There’s so much to find out about search intent, from utilizing deep studying to deduce search intent by classifying textual content and breaking down SERP titles utilizing Pure Language Processing (NLP) strategies, to clustering based mostly on semantic relevance, with the advantages defined.

Not solely do we all know the advantages of deciphering search intent, however we even have a lot of strategies at our disposal for scale and automation.

So, why do we’d like one other article on automating search intent?

Search intent is ever extra necessary now that AI search has arrived.

Whereas extra was usually within the 10 blue hyperlinks search period, the other is true with AI search expertise, as these platforms usually search to attenuate the computing prices (per FLOP) in an effort to ship the service.

SERPs Nonetheless Comprise The Finest Insights For Search Intent

The strategies up to now contain doing your individual AI, that’s, getting the entire copy from titles of the rating content material for a given key phrase after which feeding it right into a neural community mannequin (which you must then construct and take a look at) or utilizing NLP to cluster key phrases.

What in case you don’t have time or the data to construct your individual AI or invoke the Open AI API?

Whereas cosine similarity has been touted as the reply to serving to search engine optimisation professionals navigate the demarcation of matters for taxonomy and website constructions, I nonetheless keep that search clustering by SERP outcomes is a far superior methodology.

That’s as a result of AI could be very eager to floor its outcomes on SERPs and for good cause – it’s modelled on consumer behaviors.

There may be one other approach that makes use of Google’s very personal AI to do the be just right for you, with out having to scrape all of the SERPs content material and construct an AI mannequin.

Let’s assume that Google ranks website URLs by the chance of the content material satisfying the consumer question in descending order. It follows that if the intent for 2 key phrases is similar, then the SERPs are prone to be comparable.

For years, many search engine optimisation professionals in contrast SERP outcomes for keywords to deduce shared (or shared) search intent to remain on high of core updates, so that is nothing new.

The worth-add right here is the automation and scaling of this comparability, providing each pace and larger precision.

How To Cluster Key phrases By Search Intent At Scale Utilizing Python (With Code)

Assuming you might have your SERPs leads to a CSV obtain, let’s import it into your Python pocket book.

1. Import The Record Into Your Python Pocket book

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

serps_input = pd.read_csv('knowledge/sej_serps_input.csv')
del serps_input['Unnamed: 0']
serps_input

Beneath is the SERPs file now imported right into a Pandas dataframe.

Picture from creator, April 2025

2. Filter Knowledge For Web page 1

We need to examine the Web page 1 outcomes of every SERP between key phrases.

We’ll cut up the dataframe into mini key phrase dataframes to run the filtering perform earlier than recombining right into a single dataframe, as a result of we need to filter on the key phrase stage:

# Break up 
serps_grpby_keyword = serps_input.groupby("key phrase")
k_urls = 15

# Apply Mix
def filter_k_urls(group_df):
    filtered_df = group_df.loc[group_df['url'].notnull()]
    filtered_df = filtered_df.loc[filtered_df['rank'] 
SERPs file imported into a Pandas dataframe.Picture from creator, April 2025

3. Convert Rating URLs To A String

As a result of there are extra SERP consequence URLs than key phrases, we have to compress these URLs right into a single line to characterize the key phrase’s SERP.

Right here’s how:


# convert outcomes to strings utilizing Break up Apply Mix 
filtserps_grpby_keyword = filtered_serps_df.groupby("key phrase")

def string_serps(df): 
   df['serp_string'] = ''.be part of(df['url'])
   return df # Mix strung_serps = filtserps_grpby_keyword.apply(string_serps) 

# Concatenate with preliminary knowledge body and clear 
strung_serps = pd.concat([strung_serps],axis=0) 
strung_serps = strung_serps[['keyword', 'serp_string']]#.head(30) 
strung_serps = strung_serps.drop_duplicates() 
strung_serps

Beneath reveals the SERP compressed right into a single line for every key phrase.

SERP compressed into single line for each keyword.Picture from creator, April 2025

4. Evaluate SERP Distance

To carry out the comparability, we now want each mixture of key phrase SERP paired with different pairs:


# align serps
def serps_align(ok, df):
    prime_df = df.loc[df.keyword == k]
    prime_df = prime_df.rename(columns = {"serp_string" : "serp_string_a", 'key phrase': 'keyword_a'})
    comp_df = df.loc[df.keyword != k].reset_index(drop=True)
    prime_df = prime_df.loc[prime_df.index.repeat(len(comp_df.index))].reset_index(drop=True)
    prime_df = pd.concat([prime_df, comp_df], axis=1)
    prime_df = prime_df.rename(columns = {"serp_string" : "serp_string_b", 'key phrase': 'keyword_b', "serp_string_a" : "serp_string", 'keyword_a': 'key phrase'})
    return prime_df

columns = ['keyword', 'serp_string', 'keyword_b', 'serp_string_b']
matched_serps = pd.DataFrame(columns=columns)
matched_serps = matched_serps.fillna(0)
queries = strung_serps.key phrase.to_list()

for q in queries:
    temp_df = serps_align(q, strung_serps)
    matched_serps = matched_serps.append(temp_df)

matched_serps

Compare SERP similarity.

