Keyword Research

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Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing search queries that people enter into search engines such as Google and others.

This research lies at the core of an SEO strategy and a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising strategy. If you understand what your target audience is searching for, you can easily optimize your website content for these queries, achieve top rankings and, in this way, attract organic or paid traffic to your website, and then convert it into sales.

What is Keyword Research?

It is a process that starts with brainstorming, when you roughly understand how users might search for your product or service, and as a result you get a finished document with the structure of your website, keywords, metrics and the types of pages that need to be created.

Let me help you conduct Keyword Research. I will give you both theoretical information and specific practical tips and examples.

Where do we start? Most often, you can start with an analysis of your product catalog if you have an eCommerce website, or from the description of your product features if you have an online product.

In this way, you have assumed which queries potential customers might use to search for your product or service. Next comes the comparison of these queries with real user searches, meaning how they actually search.

Then comes the analysis and work with these queries. We need to understand which queries are more relevant, which have traffic potential and commercial potential.

And then comes the implementation of these keywords, understanding which type of pages should be created for specific keywords: landing pages, articles and other types of pages, and what we will place on them.

Why Is Keyword Research So Important?

Yes, we now live in a world of marketing that is changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence is developing very actively, AI Search and generative search engines have appeared, but at the same time keywords remain the foundation of search marketing because this is how any system understands what a page is about, based on keywords.

Today, keywords are not only about the number of keywords or their search volume. Keywords allow us to determine user intent, demand for a topic, the commercial value of a query, competition in the search results and the potential to gain traffic.

When I started working in SEO in 2010, a standard website and a standard page looked like this: we wrote a large number of keywords, the search engine understood what the page was about and ranked it in the search results.

My task was to place as many keywords on the page as possible in different variations, preferably as exact match keywords. This increased the probability of getting results.

Today, SEO works completely differently.

Modern SEO is no longer limited to selecting individual keywords. Instead, we analyze entire semantic clusters and groups of queries because your page can rank for a query even if it is not present on the page as an exact match. Search engines and LLM systems already understand quite well what your page is about.

If I were creating a page about Keyword Research in the past, I would need to use the query “keyword research” and all possible long-tail variations of this query in order to rank for a large number of keywords.

Today, it is necessary to cover a broader cluster: talk about tools, explain the process, explain how to find keywords, how to analyze and cluster them, what search intent is, what competitors are, Competitor Keyword Research, and so on.

In other words, you need to cover the topic completely. The broader we describe the topic, the better the search engine understands that it has been fully covered and that the user’s intent will be satisfied.

Therefore, today the search engine evaluates not only individual pages but also the overall expertise of a website within a specific topic. This is called Topical Authority.

Keyword Research and Its Impact on SEO

High quality keyword research allows us to find topics with real demand, and instead of guessing, we can get real data from search engines.

We can know how many times a query is searched in Google, how popular this query is, what trend it has, whether it is growing or declining, and what the traffic potential of this query is in general.

Understanding Audience Needs

We can also understand the needs of the audience. A search query shows the real needs of the user.

If a person enters simply “VPN service”, we do not understand whether they want to read about what it is or whether they want to buy a VPN service.

If a person specifies “best VPN service”, then we understand that they are looking for the best one and comparing these services.

If they write “how to choose VPN service”, then we also understand that the person is at the selection stage.

If a person writes how to use a specific VPN service, then most likely they have already purchased it and simply want to understand how to use it.

Thus, by analyzing these queries, we can understand at what stage of information discovery a person is and at what stage of the funnel they are currently located.

They may be at the top of the funnel and only choosing, or already ready to buy and be a hot customer. Or they may have already completed a conversion and want to learn how to use the service, so they are interested in various features.

The difference between these queries seems small, but their intent is completely different. This gives us a much deeper understanding of user intentions.

Planning Website Structure

When we already have all these queries, we can plan the website structure.

Based on the semantic core and keywords, we can create the structure of an online store: product pages, categories, subcategories, filter pages and other special pages for specific queries.

