How to define SERP intent and 'source type' for better analysis - Search Engine Land

SERP analysis coupled with your keyword research is a staple of any modern SEO campaign.

Analyzing search intent is already a process within this. But when it comes to SERP analysis, all too often I see reports that stop at classifying a result by its intent – and that’s it.

We know that for queries with multiple common interpretations, Google works to provide a diversified results page with differentiations often being:

• Result intent (commercial, informational).
• Business type (national result, local result).
• Aggregators and comparison sites.
• Page type (static or blog).

And then when planning content we might develop a strategy based on Google ranking some informational pieces on Page 1, so we’ll create informational pieces too.

We may also use a tool to “aggregate” metrics on the first page and create artificial keyword difficulty scores.

This is where this strategy falls down, and in my opinion, will continue to show diminishing returns in the future.

This is because the majority of these analysis pieces don’t acknowledge or take into account source type. I personally believe that this is because the Search Quality Rater Guidelines that have led to E-A-T, YMYL, and page quality becoming a major part of our day-to-day workings don’t actually use the term source type, but it does talk about assessing and analyzing sources for things like misinformation or bias.

When we start to look at source types, we also need to look at and understand the concepts of quality...

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