How to Do Keyword Research Yourself: The Complete Guide for 2026
You can do your own keyword research in seven steps: brainstorm seed keywords, check Google Autocomplete and Search Console, feed your list into a keyword tool, filter by volume and difficulty, work out the search intent and group everything into clusters. Free tools such as Google Keyword Planner and AnswerThePublic are enough to get started. For most SME websites the sweet spot lies between 100 and 2,000 searches a month, with a keyword difficulty under 35.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of finding out which words and phrases people type into search engines. Not what you think they search for, but what they actually search for. It comes down to three elements: what people search for (the search terms), how often they do it (the search volume), and how hard it is to rank for it (the keyword difficulty).
Why it's worth your time
Four reasons. You attract the right traffic: not just any visitors, but people actively searching for what you offer. You write content that matches the search intent. You discover opportunities you're currently missing, for example through competitor analysis. And you save time and money, because you're not investing in content or adverts that nobody searches for.
One more thing to know for 2026: Google understands synonyms and variations
Semantic SEO means you don't have to write rigidly around one exact term, but you do need to write about the right subject.
Doing your own keyword research in seven steps
Here's how to approach it, from blank page to priority list:
Step 1: brainstorm seed keywords
Grab a blank page or a spreadsheet and write down every subject relevant to your business. Think from your customer's point of view, not your own industry jargon.Step 2: use Google Autocomplete
Type your seed keywords into Google and look at the autocomplete suggestions and the related searches at the bottom of the page.Step 3: check Google Search Console
Has your website been live for a while? Then this shows you which search terms are already bringing you traffic.Step 4: feed your list into a keyword tool
Export the results to a spreadsheet with search volume and keyword difficulty per term.Step 5: filter and analyse
Keywords with zero volume? Get rid of them. Look for the balance between enough volume and achievable competition.Step 6: work out the search intent
Google each keyword by hand and look at the top 5 results. Are they blogs, product pages or comparison articles? That tells you which type of content you need to create.Step 7: group and prioritise
Organise your keywords into clusters of related terms and decide which pages to build first.The best free tools for keyword research
Google Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads, but you don't need to run a campaign to use it. You get search volumes (sometimes as ranges), competition scores and related keywords. The data comes straight from Google, which is a big advantage. The downside: without an active campaign the volumes aren't always exact.
Google Search Console shows exactly which search terms are getting you impressions and clicks, with data going back up to 16 months
Sort by impressions to find out where you're already visible but still getting few clicks. Those terms are perfect candidates for optimisation.
Google Autocomplete and People Also Ask aren't tools as such, but they're a goldmine
Type in a search term and look at the suggestions. Every click in the People Also Ask section unfolds new questions.
Ubersuggest, Neil Patel's tool, gives you a limited number of free searches per day
You get search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC and content ideas.
AnswerThePublic visualises keywords as questions, comparisons and prepositions around your seed keyword
Ideal for generating content ideas for blogs and FAQ sections. The free version has a daily limit, but that's enough for most users.
Google Trends shows how interest in a search term changes over time
Perfect for seasonal keywords and for working out whether a trend is rising or falling.
Paid tools: when are they worth it?
If you want to dig deeper or seriously analyse competitors, these are the best-known options:
Ahrefs
: extensive data and very strong competitor analysis.SEMrush
: extensive data with trends and strong PPC data.SE Ranking
: a good all-rounder that's growing fast.Mangools KWFinder
: clear and simple, though with more limited competitor analysis.Ubersuggest
: a solid starting point, less in-depth.Entry prices per tool are deliberately left out: package names change, most providers quote their amounts in dollars, and they change every quarter. So check the tool's own site. What the cheapest tier is today sits on the provider's own pricing page, and nowhere else reliably. When comparing, also work out whether you're paying monthly or annually, since that makes a big difference with these providers.
If you're just starting out, the free tools will get you a long way
Paid tools only become worthwhile once SEO is a structural part of your marketing.