If these are informational queries, it makes sense to place them in blog articles, a glossary, Knowledge Base, Help Center, Academy Center and other informational sections.

If these are commercial queries, we can create separate landing pages for them.

If you have a SaaS project or some kind of tool, then you no longer have product pages and categories. In this case, you can create separate pages for each service or feature.

If your service performs several different functions and provides several services, you can create a separate page for each function or service, as well as additional pages for individual product capabilities.

This will allow you to attract additional traffic.

Site Structure Example

Finding New Growth Opportunities

In many niches, there are a large number of queries that competitors may ignore.

For example, if you have a service or some AI tool, you can create separate landing pages for startups, small businesses, freelancers, analysts and other specific audience segments.

Such narrower queries often produce better SEO results.

First, they are less competitive. It may turn out that your competitors simply have not created content on this topic. They may have taken a broad topic such as “AI Tool” or “CRM Software”, described how it works, and stopped there.

Second, such queries are often more conversion oriented because the person is already looking for a specific solution to their problem, and you have a landing page specifically created for this query. This significantly increases the likelihood of attracting targeted traffic and conversions.

Main Types of Keywords

Keywords can be categorized in different ways. I will talk about them in more detail in separate articles because it is impossible to describe everything within this article: it would become too large.

Let’s simply list the main types and look at what they mean.

Informational Keywords

These are queries where the user is looking for an answer to a question.

For example:

• what is keyword research;
• how to do keyword research;
• how to find keywords.

The main goal of the user is to get information and understand the topic.

Commercial Keywords

These are queries where the user is already choosing a product or service.

It is important to understand that a commercial query is not only queries containing words such as “buy” or “order”.

This category also includes queries such as:

• best;
• compare;
• review;
• alternatives;
• how to choose.

For example, the query “how to choose CRM software” looks informational, but in reality the user is already at the product selection stage.

Transactional Keywords

These are queries where the user is already ready to take an action.

For example:

• buy;
• order;
• registration;
• login;
• subscription.

Such queries show that a person is as close as possible to conversion and is ready to complete a transaction.

Navigational Keywords

These are queries where the user is looking for a specific brand, website or page.

For example:

• KeywordStat login;
• KeywordStat pricing;
• account login;
• company address.

The user already knows where they want to go and uses search as a navigation tool.

Keywords by Search Volume

By search volume, keywords are usually divided into three groups:

• high volume (short-tail);
• medium volume (mid-tail);
• low volume (long-tail).

In this article, I have already explained in detail what these are and how they differ from each other.

Local and Global Keywords

Keywords can also be divided based on geo dependency.

Local Keywords

These are queries that contain a specific location.

For example:

• cafe in New York on Manhattan;
• SEO agency in central Madrid;
• dentist in Berlin Alexanderplatz.

For such queries, the user’s location plays an important role.

Global Keywords

These are queries that are not tied to a specific country or city.

For example:

• Keyword Finder;
• SEO research tool;
• AI writing tool.

The user does not care where the company or the product servers are located. The main thing is that the tool works online.

Keywords by Relevance Over Time

Another popular classification is based on how relevant keywords remain over time.

Evergreen Keywords

These are the so called evergreen keywords that maintain stable demand over many years.

For example:

• how to tie a tie;
• how to choose a laptop;
• how to write a resume.

The trend for such queries remains relatively stable.

Although it is worth considering that many of these topics have already been covered in detail by a large number of websites.

In addition, modern LLM systems are often able to answer such questions faster and more conveniently than a separate article. Therefore, if you are thinking about writing such articles, then you will need a lot of effort to make the articles better than those that are already at the top.

Seasonal Keywords

These are queries whose demand depends on the season.

For example:

• swimwear;
• sunglasses;
• winter tires;
• snowboarding products;
• New Year gifts.

During a specific season, such queries grow sharply and then decline again.

Trending Keywords

These are queries related to new events, products and technologies.

For example:

• new iPhone;
• latest AI tools;
• new Google updates.

I am intentionally not naming a specific iPhone model because by the time you read this article, the next iPhone model may already be released.

