How to do keyword research

Choosing the right terms is the basis of SEO. Here are the steps for finding how your customers search and prioritising the keywords that matter.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is finding the phrases potential customers use when they look for what you offer. The aim is not to catch the most searched word but to identify searches that bring customers.

Start with the customer's language

Companies often use industry language while customers search differently. Build your first list from these sources:

Questions customers ask by phone and email.
Phrases your sales team hears most often.
Page titles on competitor sites.
Google autocomplete and related searches.
Queries your site appears for in Google Search Console.

Understand search intent

Terms on the same topic carry different intent. Someone searching what is a website wants information, someone searching web design prices is comparing, and someone searching a web design company in their city is closer to buying.

Each intent needs a different page type. Blog posts suit information searches, while service pages suit buying searches.

How should you prioritise?

When assessing a term, ask three questions:

Could the person searching this become my customer?
Can I realistically compete for this term?
Can I prepare a truly useful page for this search?

Longer, more specific phrases are searched less but usually show clearer intent. For new sites, starting with these makes sense.

Assign terms to pages

Give each page one main topic. Targeting the same term on several pages makes them compete with each other. Match page, main term and intent in a simple table. It becomes the basis of your content plan and is updated as you measure results.