SSD-0004 · Status: contested · Version 1.0 · Reviewed 12 November 2026 · Wikidata: no item
Definition
Search intent is the outcome a person is trying to reach when they type a query — the job behind the words, which decides what format of page can satisfy it.
搜尋意圖是指使用者在輸入查詢時真正想達到的結果——字面背後的那個任務，它決定了哪一種形式的頁面才能滿足他。
In practice
Practitioners usually sort intent into four buckets: informational, navigational, commercial investigation and transactional. The buckets are a teaching device, not a taxonomy the engines use. What matters operationally is that intent can be read off the results page itself: if the top ten results are all comparison tables, the engine has already decided the query wants a comparison table. Reading the SERP is the only reliable way to test an assumption about intent, and it is why intent work and SERP analysis are the same job.
業界通常把意圖分成四類：資訊性、導航性、商業調查、交易性。這四類是教學工具，不是搜尋引擎使用的分類法。實務上真正重要的是：意圖可以直接從結果頁反推——如果前十名都是比較表，引擎已經判定這個查詢要的是比較表。閱讀 SERP 是驗證意圖假設的唯一可靠方法，這也是為何意圖研究與 SERP 分析其實是同一件工作。
What it is not
- Not the same as “keyword type”. A keyword is a string; intent is a job. The same string carries different intent at different moments.
- Not fixed. Intent drifts with season, news and product launches, and the same query in two languages can carry different intent.
- Not a setting you can declare. You cannot tell a search engine what your page’s intent is. It infers, and you comply.
Status
Contested. The phrase is used in two incompatible ways: as a property of the query (what the engine believes the searcher wants) and as a property of the searcher (what they actually want). Marketing writing routinely blurs the two, which produces advice that cannot be executed. Always state which sense you mean. There is no Wikidata item for the concept as of November 2026, which is itself evidence that this is industry vocabulary rather than an established technical term.
Identity
- Wikidata: no item (checked 12 November 2026)
- English aliases: user intent; searcher intent; query intent
- 中文正名：搜尋意圖（香港、台灣）；中國大陸作「搜索意图」
- Official definition: none. Google’s public documentation describes meeting users’ expectations without defining the term.
Related terms
Sources
- Wikidata entity search for “search intent”, no matching item (checked 12 November 2026).
- Google Search Central documentation, developers.google.com/search/docs (accessed 12 November 2026).