GlossarySEO
What is keyword research?
Also called: keyword discovery, search demand research
Definition
Keyword research is finding the queries your potential customers type into search engines and AI assistants, estimating how often they're searched and how hard they are to rank for, and deciding which to target.
Keyword research, explained
The goal isn't a long list of keywords. It's a short list of queries you can realistically win that lead to customers. For most startups, that means starting from the buyer, not the tool: the problems they describe, the alternatives they compare, the jobs they're trying to get done, and the words they use in sales calls and support tickets.
Then check demand. Keyword tools estimate monthly search volume and difficulty, but treat both as rough. Volume figures are modeled estimates and vary between tools; small, specific queries often show zero volume and still bring buyers. Your own Search Console data is more reliable once you have some: it shows real impressions for real queries, including ones no tool listed.
Look at the results page for each candidate. Who ranks, what format they use, and what intent Google has settled on tell you more than any score. If page one is all major publishers with long guides, a new site needs a different angle or a narrower query. If it's forums and thin pages, there's room.
Group what you find by intent and topic, then map each group to one page. Early on, prioritize long-tail and comparison queries with commercial intent: "X alternatives", "X vs Y", "best X for [audience]", "how to [job] with [tool type]". They're lower volume and much easier to win.
Keyword research now includes AI prompts. The questions people ask assistants are longer and more conversational. The same research, grouped by intent, covers both.
Why it matters for founders
Picking the wrong targets wastes months: you write good pages that can't rank or that attract visitors who'll never buy. A few hours of research shapes everything you publish.
Example
A time-tracking startup skips "time tracking" (huge, dominated by big brands) and targets "time tracking for video editors" and "Toggl alternatives for agencies", which convert and are winnable.
Common mistakes
- Choosing targets by volume alone.
- Treating tool volume numbers as exact.
- Never looking at what actually ranks before writing.
Sources
Checked
Related terms
- Long-tail keywordA long-tail keyword is a specific, usually longer search query with relatively low search volume, such as "invoice template for freelance photographers" rather than "invoice". Together, long-tail queries make up a large share of searches.
- Keyword difficultyKeyword difficulty (KD) is an SEO tool's estimate, usually on a 0 to 100 scale, of how hard it is to rank on the first page for a query. Each tool calculates it differently, mostly from the top results' backlinks.
- Keyword mappingKeyword mapping is assigning each group of related search queries to exactly one page on your site, so every target has a clear home and your own pages don't compete with each other.
- Search intentSearch intent is the goal behind a search: what the person actually wants when they type a query. Pages rank best when their format and content match that goal, not just the words.
- Content briefA content brief is the plan handed to a writer, human or AI, before drafting a page. It states the target query and intent, the angle, what to cover, sources to use, internal links and the quality bar.