Long-tail keywords: make them 70 percent of your mix
Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific than broad terms. Compare "shoes" with "red women's running shoes size 39", or "SEO" with "SEO tips for webshops". Those specific variants have three advantages.
Less competition
the more specific the search term, the fewer websites try to rank for it.Higher conversion
anyone searching this precisely knows exactly what they want and is closer to a purchase or enquiry.Better AI visibility
AI search engines would rather cite content that answers a specific question than content that stays broad and superficial.Aim for a mix of 70 percent long-tail keywords and 30 percent broad keywords. You'll find long-tails through Google Autocomplete, the People Also Ask section, and forums where your target audience is active.
Analysing search volume and competition
Keyword difficulty (KD) is a score from 0 to 100 that shows how hard it is to rank for a term. Here's how to read it:
KD 0 to 20 (low)
suitable for new websites and blogs.KD 21 to 40 (medium)
for websites with six months or more of SEO work behind them.KD 41 to 60 (high)
for established websites.KD 61 to 100 (very high)
mainly achievable for big brands.The sweet spot: enough search volume to generate traffic, with a KD that's achievable for your website. The rule of thumb for most SME websites: between 100 and 2,000 searches a month, with a keyword difficulty under 35. And look beyond volume alone. A smaller keyword that precisely describes what you offer is often worth more to your revenue than a big, broad term.
Building clusters and implementing keywords
A keyword cluster is a group of keywords that share the same search intent and that you can rank for with a single page. Example: the primary keyword "keyword research" with supporting terms such as "doing keyword research", "finding keywords" and "how to do a keyword analysis". Those all belong on one page, not spread across four separate URLs. That way you avoid keyword cannibalisation, where your own pages compete against each other.
Once you've chosen your keyword
work it into your title, meta description, H1, URL and body text. Use an SEO plugin such as Yoast or Rank Math to set a focus keyword per page.
What keyword research looks like once it's finished
Most guides stop at collecting. That leaves you with an export of a thousand rows and no idea what to do on Monday. Research isn't finished until something comes out of it that you can plan around, and that's not a list of keywords but a list of pages. Below is what that worksheet looks like when you build it yourself.
The columns you actually need
Start with seven columns and resist the urge to turn it into fifteen. The keyword itself. The estimated search volume, with the tool you got it from noted alongside, because two tools rarely give the same number and you'll want to know later which one you read. The difficulty score from that same tool. The search intent, in one word: browsing, comparing, buying or enquiring. The page type you see at the top of the search results, so blog, service page, product page or list. The page on your own site this keyword belongs to, even if that page doesn't exist yet. And lastly a box where you enter your own figure, more on that below.
The figure no tool fills in for you
That last box is the column where the research becomes yours rather than your tool's. For each keyword, note down how much a customer coming in through that term is worth to you, on a scale you understand yourself. A term that's the name of a service you enjoy doing and that carries a good margin sits high. A term you know mainly attracts price shoppers sits low, even if the tool attaches a handsome volume to it. That figure is the reason two companies in the same industry ought to have a different keyword plan, and it's exactly the part that disappears when you copy an export without thinking.
Sorting by something other than volume
Then sort not by search volume but by the combination of your figure and achievability. At the top come the terms you find valuable and where you stand a real chance. Those are rarely the terms with the biggest numbers, and at first that feels like a loss. It's the opposite: first place on a term that generates enquiries is worth more than seventh place on a term that's mostly just viewed.
When you're done
You're done when you can say, for every planned page, which keyword it serves, which question it answers and why someone would get in touch after reading it. If you can't say that about a row, that row is still an idea, not a page, and ideas belong in a separate tab. A fifteen-row worksheet where that holds true is more useful than a thousand-row export where it holds true for none of them. If you'd rather start with a list than a blank page, you can use the free keyword plan generator as a first fill, then run it past these seven columns.
