SEO Fundamentals

Keyword Research

Keyword research is how you find out what your audience is actually searching for — not what you assume they search for. In 2026 that means understanding intent, reading SERPs, and building content clusters rather than chasing individual terms.

Intent over volume

Monthly search volume is a useful signal, but it's not the goal. A keyword with 200 monthly searches and clear commercial intent is often more valuable than one with 20,000 searches and ambiguous intent.

The four types of search intent:

  • Informational — the searcher wants to learn something ("how does PageRank work")
  • Navigational — they're looking for a specific site ("Search Engine Optimising glossary")
  • Commercial investigation — they're comparing options before buying ("best SEO tools 2026")
  • Transactional — they're ready to act ("buy SEO audit")

Match your content format to intent. Informational searches want articles, guides, or glossary entries. Transactional searches want product pages or clear calls to action. Getting this wrong means writing content that ranks for nothing because it satisfies no-one.

Read the SERP first

Before you write anything, search the keyword and examine what Google is already ranking. The SERP tells you:

  • What content format dominates (articles, tools, videos, product pages)
  • How comprehensive the top results are
  • Whether there's a featured snippet or AI Overview — and if so, what it covers
  • What People Also Ask questions Google associates with the topic
  • Who you're competing against and how strong they are

If the top three results are comprehensive guides from domain-authority-90+ sites, a thin page won't displace them. Either target a more specific sub-topic, or plan something substantially better than what's there.

If an AI Overview appears for the keyword, note what sources it cites. Those are the sites Google considers authoritative on the topic.

Free vs paid tools

Free tools worth using

  • Google Search Console — the most accurate keyword data available for your own site. Shows actual impressions, clicks, and position for queries you already rank for. Non-negotiable if you own the site.
  • Google Keyword Planner — designed for ads, but gives volume ranges and related keyword ideas. Volume data is bucketed (not precise), and it skews commercial.
  • Google Suggest and People Also Ask — type a keyword into Google and watch what it autocompletes. These are real queries people type. Free, always current.
  • Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free tier) — limited crawl and keyword data for your own site. Useful for finding which of your pages rank for what.

Paid tools worth the cost

If you're doing keyword research regularly, a paid tool saves significant time. The main options:

  • Ahrefs — strong keyword explorer, competitor analysis, and content gap analysis. Accurate backlink data.
  • Semrush — broader feature set including site auditing and content tools. Keyword data comparable to Ahrefs.
  • Moz — slightly weaker on raw keyword data but good for understanding domain authority and link metrics.

For most small sites, free tools plus Google Search Console cover 80% of keyword research needs. Paid tools become worthwhile when you need competitor gap analysis or are managing a large content programme.

We're also building a keyword research tool here — check back as we roll out more functionality.

Topical clusters

Ranking for a single keyword in isolation is less effective than building a cluster of content that covers a topic comprehensively. Topical authority — Google's assessment of how thoroughly you cover a subject — increasingly determines how well individual pieces rank.

A cluster has three parts:

  • Pillar page — a comprehensive overview of the topic (e.g., "search engine optimisation"). Broad scope, links to cluster content.
  • Cluster content — detailed pages on sub-topics (e.g., "keyword research", "link building", "Core Web Vitals"). Narrower scope, links back to the pillar.
  • Internal links — connecting pillar to clusters and clusters to each other. This signals to Google that your site has a coherent structure of knowledge.

This approach is more work upfront but compounds over time. A site that thoroughly covers a topic ranks new content faster than a site with scattered, unconnected pages.

Long-tail keywords

"Long-tail" refers to specific, lower-volume keywords — typically phrases of three or more words. They're often easier to rank for because fewer sites target them, and they tend to have clearer intent.

In practice, long-tail traffic often converts better than head terms. "SEO tools" is vague; "free meta tag analyser tool" describes someone who knows what they want.

With AI Overviews handling many informational head terms, long-tail keywords — especially those with commercial or transactional intent — are increasingly where organic traffic opportunity lives.

Keyword mapping

Once you have a keyword list, map each term to a specific page on your site. One page, one primary keyword. Multiple pages targeting the same keyword cannibalise each other — Google has to pick one and may pick the wrong one.

If you find two pages competing for the same keyword, either consolidate them or use canonical tags to tell Google which to prefer.

Secondary keywords — related terms with similar intent — can appear naturally in the same content without separate pages. Don't fragment a topic into thin pages just to target more terms.

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