Two pages can cover the same topic and get very different results. One earns clicks for months; the other never moves. The difference is usually format, not quality. The page answered a question in a shape nobody was searching for: a sales page when people wanted a comparison, or a long essay when they wanted a price.

Four intents, one useful test

Most queries fall into four groups. Informational queries want understanding. Commercial queries want help choosing. Transactional queries want to act now. Navigational queries want a specific site or place. The labels are less important than the test: what would a person need to see to feel this search is finished? A price, a phone number, a definition, or a shortlist of options.

Read the results page before you write

Search the query yourself and study the top five results. Look at page type, not brand. Are they guides, category pages, product pages, local listings, videos, or forum threads? That mix is the format the engine currently considers useful. If eight of ten results are listicles, a single product page will struggle no matter how well it is written.

Also note what the results include: a map pack, shopping ads, a featured snippet, video carousels. These tell you what the engine believes the query needs, and they show what you are competing against for attention.

Intent is not a guess about the searcher's mood. It is an observation about what the results page already rewards.

Informational queries want an answer, then depth

Write a guide or explainer. Answer the question in the first two paragraphs, then expand with definitions, examples, mistakes, and next steps. Use headings that match the follow-up questions people ask. Avoid burying a one-line answer under four hundred words of preamble; readers leave, and the page loses the position it might have earned.

Commercial queries want comparison

When someone searches for best, versus, alternatives, or reviews, they are choosing. Give them a comparison table, honest trade-offs, who each option suits, and a clear recommendation. A service page can rank here if it includes real comparison content rather than three paragraphs of self-praise.

Transactional queries want the thing itself

Product searches, price searches, and booking searches need a page where the action is obvious: stock, price, delivery, and a visible button. Supporting copy should remove doubt, not delay the click. If your product page hides the price behind an enquiry form, it is the wrong page type for the query.

People searching a brand name, a store name plus city, or a product name plus brand want that specific destination. Make sure the homepage, location page, or product page is clearly the official one: matching name, address, opening hours, and consistent details across the site.

Open Search Console, sort queries by impressions, and open the pages they land on. For each pair, ask whether the page format matches the query. A page ranking on page three for a high-intent query is often a format problem rather than a content gap.

Watch for mixed intent too. A query like website cost can attract both people budgeting and people ready to hire. The results page will usually show a blend: pricing guides, service pages, and forum threads. In that case, one page can serve both by leading with a clear price range, then explaining what changes it. Splitting the topic into two thin pages is worse than one page that answers the first question and offers the next step.

Finally, check the wording people actually use. Sort your queries by impressions and look for phrases you would never write yourself. Those are the words to put in headings, because they are the words the searcher typed.

Intent review checklist

  • Search the target query in a private window and list the page types in the top five.
  • Note any map pack, video, or shopping results on that page.
  • Write down what a searcher needs to see to consider the search finished.
  • Choose your format from that evidence, not from what you enjoy writing.
  • Put the direct answer or the price within the first screen.
  • Check whether an existing page already serves the intent before creating a new one.

Intent work is mostly observation. Spend ten minutes on the results page before you brief anyone, and you avoid a month of writing the wrong asset.