How To Do Keyword Research For SEO?

SEO Keyword research still forms the backbone of successful SEO, even in 2025. Whether you’re growing organic traffic, climbing rankings, or shaping content strategy, it begins with understanding what is keyword research and how to use it in your favour.

In this guide, we, as the best digital marketing company in India, will walk you through:

• What is keyword research SEO and why it matters
• Beginner-friendly tools you can use right away
• The four core types of keywords used on Google
• A detailed, 5-step process to uncover, analyze, and organize keywords
• Practical guidance on listing SEO keywords effectively

By the end, you’ll have a clear roadmap from ideation to optimization to fuel SEO campaigns.

Key Takeaways

• Keyword research is about understanding your audience’s intent and aligning it with content that ranks and converts.
• Using the right tools helps beginners identify valuable keywords that balance search volume and competition.
• Effective keyword research is an ongoing process that evolves with search trends, user behavior, and your business goals.

Table of Contents

1. What is Keyword Research?
2. What Are the 4 Types of Keywords in Google?
3. What Are the 5 Steps to Follow When Doing Keyword Research for SEO?
4. How Do I List SEO Keywords?
5. On‑Page Application: Mapping Your Keywords to Content
6. Advanced Tactics & AI Tools
7. Conclusion & Next Steps

What is Keyword Research? 

The process of identifying, evaluating, and applying the search terms users write into search engines like Google to find content is known as keyword research. It includes:

• Finding relevant keywords (seed words, suggestions)
• Analyzing those terms using metrics like volume and difficulty
• Using them to craft SEO-optimized content 

By utilizing the right tactics for SEO and keyword research, you ensure your content aligns with real-world search intent, helping you attract quality traffic that’s poised to engage or convert.

Core concepts to grasp:

• Seed keywords: Foundational terms describing your topic (“yoga,” “keyword research”).
• Long‑tail vs short‑tail: Short-tail (1–2 words) draw high volume but are highly competitive; long-tail (3+ words) offer lower volume with better conversion potential.
• Search intent: Understanding why a person performs a search, whether informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional, guides content strategy and improves ranking odds.

Explore what is keyword research and you’ll know that it isn’t just keyword hunting, it’s about learning how your audience thinks and writes. It gives you the ability to produce content that addresses their needs at each point of their journey.

What Are the Best Keyword Research Tools for Beginners?

If you’re a beginner, the first question that might come to mind is how to find keywords. Well, there are tools that make it easy for you. However, choosing the right keyword tools depends on budget, ease of use, and features. Here’s a breakdown:

Free & Included with Google

• Google Keyword Planner (via Google Ads): Offers search volume and competition data. Essential for understanding baseline demand.
• Google Trends & Autocomplete: Inspires long-tail ideas and reveals seasonal interest patterns.

Freemium & Budget-Friendly

• Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator: Great for generating seed ideas with keyword difficulty indicators.
• Mangools (KWFinder): Priced around $19/month, it supports both seed and competitor-based keyword discovery.

Premium Power Tools

• Semrush: All-in-one keyword, competitor, on-page SEO, and SERP feature monitoring
• Ahrefs Keywords Explorer: Deep data on volume, clicks, traffic potential, and difficulty scores.
• SpyFu: Ideal for competitor PPC + SEO strategy intelligence.
  

Comparison at a Glance

Tool	Free Tier?	Seed Expansions	Competitor Analysis	Difficulty Metrics	Price (starting)
Google Keyword Planner	✅	Basic suggestions	—	Volume, Competition	Free
Google Trends / Autocomplete	✅	✅	—	Trends Only	Free
Ahrefs Free Generator	✅	✅	Limited	Difficulty	Free
Mangools (KWFinder)	❌ (trial)	✅	✅	Difficulty	~$19/month
Semrush	❌ (trial)	✅	✅	Yes	~$139.95/month
Ahrefs Keywords Explorer	❌	✅	✅	Yes	~$129/month
SpyFu	❌	✅	PPC + SEO	Yes	~$39/month

Why this matters: Beginners who are still learning what is keyword research can start with Google tools and supplement with a freemium option. As your strategy for SEO keyword research evolves, upgrade to Semrush or Ahrefs for deeper insights.

What Are the 4 Types of Keywords in Google?

Understanding what are SEO keywords types is essential before diving deeper. Different types of keywords serve different user intents. Here are the four basic types:

1. Informational Keywords These are used when someone wants to learn something. Words like “how to,” “what is,” “tips,” or “ways to” fall under this category. For example, “how to start a blog” or “tips for healthy eating.”
2. Navigational Keywords When someone is looking for a particular brand or website, they use these. For instance, “Facebook login” or “Nike official site.” These users know where they want to go.
3. Transactional Keywords When someone is prepared to buy, sign up, or download, they use these. Examples include “buy running shoes online” or “best deals on headphones.”
4. Commercial Investigation Keywords These are somewhere in between. The user is considering a purchase but hasn’t decided yet. They may search for “best laptops under 500” or “iPhone vs Samsung comparison.”

Why these categories matter:

• Tailor content & do SEO keyword research based on intent. For instance, blog posts or guides for informational, product pages for transactional.
• Structure your site into logical content clusters focused on different intent goals.
• Boost rankings in AI Overviews by presenting clear, intent-mapped content that search engines and answer engines can parse.

