Every search has a goal behind it: to learn something, find a specific website, compare options, or buy or sign up. The main types of keywords in SEO reflect those four goals.

To understand the goal behind a search, look at the search results for that keyword. Check the pages that rank and any AI-generated answers, like a Google AI Overview or an AI Mode response. The kinds of results that show up give you a good idea of what searchers want, and what your page needs to offer them. 

Knowing a keyword’s type tells you what kind of page to create. If your page doesn’t match what searchers want, it’s unlikely to rank, no matter how well it’s written.

In this guide, we’ll walk through each type with examples, show you how to check a keyword’s intent, and then cover how to optimize for each type and track your rankings with Semrush.

What are the different types of keywords?

There are four main types of keywords in SEO: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. 

• Informational: The searcher wants to learn something
• Navigational: The searcher wants to reach a specific website or page 
• Commercial: The searcher wants to compare options before deciding
• Transactional: The searcher is ready to act, like buying, booking, or signing up 

These types describe search intent, which is the reason someone typed the query and what they hope to get from the results. That might be an explanation, a brand’s homepage, a comparison, or a page where they can buy or sign up.

You’ll also see keywords grouped in other ways, like local, branded, or long-tail keywords. Local keywords relate to a particular location, branded keywords include a brand name, and long-tail keywords are usually longer, more specific phrases that fewer people search for. 

A keyword can be local, branded, or long-tail and still fall into one of the four types. For example, “sandwich places near me that deliver” is both a local keyword and a transactional one.