Keyword research
Finding demand is easy. Choosing the demand you can actually capture, in an order that compounds, is the part that decides whether a content programme works.
What keyword research is for
Keyword research is the process of finding the searches your audience makes, reading what they expect to find, and choosing the subset you can realistically rank for with the authority you have today. The output is not a spreadsheet of phrases; it is an ordered publishing plan.
Where candidate queries come from
- Search Console: queries you already get impressions for are the cheapest wins, especially anything sitting on page two.
- Your own inbox and support tickets: the exact phrasing customers use before they know your category's jargon.
- Competitor pages that rank: what they cover reveals the demand they validated for you.
- Autocomplete, People Also Ask and related searches: the natural-language variants people type and speak.
- Adjacent problems: the searches that happen just before someone needs what you sell.
Read the intent before the metrics
Two queries with identical volume can require completely different pages. Search the term and look at what already ranks: format, depth, and whether the results are commercial or informational. If every result is a product page, an essay will not break in.
| What ranks | What it tells you | What to build |
|---|---|---|
| Guides and explainers | Informational intent | A thorough explainer with a direct answer up front |
| Listicles and comparisons | Evaluation intent | An honest comparison with stated criteria |
| Product and pricing pages | Buying intent | A commercial page, not a blog post |
| Tools and calculators | Task intent | Something interactive that does the job |
| Local packs and maps | Local intent | A location page plus your business profile |
Judge difficulty against your own site
Difficulty scores are relative to authority. The honest question is not “is this keyword hard?” but “is this keyword hard for a site like mine?”
- New or low-authority site: target difficulty under about 30, and prefer specific long-tail phrasing.
- Growing site with some earned links: 30 to 50 is reachable with genuinely better content.
- Established authority: 50 to 70 becomes a resourcing question rather than a feasibility one.
- Anything above that is usually won with links and brand, not with a better article.
The fastest route into a competitive topic is the specific version of it. Rank for the narrow phrase, earn links to that page, then attack the head term from a position of strength.
Group into clusters, not lists
Individual keywords do not compound; topics do. Group every query that shares an intent into one page, then group the pages under a hub that links down to each of them and receives links back.
- One hub page per topic, targeting the broad head term.
- One supporting page per distinct sub-intent, each linking up to the hub.
- Avoid two pages competing for the same query; consolidate them and redirect the weaker URL.
- Publish the supporting pages first if the head term is out of reach today.
Turn the list into a plan
Score each candidate on four things: realistic position, volume, commercial relevance, and effort. Publish the highest relevance-to-effort ratio first, not the biggest volume. Then re-check Search Console every month: your own impression data will beat any tool estimate within a quarter of publishing.
Frequently asked questions
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of finding the searches your audience actually makes, understanding what they expect to find, and choosing the subset you can realistically rank for with the authority and resources you have.
Is search volume the most important metric?
No. Volume without a realistic chance of ranking produces nothing. The useful comparison is expected clicks: volume multiplied by a plausible position, weighted by how commercially relevant the query is to you.
What is keyword difficulty?
A tool's estimate of how hard it is to reach page one, based mostly on the link profiles of pages already ranking. It is relative, not absolute: a difficulty of 40 is approachable for an established site and a wall for a two-month-old one.
How many keywords should one page target?
One primary query and the close variants that share the same intent. If a variant needs a different page format to satisfy it, that is a separate page, not a second heading.