# Search intent: why the right page matters more than the right keyword > What search intent is, how Google itself tells intentions apart, and how a small business builds a keyword strategy from it without expensive tools. [Florian Berger](https://btlabs.dev/en/team/florian-berger) · Nov 2, 2026 Topic: [Found on Google →](https://btlabs.dev/en/found-on-google) [Search intent](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/search-intent) is what someone wants to achieve with a search: learn something, get something done, find a particular page or go somewhere. It decides which kind of page answers a query best — which is why, for me, a good keyword strategy doesn't start with a list of terms but with the question of which page exists for which intent. Google puts it this way itself: to return relevant results, it first needs to establish what you're looking for — the intent behind your query ([Google, How Search works](https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/)). ## How Google tells intentions apart In the guidelines for its quality raters (version of 11 September 2025), Google distinguishes four kinds of queries ([Google, Rater Guidelines, section 12.7](https://guidelines.raterhub.com/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf)): - **Know:** someone wants to find something out — "how long does a wooden window last". - **Do:** someone wants to get something done — request a quote, book an appointment. - **Website:** someone wants to find a specific page — "Huber joinery Merano". - **Visit in person:** someone wants to go somewhere — "carpenter near me". Two things in that document matter in practice, I find. First: the line between "know" and "do" is often blurry, and raters aren't supposed to separate them strictly. Second: the ratings don't directly affect how a page ranks; Google uses them to measure its systems. So the document isn't a checklist to tick off, but a look at what Google means by a good result. In marketing tools the same intentions often go by other names: informational, commercial, transactional, navigational. At heart it's the same thing. ## Three searches, three pages Take a joinery near Merano: - **"carpenter Merano"** — visit in person and do. The right page is the service page with location, service area, opening hours and a clear path to an enquiry. - **"window restoration cost"** — know, with buying intent behind it. A guide with a price range, the process and the questions that come before an order helps here. - **"Huber joinery"** — website. The home page has to show beyond doubt that you're in the right place. A typical mistake: all three intentions end up on the same page, usually the home page. Then no page answers a question properly — and if you later build a page for every question without dividing the terms cleanly, they suddenly compete for the same word. That's called [keyword cannibalization](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/keyword-cannibalization). Andrei Broder studied how intentions are distributed back in 2002: in a sample of 400 queries from the search engine AltaVista, 48% aimed to know something, 30% at a transaction and 20% at a specific website ([Broder, 2002](https://sigir.org/files/forum/F2002/broder.pdf)). The study is old and small, but its method is open — and the direction still holds: most searches first want to know something. ## A keyword strategy without expensive tools For a small business a simple process is often enough: 1. **Write down your customers' questions** the way they ask them on the phone. Assign each one to an intention. 2. **Give every intention a page** and every page its own focus keyword. A term belongs to exactly one page. 3. **Look in** [Search Console](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/search-console) to see which queries your pages already appear for. A page is often found for something nobody planned. That tells you what people are actually looking for. 4. **Start with terms where you're just behind the first page of results.** A revision pays off most there. On btlabs.dev, for example, a good dozen queries currently sit there, such as "website in ki sichtbar machen". 5. **Think in all three languages.** The intention is usually the same, the words aren't. "Tischler" and "falegname" are not one translated keyword but two separate searches. ## What btlabs Core has built in — and what it hasn't Every page carries a focus keyword and up to four secondary keywords per language; the search intent is set once per page. A focus keyword may belong to only one page per language. Search Console data arrives every night: in the editing window the editors see which queries a page is found for, and the cockpit shows terms just short of the first results page — separately for Google and Bing — as well as queries a page is found for without having been planned for them. With an AI connection set up, the platform also suggests terms and intentions. Only terms that appear in your own text are taken over, and nothing without approval. What it doesn't do: keyword research with search volumes. There are dedicated tools for that — and the strategy itself is consulting, not software. We do that at [Berger+Team](https://www.berger.team). How intention, content, links and AI visibility fit together is shown in the overview [SEO and GEO](https://btlabs.dev/en/seo-and-geo). How to tell whether the page itself does its job is covered in [Content SEO: how to tell whether a page is good enough](https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/content-seo-is-a-page-good-enough). The term itself is in the glossary under [search intent](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/search-intent). ## Sources - [Google: How Search works — ranking results](https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/) - [Google: Search Quality Rater Guidelines, version 11 Sep 2025](https://guidelines.raterhub.com/searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf) - [Andrei Broder: A taxonomy of web search, SIGIR Forum 2002](https://sigir.org/files/forum/F2002/broder.pdf) About the author [Florian Berger](https://btlabs.dev/en/team/florian-berger) Florian Berger is an experienced digital and communication expert from Bolzano, with over 20 years of practical experience in branding, web development, online marketing, and digitalization. He is the founder of Berger+Team, an agile collective of independent freelancers that positions itself as a modern and efficient alternative to the traditional agency model. In his work, he combines