If you have a website, you probably want people to find it.
Seems obvious. Unfortunately, getting people to find you on Google is considerably more complicated than throwing a few keywords onto a webpage and hoping the SEO gods smile upon you.
That used to be closer to how things worked.
It isn't anymore.
Good keyword research is less about finding a magical phrase with exactly 1.2K monthly searches and more about understanding what your audience is searching for, why they're searching for it, and whether your website has something genuinely useful to offer them.
That's the part people tend to skip.
They open an SEO tool, type in a broad keyword, sort the spreadsheet by search volume, and start chasing whatever number looks impressive.
Then six months later they have 47 articles that nobody is reading. 😬
I've done keyword research for long enough to know that the tools are useful, but they are not the strategy. The strategy is knowing what to do with the information the tools give you.
In this guide, I'll walk you through my process for conducting keyword research, evaluating the competition, choosing realistic opportunities, and turning your research into content that has an actual chance of ranking.
Keyword research is the process of discovering and evaluating the words and phrases people use when searching for information, products, services, or solutions online.
Those words and phrases are commonly called keywords, although "search queries" is often a more accurate term.
For example, someone looking for a local marketing consultant might search:
- marketing consultant near me
- B2B marketing consultant
- small business marketing consultant
- marketing strategy consultant
- how to create a marketing strategy
- do I need a marketing consultant?
These searches are related, but they don't necessarily represent the same intent.
Someone searching for marketing consultant near me may be ready to hire somebody.
Someone searching how to create a marketing strategy is probably still doing research.
That's why keyword research isn't simply about collecting phrases.
You're trying to understand the person behind the search.
Because creating content takes time.
A lot of time.
And if you're going to spend three hours researching, writing, editing, formatting, optimizing, and publishing an article, it would be nice to know that somebody might actually want the damn thing.
Keyword research helps you identify topics people are searching for and understand the language they use to search for them.
It can help you answer questions like:
- Is there search demand for this topic?
- What exactly are people trying to find?
- How competitive is the search?
- What kind of content does Google currently show?
- Is this a topic my business should be associated with?
- Is there a realistic opportunity for my website?
- Does this keyword represent a potential customer—or just someone looking for free information?
That last question matters.
Traffic is not the same thing as value.
A keyword that gets 10K searches a month isn't necessarily better than one that gets 100.
If those 10K searches come from people who have absolutely no interest in what you sell, you've acquired a very impressive audience of people who will never give you a dime.
Meanwhile, the 100 people searching for exactly the problem you solve might be extraordinarily valuable.
And there's another reason keyword research matters: a huge amount of published content receives little or no organic search traffic.
Ahrefs' large-scale studies have repeatedly found that the overwhelming majority of indexed pages receive no organic traffic from Google. Their 2023 study found that 96.55% of the pages in their index received zero Google traffic.
That's not an argument for stuffing keywords into every sentence.
It's an argument for thinking before you publish.
Start with what you already know.
These are your seed keywords—broad words or phrases that describe your business, products, services, or areas of expertise.
If you run a cybersecurity company, your seed terms might include:
- cybersecurity
- network security
- endpoint security
- cybersecurity consulting
- penetration testing
If you sell fitness programs:
- personal training
- strength training
- weight loss
- online fitness
- mobility training
If you're a marketing consultant:
- marketing strategy
- content marketing
- SEO
- B2B marketing
- digital marketing
Don't overthink this part.
You're not choosing your final keywords yet.
You're planting seeds.
Ask yourself:
What would I search if I were looking for what my business offers?
Then ask:
What would my customer search?
Those two answers may be surprisingly different.
That's useful information.
Now take those seed keywords and put them into a keyword research tool.
There are plenty of options, including:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Google Trends
- Google Search Console
- Google Autocomplete
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
- Moz
- Ubersuggest
Google Search Console deserves special attention if your website already gets organic traffic.
Why?
Because you're not guessing.
You're looking at searches for which Google is already showing your website.
Open your performance report and look at the queries generating impressions. You may find that your website is appearing for searches you never intentionally targeted.
That's often where some of the best opportunities are hiding.
Your keyword tool will also generate related terms, questions, variations, and other keyword ideas.
At this stage, don't worry about choosing the perfect keyword.
Collect first. Judge later.
