GUIDE · 5 MIN READ
Reading search intent: informational to transactional
Every question carries an intent. Here is how to group a topic by intent and match each cluster to the right page.
Every question carries an intent
Two questions can share every keyword and still want completely different pages. "what is sourdough bread" wants a definition. "where to buy sourdough starter" wants a shop. Search intent is the difference, and matching it is most of on-page SEO.
CuriosityGraph tags each cluster with an intent — informational, definitional, comparison, how-to, objection, or transactional — so you can see the shape of a market at a glance instead of reading a thousand queries by hand.
Match intent to page type
- Definitional / informational → guides, glossaries, explainers. Rank with depth and clarity.
- How-to → step-by-step tutorials, ideally with an FAQ block for the sub-questions.
- Comparison → versus pages and comparison tables. High commercial value.
- Objection → the "is X worth it / is X bad for you" questions. Answer honestly; these convert skeptics.
- Transactional → product, pricing, and category pages. Don't bury these under a blog post.
Read the map, then build
Group a topic by intent and the content strategy stops being guesswork. You can see, in one view, where the market wants to learn, where it wants to compare, and where it wants to buy — and you can staff each with the right page instead of forcing one article to serve all three. Open the full question map below to see a real topic sorted this way.