Keyword research if you run a local business
The seven steps also apply to a local business, but there's a catch almost nobody mentions: the tools are poor at local terms. A keyword like your service plus your town often shows a volume of zero or a handful in many tools, even though it genuinely brings in customers. That's because the search query splits across dozens of variants, and because part of local search doesn't go through the classic search bar at all, but through the map.
What you use instead
For local terms, rely less on estimated volumes and more on three other sources. Your Search Console shows which place names are already getting you impressions, even if there are only a few, and that's real data about your business rather than an estimate about the market. The insights in your Google Business Profile show which searches people used to find your profile. And your own phone is the third source: where people call from and exactly what they ask. Those three together tell you more about your service area than any tool.
The temptation of forty place names
Once you realise service plus place works, it's tempting to extend that list to every town within an hour's drive. Don't. A page per place is only justifiable if you genuinely have something to say about that place: jobs you've done there, a travel time or rate that's different, a neighbourhood or type of home that comes up there. If you can't, you end up with twenty pages that differ only in the place name, and that's exactly the pattern Google writes about in its spam policies. One strong service page with an honest service area does better than twenty empty ones.
The order that does work for a local business
Start with the town where you're based and the service you earn the most from. Build one good page for it and watch what it does for a quarter. If it works, pick the next town based on where your customers are already coming from, not on population size. That way your set of pages grows in step with your real service area, and every page keeps a reason to exist. How those pages relate to your Business Profile and your reviews is covered in our guide on ranking higher on Google Maps as a local business.
Common mistakes in keyword research
Focusing on volume alone
The keyword with the highest volume is far from always the best keyword for your business.Ignoring search intent
If the top is full of product pages, you're not going to break in with a blog.Choosing keywords that are too broad
Terms like "SEO" or "marketing" are far too broad to win.Not updating
Search behaviour keeps changing. Repeat your research at least every quarter.Keyword cannibalisation
Targeting the same term with multiple pages costs you rankings instead of winning them.Forgetting local traffic
If you're a local business, combine your services with local search terms.Optimising for Google alone
If you forget AI search engines, you miss a growing share of search traffic.Keyword research for AI search engines in 2026
AI search engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google Gemini use your content as a source for their answers. Those systems look for content that's thorough, reliable and specific. That's why long-tail content gets picked up by ChatGPT and Perplexity more often than broad, superficial pages.
In 2026 a growing share of search traffic is coming in through AI tools
And that goes further than just giving answers: also read how Google AI buys on your customer's behalf with agentic commerce and how Ask Maps is changing search on Google Maps. So your keyword research isn't just the foundation for your Google rankings, but also for your visibility in AI answers.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I do keyword research?
At least once a quarter. If you're in a fast-changing market such as technology, fashion or current affairs, monthly is better.
Can I do keyword research without paid tools?
Absolutely. Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, Google Autocomplete, AnswerThePublic and Google Trends are all free and give you more than enough data to get started.
What's a good search volume?
For most SME websites, the sweet spot lies between 100 and 2,000 searches a month, with a keyword difficulty under 35.
How do I know if a keyword is too competitive?
Check the keyword difficulty score and google the keyword yourself. If the top 10 is nothing but big brands, it's tough. Do you also see blogs and niche websites there? Then there's room.
Should every page have its own keyword?
Yes, every primary keyword belongs to a maximum of one page. Use keyword clusters to group related terms under a single page.
Why is keyword research so important?
Imagine this: you write a fantastic 3,000-word article on a subject you're sure is relevant to your audience. You publish it, share it on social media, and then… nothing. No traffic from Google. No visitors. What went wrong?
Chances are you didn't do keyword research. Maybe simply nobody searches for the term you chose. Or maybe thousands of people search for it, but the competition is so fierce your website hasn't got a chance. Both scenarios are deadly for your SEO, and both can be prevented with good keyword research.
How do you build keyword clusters?
The simplest method: google each keyword and look at the top 5 results. If the same pages appear for multiple keywords, those keywords belong to the same cluster. In practice it works like this: you export your full keyword list to a spreadsheet. You add a "cluster" column. You start googling and grouping.
What's a good search volume to aim for?
