Search Intent Classifier

Search intent is the goal behind a search: to learn something, compare options, buy, find a local business or reach a specific website. The free Search Intent Classifier labels up to 10,000 keywords at once as informational, commercial, transactional, local or navigational, shows the word that triggered each label, suggests the type of page to build, and totals keywords and search volume by intent. Export the results as CSV.

Last updated: 6 November 2026. Written by Saad Raza.

Key takeaways

• Matching page type to intent is one of the most important decisions in SEO. A guide rarely ranks for a “buy” keyword, and a product page rarely ranks for a “how to” keyword.
• Most keywords reveal their intent through a signal word: how, best, price, near me, login.
• Keywords with no signal word, such as a bare topic or a city name, are marked Unclear. Check the live search results for those.
• Totals by intent show where the demand in a keyword list really sits.

The five types of search intent

Our guide to search intent in SEO explains each type with examples, and our article on search intent segmentation shows how to split a keyword list into page plans.

How to use the Search Intent Classifier

1. Paste keywords, one per line. Add search volume after a comma or a tab if you have it, for example “teeth whitening cost, 1300”.
2. Or upload a CSV or text file exported from a keyword tool, Search Console or a spreadsheet. Up to 10,000 keywords are processed, and duplicates are removed.
3. Press Classify keywords.
4. Read the summary by intent: the number of keywords, their share, total volume and the suggested page type.
5. Filter the keyword table by intent, and check the matched word for each label.
6. Review every Unclear keyword in the live search results, then download the CSV.

Example output

The Load example button classifies ten dental keywords. “how to whiten teeth at home” and “what is a dental crown” are informational. “best teeth whitening kit” and “invisalign vs braces” are commercial. “teeth whitening cost” and “book dentist appointment” are transactional. “teeth whitening near me” is local and “facebook login” is navigational. “teeth whitening” and “dentist in karachi” are marked Unclear: the first is a bare topic, and the second has local meaning that comes from a city name, not a signal word. Those two are exactly the keywords to check in the search results by hand.

How to check intent in the search results

The pages Google already ranks are the best evidence of intent, because they show what searchers clicked and stayed on. For any important or Unclear keyword:

1. Search it in a private window, from your target country if you can.
2. Note the type of the top five results: guides, product pages, lists, local map results or a brand’s own site.
3. Note the features: a map pack points to local intent, shopping results to transactional, People Also Ask boxes and AI Overviews to informational.
4. Build the page type that most of the top results share. If results are mixed, the keyword has mixed intent, and a page that covers both, such as a service page with a short guide section, may fit best.

Using intent labels to plan content

Once your list is labelled, group the keywords that share both a topic and an intent onto one page with the Keyword Grouper, then turn each group into an outline with the Content Brief Generator. Keep informational and transactional keywords on separate pages even when the topic is the same. Mixing them often leads to two pages competing for the same searches, which the Keyword Cannibalization Finder can detect, and which our guide to keyword cannibalisation explains how to fix.

Intent also shapes internal linking. Guides should link to the related service or product page, which is the reader’s next step, and service pages should link back to guides that answer common questions. That connection between informational and transactional pages is a core part of a strong topical map.

Search intent and AI search

People ask AI assistants the same kinds of questions, only in longer sentences. A prompt such as “what’s the best accounting software for a small shop in Lahore” contains commercial and local intent at once. Use the Prompt-to-Query Mapper to turn prompts into short queries, then classify those queries here. Informational queries are the ones most often answered directly by AI Overviews, so pages targeting them need especially clear, quotable answers.

Mixed and changing intent

Some keywords serve more than one goal. “Teeth whitening Karachi” may be searched by someone comparing prices and by someone ready to book today, so Google often shows a mix of clinic pages, price guides and a map pack. The classifier gives each keyword the first label that matches its rules, so a keyword with several signal words gets only one label. Read the matched word column to see why. Intent can also change over time: a keyword that once showed guides may start showing product pages, or an AI Overview, as the market changes. Re-check your most valuable keywords in the live results every few months, and update the page type when the results shift.

Limits to know about

The classifier reads the words in each keyword and applies rules in a fixed order: navigational, local, commercial, informational, then transactional. It does not look at search results, so it cannot see intent that depends on context. Brand names, product names and city names on their own carry no signal word and are marked Unclear. Keywords in languages other than English are not supported well. Use the labels to sort a large list quickly, then apply your judgement to the keywords that matter most.

Questions about the Search Intent Classifier

If you would like your keyword research mapped to the right pages, my SEO audit service includes keyword and intent mapping, and you can ask for a free audit through the contact page. You can also browse the other free content and writing tools and the free keyword research tools.