Search intent is the reason why a user enters a query on search engines like Google or on LLMs like ChatGPT search.

Identifying the intent helps SEO content writers craft their content accordingly, rather than targeting the emotion behind the query aimlessly.

For example, if the query is ‘Nike official store’, 95% of the time the user is looking for the shoe maker’s official website. The best content that absorbs this intent could be a store locator page or a landing page with the latest arrivals, or a FAQ page answering basic or most commonly asked questions.

When a user knows what s/he wants, you do not want to bore them by having a 1000-words blog explaining the benefits of buying Nike running shoes online. It doesn’t match the intent.

Finding intent

When choosing intent, I think nothing beats common sense. Let’s have a few more keywords and check what intent they contain.

• Buy running shoes – Transactional
• Best running shoes for beginners – Informational
• Running shoes vs training shoes difference – Informational
• Nike customer support contact – Navigational
• Running shoe stores open now – Local & transactional

If you check the queries closely, you will easily understand the motive behind them, and what information the users entering the queries are looking for.

Beside the mighty common sense, we have tools to simplify the task, leaving our brains less exhausted. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, UbberSuggest or Ahrefs do the job nicely.

Ubersuggest – keyword research – “nike store near me”

Also, by looking at the SERP, you can check what type of content (blog, product page, guide, sales asset etc) top ranking website have published. This also gives you an idea about the type of posts you need to create.

Using AI to identify search intent

Now. let me trim down all of these into one prompt and get the same or even better results, in as little as 1 minute.

Workflow: Using AI for keyword research & search intent analysis

Define your primary keyword

• Choose the core topic: Example: “Best Nike shoes”

Use AI to generate related keywords

• Open ChatGPT (or a similar AI tool like Claude AI).
• Use your prompt:
  “Find related keywords for ‘best Nike shoes’ and prepare a table listing search intent for each of the results generated.”

ChatGPT – Prompt

• Review and refine the list based on relevance. You can add as many parameters as you want. However, my suggestion is to keep things simple and as not highly detailed. Excessive information could spoil the entire intent of finding intent.

Categorize the fetched keywords by search intent

• Now, you have clusters thet reflect the intention behind the query:
  • Transactional (e.g., “Buy Nike shoes”)
  • Informational (e.g., “Best Nike shoes for running”)
  • Navigational (e.g., “Nike official store”

Validate the data with SEO Tools (Highly recommended)

Please note using AI alone will not help you find the best results. Supporting and validating the data using traditional tools will.

• Enter these AI-generated keywords into tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner.
• Check their search volume, competition, and CPC data.

You may have to adjust the keyword list based on the information now gathered, based on what type of keyword you are targeting.

That’s all about the workflow detailing how to simplify the overall process of finding search intent, now faster and better using AI.

The next steps include incrporating the gathered keywords into your content strategy, identifying the best types of content matching the intents, writing the content, marketing it, tracking its performance and optimization.

I will cover them in seprate workflows.

Thanks for reading!