Categories of User Intent

User Intent is basically categorized into four basic elements, and the internet provides various pieces for these intents.

• Transactional: This is a user who is on the internet in search for something to purchase.
• Commercial: This type of intent is related to transactional intent but it is different. It involves knowing what you want to purchase, and then making the necessary research before purchasing.
• Navigational: This is a user that is in search for a particular site, page, or resource.
• Informational: This is a user who seeks answers to a question regarding a particular topic or interest.

These are the four basic categories of user intent, but be aware that these intents may change as the user scrolls through the internet.

Connecting your content to any of these user intents will ensure that your potential audience discovers your business, blog, or website.

If your content answers a user’s question or perfectly fits the user intent, then you have a greater chance of your site or blog ranking higher on search results.

More on These Categories

• Transactional user intent – looking for something to buy.

This is the stage where users are looking to purchase the product they’ve been searching for. If your site is not an e-commerce store, then you can use a process called internal linking. It involves creating a blog post or page where you can direct people to make their purchases.

• Commercial user intent – Research prior to making a purchase.

This intent can be likened to transactional intent, but it is actually what takes place before the transactional intent. It is a query that seeks to know more about a product. This query is mostly directed to product review pages. So if your blog is one that does a lot of reviews, you have a higher chance of ranking for such user intent.

• Navigational user intent - searching for a specific web page.

These are the types of search queries that are specific and straightforward. They are searched in a form of keyword or a full URL. They involve specific websites or pages related to a brand, product or business.

• Informational user intent – specific information or interest.

These types of search queries are made with questions. They are normally written with the use of words like how, why, where, when, what and who. These are the kind of queries businesses and content creators should be aiming for.

What you need to do is identify these queries that you want to rank for, and then create content that will provide answers to the users’ questions.

Connecting your content to these keywords will be very essential to the success of your blog, website, or business. Your content should not only be centered around these search queries and keywords, but it should also be helpful and engaging.