Overview
Choosing the right keywords for SEO means identifying the searches your potential customers actually use, checking how often they are searched, understanding the intention behind them and matching them to the most appropriate pages on your website. The strongest keyword choices balance relevance, search demand, competition and commercial value rather than simply targeting the phrases with the highest search volume.
Keyword research is one of the foundations of SEO because it helps you understand how people search for the products, services and information your business provides.
A good keyword list can influence everything from the wording of an existing service page to the subjects you cover in your blog. The difficult part is deciding which keywords are actually worth targeting.
A phrase attracting thousands of searches each month can look attractive in a spreadsheet, but it may have little commercial relevance to your business. At the other end of the scale, a very specific term with a modest search volume may describe exactly the service somebody is looking to buy.
This is why keyword research involves more than finding large numbers.
What are seed keywords?
Seed keywords are the broad terms you use to begin keyword research. They normally describe your main products, services, industries or customer needs.
For an SEO agency, seed terms might include:
- SEO
- SEO agency
- local SEO
- technical SEO
- keyword research
- SEO audit
For a commercial furniture company, they could include:
- office furniture
- office desks
- office chairs
- boardroom tables
- office fit out.
These terms are rarely the finished keyword strategy.
Their purpose is to give keyword research tools a starting point from which they can identify related searches, longer phrases, questions and variations.
It is worth building seed terms from several sources.
Start with your products and services, then speak to the people who deal with customers. Sales teams often use different language from customers, so listen to the phrases people use when they enquire, ask for quotations or describe their problems.
Existing Google Search Console data is also useful. A website may already be receiving impressions for terminology that nobody considered when the original pages were written.
Which tools should you use for keyword research?
There are many SEO tools available, and most professional platforms provide broadly similar types of keyword data.
At In Front Digital, we regularly use SE Ranking and Semrush as part of the keyword research process.
We generally begin with the client’s main products and services, enter the seed terms into the tools and set the appropriate location. For a UK business, there is little value in basing decisions entirely on worldwide search volumes if the company only serves customers in Britain.
We then expand those starting terms into related keywords and review factors including:
- estimated monthly search volume
- keyword difficulty
- search intent
- related terms
- competitor rankings
- current ranking positions
- the pages appearing in Google’s results.
We will also compare this with Google Search Console where the website already has enough data.
Search Console can reveal searches for which a website is already appearing, even when those terms were never deliberately targeted.
That can uncover relatively quick opportunities. A page receiving regular impressions around positions 8 to 20, for example, may warrant improvement before the business invests in creating an entirely new page.
How important is keyword search volume?
Search volume estimates how often people search for a keyword during an average month. It is useful because it gives an indication of demand. However, volume needs context.
Imagine a specialist manufacturer is choosing between these two terms:
“metal products” might receive thousands of searches.
“stainless steel precision components UK” might receive a fraction of that number.
The broader search may include students, consumers, people looking for raw materials and people researching subjects that have little connection with the manufacturer’s services.
The second search tells us considerably more about what the person wants.
This means we rarely make keyword decisions using search volume alone.
In specialist B2B sectors, a keyword receiving 50 searches each month can be commercially significant if several of those searches come from potential buyers.
The same principle applies to local businesses. A treatment, professional service or specialist product may have relatively low national volume while still representing a worthwhile source of enquiries within the target market.
What does keyword difficulty tell you?
Keyword difficulty is an estimate of how challenging it may be to compete for a particular search.
SEO platforms calculate this differently, so it should be treated as a guide rather than a fixed measure of whether you can or cannot rank.
A high-difficulty keyword will often have well-established websites occupying the strongest positions.
That does not automatically mean the keyword should be abandoned.
Instead, look at what currently ranks.
Are the results dominated by major national brands?
Are specialist businesses ranking alongside them?
Do the ranking pages have large numbers of backlinks?
Is Google favouring product pages, service pages or articles?
