Glossary /Foundations
Search Intent
What a person is actually trying to accomplish with a query, which decides what format of page can rank for it at all.
Search intent is the goal behind the words. The usual split is informational, navigational, commercial and transactional, but the useful version is narrower: what does the engine currently believe someone typing this wants, and what format satisfies that?
Intent is not a judgement call you make in a spreadsheet. It is observable. The engine has already decided, and the results page is the answer. If every result for a term is a category page, an essay will not rank there however good it is, and the fix is to change the page type rather than to write harder.
Intent also drifts. A query can shift from research to purchase as a market matures, and pages that were built for the old intent quietly stop converting long before they stop ranking. Re-reading the SERP for your important terms once or twice a year catches this.