Such queries are very sensitive to the freshness of information. Therefore, if you work with trending content, you need to constantly follow the news and regularly update your materials.

Short-Tail Keywords

Short-tail keywords are short queries consisting of one, two or three words. For example: SEO, IT, CRM, AI, VPN, running shoes, and so on.

What are their characteristics?

They have very high search volume, high competition and are difficult to rank for. At the same time, user intent is often unclear.

When we enter the word “SEO”, we do not understand what exactly the person wants: to order SEO services or to read about how SEO works.

You may receive a lot of traffic from such a query, or you may receive no traffic at all. Google tries to understand what exactly the user is looking for and therefore often shows several possible answers in the search results.

Your chance of reaching the top becomes even lower because the search engine may:

• provide a quick answer directly in the search results;
• show an AI Overview;
• display different content types;
• show videos on the topic;
• display large informational websites;
• show featured snippets.

Google itself does not fully understand the user’s intention and tries to satisfy several possible search scenarios at once.

Therefore, ranking for short-tail keywords requires very high website authority. But even in this case, determining user intent will be quite difficult.

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific queries. For example:

• SEO agency in New York;
• Best CRM for small business;
• How to do keyword research;
• Running shoes for flat feet.

Such queries provide a much clearer indication of what exactly the user wants.

They usually have:

• lower search volume;
• lower competition;
• higher conversion rates;
• clearer intent.

Therefore, ranking for such queries is significantly easier.

This is exactly why many websites receive the majority of their SEO traffic from long-tail keywords, and this mechanic forms the foundation of the SEO Avalanche technique: when you gradually increase keyword difficulty like a snowball.

Moreover, a single page can rank for a large number of long-tail queries while not ranking for short-tail queries at all. This is a completely normal situation.

Branded Keywords

Branded keywords are queries that contain the name of a brand or company.

They are very useful, but there is one important nuance here. For users to search for you by brand name, they first need to know about your brand.

This usually happens through display advertising, PR, content marketing, social media and other marketing channels.

Because people cannot search for something they have never heard of, and that is logical.

Therefore, working with branded queries is not so much about attracting a new audience as it is about acquiring and protecting traffic related to your own brand.

There are often situations where competitors or affiliates take advantage of branded searches.

For example, a company does not actively protect its brand in search results, and other websites create review pages, rankings, comparisons or alternatives and begin receiving this traffic.

In some cases, this traffic is then monetized through affiliate marketing, and sometimes users are simply redirected to competitors. I know many people who made a fortune from this back in the day. But let’s not talk about that, those times are long gone.

Therefore, branded keywords also require attention.

Branded keywords are queries that contain the name of a company, brand, product or service.

In our case, examples may include:

• KeywordStat;
• KeywordStat pricing;
• KeywordStat keyword research tool;
• KeywordStat alternatives.

In other words, the user already knows about the brand and is looking for a specific page, feature, service or additional information within that brand.

Such queries usually have high conversion rates because the user is already familiar with the product and is much closer to making a decision.

They also often have low competition. However, this is not always the case.

If you have a popular product that can be replaced by alternatives, competitors may actively compete for this traffic. For example, they may create comparison pages, alternatives pages or reviews and try to capture users during the decision making stage.

Therefore, in some niches even branded keywords can have fairly high competition.

Previously, some third-party sites could rank for these queries. It’s great that Google fixed this. I know of a company that was losing a lot of money on this. I’ll keep this a trade secret and won’t name the company, as it’s unethical.

Non-Branded Keywords

As the name suggests, non-branded keywords are queries that do not contain a brand name.

If we talk about our product, examples of such queries may include:

• keyword research tools;
• keyword finder;
• keyword clustering tool;
• SEO keyword analysis.

These are queries entered by users who are not yet familiar with your brand.

Almost every SEO strategy is aimed specifically at acquiring traffic from such non-branded queries.

This is because the volume of branded traffic is usually limited. It largely depends on how many people already know about your brand and what marketing or media activities you have previously conducted.