This is where you start gathering possibilities.
Take your seed keywords and collect:
- Related keywords
- Long-tail keywords
- Questions
- Comparisons
- “How to” searches
- Problem-based searches
- Product searches
- Service searches
- Location-based searches, if relevant
- Commercial searches
- Informational searches
For example, if your seed keyword is email marketing, you might find:
- email marketing
- email marketing strategy
- email marketing for small business
- how to build an email list
- email marketing examples
- best email marketing software
- email marketing automation
- email marketing vs social media
- how often should you send marketing emails
- email open rate benchmarks
Some of these may be excellent.
Some may be useless.
Some may lead you down a rabbit hole that you absolutely do not need to enter.
That's fine.
At this stage, you're collecting raw material.
Don't start obsessing over search volume yet.
This is one of the most important steps in keyword research.
And it is also one of the steps I see people screw up most often.
Search intent is essentially:
What does this person actually want when they type this query into Google?
Consider these searches:
“What is email marketing?”
That's informational.
The person wants an explanation.
“Best email marketing software”
That's commercial investigation.
They're comparing options.
“Mailchimp pricing”
That's much more specific commercial intent.
They're probably evaluating or purchasing the product.
“Mailchimp login”
That's navigational.
They're trying to get somewhere specific.
These are completely different searches even though they all relate to email marketing.
How Do You Determine Search Intent?
Google it.
Seriously.
This is one of those situations where the simplest method is often the best.
Search the keyword and study the results.
Look at:
- What types of pages rank?
- Are they blog posts?
- Product pages?
- Category pages?
- Tutorials?
- Comparison pages?
- Videos?
- Forums?
- Local businesses?
- Official websites?
Then look at what those pages actually discuss.
The search results are giving you a very useful piece of information:
Google is telling you what it believes satisfies this query.
That doesn't mean you should copy the results.
It means you should understand what you're competing against.
And don't rely entirely on an SEO tool's label for search intent. Tools can make educated guesses, but the SERP itself is the evidence.
Now we can look at search volume.
Search volume estimates how many times a keyword is searched within a particular geographic market over a given period.
And here's the first thing you need to know:
Search volume is an estimate.
It is not a sacred number handed down from Google on a stone tablet.
Third-party SEO platforms calculate their own estimates using different data sources and methodologies. Even the tools themselves acknowledge that search volume doesn't necessarily translate directly into organic traffic.
So if one tool says a keyword gets 720 searches a month and another says 590, don't start throwing chairs.
They're estimates.
Use the number directionally.
Ask:
Is this a topic people actually search for?
And then ask the much more important question:
Is this search valuable to me?
A keyword with 50 searches a month can be worthwhile.
A keyword with 50K searches can be completely irrelevant.
Search volume tells you about demand.
It does not tell you about business value.
Next, look at Keyword Difficulty (KD).
Most major SEO tools provide some version of a difficulty score, usually on a scale from 0 to 100.
The exact calculation varies by tool.
For example, Ahrefs' Keyword Difficulty metric is primarily based on the backlink profiles of the top-ranking pages. It estimates how difficult it may be to reach the first page of Google for that keyword.
That's useful.
But here's the part beginners often miss:
KD is a shortcut, not a verdict.
A keyword with a KD of 15 isn't automatically easy.
A keyword with a KD of 70 isn't automatically impossible.
The score does not know everything about your website.
It doesn't fully understand the quality of your content, your topical expertise, your brand, your audience, or the specific angle you might bring to the subject.
And different tools calculate difficulty differently.
So use KD to narrow the field.
Then go look at the actual search results.
Now we're getting somewhere.
Take the keywords you're seriously considering and study the first page of Google.
Don't just look at numbers.
Read the damn pages.
Look at:
- What topics do they cover?
- How comprehensive are they?
- How current is the information?
- Are they actually answering the searcher's question?
- Are there obvious gaps?
- Is the content generic?
- Does it provide original research or examples?
- Is the page easy to navigate?
- Does the site appear to have genuine expertise?
- How many relevant backlinks do the top pages have?
- Are there weak results that you could realistically beat?
This last one is important.
You aren't simply asking:
“How many backlinks does the competition have?”
You're asking:
“What would I have to do to deserve one of these spots?”
