How to Do Keyword Research

01What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the phrases potential customers type into search engines and deciding which of them to target. It is the first step of SEO work, because this list determines which page gets written, which heading gets chosen and which ad keyword gets a bid.

The goal of research is not to find the most-searched keyword but the keyword that is most valuable for you. A phrase searched thousands of times a month with no buying intent can bring in less business than one searched only a few dozen times a month that directly asks for a quote.

If you do not yet know the general logic of SEO, take a look at our What is SEO guide first. This article focuses on how to build a target keyword list.

02Search Intent: The First Thing to Check

Two searches on the same topic can want completely different things. Someone typing “how does a boiler work” is looking for information; someone typing “boiler repair phone number” wants to call someone today. Google knows this difference and shapes the results page by intent.

The easiest way to understand search intent is to type the keyword into Google and look at the first page. If the first results are guides, a category page will struggle for that keyword; if they are product pages, a long blog post will.

03Volume, Competition and Value

Once you have determined intent, you weigh each keyword on three criteria. None of them alone is enough to make a decision.

Search Volume

This is how many times on average a keyword is searched per month. The volume tools give is an estimate and is usually shown as a range; it should not be read as an absolute number. For seasonal businesses, looking at the monthly distribution is more meaningful than the annual average.

Competition

To understand organic competition, study the sites on the first page: are there big brand sites, comprehensive guides and long-established domains, or weak and outdated pages? The competition column in Keyword Planner shows advertising competition, not organic difficulty; this distinction is often confused.

Value to the Business

Can the keyword bring you customers? Is it directly related to your product or service? On the advertising side, a high estimated cost per click is a good sign that the keyword has high commercial value.

04What Is a Long-Tail Keyword?

Long-tail keywords are more specific phrases made up of three or more words. “Shoes” is a short-tail keyword; “women's waterproof winter boots size 8” is long-tail.

Taken one by one, long-tail phrases have low volume, but together they make up a large share of searches. They also have less competition and the user's intent is clearer, so their conversion rate is usually higher.

For new sites and small businesses, the most efficient strategy is to first appear for long-tail phrases with clear intent and expand toward more general keywords as authority builds up.

05The Research Process Step by Step

The process below can be applied to a service business and to an e-commerce site alike. Working in a spreadsheet is the easiest way to keep the list organized.

1. Write down the main topics: List the products and services you sell as 5–15 headings, using the words your customers use.
2. Collect customer questions: Note the questions asked most often by phone, by message and in the store; these are ready-made content topics.
3. Use Google suggestions: Record the autocomplete suggestions that appear as you type in the search box, the “People also ask” box and the related searches at the bottom of the page.
4. Expand with Keyword Planner: This tool in your Google Ads account provides keyword ideas and estimated volume ranges.
5. Check Search Console data: If your site is live, the queries that already get you impressions are the quickest keywords to win.
6. Study the results page: Search each candidate keyword on Google and verify intent and competition by eye.
7. Group and assign to pages: Put keywords with the same intent on one page; give each page one main keyword and a few secondary phrases.
8. Prioritize: Start with the keywords that have high value and manageable competition.

06Free Tools You Can Use

Paid SEO tools offer larger databases and competitor analysis, but it is entirely possible to build a meaningful list with free tools at the start. What matters is not the tool itself but reading each keyword together with intent and business value.

• Google Keyword Planner: Free to use with a Google Ads account; offers keyword ideas and estimated bid ranges.
• Google Search Console: Shows, with real data, which queries your site gets impressions and clicks for.
• Google Trends: Gives the interest curve of keywords by region and time.
• Google search results themselves: Autocomplete, question boxes and related searches reflect the most current user language.
• Your own data: Internal site search logs, customer messages and the sales team's notes carry clues no tool will give you.

07Turning Your Keyword List into Pages

Once the list is ready, each keyword group should have a matching page. Service and product keywords go to service or category pages, informational keywords to blog posts, and comparison keywords to guide pages.

Targeting the same keyword on two separate pages makes the pages compete with each other; this is called keyword cannibalization. By writing the list next to the page URLs you can prevent these overlaps from the start.

Where the keyword goes is well defined: the title tag, H1, first paragraph, subheadings, image alt text and URL. Beyond that, write the text naturally; a keyword repeated by force bothers both readers and Google. For the site to support this structure from the beginning, SEO-friendly web design matters; on e-commerce sites, building the category tree around keyword groups is part of planning the e-commerce platform.

08One Shared List for Ads and SEO

The same keyword list can be used for both organic content and ad campaigns. Transactional keywords deliver quick results in ads and show which phrase really brings customers; with that information, SEO priorities become clear. We explain how the two channels combine on this shared ground in our SEO or Google Ads article.

In advertising, sending each keyword group to its own landing page design raises the quality score. We run the campaign side in our digital marketing service and the organic side in our SEO and analytics work, with the same keyword list.

For the page targeted by a keyword to reach the top positions, content alone may not be enough; in competitive searches, links are decisive too. You can find safe ways in our What is a backlink article.