What is Search Intent for SEO?
Search intent isn’t an advanced SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) concept. For years, digital marketers have understood that search engines – predominantly Google – use algorithmic machine learning to rank search engine results pages (SERPs) in order of relevance.
In 2015, Google identified just four categories of intent that could underlie a search query at every stage in the digital consumer journey: I want to know, I want to do, I want to go, or I want to buy.
However, these categorizations rapidly run into problems. For one, they are far too broad and fail to prescribe for nuanced searches. A practical example might be a search for marketing science experts: is the user attempting to navigate to a specific site, or make a transaction for services? The SERPs are subsequently mixed, forming an overlap.
Read more about how intent factors are changing the way we optimize content for science.