The above reveals the entire key phrase SERP pair combos, making it prepared for SERP string comparability.

There isn’t a open-source library that compares checklist objects by order, so the perform has been written for you beneath.

The perform “serp_compare” compares the overlap of websites and the order of these websites between SERPs.


import py_stringmatching as sm
ws_tok = sm.WhitespaceTokenizer()

# Solely examine the highest k_urls outcomes 
def serps_similarity(serps_str1, serps_str2, ok=15):
    denom = ok+1
    norm = sum([2*(1/i - 1.0/(denom)) for i in range(1, denom)])
    #use to tokenize the URLs
    ws_tok = sm.WhitespaceTokenizer()
    #hold solely first ok URLs
    serps_1 = ws_tok.tokenize(serps_str1)[:k]
    serps_2 = ws_tok.tokenize(serps_str2)[:k]
    #get positions of matches 
    match = lambda a, b: [b.index(x)+1 if x in b else None for x in a]
    #positions intersections of kind [(pos_1, pos_2), ...]
    pos_intersections = [(i+1,j) for i,j in enumerate(match(serps_1, serps_2)) if j is not None] 
    pos_in1_not_in2 = [i+1 for i,j in enumerate(match(serps_1, serps_2)) if j is None]
    pos_in2_not_in1 = [i+1 for i,j in enumerate(match(serps_2, serps_1)) if j is None]
    
    a_sum = sum([abs(1/i -1/j) for i,j in pos_intersections])
    b_sum = sum([abs(1/i -1/denom) for i in pos_in1_not_in2])
    c_sum = sum([abs(1/i -1/denom) for i in pos_in2_not_in1])

    intent_prime = a_sum + b_sum + c_sum
    intent_dist = 1 - (intent_prime/norm)
    return intent_dist

# Apply the perform
matched_serps['si_simi'] = matched_serps.apply(lambda x: serps_similarity(x.serp_string, x.serp_string_b), axis=1)

# That is what you get
matched_serps[['keyword', 'keyword_b', 'si_simi']]

Overlap of sites and the order of those sites between SERPs.

Now that the comparisons have been executed, we will begin clustering key phrases.

We might be treating any key phrases which have a weighted similarity of 40% or extra.


# group key phrases by search intent
simi_lim = 0.4

# be part of search quantity
keysv_df = serps_input[['keyword', 'search_volume']].drop_duplicates()
keysv_df.head()

# append subject vols
keywords_crossed_vols = serps_compared.merge(keysv_df, on = 'key phrase', how = 'left')
keywords_crossed_vols = keywords_crossed_vols.rename(columns = {'key phrase': 'subject', 'keyword_b': 'key phrase',
                                                                'search_volume': 'topic_volume'})

# sim si_simi
keywords_crossed_vols.sort_values('topic_volume', ascending = False)

# strip NAN
keywords_filtered_nonnan = keywords_crossed_vols.dropna()
keywords_filtered_nonnan

We now have the potential subject identify, key phrases SERP similarity, and search volumes of every.
Clustering keywords.

You’ll be aware that key phrase and keyword_b have been renamed to subject and key phrase, respectively.

Now we’re going to iterate over the columns within the dataframe utilizing the lambda method.

The lambda method is an environment friendly technique to iterate over rows in a Pandas dataframe as a result of it converts rows to an inventory versus the .iterrows() perform.

