How to Do Keyword Research – Step-by-Step Guide with Video

Do you want your website to appear among the top Google search results and attract relevant traffic without spending huge amounts on promotion? Your website needs to be SEO optimized. If you’re not an SEO specialist but want to get familiar with the field and learn step by step how to make your site visible in search engines, you need to become friends with the foundation of online marketing campaigns: keywords. Why? They are the bridge between potential clients and your website.

The first step is to gain clarity about what keywords are and how many types there are, based on user intent. Once you’ve solved that “mystery,” the second—and probably most important—step is learning how to do correct keyword research. That means identifying the keywords or key phrases that define your website content and are relevant to your target audience.

These are crucial for ranking higher in Google, attracting relevant traffic, and providing value to your potential clients. This is what Google expects from you—and that’s why it should be your main objective.

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of keywords, factors to consider when analyzing keywords or phrases, and how to discover them.

Start with Your Business Analysis

When it comes to keyword analysis, most business owners start by researching Google queries (what people are searching for), but this is totally wrong. Why? It’s simple. People have a need; they search for information. That’s true. But can you really help them? To answer this, you must first understand your business specifics, your market positioning (premium or affordable brand), and set your short-, medium-, and long-term goals (do you want to build authority or need qualified leads and sales).

This will later make your keyword research process much easier. Otherwise, you might end up ranking a page for a high-search-volume keyword that brings no relevant traffic. For example, if you have a premium brand selling 100% cotton sofa covers at a matching price, you can’t use the keyword “cheap 3-seater sofa cover,” even if thousands search for it monthly. Why? It’s useless to bring this traffic to your site. People searching for “cheap” won’t buy from you. You’re not relevant for their needs—and Google takes this into account.

It’s like inviting a vegetarian to dinner, they enter your home and you offer a juicy steak. It may be delicious, but not for your guest—who might even get annoyed that you wasted their time.

So, analyze your business objectively if you want to make sure a site visit will also result in an action from your potential client. It’s part of your marketing strategy.

Why Is Keyword Analysis Important?

Once you’ve clarified your business specifics and set your goals, the next crucial step is keyword analysis. This will help you better understand your target audience: what, how, or when they search for your content, services, or products. Basically, you step into your potential client’s mind and create a bridge between their intent/need and how your business can help.

Thorough research helps you find the best keywords or phrases to target and build a content strategy that lifts you higher in search engine results.

Without this analysis, it’s like wandering blindfolded and hoping to get lucky and reach your destination. Every online action must be planned in advance if you want results, integrated into a strategy where your main goal is to be present for your client at every stage until they buy from you. This way, you get not only an overview, but a clear picture of your client’s behavior and needs—making it much easier to redirect them to your website.

If you don’t know what queries your potential clients are making or how they actually think, you won’t get traffic from Google. A keyword or phrase that no one is searching for… is pointless. Many business owners make this mistake—about 90.63% of web pages get no traffic from Google, according to a study by Ahrefs. The question is: do you want to be part of the remaining 9.37%?

To make this happen, you don’t rank by accident; you rank for keywords relevant to both Google and your client. And keyword analysis, of course, helps with that.

How to Prepare for Keyword Analysis

Before doing keyword research, you have to step into your client’s shoes. Why? Simple. The way your client thinks or expresses themselves is usually very different from how you see things.

Here’s a concrete example. Suppose a potential client doesn’t know what to post on their Social Media pages—and you offer that service. As a specialist, you’d say they need a communication strategy. Sure! But will they search Google for exactly that? Will they wake up one morning thinking they need a communication strategy? Unlikely. Their real problem is not having ideas for content to post. Most likely, they’ll search for something like: “post ideas for …”. They express themselves as someone with a problem, not as a specialist.

So ask yourself:

How does my client search or talk about the product, service, or information I offer?

The answer to this question is crucial and will determine whether you’ll help your potential client find you. That’s why it’s so important to develop a content strategy that matches your client’s search intent.

How many people search for the product, service, or info you offer?

Basically, how many times per month is a keyword searched on average? Here are a few aspects to consider:

If your website is new or you don’t have a wide range of products, avoid using short-tail keywords, even if they have high search volumes; competition is fierce and it’ll be very hard to rank.

Focus on long-tail keywords that are less competitive, because these are often overlooked. Even though they have lower search volumes, they’ll help you rank easier and better reflect how people search. Importantly, just because a keyword has high search volume doesn’t mean it will bring results. It depends on niche competitiveness, the ranking and authority of competitor sites, and how relevant your business is.

Search volume is not equal to the number of people searching. The same person can search the same topic multiple times a month.

Search volume does not equal the number of visits that keyword will bring to your site.

In what format does my client want the information presented?

Do they prefer articles with/without pictures, audio/video content, or would they rather read? This will help you determine what kind of content you should create for your client. If they’re impatient and you offer only text, how relevant do you think that will be—for them or Google? AI tracks user behavior and ranks the preferred content type higher.

