Intent-based search is the practice of designing pages around what a searcher is trying to accomplish rather than which keyword they typed. The same query — "WordPress hosting" — could come from someone learning what hosting is, someone comparing two providers, or someone ready to sign up. A page that wins one of those readers will often lose the other two. Intent-based optimisation starts with the question: which of those visitors is this page actually for?
The usual taxonomy is informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional intent. Informational queries want an explanation. Navigational queries are looking for a specific brand or page. Commercial queries are comparing options. Transactional queries are ready to buy or sign up. Search engines have gotten substantially better at separating these — the Search Engine Results Page for a commercial query looks visibly different from one for an informational query, with comparison-table snippets, review aggregations, and Shopping results crowding in.
I use intent-mapping during content audits. Most underperforming pages I see aren't bad pages — they're pages whose content doesn't match the intent of the query they're trying to rank for. A long educational article will struggle to rank for "buy X" no matter how well written. A short product page will struggle to rank for "how does X work" even with perfect schema.
The practical move is to look at the pages currently ranking for your target query, ask what intent they're serving, and decide whether your page belongs in that group. If it doesn't, the right answer is usually a different page, not a longer one.