Does your website already have some visibility for the subject?
These questions provide more practical information than the difficulty score on its own.
A newer website may initially concentrate on more specific opportunities while gradually building the authority needed to compete for broader terms.
How do you identify search intent?
Search intent describes what somebody is trying to achieve when they make a search.
This is one of the most important parts of keyword selection because the keyword and the page need to serve the same purpose.
SEO tools such as Semrush classify intent into broad categories including:
- Informational, where somebody wants an answer or explanation
- Navigational, where somebody is trying to reach a particular website or page
- Commercial, where somebody is researching products or services before deciding
- Transactional, where somebody appears ready to take an action such as purchasing or enquiring.
At In Front Digital, we use the intent supplied by SE Ranking and Semrush as part of the research process rather than guessing the intent from the wording alone.
Semrush, for example, analyses factors including the search results, wording of the query and whether a brand is involved when assigning intent.
We then check the actual search results.
This second step matters.
A phrase may sound commercial to a marketer, but if Google is predominantly returning detailed guides and informational articles, creating a short service page for that keyword is unlikely to match what searchers currently expect.
Equally, if a search returns product categories, local businesses and service landing pages, a 2,000-word educational blog post may be the wrong page format.
The search results provide practical evidence of how Google currently interprets the query.
How should keywords be mapped to website pages?
Once useful keywords have been identified, they need to be assigned to pages.
This is known as keyword mapping.
The process is quite simple in principle.
Take each important keyword or closely related group of keywords and decide which page should provide the best answer.
For example:
“SEO agency Birmingham” might map to an SEO service page.
“how to choose keywords for SEO” belongs on an educational guide such as this article.
“local SEO Birmingham” might require a dedicated local SEO page.
Closely related keywords can often be targeted on the same page.
You usually do not need separate pages for every small wording variation.
Search engines can understand that phrases such as “SEO keyword research”, “keyword research for SEO” and “how to research SEO keywords” are closely related.
Creating several near-identical pages can instead leave your own pages competing for the same searches.
A keyword map helps avoid this by giving each significant topic a clear destination.
What is the difference between money-page keywords and content keywords?
One of the most useful steps in keyword research is separating money-page opportunities from content opportunities.
Money pages are the pages closest to generating an enquiry or sale.
These usually include:
- service pages
- product pages
- product-category pages
- location pages
- treatment pages
- quotation or consultation pages.
They tend to target commercial and transactional searches.
For an accountant, that might include “accountant Birmingham”.
For a dentist, it might be “dental implants Leicester”.
For a manufacturer, it could be the name of a specific component or production service.
Content keywords serve a different role.
They are usually questions or research-led searches such as:
- how long do dental implants last?
- what does an SEO audit include?
- stainless steel vs aluminium for fabrication
- how does local SEO work?
These searches may occur earlier in the buying process.
The distinction matters because businesses sometimes build blogs around commercially valuable keywords that would be better served by a permanent service page.
The reverse also happens. A company can try to make a sales page rank for a detailed informational query when searchers clearly want a guide.
During keyword mapping, we therefore separate keywords according to the type of page they require.
The commercial keywords help shape the site’s core landing pages.
Informational opportunities feed into the content plan.
The two groups should then support each other through sensible internal links.
Should you always choose the highest-volume keyword?
Usually, no. The best keyword is the one that combines enough search demand with strong relevance to your business and a realistic route to visibility.
Consider what somebody searching the term is likely to want.
Then consider what that person would find if they landed on your website.
If there is a strong match, the keyword may be worth pursuing even when the search volume appears relatively modest.
A useful keyword shortlist therefore considers:
- relevance to the business
- search volume
- search intent
- keyword difficulty
- current rankings
- existing website authority
- the type of pages Google currently ranks
- potential commercial value.
None of these measures provides the answer alone.
Together, they make it easier to decide where SEO time and budget should be spent.
How do competitor keywords help with research?
