How to Do Keyword Research
Most keyword research advice skips the thinking and jumps to tools. Here's how to actually find the terms your customers search, and why volume isn't everything.
Most keyword research advice jumps straight to tools: plug a term into a paid platform, sort by volume, done. That skips the actual thinking part, which is understanding what your customers are typing before you go looking for the numbers behind it.
Start with how customers actually talk, not how you talk internally
Businesses consistently overestimate how much their customers know their own internal terminology. If you sell “managed IT services,” your customer might be searching “why does my computer keep crashing at work.” If you sell “conversion rate optimization,” they might be searching “why don’t people buy from my website.” The gap between how you describe your business and how a stressed, curious, or frustrated customer describes their problem is exactly where keyword research starts.
A free way to start: type a rough guess into Google and look at the “People also ask” box and the related searches at the bottom of the results page. That’s Google showing you, for free, what real people search around that topic.
Seed keywords, then expansion
A seed keyword is the broad, obvious starting term for a topic, “SEO pricing,” for example. From there, expand outward into more specific variations: “SEO pricing for small business,” “how much does SEO cost per month,” “SEO retainer vs project pricing.” Each variation likely represents a slightly different searcher, at a different stage, with a different need. Free keyword research tools (Google’s own Keyword Planner, or the free tier of tools like Ubersuggest) will show you dozens of these variations from a single seed term, along with rough monthly search volume.
Search volume isn’t the only thing that matters
It’s tempting to chase the keyword with the biggest number next to it. That’s often a mistake for a smaller or newer site. A term with 10,000 monthly searches is also likely being targeted by every major competitor in your space, making it genuinely difficult to rank for. A term with 200 monthly searches but clear commercial intent, someone close to actually buying, is frequently more valuable, easier to rank for, and more likely to convert once they land on your page.
This is where a lot of businesses waste content budget: chasing volume on broad, competitive, top-of-funnel terms while ignoring the smaller, specific, near-purchase searches sitting right next to them.
Group keywords by what the searcher actually wants
Once you have a list, sort it by intent rather than by volume alone: are they trying to learn something, compare options, or ready to buy? “What is SEO” is a different searcher than “best SEO agency near me,” even though both mention SEO. Trying to serve both intents on the same page usually serves neither one well. This grouping is the bridge into matching search intent properly, which is worth its own deeper look.
A simple starting process
- List 5 to 10 broad seed terms describing what you actually do, in plain language a customer would use.
- Run each through a free keyword tool and note the top 10 to 15 variations with real search volume.
- Check the “People also ask” and related searches for each seed term directly in Google.
- Sort the combined list by intent: learning, comparing, or buying.
- Prioritize a mix: a few competitive, high-volume terms for long-term authority, and several specific, lower-volume, high-intent terms you can realistically rank for sooner.
Keyword research done properly isn’t about finding a magic term nobody else has thought of. It’s about understanding your customer’s actual language well enough that your content meets them where they are, instead of where your internal jargon assumes they’ll be.