Non-branded queries allow you to attract a new audience. The user already knows their problem or task and is looking for a solution, but does not yet know about the existence of your product.

That is why such queries usually become the primary source of SEO traffic.

When I was working on the SEO promotion of my website KeywordStat, I decided to use two strategies at the same time.

First, the name KeywordStat itself contains a keyword. Essentially, it is a combination of the words “keyword” and “stat”, meaning keyword statistics. This already helps search engines somewhat understand the topic of the project.

However, it is very difficult to grow only through a branded name. Even if the query KeywordStat is considered branded, the volume of such traffic will still be limited.

Therefore, branded promotion alone is not enough.

That is exactly why I run a blog and publish materials on other thematic pages of the website. This allows me to attract users through non-branded queries and gain additional organic traffic from search engines.

Search Intent

Let’s talk about search intent.

In my opinion, this is one of the most important parts of Keyword Research because when we see keywords, we need to understand what intention the user has when entering this query into a search engine.

Today, Google ranks pages based on how well they match user intent. This is called Search Intent.

Essentially, intent is the primary reason why a user performs a search.

If a page is filled with keywords but does not match user intent and does not solve the user’s need or problem, then such a page will not achieve high rankings.

Even if it reaches the top for some period of time, Google will see weak behavioral signals and gradually lower its rankings. As a result, the page may drop much lower in the search results, where almost nobody will see it.

Therefore, understanding search intent is a critically important part of SEO.

Main Types of Search Intent

Informational Intent

Informational intent occurs when the user wants to obtain information.

Examples of queries:

• What is keyword research?
• How to do keyword research?
• What is search intent?

Most queries that begin with words such as “what”, “how”, “why”, “when”, and similar words usually belong to informational intent.

What types of pages should be created for such queries?

These can be:

• articles;
• guides;
• instructions;
• research;
• educational materials.

How exactly you name this section on your website is not that important.

What matters is how you present the information.

It can be a text article, a video, an article with an embedded video, an infographic, charts, screenshots or any other format that helps users better understand the topic.

The better you explain the material and demonstrate how it works in practice, the higher the probability that the page will achieve good search rankings.

Commercial Intent

This is where the commercial aspect appears.

The user is comparing different options before making a purchase.

Examples of queries:

• Best keyword research tool;
• KeywordStat vs Ahrefs;
• Ahrefs vs SE Ranking;
• SE Ranking vs Semrush;
• Top SEO software;
• Keyword research tool for beginners.

The user is not yet buying the product, but is already at the decision making stage.

In our funnel, this is no longer a cold audience. The user understands the problem, evaluates solutions and gradually moves toward a purchase.

What types of pages are best for such queries?

Suitable formats include:

• reviews;
• comparisons;
• rankings;
• tool roundups;
• alternative pages.

The presentation format can vary:

• comparison tables;
• video reviews;
• lists;
• infographics;
• images;
• detailed text reviews.

The method of presentation depends on your resources and capabilities.

Transactional Intent

At this stage, the user is already ready to take action.

Examples of queries:

• Buy CRM software;
• Keyword research tool pricing;
• Sign up KeywordStat;
• SEO audit service.

Such queries contain words like:

• buy;
• order;
• sign up;
• pricing;
• demo.

We understand that the user is extremely close to conversion and is ready to make a purchase or register.

What content should be created for such queries?

These are no longer article type pages.

The following usually work better:

• landing pages;
• pricing pages;
• service pages;
• product pages;
• registration pages;
• pricing comparison pages.

If you are promoting a SaaS product, these may also include detailed pages describing functionality, pricing plans and the onboarding process.

Navigational Intent

Navigational intent occurs when the user is looking for a specific website, brand or page.

Examples of queries:

• KeywordStat login;
• Ahrefs dashboard;
• Google Search Console;

In most cases, it does not make much sense to compete for such queries.

It is far more important to create pages on your own website that satisfy this demand and receive the corresponding branded traffic.

Today, Google understands quite well which website the user is trying to find.

