Definition:
Keyword research is the process of discovering, analysing and organising the queries that an audience uses to search for information, products or services.
This analysis helps reveal demand, interpret search intent and decide which topics should be covered by content, product pages or campaigns. In SEO, it connects groups of queries with existing or proposed pages; in Google Ads, it supports the selection of terms, match types and exclusions for search campaigns.
A keyword is not valuable solely because of its estimated volume. Its meaning, intent, competition, seasonality, territory and the website’s ability to meet the need also matter. Tool metrics are estimates and may vary according to the data source.
How to conduct keyword research
The process begins with the project’s objectives, relevant products or subjects and an initial list of terms. The queries are then expanded, metrics and results compared, intent identified and variants that can be addressed by the same page grouped together. The work ends with content or campaign mapping and a reviewable set of priorities because demand and search results change over time.
Examples of keyword research tools
The functions used during keyword research can be grouped into four types:
- Discovery and expansion: Generate variants, questions and related terms from an initial query.
- Metrics and trends: Provide demand estimates, changes over time, advertising costs and other indicators that help compare opportunities.
- Results and competitor analysis: Show which types of pages appear in search engines and which queries give a domain visibility.
- Clustering and mapping: Bring together terms with a shared intent and assign them to a page, piece of content or ad group, avoiding redundant URLs.
The same tool may cover several functions. Well-known resources include:
- Google Autocomplete: Displays predictions while a query is being entered. It can reveal variants and longer expressions, although results depend on language, location and other signals.
- Google related searches: Provide queries connected with the subject on the results page and can expand the initial vocabulary.
- Google Ads Keyword Planner: Provides ideas and estimates intended for advertising planning. The level of detail available may depend on the account and query settings.
- Google Trends: Compares the relative interest in terms over time and by territory. Its values are normalised and do not represent absolute search volumes.
- Semrush: Brings together databases of keywords, results, domains and advertising for researching demand and competition.
- Ahrefs: Provides information about keywords, ranking pages, search results and links for investigating opportunities and competitors.
Keyword research results need to be reviewed against search result pages and business knowledge. A long list is not a strategy by itself: irrelevant terms must be removed, queries addressing the same need grouped together and actions prioritised according to objectives and resources.