# Search intent

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> Search intent is what someone wants to get done with a query. Google's categories, how AI answers change with intent, and our own results split by buyer intent.

- Canonical page: https://attensira.com/glossary/search-intent
- Family: glossary
- Last updated: 2026-10-04
- Author: Karl-Gustav Kallasmaa (https://attensira.com/about)
- Claims as data: https://attensira.com/claims.json?slug=search-intent

**In short:** Search intent is what a person is trying to get done when they type or ask a query: learn something, do something, reach a specific site, or compare and buy. Search engines and AI assistants infer it first and shape the answer around it, so a page wins a query only when it serves the intent behind it.

**ChatGPT, asked 2026-10-02:** "how to get cited by ChatGPT"

> Create content around real search intent. Content that is specific, well-structured, and authoritative is more likely to be selected by search systems.

Sources cited, in order: help.openai.com, developers.openai.com.

Attensira: not named.

_Source: attensira.com workspace, read over the Attensira MCP, as of 2026-10-04 (1 stored answer, ChatGPT, 2026-10-02)._

## Key facts

- Also called: User intent, query intent
- Marketing types: Informational, navigational, commercial, transactional
- Google's rater terms: [Know, Do, Website, Visit-in-Person](https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf)
- Find it by: Reading what already wins the query
- Related term: [Semantic search](/glossary/semantic-search)
- In Attensira: [Topics: questions grouped by buying job](https://docs.attensira.com/tracking/topics)

Two people type "robots.txt". One wants to know what it is. The other wants to edit theirs before a launch. Same words, different jobs. Search intent is the job, and every search engine and AI assistant tries to work it out before it decides what to show.

## What are the types of search intent?

The marketing shorthand has four:

| Intent | The person wants to | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Informational | Learn or understand | what is share of voice in AI search |
| Navigational | Reach a specific site or page | Attensira pricing |
| Commercial | Compare options before buying | best AI search visibility tools |
| Transactional | Act now: buy, sign up, download | start Attensira free trial |

Google's own rater guidelines, the instructions it gives the people who evaluate its results, use different names: **Know** (with **Know Simple** for one-fact answers), **Do**, **Website** and **Visit-in-Person**. They also say what matters most in practice: many queries have more than one likely intent, and a good result serves the dominant one without failing the others.

## How does intent change an AI answer?

More than it changes a results page, because an AI answer is one response, not ten options. The engine decides what kind of answer the intent calls for, and that decides which pages it reads and which brands it names.

Here is our own tracking. Attensira asks ChatGPT and Perplexity 61 questions about its category every day and files them into topics, most of them by what the buyer is trying to do. In the 30 days to 4 October 2026, read over the Attensira MCP, no answer in any topic that does not ask about us by name mentioned Attensira. Across seven of those topics, Attensira was named in none of the answers. Three patterns, each about intent:

- **Commercial questions are answered with products**, built from roundups, review sites and competitors' pages. That is where we are absent, and it is the work that matters most to us.

- **Pricing questions read our pages but name others.** About one answer in five, 43 of 217, links attensira.com as evidence while naming other brands. The intent is "what does this cost", and our page is a good source for the number, not yet a reason to choose us.

- **How-to questions are answered with steps.** Products appear less often, and the engines lean on documentation and guides; attensira.com was linked in 3 of 663 GEO education answers. The intent is to do a task, and a product is at most a footnote to it.

We publish our zeros because a tool that only shows the flattering rows cannot show you where the work is.

## How does intent split our own results?

Seven of our topics, each a group of questions with one buyer's job behind it. No answer in any of them named Attensira. Pricing questions linked attensira.com in 43 of 217 answers; category and comparison questions, where buyers choose, never linked us.

**Attensira by topic, ChatGPT and Perplexity, 30 days**

| Topic | Answers | Named us | Linked us |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Product category searches (7 questions) | 775 | 0 | 0 |
| Comparison and alternatives (7) | 523 | 0 | 0 |
| Audience and use case (6) | 647 | 0 | 0 |
| Pricing and budget (2) | 217 | 0 | 43 (19.8%) |
| AI crawlers (4) | 249 | 0 | 12 (4.8%) |
| GEO how-to and education (6) | 663 | 0 | 3 (0.5%) |
| Not showing up in AI (3) | 340 | 0 | 1 (0.3%) |

_Source: attensira.com workspace, read over the Attensira MCP, as of 2026-10-04 (4 Sep to 4 Oct 2026, n = answers per topic)._

## How do you find the intent behind a query?

Read what already wins it:

1. **On a results page,** look at the types of result: guides, product pages, comparison articles, a map. The engine has already guessed the intent.

1. **In AI answers,** read several answers and their citations. Do they name products? Which kinds of page do they cite? Do they answer in place or send the reader on?

1. **Group your own questions by intent,** not by keyword, and read results per group. A blended number hides that you win how-to questions and lose buying ones.

## What do people get wrong about search intent?

- **Writing one page for every intent.** A page that explains, compares and sells at once is the best answer to none of them.

- **Chasing volume over intent.** A large informational query rarely produces buyers; a small commercial one might.

- **Assuming the engine shares your classification.** Check what it shows, then decide.

- **Measuring visibility across all intents at once.** Your share of voice on how-to questions says nothing about buying questions.

## How does Attensira use intent?

When you onboard, the crew learns your business and picks the questions your buyers ask AI, grouped by what those buyers are trying to do. Each group is reported on its own, with the answers, the pages they cite and the sample size, so you see which intents you win and which you lose. The work follows: a page that answers a how-to question directly, a placement on the roundup that decides a buying question. In the default Draft mode, each piece waits for your approval. See [prompt tracking](/features/prompt-tracking) for how questions are chosen and grouped.

## FAQ

### What is search intent?

The goal behind a query. Two people can type the same words for different reasons, and one person can phrase the same need many ways. Search engines classify the likely intent before ranking, and AI assistants use it to decide whether to answer directly, list options, or send the reader somewhere.

### What are the types of search intent?

Marketers usually use four: informational, navigational, commercial and transactional. Google's own Search Quality Rater Guidelines classify queries as Know (including Know Simple), Do, Website and Visit-in-Person, and note that many queries have more than one likely intent.

### How does search intent change AI answers?

It changes what the answer is made of. In Attensira's own tracking, how-to questions about robots.txt were answered with instructions and named no product at all, while category questions such as best AI search visibility tools were answered with lists of products, built from roundups and review sites.

### How do I find the intent of a query?

Look at what already wins it. In search, read the results page: guides, product pages, comparisons or a map. In AI answers, read several answers and their citations: whether they name products, which kinds of page they cite, and whether they answer in place.

### Can one page serve several intents?

Sometimes, if the intents are close, such as learning what a tool category is and comparing options in it. Pages that try to inform, compare and sell at once usually serve none of them well; a separate page per intent, linked together, is the safer structure.