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How to Do Keyword Research: A Proven Method That Actually Works [2025 Guide]

IInfotanksDeveloper

May 7, 2025

Keyword research still forms the backbone of successful SEO in 2025. Many website owners struggle to conduct keyword research that works. My experience shows businesses often waste resources by targeting incorrect terms or following outdated methods. The right keyword strategy can mean the difference between top rankings and being buried on page ten of search results. This piece shares battle-tested keyword research tips that deliver real results. We’ve refined these methods by testing websites of all sizes. Our approach works well in today’s competitive digital world.

You’ll discover a straightforward, step-by-step process to find valuable keywords that bring qualified visitors to your website. This guide helps both SEO beginners and experienced professionals become skilled at keyword research effectively.

What is Keyword Research and Why It Matters

Search engine visibility starts with a basic practice. Keyword research is the process of identifying and analyzing the words and phrases people use when searching for information, products, or services online. This methodical approach finds exactly what your audience types into search engines.

Definition of keyword research

Keyword research means more than just finding words. The quickest way to find popular search queries helps you review their relevance to your content and check the competition for rankings. These keywords connect what users search for with the content businesses create. Moz explains, “If you boil everything on your page all the images, video, copy, etc. down to simple words and phrases, those are your primary keywords”.

Why keyword research is essential for SEO

The SEO world keeps changing, but keyword research remains its lifeblood. Hubspot reports that 69% of marketers think about increasing organic visibility as their top inbound marketing priority. Research shows that 65% to 85% of first-page Google search results have titles with relevant keywords.

Keyword research gives you several key benefits:

Shows what your target audience actually searches for
Helps you find opportunities with high search volume and manageable competition
Gives an explanation of your competitive landscape
Raises your chances of ranking on page one (crucial since 75% of users never look past the first page)

How keyword research affects content strategy

Keyword research revolutionizes content creation approaches. Data-driven content addresses real user queries instead of assumptions. This approach lines up your content with search intent a person’s main goal when using search engines.

Search patterns help you build a detailed content strategy that targets terms with different levels of specificity. Your homepage might target broad industry terms, while category pages and articles focus on specific needs. This well-laid-out approach helps maximize visibility across different types of searches.

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The 5-Step Keyword Research Process That Works

Now that you know what keyword research is, let’s take a closer look at a proven five-step process that will help you find and pick the right keywords for your content strategy. This method works well in many industries.

1. Brainstorm relevant topics

Your first task in keyword research is to create broad topic ideas related to your business. Make a list of categories and topics that match your products or services. A bakery owner might list product types: cakes, cookies, pastries, etc. This basic list helps you explore more specific keywords.

The best approach is to start with broad topics and make them more specific. Your customer service team can tell you the exact words customers use when they talk about your products.

2. Expand with keyword tools

Your topic list is ready, and now you can find specific keywords for each category. These powerful tools will help you with this vital step:

Google Keyword Planner: Shows search volume data and bid estimates to plan your advertising budget
Moz Keyword Explorer: Gives difficulty scores from 1-100 to help you assess competition levels
SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool: Creates personal keyword difficulty scores for your website
Ahrefs: Has over 19.2 billion keywords from hundreds of locations

Need help with your keyword research? IInfotanks’ specialized service finds high-value keywords for your business niche and saves you hours of research time.

3. Analyze search intent

Search intent shows why someone makes a search query. Moz says understanding intent is “the most important way to determine search intent for any topic or keyword”.

The best way to understand search intent is to look at SERPs for your potential keywords. Google shows what it thinks is relevant through the content that ranks well. You’ll see patterns in titles, content formats, and SERP features like featured snippets or knowledge panels.

4. Check keyword difficulty and volume

Keyword difficulty tells you how hard it is to rank for specific keywords. This score looks at how many referring domains top-ranking pages have. Search volume shows monthly searches for that term.

Good keywords have enough search volume but manageable difficulty. Keywords with high volume typically show 76% difficulty. Terms with 11-100 searches often have 39% difficulty.

5. Prioritize based on opportunity

The final step is to rank keywords by their overall value. Look at:

How they match your business goals
The mix of volume and competition
Whether search intent fits your content
Your site’s ranking potential

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Choosing the Right Keywords for Your Website

Picking the right keywords shapes your site’s visibility and brings quality traffic. Your success with keyword research depends on targeting keywords that align with your goals and available resources.

Head terms vs long-tail keywords

Head terms are short, broad keywords with one to three words, like “shoes” or “digital marketing”. These keywords get lots of searches but face tough competition. Long-tail keywords are specific phrases with three or more words, such as “women’s running shoes under $100” or “best laptop for video editing”.

These keyword types differ in striking ways:

Search volume: Head terms get high search numbers, while long-tail keywords see fewer searches
Competition: Head terms are tough to rank for due to fierce competition
Conversion potential: Long-tail keywords lead to better conversions because they target specific user needs

Balancing volume and competition

The sweet spot between search popularity and ranking difficulty is vital. A solid keyword strategy targets terms with good search volume that aren’t dominated by tough competitors. Popular keywords usually have high difficulty scores, which makes them hard targets for new websites.

New websites should pick keywords with difficulty scores no more than 10-15% above their domain authority. Starting with long-tail keywords helps build visibility before taking on more competitive terms.

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Understanding keyword relevance

Keyword relevance shows how well your content matches what users search for. The focus should be on valuable information that meets user needs rather than stuffing keywords into content.

Search engines now value the connections between related topics. Content clusters around related ideas work better than isolated keywords. Relevance helps target keywords that answer real user questions instead of chasing broad terms with high search volume.

The best keyword strategy mixes head terms for visibility with long-tail keywords for conversion. This integrated approach captures traffic at every stage of the customer’s trip.

Top Free and Paid Keyword Research Tools in 2025

You need powerful tools to execute your research once you have a solid keyword strategy. The right keyword research tool can help you find hidden opportunities instead of wasting time on low-value terms. Here are the most effective options you can use in 2025.

Google Keyword Planner: Google’s free tool gives great insights even though it’s built for advertisers. You can find new keywords related to your business and get search volume estimates and bid data. The tool has two main features that help you discover keywords and plan your budget with detailed forecasting. You’ll need a Google Ads account to use it. Keep in mind that volume data comes in ranges rather than exact numbers.

Moz Keyword Explorer: Moz makes data easy to understand and helps you prioritize effectively. The tool shows you an Opportunity score that tells you how many clicks organic results get for specific keywords. Their free plan gives you 10 queries monthly with 1,000 keyword suggestions per query. Paid plans start at $99 per month and give you metrics like monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, and organic CTR.

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SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool: SEMrush has the world’s largest keyword database with over 25 billion keywords across 142 countries. This tool can generate thousands of keyword ideas from just one seed keyword. It automatically spots user intent and groups keywords as informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional. The free version lets you analyze 10 keywords daily, while premium plans start at $139.95 monthly.

Ubersuggest: Neil Patel bought Ubersuggest in 2017, and it has grown substantially since its days as a simple Google Suggest scraper. The tool helps you find long-tail keyword variations and shows key metrics like monthly search volume, average CPC, and SEO competition levels. It has a unique comparison keyword generator that finds valuable “vs” and “or” terms showing high commercial intent. You can also see traffic estimates under each URL in Google search results.

AnswerThePublic: AnswerThePublic helps you find questions people ask about specific topics. It turns autocomplete data from search engines into question wheels and organizes queries by who, what, when, where, why, and how. This makes it perfect for content planning and featured snippet targeting. You can make three searches daily with the free version, or get paid plans starting at $9 monthly for individual users.