Keyword research is the process of finding out which words and phrases people type into search engines when they look for a topic, product, or service. The result is a list of search terms, each assigned to the page on a website that should rank for it, which then guides content and site structure.
At a glance
- Type
- research and planning process
- Affects
- a site's content and page structure
- Values
- search volume, search intent, competition, CPC
- Data sources
- Google Keyword Planner, Search Console, SEO tools
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What does keyword research look at?
A keyword list is only useful once each term has been assessed. The usual criteria:
- Search volume: an estimate of monthly searches for a term, usually per country and language.
- Search intent: what the person wants to do. Learn something, reach a specific site, compare options, or buy. The current results page shows which kind of content Google treats as a fit.
- Competition: how strong the pages already ranking are. SEO tools condense this into a difficulty score, and every vendor calculates it differently, so scores from two tools can’t be compared directly.
- Cost per click (CPC): the estimated price of an ad click in Google Ads. A high CPC is a sign of commercial interest.
Where does the data come from?
Google Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads. It suggests keyword ideas and shows estimates of monthly searches and ad costs. According to Google Ads Help, the account setup including billing information has to be completed before keyword ideas are available.
Commercial SEO tools build their own keyword databases and models. Their volume and difficulty figures differ from each other and from Google’s.
Google Search Console shows queries for which your own pages actually received impressions and clicks. It is limited to verified sites, and queries that very few people search are left out of the tables to protect user privacy (“anonymized queries”).
Further ideas come from autocomplete suggestions, “People also ask” boxes, and the language customers use in support requests, reviews, or forums.
Google’s SEO Starter Guide recommends thinking about the words different users would type, since experts and beginners describe the same thing differently. It also notes that Google’s language matching can connect a page to queries even when the exact terms don’t appear on it.
Example
A shop selling espresso equipment groups its research results by intent:
| Keyword | Intent | Target page |
|---|---|---|
| buy espresso grinder | transactional | category page |
| how to descale an espresso machine | informational | how-to guide |
| espresso machine repair chicago | local | store page |
For an ambiguous term like “espresso machine pressure,” a look at the results page settles the question. If the top results are guides, a product page is unlikely to rank there.
Common mistakes
- Choosing by volume alone: a big keyword with the wrong intent brings visitors who don’t find what they came for.
- Targeting one keyword with several pages: when two pages compete for the same term, it’s unclear which one should rank.
- Stuffing keywords into text: Google states that repeating the same words excessively is tiring for readers and that keyword stuffing violates its spam policies.
FAQ
Why does keyword research matter? It shows which terms people actually use, so pages can be written and named in their language. Without it, content is often built around internal jargon that nobody searches for.
What are the best tools for keyword research? There is no neutral ranking. Keyword Planner provides Google’s own volume estimates for advertisers, Search Console provides real queries for your own site, and commercial tools add competitor data and difficulty scores from their own databases.
Sources
- Use Keyword Planner – Google Ads Helpsupport.google.com
- SEO Starter Guide – Google Search Central (updated Dec 10, 2025)developers.google.com
- A deep dive into Search Console performance data filtering and limits – Google Search Central Blog (Oct 19, 2022)developers.google.com
- Performance report (Search results) – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
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