Competitor analysis can uncover subjects you may have overlooked. SE Ranking and Semrush can show which keywords competing websites currently rank for, along with the pages attracting that visibility.
This can reveal gaps in your own site.
For example, three competitors may each have dedicated pages for a particular service while your website mentions it briefly within a general services page.
That may justify creating a stronger page of your own.
Competitor research can also prevent wasted effort.
If every top result for a broad keyword is a retailer with tens of thousands of products and your business offers a very specialist service, that search may have limited relevance even if the volume looks attractive.
Competitor keyword data should therefore provide ideas rather than a list to copy.
How do long-tail keywords fit into keyword research?
Long-tail keywords are more specific searches that often reveal additional detail about what somebody wants.
Examples might include:
“SEO agency for manufacturing companies”
or:
“commercial ventilation system for school sports hall”.
Individually, these searches often have lower volumes than broader terms.
They can still be valuable because the visitor’s requirement is clearer.
Long-tail keywords can also help smaller or more specialist businesses compete where broad terms are dominated by much larger websites.
Our guide to long-tail keywords and SEO looks at this area in more detail.
How many SEO keywords should a business target?
There is no fixed number.
A small local business may have dozens of commercially important searches, while a large ecommerce business could have thousands.
The more useful question is whether each important product, service and customer need is represented by an appropriate page.
Once the keyword map is created, the list can also be used for ongoing rank tracking.
Our guide to how many SEO keywords you should track explains how to narrow that larger research set into a practical monitoring list.
How often should keyword research be reviewed?
Keyword research should be revisited as the business and search market change.
New services may be introduced.
Customer terminology can change.
Competitors create new pages.
New technologies or regulations can introduce entirely new groups of searches.
Search Console can also reveal keywords that were not visible when the initial research was carried out.
For an established SEO campaign, we therefore treat the keyword map as a working document rather than something completed once and filed away.
The main commercial terms usually remain fairly stable, while new content opportunities and longer-tail searches continue to emerge.
What does a practical keyword research process look like?
For most businesses, the process can be reduced to a sensible sequence:
- List the main services, products and customer problems.
- Turn those subjects into seed keywords.
- Research them using tools such as SE Ranking and Semrush.
- Check UK or target-location search volumes.
- Review keyword difficulty.
- use the tools’ intent classifications.
- Check the real search results to confirm what type of page Google favours.
- Compare competitor rankings.
- Review existing visibility in Google Search Console.
- Separate commercial money-page terms from informational content terms.
- Map related keywords to existing pages.
- Identify gaps where new pages or content are genuinely required.
- Track the priority terms and review them as the campaign develops.
This provides something considerably more useful than a large spreadsheet containing every remotely related keyword.
The finished research tells you which searches matter, which pages should target them and what type of content needs to be created or improved.
That is the part of keyword research that ultimately turns search data into an SEO strategy.
FAQs
What makes a good SEO keyword?
A useful SEO keyword is relevant to your business, searched by the right audience and matched to a page that can satisfy the searcher’s intent. Search volume and competition should also be considered before deciding whether it deserves priority.
Should I target high-volume or low-volume keywords?
Most strategies use a mixture. Higher-volume terms can provide wider visibility, while lower-volume, more specific searches can bring visitors with clearer requirements.
How do I know what the search intent of a keyword is?
Check the intent classification in a keyword tool such as SE Ranking or Semrush, then review Google’s current search results. The types of pages ranking strongly provide useful evidence of what people making that search are likely to expect.
Should every SEO keyword have its own page?
No. Closely related terms with the same intent can normally be targeted together on one useful page. Separate pages are more appropriate when the search represents a genuinely different product, service, location or information need.
What is the difference between a keyword for a service page and a blog?
Service and product pages generally target commercial searches where somebody is looking for something a business provides. Blog and insight content usually targets informational searches where somebody wants to understand a subject, answer a question or compare options.