Search intent

Search intent is the real goal behind a search, what the person actually wants to find or do. Matching it is the single most important thing a page can do, because Google's whole job is to rank the pages that best satisfy what searchers came for.

Two people can type almost the same words and want completely different things. "Running shoes" is a browse. "Buy Nike Pegasus size 10" is a purchase.

The four types of intent

A page built for one intent rarely satisfies another. Serve a 3,000-word buying guide to someone who wanted a one-line answer and they'll bounce, no matter how good your keywords are.

How to read the intent behind a keyword

The fastest way to read intent is to search the term yourself and study what already ranks. Google has spent billions working out what satisfies each query, so the current top results are the intent. If they're all short how-to articles, that's what the query wants. If they're product pages, write a product page. Google explains the broader logic in How Search Works.

Why intent beats keywords

Old-school SEO chased keywords. Modern SEO matches intent and packages the answer in the format searchers expect, which is also what gets you pulled into AI Overviews and what makes a meta description land. Google's helpful content guidance is essentially one long argument for serving intent over keywords.

Edward starts every piece by figuring out the intent behind a query, then writes the page that satisfies it. See where your pages match intent with a free audit.