Search intent
Search intent is the reason behind a search: what the person wants to learn, compare, buy or reach when they type it.
Search intent is the reason behind a search. Two people can type almost the same words and want different things, and search engines try hard to work out which one you mean. In SEO it's usually a label you put on each keyword, so you know what kind of page has a chance of ranking for it.
It matters because a page that doesn't fit the intent rarely ranks, however good it is. If everyone searching a phrase wants a list of products, a long essay won't win that search.
The four labels
SEO tools usually sort searches into four groups. Informational searches want to learn something. Navigational ones want a particular site. Commercial searches compare options before buying. Transactional ones are ready to buy now.
The quickest way to read the intent is to look at what already ranks. For example, if you search "cold brew ratio" and the top results are all short recipes, that's the intent Google has settled on. A product page from Fernhill Coffee won't break into that list, but a clear recipe with a link to its cold brew beans might.
Intent in AI search
AI platforms read intent too, and they answer each kind differently. A learning question often gets an explanation that names no brands. A comparing question gets a list of brands with reasons. A buying question on ChatGPT can come back with product cards and prices.
That changes which prompts you should track. If most of your prompts are informational, your visibility will look low even if you're named often where people choose. Questions to AI platforms also tend to be longer than searches, so they carry more of the intent in the words: "best decaf beans for a cafetière under £15" tells the platform far more than "decaf beans" ever told a search engine.
In AnswerOrbit
When you Generate prompts in Topics, you pick the mix of learning, comparing and buying questions. For prompts you write yourself, mark the intent with a tag and filter your numbers by it. See Topics and prompts.