Transactional Query
A transactional query is a search from someone who wants to do something online, like buy, book, download or sign up, rather than just read. Andrei Broder used the term in his 2002 paper on kinds of web search for searches where someone wants to reach a site "where further interaction will happen", such as shopping.
Source: Andrei Broder, A taxonomy of web search, ACM SIGIR Forum 36(2), 2002, checked October 29, 2026
What Transactional Query means for your business
Broder also wrote that results for these searches were very hard to judge, because what matters to the buyer, like price or speed of service, was usually out of a search engine's view. Google's rater guidelines have a close cousin they call a Do query, where the person wants "to accomplish a goal or engage in an activity", like downloading something or paying a parking ticket.
"Transactional keyword" is a label from SEO tools. Semrush, for one, labels a search transactional when the person is ready to buy or subscribe, and its examples include a restaurants-near-me search. Broder drew the line more narrowly: if the shopping happens off the web, he wrote, the search is probably informational. Google's rater guidelines put searches for nearby places in a separate kind they call Visit-in-person.
For a local business the searches to watch are the ones that end in a call or a booking. It doesn't matter what a tool calls them. The person has mostly decided and wants the next step fast. We'd put what you do and how to book near the top of each service page where that person lands.
If buyers who are ready to book can't find your hours, area or booking link quickly, getting those facts onto the pages people land on is part of our answer engine work.
Sources: Google, Search Quality Rater Guidelines (September 11, 2025), sections 12.7.2 and 12.7.4; Semrush, What Is Keyword Intent? An Overview & How to Identify It (November 18, 2024), checked October 29, 2026
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview gave the search meaning from an e-commerce software blog and two research papers, then added the database meaning, which filled most of the page below. ChatGPT gave the search meaning with brand-name 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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