The Biggest Mistake in Keyword Research
It's not picking the wrong keywords.
It's picking the right keywords and creating the wrong content for them.
You find a beautiful keyword. Solid volume. Reasonable difficulty. You write a blog post.
But the searcher wanted a product page. Or a comparison chart. Or a video.
You created the wrong content for the intent. And Google knows it. Google's own SEO starter guide emphasises matching content to what users actually want.
The 4 Types of Search Intent
1. Informational Intent
The searcher wants to LEARN something.
"What is keyword research" / "how to do SEO" / "why is my site slow"
What to create: Blog posts, guides, tutorials, educational content. We cover how to leverage these in our informational keywords guide.
2. Commercial (Investigation) Intent
The searcher is COMPARING options before buying.
"Best keyword tools 2026" / "Ahrefs vs SEMrush" / "top CRM reviews"
What to create: Comparison articles, reviews, "best of" lists, buying guides. These are the commercial keyword goldmine.
3. Transactional Intent
The searcher is ready to DO something (usually buy).
"Buy Ahrefs subscription" / "SEMrush pricing" / "sign up for SEO tool"
What to create: Product pages, pricing pages, landing pages, signup flows.
4. Navigational Intent
The searcher wants to GO to a specific site or page.
"Ahrefs login" / "Google Search Console" / "Facebook"
What to create: Make sure your brand pages are optimised. That's about it.
Why This Changes Everything
Imagine targeting "best project management tools."
That's commercial intent. The searcher wants comparisons.
If you write a blog post explaining what project management is? Fail. Google will rank the listicle comparisons above you every single time.
But if you create a killer comparison page that breaks down the top 10 tools? Now you match the intent.
How to Identify Intent
Check the SERP. Google literally shows you what content type matches the intent. Search the keyword and look at what ranks. Our SERP intent analysis guide walks through this step by step.
All blog posts? Informational.
All product pages? Transactional.
Mix of reviews and comparisons? Commercial.
Google has already done the intent analysis for you. Just look.
The 20-Year Lesson
After 500+ campaigns, this is the number one thing separating sites that rank from sites that don't.
Not backlinks. Not domain authority. Not content length.
Intent matching.
Get this right and everything else gets easier.
Build Intent Into Your Process
SEO Checkup includes intent analysis in its 113-task checklist. So you never publish content that mismatches what Google wants to show. Free. No credit card. 30 seconds.