How do you build search intent maps for different industries?

Short answer: An intent map is a table that splits an industry's query universe into intent classes (informational, comparative, transactional, local, brand) and ties each class to a page type. The method is identical across industries; what changes is the weight of each class.

Steps to build the map

• Collect the query universe: keyword tools, Search Console, site search and real questions asked to the sales team
• Assign each query to an intent class; for ambiguous ones use SERP evidence: which page types rank for the query?
• Tie each intent class to a page type: guide, comparison, category, product, case story, FAQ
• Apply the industry weighting: e-commerce is dominated by transactional and comparative queries, B2B services by informational and trust queries, local services by location queries

The map is not static: new queries and question patterns seen in AI chats are added continuously. The most common mistake is answering every query with a blog post; the map prevents exactly that by deriving the page type from the intent.