In the past, it was quite popular to create pages targeting other brands and capture this traffic. There were situations where even the brands themselves could not rank in the first positions for their own queries.

Many companies and affiliates earned good money using such strategies.

However, over time Google significantly improved its algorithms and became much better at identifying branded user intent.

This is a logical change because companies that invest in their products and develop their brands should be able to receive traffic from their own branded queries.

Today, in most cases, Google accurately understands which brand the user is looking for and tries to show the most relevant official result.

How to Determine Search Intent?

The easiest way to determine search intent is to look at the search results.

Let’s create a small checklist.

Search Intent Checklist

Step 1. Enter the Query into Google

Open Google and enter the query you want to analyze.

If you need to analyze search results for another country or region, you can use special tools, for example Local SERP Checker, which allow you to change the search location and view results for a specific market.

Step 2. Look at Which Pages Rank at the Top

Carefully study the search results. Google is already showing you what type of content it considers the most relevant for this query.

If the top results are mostly articles, that is one type of intent.

If reviews and comparisons dominate, that is another.

If product pages and landing pages rank, that is a third type.

Essentially, Google has already done the analysis for you. You only need to interpret the results correctly.

Intent Identification Checklist

Informational Intent

If more than five out of ten search results are articles, guides or educational materials, then the query most likely has informational intent.

Examples of content:

• articles;
• instructions;
• guides;
• educational materials;
• research.

Commercial Intent

If most of the search results consist of reviews, comparisons, rankings and roundups, then you are looking at commercial intent.

Examples of content:

• tool reviews;
• product comparisons;
• service rankings;
• alternative pages.

Transactional Intent

If landing pages, product pages, service pages or pricing pages dominate the search results, then the query has transactional intent.

Examples of content:

• registration pages;
• pricing pages;
• product landing pages;
• service pages.

Navigational Intent

If official brand websites, company homepages or specific branded sections dominate the search results, then this is navigational intent.

Examples:

• account login pages;
• brand pages;
• official company websites;
• specific product pages.

Why Is This Important?

Google already shows which content format it considers the best answer to the user’s query based on its knowledge base.

Therefore, SERP analysis should always come before creating a page.

If you do not check the search results in advance, there is a risk of creating an article where Google wants to see a landing page, or creating a landing page where users expect a detailed educational resource.

As a result, you may spend a lot of time creating content that does not initially match user intent and therefore will not be able to achieve high positions in the search results.

How to Find Keyword Ideas?

Many webmasters use only a small portion of the available semantic data. For example, they work only with keyword research and analysis tools. But this is often not enough.

Let’s look at the main sources for finding new ideas.

Google Autocomplete

This is the simplest source for finding ideas.

You can simply enter a query into the Google search bar, and the system will automatically suggest additional query variations.

For example, if you enter the query “Keyword Research”, Google may suggest:

• Keyword Research Tool;
• Keyword Research Process;
• Keyword Research Guide;
• Keyword Research Checklist;
• Keyword Research Template.

All of these suggestions are based on real user searches, making them an excellent source of content ideas.

People Also Ask

The People Also Ask section contains questions that users frequently ask about a particular topic.

For example, for the query “Keyword Research”, you may see questions such as:

• What is Keyword Research?
• Why is Keyword Research important?
• How to begin Keyword Research?

Each of these questions can become a separate article, a section within an article, or an additional landing page on your website.

Related Searches

At the bottom of Google’s search results, you will find the related searches section.

This section helps uncover additional directions for topic research.

For example:

• Keyword Research example;
• Keyword Research process;
• Keyword Research strategy;
• Keyword Research for SEO.

This is often where you can find a large number of useful long-tail keywords for your blog.

Competitor Analysis

This is one of the most important tools, especially when starting a new project.

Our goal is to understand how competitors are getting their traffic.

To do this, you can analyze:

• most visited pages;
• pages with high traffic volume;
• topical clusters;
• website categories;
• blog sections;
• service pages.

