An informational keyword is a search term used by someone who wants an answer or an explanation, not a product or a supplier yet. “How long does a boiler service take”, “what is a lasting power of attorney” and “how to repoint a brick wall” are all informational: the searcher wants to understand something first.
How informational keywords work
Search engines try to work out the purpose behind each query, known as search intent. Informational searches sit alongside navigational ones (finding a particular site), commercial ones (comparing options before buying) and transactional ones (ready to act). The words in the query usually give it away: how, what, why, when, guide, ideas, examples, meaning, and “can I” or “do I need” questions.
Google reflects that purpose in the results it shows. For an informational term you will typically see guides, explainers, featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, videos and, at the time of writing (October 2026), often an AI Overview at the top. A service page selling the thing being asked about rarely ranks for these, because it does not answer the question.
Many informational searches are long and specific, which is why they overlap with question keywords. Some are short and broad, such as “inheritance tax”, where the intent is mostly to learn but a few searchers may want a solicitor.
Why it matters
Informational searches are where most buying journeys begin. A homeowner in Bristol who searches “do I need planning permission for a loft conversion” is months away from hiring anyone, but the firm whose page answers that question clearly is the one they remember, and possibly the one they ring later. For B2B and professional services in the UK, where clients research for weeks before getting in touch, answering these questions well is often how a firm becomes credible before the first call.
These pages also do structural work. A good explainer earns links from forums and other sites more easily than a sales page, and it gives you natural places to link through to the services that make money. AI-generated answers also link to source pages, and a page that answers a real question precisely gives them something worth citing.
The honest caveat is that informational traffic converts at a lower rate than commercial traffic, and a growing share of simple questions are answered on the results page itself. Judge these pages on whether they bring the right readers and move some of them closer to an enquiry, not on raw visits.
Common mistakes
- Targeting an informational term with a sales page. If Google shows guides for the query, a page that pitches your service will struggle to rank for it.
- Writing for topics nobody in your market asks about. A heating engineer writing about global energy policy attracts readers who will never hire a heating engineer.
- Burying the answer. Readers and search engines want the answer near the top, then the detail.
- No route onward. An explainer that never links to the relevant service or next step wastes the trust it built.
- Several posts answering the same question. This splits signals between pages and causes keyword cannibalisation.
How to act on it
List the questions customers ask you on the phone, by email and at the point of sale. Check how each is phrased in search, look at what currently ranks, and group close variations so one page answers each distinct question. Group related answers around the service they lead to, so each guide links to it naturally, much as a topic cluster does.
Write the answer in the first paragraph, then explain the detail, the exceptions and the UK specifics such as regulations, costs in pounds or seasonal timing. End with a clear, relevant next step. Planning which questions to answer, on which page and in what order is the core of the content SEO and strategy work I do.