Key Takeaway
Good keyword research isn’t about gathering as many keywords as possible, it’s about recognising search intent and prioritising accordingly. A lower-volume term that matches exactly what you sell often outperforms a popular one you’ll never realistically rank for.
Why most keyword research falls short
The most common mistake is treating search volume as the only criterion. A term with 1,000 monthly searches looks more attractive than one with 50, but if those 1,000 searches mostly come from people looking for something quite different from what you offer, that volume is worthless to you. Search intent, what someone actually wants to achieve with a query, matters more than the raw number.
A second common mistake is stopping too early. Research that only looks at a tool’s first ten suggestions often misses the more specific, higher-opportunity terms further down the list.
Step 1: start with your own offering, not a tool
Before opening any tool, it helps to write down the questions customers already ask you, the problems you solve, and the words they themselves would use to describe them. This usually produces an initial list of fifteen to twenty terms you can expand and validate afterwards.
Step 2: expand with a keyword tool
With that base list, a tool like Ahrefs, Semrush, or the free Google Keyword Planner can surface related terms, synonyms, and long-tail variations. Pay attention to three metrics:
- Search volume: how often the term is searched on average per month
- Keyword difficulty (KD): how hard it is to rank against the current top results
- Search intent: is the searcher gathering information, comparing options, or ready to buy
Step 3: analyse the search results yourself
Tool metrics don’t tell the whole story. Search the term yourself in Google and look at what currently ranks. Are these large, established brands with significant authority, or smaller sites that a genuinely strong page could realistically outrank? Are the top results mostly product pages, or blog articles? This shows what type of content Google currently considers the best answer, and whether your page would actually fit that mould.
Step 4: group keywords by topic, not by page
A common misconception is that every keyword deserves its own page. In practice it works better to cluster related keywords around one topic and serve them with a single, strong, comprehensive page. This avoids multiple pages on your own site competing against each other for the same query, often called keyword cannibalisation.
Step 5: prioritise by opportunity, not volume alone
With a list of grouped keywords, the final step is prioritisation. A simple rule of thumb: start with terms that have reasonable volume, low to moderate difficulty, and match a search intent your page or service genuinely answers well. Picking up quick, achievable wins first builds visibility and authority, which in turn improves your odds on the more competitive terms.
Curious what it takes to turn those keywords into copy that actually converts? Read more on what sets an SEO copywriter apart from a general copywriter.
Do it yourself or outsource it?
Keyword research is learnable, but keeping it up structurally alongside the rest of an SEO strategy takes time: spotting new opportunities, avoiding cannibalisation, and actually translating chosen terms into content that performs. If you’d rather outsource this or get support with it, take a look at my approach as an SEO specialist or get in touch.
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