A marketer finds two queries: "What is pipeline management?" and "How do I set up pipeline stages for a B2B sales team?" What is the key difference between them?

The key difference is user intent. "What is pipeline management?" indicates an informational intent; the user is seeking a definition or general understanding. "How do I set up pipeline stages for a B2B sales team?" shows a transactional or commercial investigation intent, as the user is looking for practical steps or solutions to a specific problem. While search volume, keyword difficulty, and character length are important SEO metrics, they don't describe the underlying goal or purpose behind a user's search query in the same way user intent does.