One of the more useful things you can do with Google Search Console is identify search queries where your website is already appearing in Google, but where you might be missing opportunities to attract potential customers.

I’m not talking about finding more keywords to stuff into a page, or chasing search volume for the sake of generating traffic. I’m talking about identifying searches where someone might actually be interested in buying your products, hiring your company, booking your services, or otherwise becoming a customer.

These are often referred to as high-intent keywords, and while not every search containing a commercial term indicates someone is ready to spend money, these queries can be especially valuable for businesses that rely on organic search to generate revenue.

The problem is that most website owners, and quite a few SEOs, spend their time in Google Search Console looking at clicks, impressions, and average positions without doing much to segment the actual queries generating those metrics.

Google Search Console has a built-in feature that makes this kind of analysis relatively easy: Regular Expressions, or RegEx.

With a single RegEx filter, we can pull together hundreds or even thousands of searches containing terms that suggest commercial interest, purchasing research, local service needs, urgency, pricing questions, and more.

And because we’re pulling this information from Google Search Console, we’re not looking at hypothetical keywords from a third-party SEO tool. We’re looking at actual searches where Google has already displayed pages from your website.

How to Find Commercial and High-Intent Keywords in Google Search Console

Before getting started, you’ll need access to Google Search Console for your website. If you haven’t configured it yet, you’ll need to add and verify your website first, then allow Google time to collect performance data.

Once your website has data available, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Search Console. Select the property for the website you want to analyze. If you manage multiple websites, double-check that you’ve selected the correct property.
2. Navigate to Performance > Search Results. This report shows how your website performs in Google’s organic search results, including clicks, impressions, click-through rates, and average search positions.
3. Adjust your date range. I recommend starting with the last three months of data. If your website doesn’t generate much search traffic, you might want to expand that to six months or longer to capture more queries.
4. Click Add Filter and select Query. This lets you filter the report based on the words and phrases people use when searching Google.
5. Change the filter to Custom (regex). Make sure you’re using the matching option rather than the option that excludes matches. RegEx allows us to search for multiple words and phrases using a single expression instead of filtering one keyword at a time.
6. Copy and paste the following RegEx expression:

\b(buy|buying|purchase|purchasing|shop|shopping|order|ordering|checkout|for sale|on sale|sale|seller|sellers|vendor|vendors|supplier|suppliers|dealer|dealers|retailer|retailers|distributor|distributors|wholesale|bulk|store|stores|stockist|price|prices|pricing|cost|costs|rate|rates|fee|fees|quote|quotes|quotation|estimate|estimates|how much|affordable|cheap|cheapest|low cost|budget|discount|discounts|deal|deals|coupon|coupons|promo|promotion|promotions|offer|offers|special|specials|financing|payment|payments|subscription|subscriptions|plan|plans|package|packages|hire|hiring|for hire|contractor|contractors|professional|professionals|expert|experts|specialist|specialists|provider|providers|company|companies|agency|agencies|consultant|consultants|service|services|repair|repairs|replace|replacement|installation|install|installer|installers|maintenance|cleaning|book|booking|reserve|reservation|reservations|schedule|appointment|appointments|consultation|consultations|demo|trial|sign up|subscribe|get started|apply|enroll|register|near me|nearby|near|nearest|closest|local|around me|in my area|open now|open today|24 hour|24 hours|24/7|same day|same-day|next day|next-day|emergency|urgent|asap|available|availability|in stock|instock|inventory|shipping|delivery|deliver|delivered|pickup|pick up|pick-up|best|top rated|top-rated|highest rated|recommended|recommendation|recommendations|review|reviews|rating|ratings|compare|comparison|vs|versus|alternative|alternatives|competitor|competitors|similar to|worth it|better than|pros and cons|rent|rental|renting|lease|leasing|used|second hand|preowned|pre-owned|refurbished|location|locations|where to buy|where can i buy|where can i get|looking for|close by|near my location|near my house|near my home|in my neighborhood|near here|get a quote|request a quote|free quote|instant quote|online quote|get an estimate|free estimate|price list|price range|starting price|starting at|hourly rate|monthly cost|per month|lowest price|get a consultation|free consultation|book online|schedule online|accepting clients|taking new clients|request demo|book a demo|schedule a demo|free trial|talk to sales|contact sales|sales representative|coupon code|promo code|discount code|voucher|rebate|clearance|price match|where to order|where to purchase|who sells|where to get|authorized dealer|official store|ready to ship|preorder|pre-order|backorder|back order|restock|restocked|free shipping|express shipping|overnight shipping|next day delivery|same day delivery|curbside pickup|24-hour|24 hr|after hours|open late|open weekends|walk in|walk-in|finance|financing options|payment plan|monthly payments|buy now pay later|book now|reserve now|rent online|schedule service|same day appointment)\b

