Navigational Query
A navigational query is a search for one particular website, like typing a company's name to get to its site. Andrei Broder coined the label in 2002, in a paper that sorted web searches into three kinds. He wrote that the searcher already has the site in mind, from a past visit or because they assume it exists.
Source: Andrei Broder, A taxonomy of web search, ACM SIGIR Forum 36(2), 2002, checked October 29, 2026
What Navigational Query means for your business
Google's guidelines for its search raters call the same thing a Website query, and say the one page the person wants is the query's target. SEO tools tag keywords with Broder's word. Broder's point still holds: a navigational search usually has one right answer. He wrote that a page one click away from it, like a list of links, is acceptable but less desirable.
For a business, the navigational searches are the ones with your name in them, and the right answer is your website or your Google Business Profile. When a directory, a review site or an old listing comes up first, we'd call that close to the one-click-away result Broder described. We'd search your name, with and without your town, and note what shows first.
People ask AI tools for a business by name, too, like asking ChatGPT for your hours or your phone number. We'd ask a few of those questions and check each answer against what's true, starting with hours, phone and address.
When people search your business name and land on a directory, an old address or a competitor's ad, getting your name to lead to your own site is the first thing we'd straighten out.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview cited an SEO tool's glossary, Moz and agency pages, and gave a share-of-searches figure credited to a 2008 study. ChatGPT used big-brand logins as examples and cited nothing.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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