That depends on your niche and your goals. In a broad consumer market, keywords with 1,000+ volume are common. In a B2B niche, 50 a month can already be very valuable.
What's the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?
Short-tail keywords are short, broad terms: "SEO", "shoes", "laptop". They have high volume but also high competition and unclear intent. Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific: "SEO tips for webshops", "red women's running shoes size 39". They have less volume but more focused intent and less competition.
In practice the distribution is like a pyramid: at the top a handful of broad terms with enormous volume, at the base thousands of specific terms each with small volume but together an enormous amount of traffic.
Also look at the quality of the content that ranks. If the current top 10 contains mediocre content you can demonstrably improve on, there's an opportunity.
Should I choose a different keyword for every page?
Yes, every primary keyword belongs to a maximum of one page. If you target multiple pages at the same keyword, you create keyword cannibalisation. Use keyword clusters to group related terms under a single page.
A well-written page ranks for dozens of related terms at once. But the primary keyword needs to be unique per page.
How do I combine keyword research with my WordPress website?
Use an SEO plugin such as Yoast or Rank Math to set your focus keyword per page. Work the keyword into your title, meta description, H1, URL and content.
Also make sure your WordPress website loads quickly . A professionally built WordPress site gives you a head start there.
Does keyword research play a role in Google Ads?
Absolutely, and it's actually exactly the same process. The big difference is that with Google Ads you also look at the CPC. A keyword with a high CPC is commercially valuable. You can use that data for your SEO strategy too.
The best strategy combines SEO and SEA. Take a look at the SEA specialist page or outsourcing Google Ads .
Just get started
Keyword research isn't a luxury. It's the foundation of everything you do in SEO. Without the right keyword you're writing into thin air. With the right keyword you write content that gets found, gets read and delivers results.
The checklist at a glance:
- Start by brainstorming from your customer's perspective
- Use at least two tools, for example Keyword Planner plus Search Console
- Analyse search volume and keyword difficulty together
- Work out the search intent before you write content
- Group into clusters, one page per cluster
- Focus on long-tail if your website is still young
- Repeat your research at least every quarter
- Optimise for Google and AI search engines alike
- Build a content calendar based on your clusters
The single most important thing? Just get started. Grab that spreadsheet, open Google Keyword Planner and start with your first seed keywords. You'll find more practical SEO guides in our knowledge base. Would you rather we handle the research and execution for you? Take a look at our SEO improvement service.
And if you get stuck at the step everyone gets stuck at, namely choosing between twenty terms that all look reasonable, feel free to put your list next to ours. Send over your worksheet along with your site, and we'll tell you which three terms we'd go for first, which we'd leave aside, and why. You can do that through the contact page, where you pick a slot in the calendar yourself. A first conversation like that carries no price tag and no obligation, and if the conclusion is that your list is already right and you just need to start writing, that's the answer.
📈 You attract the right traffic
Not just any visitors, but people actively searching for what you offer. That's the difference between 10,000 visitors of whom nobody buys and 500 visitors with a conversion rate of 5%.
🎯 You write content that matches
When you know what people are searching for, you can create content that lines up exactly with their search intent . That's what Google rewards: relevance.
💡 You discover opportunities you're missing
Keyword research shows you things you don't expect. Terms your competitors rank for that you don't have content for yet. Long-tail opportunities nobody's picking up.
⚡ You save time and money
Creating content costs time. Advertising costs money. Keyword research makes sure you aim that investment at terms that actually deliver results. No more guesswork.
But there's more. Keyword research also helps you structure your website. Because once you know which subjects and keywords matter, you can set up a logical site structure. Pages that link to each other logically. Categories that make sense. A site architecture that search engines understand and that visitors can navigate easily.
And then there's the AI angle. AI search engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google Gemini use your content as a source for their answers. Those systems look for content that's thorough, reliable and specific. Good keyword research helps you create exactly that kind of content. Want to know more about how AI affects your visibility? Read the article on the national AI visibility score .