That's a much better question.
A page with 500 backlinks isn't necessarily unbeatable.
Maybe the article is ancient.
Maybe it's poorly written.
Maybe it barely answers the question.
Maybe the information is outdated.
Maybe the search results are dominated by huge websites because Google has very few good pages to choose from.
Or maybe the SERP is an absolute bloodbath and you should find another angle.
You won't know until you look.
Now turn the microscope around.
You need to understand what you're working with.
How established is your website?
Do you already have pages ranking for related topics?
Do you have backlinks?
Do other websites recognize your business as an authority in this subject?
Have you published useful content in this topic area before?
Do you have expertise or first-hand experience that competitors don't?
This is where people often reach for Domain Authority (DA) or similar metrics.
Those metrics can be useful for comparison, but don't confuse them with Google ranking factors.
Domain Authority is a proprietary metric created by Moz. It is not a Google score.
The same is true of other third-party authority metrics.
They're useful benchmarks.
They are not Google handing you a report card.
And don't fall into the trap of thinking:
“My DA is 18, therefore I can't rank for this keyword.”
That's not how SEO works.
A smaller website can absolutely outrank a larger one when it produces a better result for a particular query.
Your authority is simply one piece of the competitive picture.
At this point, you should have a much better idea of which keywords are worth pursuing.
But before you choose, consider a few other things.
Traffic Potential
A keyword's search volume isn't the same thing as the traffic a page could receive.
A single page can rank for hundreds—or sometimes thousands—of related searches.
This is one reason I don't recommend obsessing over individual keyword volumes.
Ahrefs' current keyword research guidance, for example, includes Traffic Potential as a separate metric because search volume alone doesn't tell you how much organic traffic a top-ranking page may actually receive.
Think about the entire topic, not just one phrase.
Business Potential
Ask yourself:
If I ranked for this keyword, would I actually want the people who searched it to visit my website?
If the answer is no, why are you pursuing it?
Traffic is seductive because it's measurable.
Revenue is less sexy because it requires actual business.
But the latter tends to be more useful.
Relevance
Does this topic genuinely belong on your website?
Don't create an article about something merely because the keyword has a nice search volume.
Your website isn't a landfill for keywords.
Build topical relevance around subjects you actually have something useful to say about.
Content Opportunity
Can you make something better?
Not longer.
Not stuffed with more keywords.
Better.
Can you provide original research?
A better explanation?
A useful example?
A stronger point of view?
A better visual?
A first-hand case study?
An answer that doesn't require the reader to wade through 2,000 words of throat-clearing before getting to the point?
That's an opportunity.
Now you can make a decision.
And here's another old SEO habit I'd leave behind:
You don't need to treat every keyword as a separate article.
Search engines understand relationships between queries and topics. A well-written page can rank for many related searches.
So instead of creating separate pages for:
- how to do keyword research
- how to conduct keyword research
- keyword research process
- keyword research steps
- keyword research for beginners
...you may be better off creating one genuinely excellent guide that addresses the underlying topic.
The goal isn't to create a page for every slight variation in wording.
The goal is to create the best useful page for the topic.
Choose a primary topic or target query, then naturally incorporate the related concepts your reader would expect to encounter.
Once you've chosen your topic, write the damn article.
Don't start with:
“How many times can I put my keyword on this page without Google getting suspicious?”
That's the wrong question.
Google explicitly defines excessive, unnatural repetition of keywords as keyword stuffing and considers it a spam practice.
Instead, use the language naturally.
Your primary topic will probably appear in places where it makes sense, such as:
- The title
- The main heading
- The introduction
- Relevant subheadings
- The body copy
- Image alt text when genuinely descriptive
- The URL, when appropriate
- The meta description
But you don't need to force it.
If your article is genuinely about keyword research, you're going to mention keyword research naturally.
You don't need to write:
“Keyword research is important because keyword research helps with keyword research for keyword research.” 😭😭
That's not optimization.
That's a cry for help.
Write for the person first.
If your website is relatively new or doesn't yet have many backlinks, you're probably going to have a harder time competing for extremely broad, competitive searches.
That's okay.
You don't need to storm the castle on day one.
Look for specific, relevant topics where the competition is weaker.
Long-tail searches can be particularly useful because they tend to be more specific.
