In more detail
Good keyword research starts with your customers rather than a tool. What problems do they have? What words do they use? What do they search for before buying? Sales and support teams are often the best source of these phrases.
Tools then help expand and size the list. Google's Keyword Planner, Search Console's query data and third-party tools all estimate search volumes and suggest related terms. Volumes are estimates and are often grouped or rounded, so treat them as relative, not exact.
Each keyword is then assessed on:
- Relevance: does it match what you sell or know?
- Intent: is the searcher looking to buy, compare, learn or find a specific site?
- Value: how likely is a searcher to become a customer, and what is that worth?
- Competition: how strong are the pages that rank now? See keyword difficulty.
The final step is a keyword map: grouping related searches and assigning each group to one page, existing or new. This prevents cannibalisation and shows where content is missing.
Google's SEO starter guide recommends thinking about the words people would use to find your content and using them naturally, while noting that Google is good at understanding related terms. Exact-match repetition isn't needed.
Why it matters when hiring an agency
Keyword research decides where an SEO budget goes. Ask to see an agency's method and an example keyword map. A strong plan prioritises searches close to an enquiry or purchase, groups them sensibly and connects each group to a page.
Be wary of keyword lists ranked only by search volume, or reports that celebrate rankings for terms nobody searches. Our SEO ROI Calculator can help you test whether the traffic a plan targets is likely to pay back.