How to tell which funnel stage a search belongs to

You can tell which funnel stage a search belongs to by reading two things: the words in the query and the page Google returns for it. Words like "what is" and "why" usually mean TOFU (top of funnel), where the person is still learning. Words like "vs," "best," "cost" and "how to choose" usually mean MOFU (middle of funnel), where they are comparing. Brand names, "near me," "pricing," "book" and "quote" usually mean BOFU (bottom of funnel), where they are ready to act.

Wording is a strong clue, not a rule. The same three words can come from a student, a shopper and a buyer, so you check the results page to see what kind of pages already serve the query, and you decide on the stage before anyone writes. That decision tells the writer what the page should answer and where it should send the reader next.

This guide gives you the signals, a classification table with 21 example queries for three business types, and the edge cases that most often get misfiled.

Why the stage matters before you write

A page written for the wrong stage fails in a predictable way. A "what is" reader who lands on a sales page leaves because nothing explains the basics. A ready buyer who lands on a long explainer has to dig for the price, the service area and the phone number. Both pages can rank and still produce nothing.

Assigning a stage first settles three choices: what the opening paragraph answers, how much background the page needs, and what the call to action is. If you are new to the three labels, start with what TOFU, MOFU and BOFU mean in search, then come back here to classify your own list.

Signal 1: the words in the query

Most queries carry a modifier that gives the stage away. Read the whole query, not just the topic word.

Two cautions. First, "best" can be BOFU when it carries a location ("best emergency plumber in Tampa"), because the person wants someone to call today. Second, "cost" queries often come from people who have already decided to buy and are checking budget, so they deserve a page that routes to a quote or pricing page, not just an explainer. Writing those pages well has its own article on pricing and cost pages.

Signal 2: what the results page shows

Search the query yourself in a private window and look at what already ranks. You are not trying to reverse-engineer Google's systems. You are checking what kind of page searchers currently get, which is a practical clue to what they want.

• Mostly guides, definitions and encyclopedia-style pages: the query reads as TOFU.
• Mostly comparison articles, buying guides and reviews: the query reads as MOFU.
• Mostly service pages, a map with local listings, product listings or brand homepages: the query reads as BOFU.
• A mix of all three: the query is ambiguous. See the edge cases below.

Results differ by location, device and account, so check from the area you serve and note the date you looked. If you can't run the check from your market, say so in your plan rather than guessing.

What AI Overviews do and don't tell you

It is tempting to treat an AI Overview as a sign that a query is "informational." Google's documentation doesn't support that. Google's page on AI features and your website says AI Overviews are shown "only when our systems determine that it is additive to classic Search, and as such, often don't trigger." It doesn't say they appear for one stage and not another, so their presence or absence is not a stage label.

What Google does document is that AI Overviews and AI Mode "may use a 'query fan-out' technique," issuing related searches across subtopics. In practice, that means a single question can pull in pages from more than one stage. The useful response is to make each page answer its own question clearly and link to the next stage. How AI systems read layered intent is covered in how AI understands search intent layers.

A classification table with 21 example queries

The table below uses three hypothetical businesses: a residential plumbing company (local service), a maker of industrial fuses selling to engineers (B2B), and an online running-shoe store (e-commerce). The stage column is the call we would make from wording alone; confirm each one against the results page in your own market.

Notice how the BOFU queries change by business. The fuse maker's start from a part number, because engineers often arrive with one already in hand. The plumbing company's are about location, urgency and reputation. Those patterns are explored further in how the content funnel differs by business type.

Edge cases: the same query, different stages

Some queries refuse to sit still. These are the common ones.

Bare topic words

"Tankless water heater" on its own could be a homeowner learning, a shopper comparing or a buyer looking for an installer. Check the results page. If it is mixed, give the head topic to a pillar or hub page that serves all three and links out by stage, rather than forcing one article to do everything.

"How to" queries

"How to fix a leaking faucet" is TOFU for a homeowner who wants to do it alone, but it can turn into BOFU halfway through the page when the job turns out harder than expected. The page should answer the how-to honestly and offer a clear next step for readers who decide to hire help.

Cost queries

"How much does a water heater cost" can come from someone budgeting a year out or someone with a cold shower this morning. Treat cost pages as late MOFU: explain the drivers, give ranges you can stand behind, and route to the quote form.

Comparison queries with brand names

"[Brand A] vs [Brand B]" is MOFU by wording but often very close to a purchase. Fair comparisons have their own rules, covered in comparison and "vs" pages done right.

Ambiguous or mixed queries

When a query has two common meanings, the results page usually shows both. You can serve one meaning well and say so in the opening line. The way AI systems deal with this is covered in how AI handles ambiguous queries.

A five-step routine for classifying your own list

1. Export the queries you care about: your Search Console queries by page, your sales team's most common questions, and the questions customers ask on calls.
2. Tag each query by wording using the pattern table above. Mark anything uncertain with a question mark rather than forcing a label.
3. Check the results page for every uncertain query and for a sample of the confident ones. Note the date and location of the check.
4. Assign one stage and one target page per query. If two queries want the same answer, they belong on the same page.
5. Count the stages. Most sites we inventory skew heavily to TOFU, and that often explains why a blog gets visits but few inquiries.

Step 5 feeds directly into a funnel content gap analysis, which turns the counts into a list of pages to write, fix or merge.

Common mistakes when labeling intent

• Labeling by topic instead of wording. "Water heaters" is a topic. "Water heater repair near me" is a stage.
• Treating every question as TOFU. "How much does it cost to hire a payroll provider" is a question, but the person asking it is shopping.
• Ignoring your own brand queries. Searches that include your name are among the most BOFU queries you have. Make sure a page answers each one directly.
• Writing a page per wording variation. Google's AI optimization guide says creating separate content for every variation, "doing so primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses," violates its scaled content abuse policy. Group variations that want the same answer.
• Never revisiting the label. Queries shift as products and markets change. Recheck a sample when you plan each new batch of content.

Conclusion

Identifying the stage of a search takes a few minutes per query: read the wording, check the results page, assign one stage and one page, and link each page to the next stage. Ignore AI Overviews as a label, because Google doesn't present them as one. No one can promise that a correctly labeled page will rank or bring a set number of leads, but a list sorted this way shows you which pages are missing. This classification is the first step in the method described in our guide to TOFU, MOFU and BOFU content strategy. If you want help building the map for your own site, our content marketing services start with customer-journey topic mapping. More guides are in our GEO and AEO Guide.

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