What is Keyword Research & How Do I Get Started?

Written by Emilie Martin, updated by Jo Cameron, edited by Miriam Ellis. Updated November 8, 2024.

Keyword research is the practice of identifying the words and phrases people use to find things via search engines like Google. Learning how to do keyword research is a fundamental SEO task. When you know what your audience searches for, you can focus the content you create around those topics. Researching keywords gives SEOs, marketers, and organizations a better understanding of how high the demand is for certain keywords and how hard it would be to compete for those terms against competitors in the search results, offering some direction to optimization efforts.

Keyword research continues to evolve. Modern keyword research prioritizes search intent, which is a person’s primary goal when searching for something in a search engine). Sophisticated keyword research involves organizing keywords by user journey and/or sales funnel stages. A successful keyword research and on-page SEO strategy facilitates your potential customers in finding exactly what they need, wherever they are in their buying journey. Keyword research for SEO is a foundational element in optimizing a website's content and increasing its visibility. Understanding search intent makes keyword research important for tailoring content to meet user needs and ensuring it ranks well in search results.

In the Moz Academy Keyword Research Certification, we delve deeper into the history and future of keyword research and how the user journey relates to the keywords you choose for specific content.

To understand which of the millions of keywords you should target, you need to develop a robust keyword research plan. The keyword research process is a systematic approach to identifying and organizing keywords relevant to a website's niche. You can locate keywords to target through a variety of methods, and we have several of these listed in this article What Are Keywords. One of the most strategic ways to find keywords is by using a keyword research tool that is powered by a robust keyword dataset. Tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer help you find, organize, and prioritize the words and phrases people type into search engines based on keyword metrics like relevance, monthly search volume, and difficulty level. Google Keyword Planner is another crucial tool for keyword research, offering keyword ideas based on specific keywords or website content, though it has limitations in providing exact search volume data and insights into organic ranking difficulty.

You can find and target high-priority keywords in minutes with the many free keyword tools out on the market. However, if you are a power user, and need more than a handful of searches, you have advanced keyword suggestions at your fingertips with Moz Pro; get started now with a free trial.

Step 1: Start with your seed term

Keyword research starts with a topic, idea, or head keyword, also called a "seed keyword." This seed can come from your industry knowledge or the products and services you provide, from being an active member in related online forums and groups, or through social listening. For example, if you run a bike shop, your seed keywords may be ‘folding bikes' or ‘e-bikes.'

To start your keyword research, load up Keyword Explorer and enter your seed keyword to return top keyword suggestions and important keyword metrics. Let's say we run a sporting goods ecommerce store and we want to optimize our golf category for our new range of golf clubs. Let's start by entering ‘golf clubs' and selecting our audience's location.

Powered by our most expansive dataset yet, Keyword Explorer helps you find profitable keywords that drive traffic to your site. 

Seed terms don't just lead to metrics like search volume; they also open the door to the bounty of related keyword suggestions that you may not have thought of yet. You can see how a simple seed word you picked up through a Facebook group or from a conversation with a customer can grow into a useful tree of keywords brimming with ideas for your pages or next blog post.

Not sure how to find your seed term? We have a guide for that! Find seed keywords with the Keyword Research Master Guide.

Step 2: Assess search volume metrics

Straight away, you’ll be able to see if anyone is searching for your seed term or phrase. If you’re not seeing any data you may want to start with a broader seed term. Rather than “best golf clubs for newbies” start with “golf clubs” and then you can explore the keyword suggestions contained in the dataset. Remember this is just the starting point. A single keyword on its own won’t make or break your strategy. But it will give you signals as to whether to continue to pursue this path over another keyword.

Using Keyword Explorer you’ll be able to easily identify keyword metrics including: Monthly Search Volume, Difficulty, and Organic CTR. You’ll be presented with details on how popular your keyword is and how difficult it is to rank well for it. This is where understanding keyword difficulty becomes crucial. Keyword difficulty is determined by various factors, including search volume and the number of backlinks needed to rank in the top results. Balancing keyword difficulty with potential business value and search intent is essential to optimize your SEO strategies.