Right here goes:


queries_in_df = checklist(set(matched_serps['keyword'].to_list()))
topic_groups = {}

def dict_key(dicto, keyo):
    return keyo in dicto

def dict_values(dicto, vala):
    return any(vala in val for val in dicto.values())

def what_key(dicto, vala):
    for ok, v in dicto.objects():
            if vala in v:
                return ok

def find_topics(si, keyw, topc):
    if (si >= simi_lim):

        if (not dict_key(sim_topic_groups, keyw)) and (not dict_key(sim_topic_groups, topc)): 

            if (not dict_values(sim_topic_groups, keyw)) and (not dict_values(sim_topic_groups, topc)): 
                sim_topic_groups[keyw] = [keyw] 
                sim_topic_groups[keyw] = [topc] 
                if dict_key(non_sim_topic_groups, keyw):
                    non_sim_topic_groups.pop(keyw)
                if dict_key(non_sim_topic_groups, topc): 
                    non_sim_topic_groups.pop(topc)
            if (dict_values(sim_topic_groups, keyw)) and (not dict_values(sim_topic_groups, topc)): 
                d_key = what_key(sim_topic_groups, keyw)
                sim_topic_groups[d_key].append(topc)
                if dict_key(non_sim_topic_groups, keyw):
                    non_sim_topic_groups.pop(keyw)
                if dict_key(non_sim_topic_groups, topc): 
                    non_sim_topic_groups.pop(topc)
            if (not dict_values(sim_topic_groups, keyw)) and (dict_values(sim_topic_groups, topc)): 
                d_key = what_key(sim_topic_groups, topc)
                sim_topic_groups[d_key].append(keyw)
                if dict_key(non_sim_topic_groups, keyw):
                    non_sim_topic_groups.pop(keyw)
                if dict_key(non_sim_topic_groups, topc): 
                    non_sim_topic_groups.pop(topc) 

        elif (keyw in sim_topic_groups) and (not topc in sim_topic_groups): 
            sim_topic_groups[keyw].append(topc)
            sim_topic_groups[keyw].append(keyw)
            if keyw in non_sim_topic_groups:
                non_sim_topic_groups.pop(keyw)
            if topc in non_sim_topic_groups: 
                non_sim_topic_groups.pop(topc)
        elif (not keyw in sim_topic_groups) and (topc in sim_topic_groups):
            sim_topic_groups[topc].append(keyw)
            sim_topic_groups[topc].append(topc)
            if keyw in non_sim_topic_groups:
                non_sim_topic_groups.pop(keyw)
            if topc in non_sim_topic_groups: 
                non_sim_topic_groups.pop(topc)
        elif (keyw in sim_topic_groups) and (topc in sim_topic_groups):
            if len(sim_topic_groups[keyw]) > len(sim_topic_groups[topc]):
                sim_topic_groups[keyw].append(topc) 
                [sim_topic_groups[keyw].append(x) for x in sim_topic_groups.get(topc)] 
                sim_topic_groups.pop(topc)

        elif len(sim_topic_groups[keyw]) 

Beneath reveals a dictionary containing all of the key phrases clustered by search intent into numbered teams:

{1: ['fixed rate isa',
  'isa rates',
  'isa interest rates',
  'best isa rates',
  'cash isa',
  'cash isa rates'],
 2: ['child savings account', 'kids savings account'],
 3: ['savings account',
  'savings account interest rate',
  'savings rates',
  'fixed rate savings',
  'easy access savings',
  'fixed rate bonds',
  'online savings account',
  'easy access savings account',
  'savings accounts uk'],
 4: ['isa account', 'isa', 'isa savings']}

Let’s stick that right into a dataframe:


topic_groups_lst = []

for ok, l in topic_groups_numbered.objects():
    for v in l:
        topic_groups_lst.append([k, v])

topic_groups_dictdf = pd.DataFrame(topic_groups_lst, columns=['topic_group_no', 'keyword'])
                                
topic_groups_dictdf
Topic group dataframe.Picture from creator, April 2025

The search intent teams above present a superb approximation of the key phrases inside them, one thing that an search engine optimisation skilled would probably obtain.

Though we solely used a small set of key phrases, the tactic can clearly be scaled to 1000’s (if no more).

Activating The Outputs To Make Your Search Higher

In fact, the above might be taken additional utilizing neural networks, processing the rating content material for extra correct clusters and cluster group naming, as a number of the industrial merchandise on the market already do.

For now, with this output, you’ll be able to:

  • Incorporate this into your individual search engine optimisation dashboard programs to make your developments and SEO reporting extra significant.
  • Construct higher paid search campaigns by structuring your Google Advertisements accounts by search intent for the next High quality Rating.
  • Merge redundant side ecommerce search URLs.
  • Construction a purchasing website’s taxonomy in line with search intent as an alternative of a typical product catalog.

I’m positive there are extra purposes that I haven’t talked about – be happy to touch upon any necessary ones that I’ve not already talked about.

In any case, your search engine optimisation key phrase analysis simply bought that little bit extra scalable, correct, and faster!

Obtain the full code here for your own use.

Extra Sources:


Featured Picture: Buch and Bee/Shutterstock


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