solid brand strategy with innovative technologies and infrastructures such as btlabs Core. His particular focus is on the integration of artificial intelligence, [machine-readable](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/machine-readable-website) [search engine optimization](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/seo-search-engine-optimisation) ([GEO](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/geo-generative-engine-optimization) ), and business process automation to generate real competitive advantages for companies. Florian stands for honest, transparent, and results-oriented advice on equal terms – without empty promises, unnecessary overhead costs, or rigid contracts. In addition to his entrepreneurial activities, he is involved in various technology and digitalization projects in the region. Florian runs the [ai-discovery-radar](https://btlabs.dev/en/ai-discovery-radar), the open measurement series behind our figures. How we work is described on [About us](https://btlabs.dev/en/about). ### Career - **since 2026** · btlabs Core and ai-discovery-radar: open measurement series with DOI, technical report, ORCID - **since 2019** · Berger+Team, Bolzano · Founder - **2008–2018** · Kreatif GmbH, Bolzano · Founder and shareholder - **2003–2008** · Genetica Multimedia, Laives · Founding employee - [](https://www.linkedin.com/in/bergerflorian/ "LinkedIn") - [](https://orcid.org/0009-0008-5780-1147 "Orcid") - [](https://www.crunchbase.com/person/florian-berger-4962 "Crunchbase") - [](https://github.com/flober81 "GitHub") - [](https://www.xing.com/profile/Florian%5FBerger26 "Xing") - [](https://www.behance.net/florianberger "Behance") - [](https://dribbble.com/florian-berger "Dribbble") - [](https://twitter.com/florianberger81 "X") - [](https://www.youtube.com/@florianberger81 "YouTube") - [](https://www.tiktok.com/@florianberger81 "TikTok") - [](https://www.instagram.com/florian.f.berger/ "Instagram") - [](https://www.facebook.com/florian.f.berger/ "Facebook") - [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/florian-berger/ "Flickr") - [](https://www.berger.team/autor/florian-berger/ "Berger+Team") ## Frequently asked questions. **What is the difference between SEO, GEO and LLMO?** The three terms build on each other rather than replacing one another. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) makes sure a page ranks well in classic search results. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) extends that goal to being cited as a source in AI-generated answers — in a ChatGPT or Perplexity answer, for example. [LLMO](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/llmo-large-language-model-optimization) (Large Language Model Optimisation) goes a step further and gets more technical: it means specifically understanding and influencing how individual [language models](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/llm-large-language-model) process, weigh and reproduce content — essentially reverse-engineering the model in question. In practice: SEO remains the entry ticket, GEO secures broad [citability](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/citability-ai-citability) , and LLMO fine-tunes the details for the systems that matter most to a given business. Whether you need this distinction day to day is a separate question — we answered it at length: [Do you really need five new acronyms?](https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/geo-aeo-llmo-do-you-need-five-acronyms) **Has classic SEO become obsolete with AI search?** No. [Google AI overviews](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/ai-overviews) mostly cite pages that already rank well classically. SEO remains the ticket in — AI optimisation (GEO) is the extension with citable answers, structure and visible authority. **How do you measure success when AI answers no longer bring traffic to my site?** The classic click-through rate loses meaning once a user gets their answer directly from the AI, without ever visiting a site. The new metric can be called [Share of Model Voice](https://btlabs.dev/en/glossary/share-of-model-voice-somv) : how often, and in what context, is your business mentioned when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude a typical question from your industry — and is it described correctly and positively? You measure this by regularly putting typical customer questions to the major AI systems yourself and logging whether and how your business appears. Success is then no longer shown by visitor numbers, but by being present and cited correctly, even when no direct click results from it. How these figures come together into a picture you can read in two minutes each morning is something we described at length: [the visibility cockpit](https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/visibility-cockpit-what-does-my-website-bring). Next step ## Want to look at it together? No pitch, no standard package — an honest take on your project. A reply, usually within 24h. [Start a conversation →](https://btlabs.dev/en/contact#cta) ## You might also like - [· Backlinks today: what they bring, what the platform shows, what stays manual work · Google still uses links as a signal — but bought links fizzle out, and for AI answers mentions seem to count for more. What backlinks bring a small business today, where good ones come from, and what a website platform can contribute.](https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/backlinks-today) - [· Content SEO: how to tell whether a page is good enough · Google sets neither a minimum word count nor a fixed title length. Still, there are solid signs of whether a page is doing its job. What they are, what Google itself says — and where checking tools give hints, not rules.](https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/content-seo-is-a-page-good-enough) - [· New page live: how Google finds it — and what you can do yourself · A new page isn't on Google the moment it goes live. What sitemaps, crawling, internal links and Search Console actually do — and what only Google decides.](https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/new-page-on-google) --- Source: https://btlabs.dev/en/posts/search-intent-right-page Languages: [de](https://btlabs.dev/llms/de/posts/suchintention-richtige-seite) · [it](https://btlabs.dev/llms/it/posts/intento-di-ricerca-pagina-giusta) See also: [llms.txt](https://btlabs.dev/llms.txt) · [ai.txt (Policy)](https://btlabs.dev/ai.txt) · [identity.json](https://btlabs.dev/identity.json)