As you become familiar with keyword research in your industry you’ll gain a better understanding of what is a ‘good’ Search Volume, Organic CTR, and Difficulty combination. It’s no good only targeting high-volume keywords if you can’t compete. In addition to assessing popularity and competition, you can also start to understand search intent within your niche. Keywords like ‘used golf clubs’ or ‘golf clubs for sale’ indicate commercial or transactional intent, whereas ‘types of golf club’ could be more informational. Understanding intent can help you to group and cluster your keywords and informs the style and type of content you’re creating and publishing. For power users, or if you’re working on medium to large sites, you’ll want the ability to perform more than a handful of searches in a keyword research tool. With a Moz Pro free trial, you can gain access to many more searches, advanced keyword suggestions filtering.

Step 3: Assess click-through rate

Organic Click-through rate (CTR) shows you, at a glance, how crowded the search results are. Paid results, image packs, local packs and many other featured results can crowd out the organic results. The higher the better in this case.

Step 4: Assess your competition

Understanding your competition is a key part of any SEO strategy. When you're performing keywords research you may find you are competing with businesses that you wouldn't consider your direct online competitor. To get intel on your competition for the keywords you're exploring start with Moz's Difficulty score. Difficulty looks at the strength of the top results for this keyword. Ideally, you're looking for keywords with a lower Difficulty score, with at least some search volume.

Don't know your site's Difficulty benchmark? We have a guide for that! Find Your Site's Difficulty Benchmark—Next Level

Step 5: Use semantic keywords to improve rankings

Semantic keywords are words and phrases that are conceptually related to a given topic. They are not the exact terms people use to search for content, but rather terms that search engines and users expect to find within a well-rounded piece of content. Using semantic keywords can significantly enhance your content’s relevance and comprehensiveness, thereby improving your rankings.

To effectively use semantic keywords, start by identifying them through keyword research tools. These tools can help you uncover related terms and phrases that add depth to your content. For instance, if your primary keyword is “golf clubs,” semantic keywords might include “golf equipment,” “best golf clubs for beginners,” or “how to choose golf clubs.” Incorporate these terms naturally into your content to provide a richer, more informative experience for your readers. This approach not only helps in meeting the user’s needs but also signals to search engines that your content is thorough and relevant.

Step 6: Group and organize your long tail keywords

This is much more just than an organizational step. It is important to organize your keywords into groups or lists so you can prioritize and make business decisions based on your findings. Identifying relevant keywords that competitors rank for but you do not is crucial in this process, as these keywords can significantly improve your search engine visibility.

To easily group keyword suggestions head to Moz Pro > Keyword Research and enter a keyword or your website. Here you can select ‘low,’ ‘medium,’ or ‘high’ lexical similarity to group types of keywords together.

So what is lexical similarity? In Moz Pro it is a measure of how similar a set of words are to each other. Selecting low lexical similarity will result in fewer groups with more keywords in each while grouping by high lexical similarity will give you more groups with fewer keywords.

Once you’ve grouped keywords you can add seamlessly add them to a keyword list.

In the world of SEO, organizing your keyword research isn’t just about tidiness—it’s a strategic move that helps make the time you have invested much more effective.

And that’s not all, Keyword Lists in Moz Pro give you a birds-eye view of the keyword metrics in your industry or category. This is the best way to get a high level view of opportunity within a topic or niche.

This Moz Blog article, written our late great colleague Russ Jones in 2017, maybe be a few years old but the principles still hold true—Not Your Dad’s Keyword Tool: Advanced Keyword Research Use Cases. Using a very simple mix of Google Search Console data + a Keyword Lists in Moz’s Keyword Explorer, you can quickly scan the metric distribution of your lists, compare the distribution between lists, and identify your opportunities so you can plan and create the right types of content.

Step 7: Explore the SERPs

Aside from discovering keywords in a keyword research tool, you can also get inspiration from what you're seeing on the search results page.

‘People Also Ask' and ‘Related Searches' features indicate what Google expects a searcher to do next. You can use this intel to grow your keyword list

Step 8: Apply your research to your new and existing content

Now it’s time to roll up those sleeves and start the good work of creating and updating content based on your findings. Aren’t you glad you organized your research into keyword lists? Keywords guide your content strategy, and they may even guide your other business decisions, which domain to purchase, which widget to invest in, which category of your site to expand, and more. Incorporating long tail keywords into your strategy can help you better target your audience and face less competition.

