A navigational search is when a search is actually an effort to access a specific website or webpage. The user typically knows the site name or brand that he/she wants and employs the search engine as a shortcut. For instance, if a person enters the terms New York Times or NYT into the search text field to access the New York Times website, that is a navigational query. The variation here is that when individuals are looking for information or even purchasing something, they will likely be employing either an informational or transactional query.