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Why keywords really matter for being found
Think of keywords as the road signs that guide visitors from a search engine to your website. If the signs point the wrong way, or use language your audience doesn't actually use, people end up somewhere else: usually with your competitors.
Choosing the right keywords isn't a technical detail to leave to a consultant: it's the foundation everything else is built on, from blog content to menu structure, all the way to your product and service pages. Getting this first step right means attracting visitors who are genuinely searching for what you offer, instead of generic traffic that never turns into a lead or a sale.
In this first part of the guide, we look at how to get started: defining your audience, studying competitors, brainstorming, and using the first free tools. In the second part we'll move on to professional tools, and in the third to advanced strategies.
The method in brief: 4 steps to get started right
- Define your audienceWho you're trying to reach, and what they're really searching for online.
- Study your competitorsWhat already works in your industry, and what's missing.
- BrainstormThe language you and your team already use every day with clients.
- Use free toolsTurn your ideas into a first, measurable list of keywords.
Define your audience: who are you talking to
Before opening any keyword research tool, stop for a moment and answer a simple question: who are the people you want to reach?
Think about their traits, such as age, role or location, but above all about the problems that lead them to search online for something like what you offer. Building a "buyer persona", a semi-fictional profile of your ideal customer based on real data, helps you picture the exact words that person would type into Google.
This step, often skipped in a hurry, is what makes the difference between reaching people who are genuinely interested and wasting effort on generic keywords that only bring passing traffic.
Study your competitors to spot hidden opportunities
Looking at what companies offering products or services similar to yours are doing, and that already rank for the keywords you're interested in, is one of the fastest ways to get your bearings. Which terms do they use in page titles and meta descriptions? What kind of content do they publish: articles, guides, videos?
Many competitor analysis tools offer a free plan that's enough to get a first picture: keywords a site ranks for, estimated traffic, and some indication of the links it receives from other sites.
Brainstorming: start from what you already know
Before relying on tools at all, don't underestimate what you and your team already know. Grab a sheet of paper, even a virtual one, and write down every word and phrase connected to what you offer: the terms you use to describe your products or services, the problems you solve, the benefits you offer compared to others doing your same job.
Involve the people who deal directly with customers, such as sales or support, because they often know the "real" language people use, quite different from technical or corporate wording. This first list, even if rough, becomes the starting point, the so-called seed keywords, for all the research that follows.
Free tools to start your research
You don't need an unlimited budget to start gathering solid data. Here are four free tools, or tools with a solid free tier, useful in the early stages.
Google Keyword Planner
This is Google's own tool, originally built for advertising campaigns but also useful for gauging how popular a keyword is. The free version shows search ranges rather than exact numbers, but it's still valuable for discovering related keywords starting from a term or a competitor's website address. You need a Google Ads account to access it, but you don't have to run paid campaigns.
Google Trends
Shows how interest in a keyword changes over time and by region. Useful for spotting seasonal trends, terms searched more at certain times of the year, and for comparing the relative popularity of several keywords against each other.
Ubersuggest
In its free version, it offers related keyword suggestions, an estimated search volume, and an SEO difficulty score, along with a few content ideas tied to the terms you analyse.
AnswerThePublic
Starts from a single keyword and returns a map of questions, comparisons and phrases people actually search for related to that term: perfect for understanding which questions to answer when you write content meant to genuinely serve your audience.
"Seed keywords": your starting point
Seed keywords, literally "seeds", are the broadest, most general terms that describe your business: the main categories on your site, or what a user would type at the very earliest stage of their search.
If you offer SEO services for businesses in your area, your seed keywords might be "SEO [city name]", "SEO agency [city name]" or "SEO consultant [city name]". From these seeds, using the tools above, you'll grow a much larger list of related keywords, including the long-tail ones we'll look at shortly.
Understanding search intent: why people search
Not every search comes from the same need. Understanding why someone types a particular keyword, their search intent, is what allows you to create content that doesn't just rank, but genuinely answers what the user is looking for. Google itself rewards content that best matches this goal. There are generally four categories:
| Intent type | What the user wants | Example search |
|---|---|---|
| Informational | Wants to understand or learn something | "what is SEO" |
| Navigational | Wants to reach a specific site or brand | "itsplanet website" |
| Commercial | Is weighing up options before choosing | "best SEO services" |
| Transactional | Is ready to take an action, often a purchase | "SEO service quote" |
Knowing which category a keyword belongs to helps you choose the right type of content: a guide for informational intent, a comparison page for commercial intent, a clear, direct service page for transactional intent.
Search volume and difficulty: the two metrics to know
Once you've put together a first list of keywords, two numbers help you understand which ones are worth investing in first.
How many times, on average, that keyword is searched per month in a given geographic area. A high volume signals interest, but often also more competition.
How hard it is to rank organically, without advertising, for that keyword, usually expressed as a score from 0 to 100. It mostly depends on the authority of the sites already on page one.
The right balance, especially for a new site or one with less authority, lies in keywords with moderate volume and lower difficulty: they bring faster, more realistic results than chasing the most competitive terms in your industry right away.
Why long-tail keywords work better
Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search phrases, usually made up of three or more words. Individually they bring fewer searches, but together they can generate a significant share of a site's traffic, often the share most likely to convert into customers.
- Less competition — being more specific, they're easier to rank for, especially for a site still building its authority.
- Clearer intent — someone searching "best SEO service for small businesses" knows more precisely what they want than someone searching just "SEO", and is closer to choosing.
- More qualified traffic — you reach exactly the people looking for what you offer, not a generic, passing audience.
Frequently asked questions about keyword research
Usually one main keyword per page, together with two or three related variations worked naturally into the text. Cramming too many different terms into one page tends to confuse both readers and search engines. They're closely related but not identical: advertising tools like Google Keyword Planner were built for paid campaigns, so some metrics mainly reflect ad auctions. They're still useful for organic SEO as a starting point. Keyword research isn't a one-off task. Reviewing your list periodically, for example every six months or whenever your products and services change, helps you catch new trends and correct course when a term stops performing. No: keywords tell you what people are searching for, but the content still needs to answer that search clearly and usefully. Text stuffed with keywords but low on substance tends to rank worse, not better.How many keywords should I target per page?
Are Google Ads keywords the same as free SEO keywords?
How often should I update my keyword list?
Can I write content thinking only about keywords?
Next steps: towards a complete strategy
In this first part we've laid the foundations: audience, competitors, brainstorming, first free tools, search intent and the basic metrics. That's already enough to build a solid first keyword list, but it's only the beginning.
In the second part of the guide we'll look at professional tools and advanced optimisation techniques; in the third we'll tackle more advanced strategies, from voice search to using artificial intelligence.
If you'd rather not handle all of this on your own, our SEO service does exactly this: from finding the right keywords for your industry to actual ranking on Google and on AI-based search engines.
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