Step 9: Test and repeat

Are people finding and engaging with your content? Are visitors to your site converting? Knowing your goals will help you formulate what success looks like for your site. Google Search Console provides you with critical intel on which queries are sending your site traffic.you can also track your Google Discover traffic here as well. If you have Google Analytics set up for your site, you can begin to track your visitors' engagement and conversions, and much more. Get started with the Beginner's Guide to Google Analytics 4.

Keyword research isn't just about verifying how many searches a particular keyword has — it's also about exploring the many varied ways that people use language to research an idea or topic. As such, researching popular keywords isn't just a big part of search engine optimization; it's also a major element of content marketing as a whole. Why? Because it can help you find ideas for your next blog post, inform your future content strategy, learn more about the questions, problems, and needs of your audience, and keep up to date with the lingo of the ever-changing search landscape. Ultimately, by researching the words people type into search engines and using this research to create targeted content, you can drive the right traffic to your site — traffic that is more likely to convert.

Keyword research isn't just a one-off task. Your website's foundation is built on keywords, so precisely which building blocks you use requires regular re-evaluation and maintenance. Search language shifts constantly, new keywords are being formed all the time, and your audience's needs and intents develop and grow. As a result, keyword research is a job worth doing whenever you're looking to update existing content on your site, or create new content. This includes when you're starting a new website or page, if you're writing a new blog post for an existing site, when you're deciding whether to promote a particular product or service and beyond. It's also rather handy if you're restructuring your existing site and consolidating your content.

Your website content should serve to fulfill the needs of your audience. By regularly assessing the ways in which people search and by identifying not just the most popular searches but also the specific and ever-changing ways that people search for content within your niche of the internet, you can continue to create content your audience will enjoy and share.

Advanced keyword research techniques involve using various tools and strategies to identify and analyze keywords that can help businesses improve their search engine rankings and drive more traffic to their website. These techniques go beyond basic keyword identification and delve into more sophisticated methods to uncover valuable insights.

Anticipating keyword trends

Anticipating keyword trends involves using tools and data to identify keywords that are likely to gain popularity in the future. This can help businesses stay ahead of the competition and create content that meets the needs of their target audience before they even know what they are looking for. Tools like Google Trends and Keyword Planner are invaluable for this purpose.

Google Trends allows you to see the popularity of search terms over time, providing insights into emerging trends. By analyzing this data, you can identify keywords that are on the rise and create content around them. Similarly, Keyword Planner can help you discover new keywords and get search volume data, enabling you to anticipate shifts in search behavior. By leveraging these tools, you can ensure your content remains relevant and timely, capturing the interest of your audience as trends evolve.

Monitoring and improving keyword performance involves tracking the performance of keywords and making adjustments to improve their rankings and drive more traffic to the website. This ongoing process is essential for maintaining and enhancing your SEO efforts.

Tracking keyword rankings

Tracking keyword rankings involves monitoring the position of keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs) to see how they are performing. This can be done using tools such as Google Search Console and SEMrush. By tracking keyword rankings, businesses can identify areas for improvement and make adjustments to their content and SEO strategy to improve their rankings.

Google Search Console provides valuable insights into how your site is performing in search results, including which queries are driving traffic to your site. By regularly reviewing this data, you can identify which keywords are performing well and which ones need more attention. Moz and similar tools offer additional features, such as tracking your competitors’ keyword rankings, giving you a comprehensive view of your keyword performance. By staying on top of your keyword rankings, you can make informed decisions to optimize your content and improve your search engine visibility.

• The SEO Keyword Research Master Guide - Become a master with our guide to all things keyword research.

• Moz Academy’s Keyword Research Certification - Understand the fundamentals, gain a plethora of new knowledge, and level up your skills with this Moz certified coursework.

• What Are Keywords?

Learn on the Moz Blog:

• Metrics for Better Keyword Research - Whiteboard Friday

• Diving for Pearls: A Guide to Long Tail Keywords - This is a super helpful resource for taking a deep dive into those long tail keywords that account for most of the traffic to a site.

• Long Tail SEO: When & How to Target Low-Volume Keywords - Learn why targeting keywords with a lower search volume is definitely well worth your time.

• Daily SEO Fix: Competitive Keyword Research - Understand how to get ahead of your competition in keyword research.

• Map Your Keywords to the Buyer's Journey and User Intent - Whiteboard Friday