You know without me that there are many SEO platforms: Ahrefs, SE Ranking and others. The logic is very simple: if a competitor receives traffic from certain pages and queries, then these topics have already proven their value, and you can use them in your strategy.

Very often, this type of analysis allows you to find dozens or even hundreds of relevant keywords in just a few clicks.

Google Search Console

This tool is available only for your own website.

After connecting your website to Google Search Console, you will be able to analyze:

• search queries;
• pages;
• countries;
• devices;
• Search Appearance;
• time periods.

You can also use filters to analyze:

• Web;
• Images;
• Video;
• News.

Google Search Console allows you to:

• compare periods;
• analyze individual queries;
• compare pages;
• work with regular expressions (Regex);
• create advanced filters;
• find queries that contain or do not contain specific words.

This is one of the most powerful tools for analyzing your own search visibility.

The advantage is that you see real Google data directly, without intermediaries.

There is only one disadvantage: the tool is available exclusively for your own website.

If you want to analyze a competitor through Google Search Console, it’s impossible. Or get a job at their company. It’s just a joke! 😉

Reddit, Quora and Forums

Various forums and communities are an excellent source of semantic data.

The advantage of such platforms is that users formulate their questions in natural language.

Very often, this is where you can find query formulations that have not yet appeared in traditional keyword research tools.

YouTube

YouTube can be considered one of the largest search engines in the world. People enter millions of search queries there every day.

Therefore, YouTube can be an excellent source of new ideas for you, especially for informational content.

By analyzing YouTube search suggestions, titles of popular videos and user comments, you can discover additional topics for articles, guides and educational materials.

AI Platforms

You can also use modern AI platforms.

More and more users search for information through:

• ChatGPT;
• Gemini;
• Claude;
• Perplexity;
• Grok;
• other LLM systems.

Such platforms help identify real user questions, understand how people formulate their queries, discover which topics appear most often and determine which problems concern the audience.

In addition, AI tools allow you to quickly generate additional ideas, group topics and discover new directions for your content strategy.

Therefore, today AI platforms are becoming another important source for keyword discovery and user demand research.

How to Conduct Keyword Research: A Step by Step Process

I have already told you a lot about the fundamentals of Keyword Research and the overall logic of keyword discovery.

Now let’s move from theory to practice and create a specific step by step plan.

Step 1. Define Your Core Business Topics

We cannot create pages for products or services that we do not have.

If an online store does not offer a specific product, there is no point in creating a commercial page for it.

Therefore, research always begins with understanding which products, services or product features already exist.

It does not matter whether it is an online business or an offline business. First, you need to determine what exactly you can offer the user.

Yes, you can write a blog article on almost any topic. But if it cannot be connected to your product or service, the value of such content may be limited.

Therefore, first define:

• product matrix;
• list of services;
• core product features;
• main business directions.

Step 2. Create Seed Keywords

Seed Keywords are the basic queries from which research begins.

For example, if you have a sneaker store, the seed keywords may be:

• Nike;
• Adidas;
• Puma;
• Asics;
• Under Armour.

Then each of these queries can be expanded.

Brands have:

• models;
• categories;
• colors;
• sizes;
• purposes;
• audiences.

Sneakers can be:

• for men;
• for women;
• for children;
• for running;
• for training;
• high-top;
• low-top.

Each of these attributes allows you to expand the semantic core.

Usually, collecting 20 to 50 seed keywords is enough to start a full research process.

Step 3. Expand the Semantic Core

After creating the initial list, you can move on to finding additional keyword variations.

For example, if we have the seed keyword:

Keyword Research,

then it can be expanded into:

• Keyword Research Tool;
• Keyword Research Process;
• Keyword Research Guide;
• Keyword Research Checklist;
• Keyword Research Template;
• Keyword Research for Beginners.

And that is only one topic.

Next, you need to determine which queries can be grouped on one page and which require separate pages.

This is where keyword clustering is used.

There are two main approaches:

• Hard Clustering;
• Soft Clustering.

In short, hard clustering groups queries together when there’s a high level of search results overlap. This helps you more accurately determine which queries should be promoted on a single page. Simply put, it’s more accurate, and you create more pages.