Note: The above RegEx is similar to one proposed by Edward Sturm on LinkedIn, until I saw his post we had kept ours secret on our “Dark Site” and decided to publish this more comprehensive list, though most of our additions will have lower search volume, they come from real examples of valuable keywords in Google Ads.

Finally, click Apply.

Your Search Results report will now be filtered to queries matching the expression. Instead of looking through a mixture of informational, navigational, and commercial searches, you can focus on searches containing terms that might indicate a potential customer.

The RegEx looks for a fairly broad selection of words and phrases, including:

• Purchasing intent: Buy, purchase, order, for sale, wholesale, and similar terms.
• Pricing research: Price, cost, quotes, estimates, discounts, and financing.
• Service needs: Hire, contractor, professional, installation, repair, and maintenance.
• Local searches: Near me, nearby, local, closest, and location-related terms.
• Urgency and availability: Emergency, same day, open now, available, and in stock.
• Commercial research: Best, reviews, comparisons, alternatives, and recommendations.
• Booking and lead generation: Appointment, consultation, reservation, demo, booking, and scheduling.

Of course, not every query that matches these terms represents someone ready to make a purchase. A person searching for product reviews may still be researching their options, and someone looking for a repair guide might have no intention of hiring anyone.

That’s why I recommend treating this as a method for finding potential commercial-intent keywords, not as a definitive classification of every query returned.

How to Use These Keywords to Improve Your SEO

Finding the keywords is only the first step. What you do with the information is where this exercise can become valuable.

I like to start by looking at keywords that generate a reasonable number of impressions but relatively few clicks. These are searches where Google is already showing your website, but searchers aren’t clicking through very often.

Sometimes the problem is simply that the page ranks too low to attract much traffic. Other times, the page might rank reasonably well but its title or content doesn’t adequately address what someone is searching for.

For example, imagine a roofing contractor discovers that Google is showing their website for searches about the cost of roof replacement in their city.

If the page Google is displaying only discusses general roofing services and never addresses replacement costs, that’s a pretty obvious opportunity to improve the content.

You can investigate this by clicking on an individual query in Search Console and then selecting the Pages tab to see which URLs are receiving impressions for that search.

From there, review the page and determine whether it actually satisfies the searcher’s intent.

Some potential improvements include:

• Rewriting the page title and H1 to better communicate the topic and align with relevant search queries.
• Incorporating the primary keyword naturally into the beginning of the page’s content and throughout relevant sections.
• Adding helpful information about pricing, purchasing options, product availability, service areas, or other subjects that appear in the queries.
• Creating new pages for important commercial topics that aren’t adequately addressed by existing content.
• Adding relevant internal links from related pages to help users and search engines discover the improved content.

When creating a new page, I generally recommend using a short, descriptive URL slug that reflects its primary topic. However, don’t start changing existing URLs simply because you discovered a new keyword. That’s rarely necessary and can introduce additional SEO problems if handled incorrectly.

One More Thing to Keep in Mind

Google Search Console doesn’t provide a complete list of every search that resulted in an impression for your website. Some queries are omitted for privacy reasons, and the reports have additional data limitations.

Also, this particular RegEx is intentionally broad. Depending on your business, you may want to modify it to focus on a specific type of intent, such as pricing, local searches, or people looking to hire a service provider.

Nevertheless, this is a quick way to uncover potentially valuable search queries using data you already have access to, without purchasing another SEO tool.

And perhaps more importantly, it can help shift your focus away from simply generating more organic traffic and toward attracting visitors who are more likely to become customers.