What is commercial search intent?
The searcher is evaluating, not browsing. Query patterns, the page types, what to include and cut, and how to spot a broken comparison.
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Search behavior and intent
Every search starts with a decision state.
Writing on how intent forms, shifts, and resolves. How query phrasing reveals urgency, confidence, and prior knowledge. And why pages fail when they answer the right question at the wrong time.
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The 4 types of search intent
The four reasons behind a search, a real query for each, and the page each one needs.
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More on search behavior and intent, newest first.
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Informational vs transactional pages
Learn or act: example queries, the structural differences, page outlines from three industries, bad and good versions, and two checklists.
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What is navigational search intent?
The searcher already chose you. Query patterns, the page types, what to cut, and how to spot friction in your analytics.
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Why impressions rise and clicks stay flat
What an impression measures, why AI Overviews split it from the click, and four questions to check your own pages.
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Why AI Overviews appear in Google
What triggers an AI Overview, why visibility and visits stopped moving together, and what content still earns the click.
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Why informational content stalls
Informational pages rank and get read, then leave the reader informed but unanchored. What they need to do instead.
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How misaligned intent stalls decisions
Most content stops at awareness. How to build the bridges that move a reader from learning to deciding, with real funnel examples.
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Why transactional pages fail ready buyers
Ready buyers still leave when a page skips the confirmation step. The three questions a transactional page has to answer first.
Also in Content strategy, AI and modern search
How I think about search behavior and intent
Every search starts before the query. Someone has a problem they can't solve, a question they can't answer, or a decision they don't feel ready to make. What they type into the search bar is a compressed version of that situation, shaped by what they already know, how urgent it feels, and what they think the system will understand.
A person searching "water softener" might be three months from buying one and just curious. A person searching "water softener installation cost Portland" is comparing quotes this week.
From the Search Behavior and Intent page on the old version of this site, first published January 2026.