Keyword research gets treated like a mysterious skill, but the actual process is straightforward: find out what your customers are genuinely searching for, work out which of those searches are realistically worth targeting, and build your content and site structure around the answer. Here’s how to actually do it.
Step 1: Start With Seed Topics, Not Keywords
Before touching a keyword tool, list the actual topics your business is relevant to — not exact phrases, just the broad subject areas a customer might be thinking about when they have the problem you solve. A plumber’s seed topics might be “blocked drains,” “hot water systems,” “emergency plumbing.” These seeds are what you’ll expand into real keyword data in the next step.
Step 2: Expand Seeds Into Actual Search Terms
Feed your seed topics into a keyword research tool (Google’s own Keyword Planner is free with an Ads account; Ahrefs, Semrush and similar paid tools give more detail including difficulty scoring) to see the actual phrases people search, along with monthly search volume. This step usually reveals genuine surprises — search phrasing rarely matches how a business owner would naturally describe their own service.
Google’s autocomplete and “People also ask” boxes are also a legitimate, free source of real search phrasing worth checking manually alongside a proper tool.
Step 3: Understand Search Intent, Not Just Volume
A high-volume keyword is worthless if it doesn’t match what you’re actually offering. Every keyword carries an implied intent:
- Informational — the searcher wants to learn something (“how does a hot water system work”)
- Commercial investigation — the searcher is comparing options (“best hot water system brands”)
- Transactional — the searcher is ready to buy or book (“hot water system installation [near me]”)
- Navigational — the searcher is looking for a specific brand or site (“Rheem hot water systems”)
Targeting a keyword with the wrong content type for its intent is one of the most common keyword research mistakes — a services page won’t satisfy someone in the informational research phase, and a long educational article won’t convert someone ready to book.
Step 4: Assess Keyword Difficulty Realistically
Every keyword tool gives some form of difficulty score, but treat it as a rough guide, not gospel — a low difficulty score can still be genuinely competitive if the businesses currently ranking are well-established and highly relevant. Check who’s actually ranking, not just the number: are they big, generic sites loosely related to the term, or specialised competitors who genuinely deserve to rank there? The former is a real opportunity; the latter means the score is understating true difficulty.
Step 5: Prioritise by Realistic Opportunity, Not Volume Alone
The highest-volume keyword on your list is rarely the best one to target first, particularly for a newer or smaller site. A useful prioritisation approach:
- Quick wins — decent volume, low difficulty, matches your actual offering. Target these first.
- Medium-term targets — good volume, moderate difficulty. Worth planning for, not necessarily first.
- Long-term/aspirational — high volume, great difficulty, dominated by major established players. Realistic only once your site has built genuine authority — and for some terms, genuinely not realistic at all regardless of content quality.
Step 6: Group Keywords Into Topic Clusters
Rather than writing one page per keyword, group closely related keywords into clusters that a single, comprehensive page can genuinely serve. “Blocked drain causes,” “why is my drain blocked,” and “common causes of blocked drains” are the same underlying search intent — one well-built page serves all three, rather than three thin competing pages.
Common Keyword Research Mistakes
- Chasing volume without checking search intent, ending up with visitors who were never going to convert
- Trusting a difficulty score without checking who’s actually ranking
- Targeting broad, generic terms when a more specific long-tail phrase would convert better and rank faster
- Building separate pages for near-identical keyword variations instead of one comprehensive page
- Doing keyword research once and never revisiting it as search behaviour and your business genuinely change
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the best free tool for keyword research?
Google Keyword Planner (free with a Google Ads account, even without running paid campaigns) gives genuine search volume data. Google’s own autocomplete and “People also ask” results are also useful, free, informal sources of real search phrasing.
How many keywords should I target per page?
One primary keyword and its close variations (the same search intent phrased differently) per page — trying to rank one page for several genuinely distinct topics usually dilutes its relevance for all of them.
Is keyword difficulty score accurate?
It’s a useful starting indicator, not a guarantee — always check who’s actually ranking for a term before trusting the score alone, since an easy-looking score can still represent genuinely hard-to-beat, highly relevant competitors.
Should I target high-volume or low-volume keywords first?
Generally start with keywords offering the best realistic combination of decent volume, manageable difficulty, and a genuine match to your business — chasing the highest volume term available is rarely the fastest path to real results, particularly for a newer site.
How often should I redo keyword research?
At least annually, and after any significant change to your services or the market — search behaviour and terminology genuinely shift over time, and a keyword list built a few years ago may no longer reflect how people actually search.
Need help turning keyword research into an actual content strategy? Get in touch or see our SEO Audit Checklist for the next step.
