Keyword research: how to find the right search terms

Step 1: Start with what you know

Collect the questions customers often ask you and the terms they use when they do. These are often the most valuable clues, because they come from practice.

Step 2: Add search terms

With tools such as Google’s search suggestions, the “People also ask” section or dedicated research programs, you can find further terms along with their volume and competition.

Step 3: Understand the search intent

Every search has a goal: to learn something (“What is …”), to compare, to buy or to find a provider (“… in Stuttgart”). A page should serve exactly that intent. A guide placed where someone wants to buy has little chance of success.

Step 4: Assign terms to pages

Assign exactly one page to each topic. Several pages on the same topic compete with each other. If an important term has no page, that is a gap you can close.

Step 5: Set priorities

Start with terms that fit your offer well, have enough searches and are realistically attainable. Highly contested terms can often only be tackled later.

Common mistakes

• Going only by search volume, not by fit
• Collecting terms but not building pages for them
• Answering the same question on several pages

Practical example: from term to page

Suppose a landscaping company starts by collecting terms: “landscaping”, “redesign a garden”, “paving a patio”, “garden design costs”. At first glance these are synonyms, but the search intents differ. “Redesign a garden” shows interest in planning, “paving a patio cost” a price comparison, and “landscaping Waiblingen” the search for a provider. Each intent deserves its own page: a service page with the location, a guide to the costs and a page on planning. The table for this has just four columns: term, intent, target page, priority.

Which figures to watch

• Search volume: the estimated number of searches per month. The values from the programs are approximations; use them for comparison, not as exact measurements.
• Competition: how crowded the results page is. Check for yourself who appears there: large portals, specialist providers or local businesses?
• Fit: would a visitor searching for this term find what they are looking for with you? A term with few searches but a high fit is often worth more than a broad one.

Long tail: why longer terms are often better

Longer, more specific search queries (“planning a natural stone patio cost per square metre”) each have fewer searches, but usually a clearer intent and less competition. Added together, they make up a large share of search volume. They can often be covered in a single guide article with several subheadings, rather than creating one page per variant.

The results page as a research tool

Search for each important term yourself and watch what Google shows. If the page mainly shows guides, a sales page will be hard to place there. If maps and local listings appear, the search is meant locally, and your Google Business Profile becomes more important. The “People also ask” section directly provides further questions that you can take up in subheadings, see Featured snippets and “People also ask”.

Check your data after launch

After a few weeks, Search Console shows which terms your pages actually appear for. Among them there are often terms you had not thought of. Add the useful ones to your list and strengthen the page in a targeted way, for example with a suitable heading. How titles and headings should be built for this is described in Writing a title tag. You can find the bigger picture under content SEO.