Tip: Always start with keyword research before you write content. Not afterwards. It's the foundation, not the finishing touch.
💬 Google Autocomplete + People Also Ask
Not really a tool as such, but a goldmine. Type in a search term and look at the autocomplete suggestions. Click a result and look at the "People Also Ask" section. Every click unfolds new questions. In five minutes you'll have dozens of relevant search terms your customers are actually asking.
Neil Patel's tool gives you a limited number of free searches per day. You get search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC and content ideas. The free version is fine to start with.
Shows you how interest in a search term changes over time. Perfect for seasonal keywords and for working out whether a trend is rising or falling. Compare several terms at once to see which has the most momentum.
It also helps to combine several free tools. Start with Google Autocomplete for ideas, use Search Console for existing opportunities, and validate everything in Keyword Planner. That way you build a solid list without spending a single euro. Want your technical SEO in order too? That also helps enormously with ranking for your chosen keywords.
At some point you'll hit the limits of free tools. Maybe you want more data, more accurate competitor analysis, or the ability to analyse your competitors properly. Then a paid tool is the logical next step.
If you're just starting out and have a limited budget, Ubersuggest Pro or Mangools is a solid choice. You get enough data to make good decisions without being swamped with features you don't need yet.
For serious SEO , or if you work for multiple clients , Ahrefs or SEMrush is the standard. The data is more accurate, the backlink analysis goes deeper and the competitor features give you insights free tools simply can't offer. Would you rather a specialist handle the keyword research for you? Then you could also consider hiring an SEO specialist .
Tip: Many tools offer a free trial of 7 to 14 days. Use it strategically: do all your keyword research in that period and export everything to a spreadsheet.
If you're just starting out with SEO, or if your website doesn't have much authority yet, long-tail keywords are your best friend. Those are keywords that are longer and more specific than the broad, generic terms. Think "best SEO tool for startups" instead of "SEO tool".
Why are long-tail keywords so valuable? Three reasons.
The more specific the search term, the fewer websites try to rank for it. That means that even with a relatively young or small website, you do stand a chance of a top position.
Someone searching for "red leather women's shoes size 38" is ready to buy. Someone searching for "shoes" is browsing. Long-tail = specific intent = more conversion.
AI search engines would rather cite content that answers a specific question than content that's broad and superficial. Long-tail content gets picked up by ChatGPT and Perplexity more often.
The easiest way is Google Autocomplete. Type in your primary keyword and add letters. "Keyword research a…" gives you suggestions with the letter A. "Keyword research b…" with the letter B. And so on. Do that for every letter and in ten minutes you'll have a list of dozens of long-tail terms.
Then there's the "People Also Ask" section in Google. Every question there is a potential long-tail keyword. Click a question and new questions appear. It's an endless source of content ideas.
It also helps to look at forums, Reddit, Quora and Facebook groups where your target audience is active. The questions people ask there are often long-tail keywords you won't find in any tool. Want to learn more about how to rank higher in Google? Take a look at this article .
Rule of thumb: Aim for a mix of 70% long-tail keywords and 30% broad keywords in your content strategy. The long-tail brings quick results; you build up the broad terms slowly as your site gains more authority.
You now have a list of potential keywords. Great. But how do you decide which ones are worth it? That comes down to two metrics: search volume and keyword difficulty (KD).
Search volume shows how often a keyword is searched on average per month. So a keyword with a volume of 1,000 is typed in an average of 1,000 times a month. Sounds simple, but there are a few catches.
First: search volumes are estimates. Google Keyword Planner often gives ranges ("100 to 1,000"), and tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush use their own algorithms to calculate an exact number. Those numbers can differ considerably between tools. Use search volume as an indication, not as absolute truth.
Second: a keyword with low volume can still be very valuable. If you sell a B2B service worth €50,000 per project, a keyword with 50 searches a month is potentially worth its weight in gold. Always look at the business value, not just the volume.
