Informational Query
An informational query is a search made to learn something, like how a thing works or what a word means, rather than to reach a certain site or buy. It's one of three kinds of web search in Andrei Broder's 2002 paper, grouped by what the searcher wants to do: navigational, informational and transactional.
Source: Andrei Broder, A taxonomy of web search, ACM SIGIR Forum 36(2), 2002, checked October 29, 2026
What Informational Query means for your business
You'll also see it called an informational search or informational intent. Broder wrote that the intent behind a search can't be read from its words with certainty.
For a business, these are the questions people ask before they're ready to call anyone: what a home inspection covers, whether a fence needs a permit, how long a repair usually takes. The person asking hasn't picked a business yet. Pages written to answer them are sometimes called explainer content. We'd answer the ones your customers ask you, in plain words, on the page for the service each question leads to.
We'd group a handful of related questions on one page rather than a thin post for each.
If buyers research your kind of work long before they call and your site skips their early questions, answering those questions well is where our answer engine work begins.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview both gave the three-way split from Broder's paper without naming him. The Overview cited SEO tool and agency blogs. ChatGPT cited nothing.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
Related terms in answers and how content gets used
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