Commercial Intent
Also known as: Buying intent, Transactional intent
Whether the query behind a visit is attached to a decision somebody is about to make, and therefore to money somebody is about to spend.
Commercial intent describes queries that sit close to a purchase or hiring decision: comparisons, pricing, alternatives, vendor selection, "is it worth it". These queries carry money because the person asking is choosing rather than learning.
At the property level the useful measure is the share of impressions and clicks landing on intent-carrying queries, rather than any individual query. That share is what distinguishes a reference site from a commercial asset with the same traffic.
Intent is inferred from a few words, not observed. It holds up reasonably in aggregate and badly for individuals. It is also systematically under-reported: the rarest, highest-intent queries are exactly the ones search reporting is most likely to withhold, so the measured share understates the real one.