Keyword Research: Find What Your Customers Search For

Keyword research is the work of finding the exact words and phrases your future customers type into Google, and deciding which of them your site should target with which page. Done well, it tells you what to write, what to name your pages and which topics are worth the effort before you spend a week on them.

What is keyword research?

A keyword is a search query, such as “invoice template for freelancers”. Keyword research produces a list of those queries with three facts attached to each: how many people search it, what they want when they search it, and how hard it is to rank for. You then give every worthwhile query one home page on your site.

Google’s own SEO Starter Guide frames it as thinking about the words people use. Experts and newcomers name the same thing differently: the guide’s example is “charcuterie” versus “cheese board”. Your job is to find the words your reader uses, not the words you use.

Why does keyword research matter for SEO?

Search engines match queries to pages. A page that never uses the words customers type has to be understood through context alone, and Google says its language systems are sophisticated enough to match variations. That helps you at the edges. It does not replace picking the right topic.

Here is what research gives you:

• Demand check. You learn whether anyone searches for your idea before you build it.
• Language. You see the real wording, including questions and local spellings.
• Priorities. New sites win on specific, low-competition queries first (see long-tail keywords), then move up.
• Page plan. One query group per page prevents keyword cannibalization.

Where do keyword ideas come from?

Keyword Planner is built for advertisers. Google’s help page says the tool returns keyword ideas from a product term, a website or both, and that using a keyword together with a URL returns more ideas than a URL alone. Treat its volume figures as rough: they are estimates for ad planning, so compare terms against each other instead of trusting one number.

How do you do keyword research, step by step?

1. Write seed topics. List 5 to 10 things you sell or explain, in plain customer words. A Leeds bakery writes “wedding cakes”, “gluten free birthday cake” and “cupcake delivery”.
2. Pull what you already rank for. Open Search Console, then Performance, and look at the Queries tab. Sort by impressions. Queries with many impressions and a position between 8 and 30 are your fastest wins, because a better page can move them onto page one. Google notes that your own view of the results differs by place, device and history, so trust this report over a manual search.
3. Expand each seed. Type the seed into Google and note every autocomplete suggestion, every People also ask question and the Related searches at the bottom. Run the seed through Keyword Planner and export the ideas.
4. Read the results page for each shortlisted term. The pages that rank show the intent: guides, product pages, comparison lists or maps. Match that format (see search intent). A term where only giant brands rank is not a starting point for a young site.
5. Score each term on three things. Relevance (would this visitor buy or sign up?), intent fit (can your page be the answer?) and competition (could your page beat the top five?). Volume comes fourth. A term with 50 monthly searches from buyers beats one with 5,000 from browsers.
6. Group terms that share one answer. “Invoice template”, “free invoice template” and “invoice template word” go on one page. Different intents get different pages.
7. Map each group to a page. Make a sheet with columns: main keyword, supporting terms, intent, target URL (existing or new), status. Existing pages get improved, gaps become new pages (see content gap analysis).
8. Write for the reader. Use the main term in the title, the H1 and the first paragraph, then write naturally. Do not count repetitions (see keyword density).

How do you measure the result?

Return to the Performance report two to three months after publishing or updating a page. Filter by the page URL and check these:

• Impressions rising for the target query group: Google tests the page.
• Average position improving for the main term.
• Clicks and CTR: low CTR with a good position means the title and description need work.
• New queries you never planned for: add them to the sheet and the page.

Search Console shows impressions and position for your own site, so it is the honest scorecard. Keep rank-tracking tools for a short list of 20 to 50 money terms (see rank tracking).

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Chasing volume. High-volume head terms attract the strongest sites. Start where you can win.
• Ignoring intent. A product page cannot rank for a query where Google shows only guides.
• One page per spelling. Close variations belong on one page. Publishing dozens of near-identical pages looks like scaled content abuse in Google’s spam policies.
• Trusting one tool’s numbers. Volume and difficulty scores come from each vendor’s own model and disagree with each other.
• Researching once. Language shifts, products change and new questions appear. Review your sheet every quarter.

Where can you learn more?

The free digital marketing module of the Fe/male Switch startup school covers keyword research for a brand-new startup site. Next steps on SEO100: sort your list by search intent, then group related pages into topic clusters.