Keyword Research
Keyword research is the process of identifying the search terms your target audience uses, analysing their search volume, competition, and intent to inform your content and SEO strategy.
Reviewed by Alexander Yarovenko · Updated: 2026-09-18
What is Keyword Research?
Keyword research is the foundational SEO process of discovering, analysing, and prioritising the specific words and phrases that people type into search engines when looking for information, products, or services in your niche. It is the starting point for all SEO strategy — determining what content to create, which pages to optimise, and where to build links.
Key Keyword Metrics
| Metric | What it means | Where to find it |
|---|---|---|
| Search volume | Average monthly searches | Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner |
| Keyword difficulty (KD) | How hard to rank on page 1 | Ahrefs KD, Semrush KD |
| CPC | Cost-per-click (indicates commercial value) | Google Keyword Planner |
| Search intent | What the user wants | Manual SERP analysis |
| SERP features | What features appear for this query | Ahrefs, Semrush SERP analysis |
| Trend | Growing or declining popularity | Google Trends |
Keyword Research Process
- Brainstorm seed keywords — start with broad terms in your niche
- Expand with keyword tools — plug seed keywords into Ahrefs Keywords Explorer or Semrush; explore "Also rank for" and "Questions"
- Analyse competitor keywords — use Ahrefs to see what keywords competitors rank for
- Identify keyword intent — categorise each keyword by intent (informational, commercial, transactional)
- Evaluate difficulty vs opportunity — prioritise keywords where you can realistically rank
- Group into topics — cluster related keywords for one piece of content
- Map to pages — assign primary keywords to specific pages (avoid cannibalization)
Finding Quick-Win Keywords
In Google Search Console → Performance: filter by pages ranking positions 8–20. These are pages already almost on page 1 — small improvements in content and links can push them to the top 5 with relatively little effort.
How to use this concept in SEO
Keyword research maps real demand to topics, intent, page types, and business value. Combine Search Console, customer language, SERP inspection, and tool estimates; volume alone is not a content strategy.
Audit checklist
- Confirm that the implementation matches the page purpose and the user task.
- Check the HTTP response, rendered HTML, canonical, robots rules, and internal links together.
- Use Search Console and analytics to verify the result instead of relying on one crawler signal.
- Test a representative URL on mobile and desktop after deployment.
- Document the expected outcome so regressions can be detected in the next audit.
Practical example
Queries about redirects are grouped into definition, implementation, troubleshooting, and checker intents, then assigned to a glossary page, guide, and tool without overlap.
How to validate the result
Record the current crawl, indexation, performance, and traffic state before changing anything. Recheck the affected template and a representative URL after deployment, then monitor Search Console over the following crawl cycle. A technical change is complete only when the live response and Google’s observed state agree.