How to do keyword research

The five moves

1. Write seed topicsTen to twenty plain-language phrases describing what you sell and the problems it solves, in the words customers use.
2. Expand themType each seed into Google and note autocomplete and People also ask. Run the seeds through a tool to see related phrases and estimated monthly searches.
3. Read the resultsSearch each promising phrase. Note whether Google shows guides, product pages, local listings, videos or forums. That tells you what page type can rank.
4. Score and rankGive each phrase a score for demand, fit with what you sell and difficulty. Sort by total.
5. Assign to pagesOne main phrase per page. If two phrases show the same results, they belong on the same page.

A worked example: an independent physiotherapy clinic

Take a clinic with two locations. These numbers are invented to show the method. Real volumes come from your tool and vary by country.

The biggest number is not the winner. 'Back pain exercises' has the most searches, but the results are dominated by large health publishers and the searcher is not looking for a clinic. The 720-search local phrase brings fewer visits and more bookings.

How to score

Keep the scale small so you can decide quickly. Use whatever difficulty number your tool gives as a rough guide only. A stronger test is to look at the first page and ask whether a site like yours already ranks there.

• Demand: is there a measurable number of searches, or a clear trend?
• Intent fit: would the person searching plausibly buy from you, or learn something you can help with?
• Difficulty: do small or new sites appear on page one, or only household names?
• Format match: can you build the type of page Google shows, such as a guide, a service page or a comparison?

If a phrase scores high on demand and zero on fit, drop it. Traffic that cannot become a customer is a cost, not a benefit.

Where the data comes from

Paid tools give estimated volumes, and each tool uses its own method, so two tools rarely agree. Google Keyword Planner is free with an Ads account but groups volumes into ranges unless you run ads. Your own Search Console shows what you already get impressions for, which is real data. We cover that in how to do keyword research on Google Search Console and the planner in how to do keyword research with Google Keyword Planner.

Treat any single tool as one opinion. If two tools disagree by a factor of five, the safe conclusion is that the phrase has some demand, not that either number is correct. Your own Search Console data settles the question once the page is live.

Mistakes that waste months

• Targeting only high-volume head terms and ignoring specific phrases that convert.
• Using one page for five different intents.
• Treating tool difficulty scores as facts.
• Never revisiting the list. Search behavior and rivals change, so review the list when you plan each quarter.
• Writing for the keyword and forgetting the reader. Match the answer to the question.

If you want the research done and mapped to a site, an SEO audit is where we begin.

Finally, write down the decision rule you used, such as "intent fit of 2 or more and difficulty of 2 or less". When you repeat the research next quarter, the same rule makes the new list comparable with the old one.

Keep your first list small. Five well-built pages teach you more than fifty rushed ones.