For example:
“email marketing”
is broad.
“email marketing for independent real estate agents” 🤩
is much more specific.
The second keyword may have dramatically less search volume.
It may also have considerably more value to the right business.
And remember: low search volume does not automatically mean worthless.
A keyword with ten estimated searches a month isn't going to make you an overnight traffic sensation. But a collection of highly relevant, low-volume topics can build meaningful traffic over time.
Just don't buy into the mythology that every “zero-volume” keyword is secretly a gold mine.
Sometimes zero really does mean very little search demand. Ahrefs' research on low- and zero-volume keywords found that many of them receive roughly the amount of search activity the tools predict.
The strategy is not:
Target anything with zero volume because nobody else knows about it.
The strategy is:
Find underserved topics that are genuinely relevant to your audience and valuable to your business.
Much less sexy.
Much more useful.
If your website already has authority, organic traffic, and a strong backlink profile, you have more room to compete.
That doesn't mean you should suddenly abandon easier opportunities and chase every enormous keyword you can find.
It means you can build a portfolio.
Target:
- High-value commercial terms
- Competitive industry topics
- High-volume informational searches
- Long-tail opportunities
- Supporting topics around your core subject
- Topics where you have unique expertise
Think about SEO as an ecosystem rather than a collection of isolated keywords.
A strong website doesn't need one lucky article.
It needs a body of useful content that establishes expertise around the subjects that matter to the business.
You shouldn't automatically avoid difficult keywords.
In fact, some of the most valuable keywords in your industry will probably be difficult.
The trick is to understand what you're getting yourself into.
If the first page is filled with established websites, thousands of referring domains, original research, genuinely excellent content, and companies with enormous resources behind them, you're probably not going to outrank them because you wrote a 1,200-word blog post on Tuesday afternoon.
You're going to need something better.
That might mean:
- Original research
- Surveys
- Proprietary data
- Expert interviews
- First-hand experience
- Case studies
- Unique examples
- Original tools or resources
- Exceptional visual content
- A genuinely better explanation
- High-quality digital PR and link acquisition
And here's something worth remembering:
Backlinks aren't the strategy. They're one part of the strategy.
If you create something people genuinely want to reference, share, cite, or link to, you've given yourself a much better reason to pursue links than simply emailing 400 strangers with:
“Hi! I noticed you have a broken link on your website...”
Nobody deserves that.
Here's one of my favorite keyword research tactics because it requires less guessing.
Look at your existing data.
Use Google Search Console to find queries where your pages are already receiving impressions or ranking somewhere in the results.
You may discover that a page is ranking for a related query you never intentionally targeted.
That's anther great opportunity.
Maybe the page ranks on the second page and could be improved.
Maybe the content answers the query only partially.
Maybe you should expand the article.
Maybe you should create a dedicated page.
Maybe the keyword reveals an entirely new topic your audience cares about.
Your existing search data can tell you what Google and users are already associating with your website.
Pay attention to it.
At this point, you should have more than a spreadsheet full of keywords.
You should have a hypothesis.
You know:
- Who you're trying to reach
- What they're searching for
- Why they're searching
- What kind of content they expect
- How competitive the topic is
- What your competitors are doing
- Where your website is strong
- Where it's weak
- What opportunity you believe exists
Now create something worth ranking.
Not something that technically contains the keyword.
Not something that hits an arbitrary word count.
Not something that exists solely because your SEO software told you that the keyword has a monthly search volume of 1,300.
Create the thing the searcher actually needs.
Then optimize it.
Use the target language naturally. Write useful title tags and meta descriptions. Structure the page logically. Use descriptive headings. Add relevant internal links. Make the page easy to navigate. Make sure it works well technically.
Then publish it.
And wait.
SEO is not Amazon Prime. Sometimes Google needs time to crawl, index, understand, and evaluate your page.
Track what happens.
Watch your impressions.
Watch your rankings.
Watch your organic traffic.
Watch the queries you're appearing for.
And, most importantly, watch whether the traffic is actually doing anything useful for the business.
Because that's the part people forget.
The goal of keyword research isn't to get more visitors.
The goal is to find the right visitors.
Traffic is nice.
Relevant traffic is better.
And traffic from people who actually need what you sell?
That's the point.