Let’s Take a Real Example: “evening makeup brown eyes” search:

The top result in Google is Pinterest, offering makeup ideas. Not just a few, but 200 ideas. So it’s clear that for this query, visual content is extremely important. It’s much easier to show than to explain with text what makeup types are possible. Obviously, the impact is huge, especially if the ideas look great visually.

How can you stand out here? Offer more ideas, pay attention to picture quality, makeup complexity, and even add a video (tutorial). Pinterest is a strong competitor. But the idea is to see what the top 5–10 competitors do and make sure you offer something extra: more niche, more appealing, always thinking of the user. Don’t copy the competition—understand their logic.

What questions does the potential client have when searching a topic?

How do they actually phrase it? Always use “user language” and avoid technical terms that, believe me, only you understand. For example, “divorce lawyer” gets more searches than “family law lawyer.” The second term is about specialization. Users don’t search for that. They want to solve their problem: “divorce.” Also, analyze what questions users have about a topic and create content that answers those questions. For example: “what is SEO?”

The more valuable content you offer that actually helps users, the more you’ll create a community around your brand and attract more relevant traffic. The center of your universe should always be your client and their needs. That’s why it’s so important to choose keywords that express exactly what you offer (your business specifics) and fit user search intent, such as:

• Informational queries: the searcher needs information;
• Navigational queries: the searcher wants to access a specific web page;
• Transactional queries: the searcher is ready to buy;
• Commercial investigation: the searcher wants more information about products/services;
• Local queries: the searcher wants to find something local, near where they live or an area of interest.

How to Discover New Keywords

After you’ve “stepped into your client’s shoes” and truly understood their problems, how they naturally express themselves, and what they want to achieve, the next step is to get to work and find those keywords that intersect your client’s need and your product. Remember: your potential client rarely buys right away. Maybe only if they know exactly what they want—but even then, they got there by doing some prior research. When creating your content strategy, keep in mind the client’s journey:

• First, they look for general information on the topic—you give them the info they need, offer value, and build trust.
• Then, they look for solutions to their problems—you help with practical content and concrete answers, not just theory, and thus build brand authority and a community around you.
• Finally, the client is ready to buy—they already have all the information about a particular product or service, you’ve provided value, something tangible, and now they’re ready to buy from you.

Your web page content must be tailored for each stage in your client’s journey. While most just want to sell and focus only on that, be the exception and provide value first. Sales will simply follow.

Keep this in mind when doing keyword research. Start with:

• What information is my client looking for?
• What problems do they have?
• What matters to them when they’re ready to buy?

There are several ways to discover relevant keywords and phrases, accessible even to non-SEO specialists or those without fancy tools. If you apply the right strategy starting with your business and avatar analysis, the keyword discovery process will be very easy and intuitive.

Let’s see how to discover new keywords:

Option 1:

Start with a few known, general keywords from your industry. You can also use a product list, services, topics of interest, or fields of activity. Next, do exactly what your client does when searching for information—make a Google query.

Let’s take a concrete example: say you’re a lawyer in Brasov. Type the keyword “lawyer Brasov” in the search bar and, if you hit SPACE, Google will already give you a series of other keyword combinations based on previous search data. If “lawyer Brasov” has too much competition, you might want to target a long-tail keyword, like: “lawyer Brasov family law,” “best lawyer Brasov,” etc.

You already have a generous list of keywords to target. That’s not all. At the bottom of the search results page, Google will offer even more options under “People also searched for…” These are keywords or phrases similar to your query—combinations you might not have thought of.

Option 2:

Use Google Keyword Planner—a free, powerful tool from Google. It helps you identify suitable keywords for your website SEO optimization, lets you see search volumes for a keyword, and compare them to other similar keywords. Here, you’ll also check the search volume for each keyword identified with option 1.

Another similar option is Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, but this is subscription-based. Besides keyword research, it offers many other useful SEO tools.

Regardless of how you found keywords, don’t forget to put them in a table with their monthly search volume. Each page on your website will be indexed for a single keyword.

Option 3:

If you already have a website, Google might have naturally indexed it based on the content you’ve created. So, you’re already considered relevant for certain keywords. What should you do? Use a tool like ahrefs.com Organic Keywords to identify which pages rank on the first or second page in Google’s organic results for certain keywords. Your goal: prioritize optimizing these pages so you ensure they have valuable content for your target audience.

Option 4:

Just as it’s important to accurately know your target audience, it’s equally important to know your competitors. For this, a very useful tool is ahrefs.com, which lets you scan competitors to see which keywords they’re targeting. Just connect your site to Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, use the Content Gap tool, and add your competitors (those ranking at the top of search engine results).

Ahrefs gives you important data on your competitors’ site content, backlinks, keywords, etc. This way, you can develop an effective content marketing strategy to help you stay competitive and climb Google rankings.

Keyword Research is the Basis of SEO Optimization

If you want to optimize your site for search engines and attract relevant traffic, keyword analysis is one of the most important steps. It’s not enough to identify keywords with high search volumes. What you really need is clarity about your client avatar and an understanding of their online behavior. This lets you create an effective content marketing strategy, providing valuable content to your audience. The reward will always be the result you expect, depending on your set objective: awareness, higher sales, relevant traffic, and, of course, better Google rankings.