a product are gonna make sense here.

Location

Location micro intent indicates that users want to find a location near (or in) a place they plan to visit. If you’ve got a page that lists stuff like contact details and addresses, this is the kind of micro intent you’d be satisfying.

Website

This one’s a lot like location micro intent, except that it’s for a specific website. When people think of navigational search intent, this micro intent is the one that’s spoken about. 

Commercial Intent Keywords

Commercial intent keywords are ones used when users are doing their research before making a purchase.

These keywords are the ones affiliates target the most, because people with commercial keywords have the highest chance of being convinced and converting.

For example, “best bonsai shears”, or “best fountain pen brands” are commercial keywords.

Content Around Commercial Keywords

If you’re targeting these keywords, you’ll want to create content that gives the user everything they need to know about a product, including unique selling points, pros and cons, and testimonials.

Transactional Intent Keywords

Transactional keywords are used when people are ready to make a purchase. They’ve done their research, and they’re looking for some retail therapy. These keywords are also sometimes referred to as “high intent keywords”, because people are preparing to purchase.

Transactional keywords include terms like “buy 100kg of soil” and “size 55 UK shoes”.

Transactional/Commercial Micro Intent

There are 4 types of navigational micro intent.

Comparison/Orientation

For this one, users are comparing options before deciding on a product and/or service. Stuff like unbiased comparisons and rankings are going to rank for this intent.

Category/Selection

This one shows us that users are starting to narrow down their options before making a purchase, but they need some help with choosing specific products. For this one, product overviews with super clear core pros and cons is going to be important. 

Service/Product

When you see this micro intent, it means the user knows what they want to buy, and need your help in making the purchase. Content here is going to revolve around pricing, delivery options, and extensive details about specific products.

Brand

Brand micro intent indicates that users are looking to learn more about a specific brand. For this one, users are looking for things like social proof, testimonials and reviews.

Content Around Transactional Keywords

The content that’d do well here are things like product discounts, optimised product pages, or paid ads.

Alrighty. Let’s get into the next bit.

How To Identify Keyword Intent

While the little points above definitely work, there are sometimes overlaps with intents. And there are also ways to make it simpler. 

Google SERPs

The first way to identify a keyword’s intent is to visit Google (or your favourite search engine) and to just search for something. 

Firstly, you’ll want to head over to Google (or your favourite search engine), and search for something. We’ll use SEO as the seed keyword, for the sake of simplicity.

Hit “Search” (or Google Search, or whatever), and let’s look at the results.

As you can see, the top results are all talking about what SEO is, and how it works. 

Providing lots of information — so we know this keyword’s intent is informational.

If you want to write content around this keyword, you’d also use these as reference.

Why? Because the fact that they’re on page 1 shows us that Google’s decided this kind of content is relevant and matches the search intent.

Let’s make a slight adjustment to our seed keyword, and tack “services” on.

We can see that the results are a bit different.

All of the top results are (you guessed it) advertising SEO services.

We can also see that the target audience has a commercial search intent — they’re doing some shopping around for their next SEO agency.

Here’s a quick example of what a navigational keyword would look like. Let’s search for YouTube.

No surprise here, the first result is YouTube — and there’s a knowledge panel on the right talking about YouTube in more detail.

Last up, let’s look at what a transactional keyword’s results would look like. We’ll pop “buy metal detectors” into the search bar.

And you’ll see there’s a carousel of metal detectors — also known as a Shopping Ads SERP Feature.

Wanna guess what search intent is involved when  people search for “buy metal detectors”?

You guessed it. This an example of transactional intent keywords — Google’s just showing products here because it’s making the journey for the target audience as simple as possible here.

Another easy indicators of commercial or transactional intent keyword is the appearance of Google Ads (Sponsored stuff). For this example, I just searched for “cake delivery”. Because I like cake.

You can also check out any “People Also Ask” or PAA sections, because they may give you additional insights into what kinda stuff people are looking for. Based on modifiers that are in these (“how”, “what”, “buy”, “vs”, etcetera), you can determine what the seed keyword’s intent usually is.

Cool. Let’s move onto the second way you can figure out types of keyword intent.

Keyword Research Tools

There are a couple of tools that highlight the search intent behind a specific keyword. 

The first one we’ll look at is Semrush.

Semrush

Semrush is the first one on the list of keyword search intent tools – and it’s pretty easy to use.

Just head over to “Keyword Overview”.

And search for any keyword. I’ll just use “SEO” for this one.

And in the results, you’ll see the intent.

Simple enough. Next up, we’ll look at Ubersuggest.

Ubersuggest

Much like Semrush, for Ubersuggest, you’ll be heading to “Keyword Overview”.

Now, we’re gonna pop a keyword in.
Let’s go with “SEO” again, and hit “Search”.

And if you scroll down, you’ll find the search intent section. 

It also breaks down the definition of each search intent. Nifty.

There’s also another tool called WriterZen, but we’ll look at that a bit later on.

Now, let’s move on to the other tool (which you probably haven’t heard of before).

Optimo

Optimo is a set of AI-powered tools designed by the guys over at FATJOE.

If you don’t know who FATJOE is, it’s basically a giant white-label SEO services agency.

Anyways, they built Optimo. And it’s got a bunch of tools. But what we’re looking at today is the keyword search intent tool. If we scroll down, we see the Optimo Tool Suite section.

We’ll click on “SEO”, then “Keyword Intent”.

Now, I’m just gonna throw some keywords in.

Click on “Click to Generate”, and give it a few seconds. 

Let’s look at the results.

This one doesn’t break down search intent into the traditional “navigational” or “informational”.

But it actually tells you exactly what people are looking for when they search these terms.

And it’s free. 

How To Identify Keyword Micro Intent

Figuring out micro intent’s a bit tricky because there are a lot of articles about it, but very few ways to actually determine it. But we’re not here to throw up problems; we’re here to provide solutions. Enter WriterZen.

WriterZen is a tool we use for keyword research and content writing — and for figuring out micro intent. Here’s how it works.

First off, you’ll want to go to the “Keyword Planner”.

Next up, we’re going to click on “Import Keyword”.

We’ll just make up a project name, and throw a keyword in, and click “Add”.

It’s important to note that putting in one keyword’s going to flag an error because it can’t create a cluster, but for the purposes of this, it’s fine. 

Anyways. When you look at the results, you’ll see the intent and micro intent here.

And that’s that.

A Conclusion? Yeah, Why Not.

And that’s it, folks. 

I hope you enjoyed reading.

Now you can optimise your content to answer the stuff that people and search engines want answered.

If I missed anything, let me know.

And if you have any thoughts, let me know.

Or don’t.

I can’t tell you what to do.

I’m not Google.