Soft clustering allows fewer matches and creates broader query groups, allowing you to expand your topic coverage and create fewer pages.

This is a large topic on its own, so we will not cover it in detail here.

To expand your semantic core, you can use:

• Google Autocomplete;
• People Also Ask;
• Related Searches;
• competitor analysis;
• Google Search Console;
• forums and communities;
• AI platforms.

Step 4. Collect Metrics

After expanding the semantic core, you need to evaluate the value of each query.

That is why modern research tools provide a large number of additional metrics.

They help you make decisions based on data rather than intuition.

Search Volume

Search Volume shows the average number of searches per month.

For example:

• Keyword Research: 12,000 searches;
• Keyword Clustering: 1,500 searches;
• Keyword Intent Analysis: 3,500 searches.

This metric helps you understand overall demand and potential traffic volume.

It is not the most important metric, but it is a good benchmark for evaluating market size.

High search volume does not always mean high keyword value, but in most cases strong demand is still a positive signal.

Keyword Difficulty

Keyword Difficulty shows how difficult it will be to rank at the top of the search results for a specific query.

Usually, this metric is measured on a scale from 0 to 100. Different tools use different methodologies. However, it can generally be divided into 3-4 levels:

• 0-10: low competition;
• 10-40: moderate competition;
• 40-80: high competition;
• 80-100: very high competition.

For new websites, it usually makes sense to start with less competitive keywords.

Ranking difficulty is influenced by:

• website authority;
• quantity and quality of backlinks;
• level of competition;
• content quality;
• overall domain expertise.

CPC (Cost Per Click)

CPC shows the average cost per click in paid advertising.

A question naturally arises: why should an SEO specialist look at advertising data?

The answer is quite simple. If companies are willing to pay a lot of money for a click on a keyword, then that keyword is generating customers and sales.

Therefore, CPC helps evaluate the commercial value of a keyword.

However, you should not rely solely on this metric when making decisions.

Traffic Potential

This is one of the most useful metrics because it shows not only the search volume of a specific keyword but also the overall traffic potential of a page.

We have already discussed that a single page ranks for a large number of keywords. Therefore, I believe that relying only on Search Volume is not enough.

Very often, a page created around one primary keyword receives most of its traffic from dozens or even hundreds of related long-tail keywords.

That is why Traffic Potential is often a more useful metric for marketers than standard search volume.

Step 5. Evaluate Search Intent

At this stage, it is necessary to determine what type of content the user expects to see.

This is one of the most important steps in the entire process.

Very often, you may create an article where a landing page is needed.

Or create a landing page where the user actually needs a detailed educational resource.

Therefore, before creating a page, you need to clearly identify the search intent and understand which content format best matches user expectations.

Only after that should you move on to keyword clustering, website structure planning and content creation.

Step 6. Remove Junk Keywords

After expanding the semantic core, you may find that the number of keywords has become too large. This is completely normal. At this stage, you need to clean the list and remove keywords that:

• are not related to your business;
• have no value for the user;
• do not match your products or services;
• have unclear intent;
• belong to a different topic.

Very often, after this cleanup process, you can remove up to 50% of the original keyword list. This is also a completely normal situation.

Your main goal is to keep only the keywords that will genuinely help attract your target audience.

Step 7. Group and Cluster Keywords

I have already mentioned that keywords should be grouped by intent and topical similarity.

Instead of creating a separate page for every keyword, you should combine keywords into clusters.

The cluster becomes the foundation of the future page.

For example, if we create a page called “Keyword Research Complete Guide”, it may cover topics such as:

• the keyword research process;
• examples;
• tools;
• templates;
• best practices.

In this case, there is no need to create separate pages for:

• Keyword Research Examples;
• Keyword Research Practices;
• Keyword Research Basics.

If all these queries have the same intent and can be fully satisfied by one high quality page, they should be combined.

If you create a large number of nearly identical pages for very similar keywords, a phenomenon called Keyword Cannibalization occurs.

