What is a Commercial Query?
A commercial query is a search query used by visitors who want to purchase a product or service. However, these visitors still require additional information about the product or service and have not yet fully decided whether to purchase it or where to purchase it.
You can think of commercial queries as queries used by people researching a specific product or service or range of products and services. For example, a visitor researching the type of mobile phone to purchase or the best country to fly to for a weekend getaway.
Visitors typically seek deals, quotes, and recommendations when searching for commercial keywords. They also compare prices. So, commercial queries usually include words like best, compare, affordable, and where to buy. For example:
- Best budget laptops under $500
- Affordable furniture stores near me
- Best deals on Samsung Galaxy S23
- Compare car insurance quotes online
- Compare top-rated laptops for students
- Where to buy organic coffee beans online
- Top-rated noise-canceling headphones 2025
- Affordable web hosting plans for small businesses
It is common for visitors to attempt multiple similar searches while using commercial queries. For example, a visitor looking to purchase laptops at bargain prices may search for multiple queries, including:
- Best laptops
- Best budget laptops
- Best budget laptops under $500
- Compare affordable laptops for college
- Affordable Lenovo laptops under $500
Commercial queries are one of the four types of search queries. The other three are:
Importance of Commercial Queries
Commercial queries are important because they indicate that the user is considering a transaction. The visitor is less likely to purchase at that point, but they plan to do so later.
Commercial queries are used by visitors in the consideration or decision-making stage of their buying journey. They are not ready to buy, but this is the point at which they usually decide on what to buy. Once they complete these queries, they use transactional queries to determine where to buy.
However, this is not definite, as some visitors may decide where to buy even while using commercial queries. Google typically returns product pages on its search results page for commercial queries. Visitors usually arrive on these pages when comparing prices, and some may return to the site to get the item.
Bloggers, businesses, and marketers target commercial queries to attract potential customers using search engine optimization (SEO) and paid advertising. Some sites even capture the visitor’s details during the commercial querying phase or store cookies on their device and then target them with pay-per-click (PPC) ads.
Relationship Between Informational, Commercial, and Transactional Keywords
Commercial queries are in between informational and transactional queries. You can consider them the link between informational and transactional queries as they are used by visitors who seek additional information about a product or service they are considering purchasing.
So, a visitor looking to purchase a product or service will begin their buying journey with an informational query. Once they have done so, they will switch to commercial queries before finalizing their buying journey with transactional queries.
For example, a visitor looking to purchase a mobile device may begin their search with generic informational queries like:
- How to choose a smartphone
- Top smartphone brands
- Pros and cons of iPhones
Let us assume they have decided to buy an iPhone, so they continue with more specific informational queries like:
- iPhone 15 vs. iPhone 16
- iPhone 16 features
Once they have decided to go with the iPhone 16, they switch to commercial queries to determine which iPhone 16 models to purchase. So, they could search for keywords like:
- Best iPhone 16 models
- Compare iPhone 16 models
Finally, if they have decided to buy the iPhone 16 Plus, they will switch to using transactional queries like:
- iPhone 16 Plus price
- iPhone 16 Plus deals near me
How to Identify Commercial Keywords
Commercial keywords may be complex to identify because they are between informational and transactional keywords. Some may mistake them for informational keywords, while others mistake them for transactional keywords.
Multiple keyword research tools have options for identifying a keyword’s search intent, so you should check whether your tool has such capability.
You may also prompt Content AI with the queries and ask it to specify its search intent. For example, let us assume we can feed Content AI with several keywords and ask whether they are informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational.
You can also upload multiple queries and ask Content AI what type of queries they are.
It will then return with a relevant answer.