Keyword difficulty (KD) is a score that shows how hard it is to reach the top 10 for a given keyword. Most tools present this as a number between 0 and 100. The higher the number, the harder it is.
But don't trust KD scores blindly. They're calculated based on backlinks to the top 10 pages, and that's only one factor. Google also looks at content relevance, E-E-A-T signals, technical quality and user experience.
The ideal keywords sit in the sweet spot: enough search volume to generate traffic, a KD that's achievable for your website, and a search intent that fits what you offer. In practice those are often long-tail keywords with a volume of 100 to 1,000 and a KD under 30.
Also don't forget to look at the pages currently ranking. If the top 10 consists of Wikipedia, major media and government websites, it's tough going. But if you see medium-sized blogs and niche websites there, there's room.
You now have a nice list of keywords. But you're not going to build a separate page for every keyword. That would be chaos, and Google doesn't like chaos. Instead, you're going to group your keywords into clusters.
A keyword cluster is a group of keywords that share the same search intent and that you can rank for with a single page. Take the example "keyword research". Related terms such as "doing keyword research", "finding keywords" and "how to do a keyword analysis" all belong to the same cluster.
📋 Example of a keyword cluster
Primary keyword: keyword research (vol: 1,300, KD: 28)
Supporting: doing keyword research (vol: 590, KD: 22), finding keywords (vol: 480, KD: 18), how to do a keyword analysis (vol: 210, KD: 12), free keyword research tool (vol: 320, KD: 20)
Content type: Comprehensive guide / pillar page
Every cluster becomes a page on your website. The biggest clusters become your pillar pages: comprehensive guides covering a broad subject. Smaller clusters become supporting articles that go deeper into sub-topics. That's how you build a content strategy search engines understand.
Build a content calendar based on your clusters. Plan which pages you build first, which come next, and which you tackle in the long term. Also read our guide on how to reach the top of Google for more strategic insight.
TheSEO helps you from keyword research through to publication.
Keyword research isn't complicated, but there are pitfalls almost everyone falls into.
❌ Focusing on volume alone
The keyword with the highest volume isn't automatically the best one. If the competition is brutal or the intent doesn't match what you offer, you're wasting your time.
You can find the perfect keyword, but if you create the wrong type of content for it, you won't rank. Is Google showing product pages? Then don't write a blog.
❌ Choosing keywords that are too broad
Beginners often aim for terms like "SEO", "marketing" or "website". Those are far too broad. The competition is astronomical and the intent is unclear.
Search behaviour changes. Trends come and go. Repeat your keyword research at least every quarter. Especially now that search traffic is shifting because of AI.
Targeting multiple pages at the same search term is a classic mistake. Google then doesn't know which page to show and ranks both of them lower.
If you run a local business, don't forget local keywords. Combine your keyword research with Google Ads for maximum local reach.
And then there's a mistake that's becoming more common: optimising for Google alone and forgetting AI search engines. In 2026 a growing share of search traffic comes through AI tools. Want to know how Google detects AI-written content? Read this article . More on LLMS.txt and AI visibility .
At least once a quarter. Search behaviour changes because of trends, seasons and the rise of AI search engines. What was a good term three months ago might be less relevant now. On top of that, every round of research uncovers new opportunities you missed before.
If you're in a fast-changing market (technology, fashion, current affairs), monthly is better. If you work in a more stable niche, every quarter is enough.
The strength lies in combining several free tools. Use Autocomplete for ideas, Keyword Planner for volumes, Search Console for existing opportunities and Trends for timing.
Summary: start your keyword research today
The great thing is: you can do it yourself. Free tools alone will get you a long way. With the step-by-step plan from this article, you have a concrete method. And with keyword clusters and a content calendar, you set out a strategy that looks months ahead.
The single most important thing? Just get started. Grab that spreadsheet, open Google Keyword Planner, and start with your first seed keywords. Your first round of research might not be perfect, but it's infinitely better than guessing.
- Start by brainstorming: write down every relevant subject from your customer's perspective
- Optimise not just for Google, but for AI search engines too
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