In this situation, the pages begin competing with each other for the same positions in the search results.

Step 8. Set Priorities

After clustering, you already understand:

• how many pages need to be created;
• which page types are required;
• what content needs to be prepared.

Most likely, you will need more than just written content.

You may also need:

• images;
• infographics;
• videos;
• tables;
• examples;
• research.

As a result, the amount of work becomes quite significant.

Therefore, you need to establish priorities and decide which pages will be created first.

This is where a conflict often arises between business goals and SEO.

The business wants to promote the most important commercial pages.

SEO shows that a new website may not yet be able to compete effectively for the most competitive keywords.

Therefore, it is necessary to find a balance.

Usually, the first priority should be keywords that have:

• high business potential;
• sufficient search demand;
• relatively low competition;
• good conversion potential.

This is not the easiest task, especially for new projects.

This approach allows you to achieve your first results faster.

Keyword Research Deliverables

As a result of keyword research, we should not get just a list of keywords.

We should get a complete structure of the future website.

Essentially, the result of Keyword Research is a website map where it is clear:

• how many pages need to be created;
• which keywords belong to each page;
• which page type is required;
• what additional content will be needed;
• how the pages will be connected to each other.

This structure becomes the foundation of the content SEO strategy.

We are not talking about link building right now, although it is also an important part of SEO.

However, link building is a separate area of work.

Within Keyword Research, our main task is to build the correct website structure and develop an effective content strategy based on real search demand.

Keyword Research Quality Checklist

Before moving on to content creation, I recommend going through this short checklist and making sure that your semantic core and website structure meet the key requirements.

Topic Relevance

Make sure that:

• all keywords are related to your business, product, goods or service;
• there are no irrelevant keywords;
• all major business areas are covered.

Semantic Coverage

Make sure that:

• all major search queries have been collected;
• high-volume keywords have been researched;
• mid-volume keywords have been researched;
• long-tail keywords have been collected;
• real user queries have been added;
• competitor keywords have been analyzed.

Metrics

Make sure that for every important keyword you understand:

• Search Volume;
• Keyword Difficulty;
• search intent;
• business potential;
• potential value for the project.

Clustering

Make sure that:

• search queries are grouped into logical clusters;
• each cluster corresponds to a separate page;
• there is no overlap between clusters;
• keyword cannibalization has been eliminated;
• internal page competition has been eliminated.

Website Structure

Make sure that:

• a page type has been defined for each cluster;
• internal linking has been planned;
• a structure of categories, subcategories and filters has been created;
• the main website sections have been defined;
• a content creation plan has been prepared;
• a page publishing plan has been created.

If all items in this checklist are completed, then the keyword research has been conducted properly.

As a result, you get not just a list of keywords, but a complete SEO content strategy: a clear website structure, a map of future pages, an understanding of search intent and priorities for further project growth.

Conclusion

Yes, I understand that this guide turned out to be very large. You are probably already tired, so let’s summarize everything.

Keyword Research is the foundation of a successful SEO and content strategy. It is deep and detailed keyword research that helps you understand what your audience is searching for, which pages need to be created and what content should be placed on those pages.

The modern Keyword Research process includes:

• keyword discovery and expansion;
• metric analysis;
• search intent evaluation;
• keyword clustering;
• website structure planning;
• content prioritization;
• content creation.

Today, conducting a complete Keyword Research process without modern tools is extremely difficult.

You can use several tools simultaneously or choose one primary tool for your workflow. The important thing is to rely on real data rather than assumptions.

Tools such as KeywordStat help automate most of the manual work related to keyword discovery and analysis, identifying key metrics and finding new growth opportunities.

Because of this, you will be able to discover promising keywords, evaluate their potential and make decisions based on data rather than intuition, guesses or common SEO myths.

As a result, you will get a clear website structure, a strong content strategy and a list of priority pages that are truly capable of attracting search traffic and helping your business grow.

That is all from me. Thank you for reading this article. If you are interested in SEO, Keyword Research and content marketing, be sure to check out the other materials on this website as well.