What Is Keyword Research? How to Find Keywords That Work

What is keyword research? It’s the process of finding the words and phrases your customers type into Google, checking how often they’re searched and how hard they are to rank for, and choosing the ones each page of your website should target. Good keyword research for SEO means you write pages people are actually searching for, instead of guessing.

It sounds technical, but most of it is common sense plus a couple of free tools. Here’s how to do keyword research.

Why does keyword research for your website matter?

Keyword research for your website tells you three things: what customers call your products and services (often not what you call them), which questions they ask before they buy, and which searches you can realistically win. Without it, it’s easy to build a beautiful page around a phrase nobody searches for.

How do you do keyword research? 6 steps

If you’re not sure how to research keywords, this is how to conduct keyword research for a small business website:

1. Brainstorm your topics. List your services, products and the places you serve. Ask your team what customers say on the phone.
2. Use Google’s own suggestions. Type each topic into Google and note the autocomplete suggestions, the “People also ask” questions and the related searches at the bottom of the page.
3. Check search volume. Put your list into Google’s free Keyword Planner (it needs a Google Ads account, but you don’t have to run ads) to see roughly how often each phrase is searched in your area.
4. Check competition. Search each phrase and look at who ranks. Paid tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs give each keyword a difficulty score.
5. Look at what you already rank for. Google Search Console shows the searches your site already appears for. These are often the quickest wins.
6. Map keywords to pages. Give each page one main keyword and a few close variations, so your pages don’t compete with each other.

How do you find keywords?

The best sources are free and close to home: your customers’ own words (emails, quotes, reviews), Google’s autocomplete and “People also ask”, your Google Search Console data, and your competitors’ pages. Our guide to SEO competitor analysis shows how to see which keywords competitors rank for.

Are your SEO keywords worth optimising for?

Before you build pages around a keyword, check two things: does anyone search for it, and can you realistically rank for it?

• Search volume. A keyword nobody searches brings no visitors, even in first place. Keyword tools show an estimated monthly volume for your region. Very low numbers are a sign to look for a more common way of saying the same thing, although for a niche local service a handful of searches can still mean real customers.
• Competition. If the first page of Google is full of large, established websites, a newer site will struggle to break in, so start with phrases that have lower difficulty.
• Long-tail keywords. Longer, more specific phrases (“emergency plumber Red Cliffs” rather than “plumber”) usually have fewer searches but less competition and clearer intent, so they are often the quickest wins.
• Intent. Make sure the searcher wants what the page offers. “How to fix a leaking tap” suits a guide; “plumber near me” suits a service page.

Should you track keyword variations?

Yes. Small changes in wording can rank very differently. When we added variations to one client’s keyword list, they ranked #6 for “elearning developers” but outside the top 100 for “elearning developer”. When you review your list, add:

• Singular and plural forms
• Different spellings and hyphenation (e-learning, elearning, e learning)
• Close synonyms
• The same words in a different order

Track the whole list, then focus your optimisation on a handful of variations you already rank well for, and review them every month or so.

What are some easy keyword research tips for small businesses?

A few easy tips for conducting keyword research:

• Include your town for local services (“accountant Mildura”), and check whether people also search the region.
• Use Australian spelling on the page, even if a tool shows the US spelling.
• Answer questions with articles, and keep buying searches for service pages.
• Don’t chase volume alone. Ten searches a month from the right customers beat a thousand from the wrong ones.
• Revisit your research every six to twelve months, because searches change.

Researching keywords takes an afternoon to start, and it shapes every page you write after that.

Frequently asked questions

How do you check how many people search for a keyword?

Use Google Keyword Planner for free, or a paid tool such as Semrush or Ahrefs. They show an estimated monthly search volume for a country or region. Treat the numbers as rough guides rather than exact counts, and compare keywords against each other rather than relying on one figure.

How do you do a keyword search?

Type a phrase into Google and study the results: the ads, the map, the top 10 pages and the “People also ask” box. This shows what Google thinks the searcher wants and who you’re up against. Then check the phrase in a keyword tool to see its volume and related searches.

How do you look for keywords on a website?

Check the page title, headings and first paragraph, where the main keywords usually sit. In a browser you can search the page text with Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac). SEO tools go further and list the keywords a whole website ranks for, which is useful for checking competitors.

How do you do keyword analysis?

Keyword analysis means comparing your list on three things: search volume, difficulty and intent. Group similar keywords, give each group to one page, and prioritise the groups with decent volume, realistic difficulty and buying intent. Then track rankings for those keywords every month.

The short version

Keyword research means finding the searches your customers use, checking volume and competition, and giving each page a clear target. Start with free tools and your customers’ own words. If you’d like it done properly, our keyword research service maps out the searches you can win, and our SEO team can build the pages to match.