Finding good keywords for SEO comes down to a repeatable process: start with what your audience actually searches for, expand that list using tools and competitor data, then filter ruthlessly based on metrics like search volume, ranking difficulty, and how well each keyword connects to your business. The difference between a mediocre keyword list and a great one is not the tools you use but how well you prioritize.
Start With Seed Keywords
Seed keywords are the obvious, broad terms your potential customers would type into Google to find what you offer. If you sell running shoes, your seeds might be “running shoes,” “trail running shoes,” or “best shoes for marathon training.” If you run an accounting firm, think “small business bookkeeping” or “quarterly tax filing help.” These aren’t your final targets. They’re starting points you’ll plug into research tools to uncover hundreds of more specific variations.
The best seed keywords come from thinking like your customer, not like your business. Pay attention to how people actually describe their problems in forums, Q&A sites, customer support emails, and social media groups. The language people use when asking for help is often different from the language businesses use to describe their services. A software company might call its product a “project management solution,” but customers search for “how to keep track of team tasks.”
Expand Your List With Tools
Once you have a handful of seed keywords, plug them into keyword research tools to generate a much larger list. You don’t need to pay for expensive software right away. Several free options will get you started:
- Google Keyword Planner provides search volume estimates, seasonal trend data, and related query suggestions. It now surfaces question-based search variations that reflect natural language patterns.
- Google Search Console shows you the actual queries your site already ranks for, including queries you might not have thought to target. It also reports performance across Google’s AI Overviews.
- Answer the Public specializes in question-based queries, revealing long-tail variations like “why do running shoes wear out so fast” that reflect how people naturally search.
- Ahrefs Webmaster Tools offers free backlink monitoring and site auditing for sites you own.
- Semrush’s free tier provides keyword discovery, basic site auditing, and competitor analysis.
Paid tiers of tools like Ahrefs and Semrush unlock deeper features, but the free versions are enough to build a solid initial keyword list. You can also use ChatGPT to brainstorm keyword variations and content angles you might not have considered.
Mine Your Competitors for Ideas
One of the fastest ways to find keywords worth targeting is to look at what’s already working for your competitors. This is called a keyword gap analysis, and it’s more straightforward than it sounds.
First, identify who your real competitors are in search results. These aren’t always the businesses you compete with offline. Plug your domain into Ahrefs or Semrush and look at which websites rank for the same keywords you do. You’ll sometimes discover competitors you weren’t even aware of.
Next, run the gap analysis. You’re looking for three things: keywords where competitors rank and you don’t appear at all, keywords where they rank significantly higher than you, and the specific pages they use to earn those rankings. Keywords where you’re completely absent represent conversations happening in your market that you’re not part of. Keywords where competitors outrank you on similar content represent your most immediate improvement opportunities.
Not every gap is worth chasing. Sort what you find into categories: quick wins you can act on fast, content gaps where you simply haven’t covered a topic, existing pages that need optimization, and strategic signals about where your market is heading. This turns raw keyword data into an actual plan.
Understand Search Intent Before You Commit
A keyword is only “good” if you can create content that matches what the searcher actually wants. SEOs typically break search intent into four categories:
- Informational: The person wants to learn something (“how to train for a 5K”).
- Commercial: They’re researching options before buying (“best trail running shoes 2025”).
- Transactional: They’re ready to take action (“buy Brooks Ghost 16”).
- Navigational: They’re looking for a specific website (“Nike running club app”).
You can often identify intent from the query language itself. Words like “how,” “what,” and “why” signal informational intent. “Best,” “affordable,” and “vs” suggest commercial research. “Buy,” “discount,” and “near me” point to transactional intent. For any keyword you’re considering, search it yourself and look at what Google actually shows. If the top results are all product pages and you’re planning a blog post, you’re misreading the intent, and you won’t rank.
SERP features also reveal intent. Featured snippets and knowledge panels typically appear for informational queries. Shopping results and product carousels signal transactional intent. If Google serves an AI Overview that fully answers the query, consider that a significant portion of searchers may never click through to any website. Zero-click searches have been rising steadily, with news-related queries seeing no-click rates as high as 67%.
Filter by the Metrics That Matter
A raw keyword list can easily contain thousands of terms. The filtering stage is where you turn that list into something actionable. Focus on these metrics:
Search volume tells you how many times a keyword gets searched per month on average. Higher volume means more potential traffic, but also usually more competition. Don’t chase volume alone. A keyword with 200 monthly searches that perfectly matches your product can be more valuable than one with 10,000 searches that’s only loosely related.
Traffic potential is more useful than raw volume. Look at how much total organic traffic the top-ranking pages for a keyword actually receive. A page ranking first for “CRM for small businesses” might also rank for dozens of related terms, pulling in far more visits than that single keyword’s volume suggests.
Keyword difficulty estimates how hard it will be to rank in the top 10, usually based on how many authoritative sites link to the pages currently ranking there. If you have a newer or smaller site, targeting keywords with lower difficulty scores gives you a realistic shot at ranking. Position matters enormously for traffic: the first result on Google averages about 39.8% of clicks, the second drops to 18.7%, and by the fourth position you’re down to 7.2%.
Cost per click (CPC) from Google Ads data serves as a proxy for commercial value. Keywords with high CPCs mean advertisers are willing to pay real money for that traffic, which usually indicates strong buying intent. A keyword with modest search volume but a $15 CPC is often more valuable than a high-volume keyword with a $0.50 CPC.
Business relevance is the filter that ties everything together. Score each keyword on how naturally you could connect it to your product, service, or offering. A keyword that lets you genuinely help the reader while mentioning what you sell is worth more than one where you’d have to force a connection.
Group Keywords Into Clusters
You don’t need a separate page for every keyword on your list. Many keywords are variations of the same underlying question, and Google often ranks the same page for all of them. “How to clean suede shoes,” “cleaning suede sneakers,” and “best way to wash suede” could all be served by one well-written article.
Grouping related keywords together is called clustering. Most keyword tools offer some version of this feature, but you can do it manually by searching each keyword and checking whether the same pages appear in the top results. If two keywords surface the same set of ranking pages, they belong in the same cluster and should be targeted with a single piece of content. If the results look completely different, they need separate pages.
Clustering keeps your site organized and prevents you from creating competing pages that cannibalize each other’s rankings. It also makes your content calendar more manageable. Instead of 500 individual keyword targets, you might end up with 80 content clusters, each built around a primary keyword and supported by related terms woven naturally throughout the page.
Prioritize for Action
With your clusters filtered and sorted, build a priority list. The keywords worth targeting first share a few traits: they have enough search volume to matter, difficulty scores your site can realistically compete on, clear intent you can match with the right content format, and a direct connection to what your business offers.
Quick wins deserve special attention. These are keywords where you already rank on page two or at the bottom of page one. A page sitting at position 12 often needs relatively minor improvements (better title, stronger introduction, a few internal links, updated information) to jump onto page one, where the real traffic lives. Google Search Console is the best free tool for spotting these opportunities because it shows your actual average position for every query bringing impressions.
Revisit your keyword list regularly. Search behavior shifts, new competitors enter your space, and your own site’s authority changes over time. A keyword that felt out of reach six months ago might be attainable now, and a keyword you ranked well for might need refreshed content to hold its position. Treat keyword research as an ongoing practice, not a one-time project.