Search Intent, also known as user intent, is an SEO term referring to the intention of a user’s search within a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo. Search Intent signifies what the user wants to see – or intends to find – by typing in their search term.
Types of Search Intent are generally split into four categories: informational, commercial, navigational and transactional. Informational is when users are looking for information, commercial is why they’re browsing products & services, navigational when they’re looking for a specific website and transactional when they’re looking to proceed to the point of purchase.