What Are the 5 Steps to Follow When Doing Keyword Research for SEO?

Here’s a step-by-step approach to help you learn how to do keyword research for SEO that actually works:

Step 1: Understand Your Audience and Niche: When you’ve learnt what is keyword research, hurrying up to open a keyword tool for SEO keyword research is not the solution. First, you need to know who you’re speaking to. What problems are they facing? What language do they use? This forms the base of your keyword brainstorming.

Step 2: Brainstorm Seed Keywords: These are basic terms related to your topic or business. If you’re a fitness blogger, seed keywords might be “workout,” “nutrition,” or “weight loss.” Seed keywords help kickstart the process.

Step 3: Use Keyword Tools to Expand Ideas: Take your seed keywords and plug them into tools like Ubersuggest or Keyword Planner. Look for long-tail keywords, which are more specific and often easier to rank for.

Step 4: Analyze Keyword Metrics: When doing SEO and keyword research, check for keyword difficulty, search volume, and relevance. Avoid chasing keywords with high competition unless you have a high-authority site. Pay attention to those who successfully strike a balance between volume and competition.

Step 5: Group Keywords by Intent and Topic: Organize your keywords based on whether they’re informational, transactional, etc. This helps you plan your content strategy better. One blog post can target multiple keywords if they’re closely related.

Following these steps ensures you’re not just picking keywords at random. You’ve understood how to do keyword research for SEO and build a thoughtful, strategic list that serves both your audience and your SEO goals.

How Do I List SEO Keywords?

When you’ve learned how to find keywords, compiling your curated keywords in an accessible, actionable format is key for execution:

Spreadsheet Template Layout

Column	Description
Keyword	Exact phrase
Intent Type	Informational/Commercial/ Transactional / Navigational
Monthly Volume	Avg searches per month
Difficulty Score	Tool-specific metric
CPC	If collected
Priority	High / Medium / Low
Content Pillar	Topic cluster association
Page Assignment	Where it will be used (blog, FAQ, product, etc.)

This format ensures clarity and easy handoff to writers or editors.

Sorting & Tagging

• Primary vs Secondary:
  • Primary brands the page’s focus.
  • Secondary are woven naturally across supporting sections.
• LSI / Related Terms: Use synonyms and semantically related phrases.
• Intent Tagging: Helps match user expectations, and ensures content aligns.

Tools to Export & Extract

• Semrush / Ahrefs / KWFinder allow export directly into spreadsheets with metric columns.
• Google Keyword Planner supports CSV downloads with volume and competition.
• Clean up by removing irrelevant variations (e.g., misspellings, non‑related geographic terms).

Best Practices

• Primary keyword in key elements: URL, title tag, first 25 words, headers.
• Avoid stuffing: Maintain natural language; keyword density now penalizes overuse .
• Structure with intent: Informational content early in awareness; transactional terms closer to conversion pages.
• Review & update regularly: SEO is dynamic. Refresh based on performance and intent shifts .

On‑Page Application: Mapping Your Keywords to Content 

Once you’re done with the keyword research SEO, the next critical step is applying them strategically across your content. Proper on-page optimization combines relevance, readability, and SEO best practices, ensuring both users and search algorithms are satisfied.

Primary & Secondary Keyword Assignment

• Primary keyword: Assign one primary keyword per page that you will find by doing keyword research for SEO, usually the one with the highest relevance and volume.
• Secondary keywords: Choose 3–5 supporting terms per page to include naturally within headers, subheads, image alt text, and body content. This approach leverages keyword clusters and LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) terms for richer context and semantic SEO.

Example for “keyword research step-by-step”:

• Primary: “keyword research process”
• Secondary: “how to do keyword research”, “keyword research guide”, “keyword research steps”

Placement & Density Best Practices

• Page Title (SEO title tag): Include the primary keyword, ideally at the beginning.
• URL slug: Keep it short and keyword-centric
• First 100 words: Naturally include the primary keyword within your intro.
• Headings (H2, H3): Use both primary and secondary keywords to structure the content.
• Image alt attributes & captions: Include keyword variations for both accessibility and SEO.
• Maintain natural flow: Avoid stilted repetition. Keyword density around 1–2% works; overstuffing can harm rankings.

Internal Linking Strategy

Link between related pages using keyword-rich anchor text that reflects the destination page’s topic. This provides both context and SEO value to crawlers.

• Use the primary keyword as the anchor for key target pages.
• Secondary keywords for supporting or related content.

Technical & UX Considerations

• Optimize for Core Web Vitals: Fast LCP, responsive INP, and minimal CLS, factors affecting ranking and user experience
• Responsive design & mobile UX: Prioritize mobile readability—Google indexes mobile-first.
• Structured data & schema: Use FAQ markup, article markup and breadcrumb schema to enhance SERP presence.

Monitoring & Refinement

What are SEO keywords and how their meaning changes in the evolving times is a thing to keep an eye on. You should track performance, analyze data, and evolve your strategy that includes doing fresh keyword research for SEO. Here are top tools and processes:

Monitoring Tools

• Google Search Console: Shows which keywords are driving impressions, clicks, CTR, and average ranking.
• Rank trackers: Use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, SERPWatcher, or Keyword.com to follow rankings over time.
• Analytics platforms: Monitor traffic, bounce rate, session duration, and goal completions tied to keyword-optimized pages via Google Analytics or alternatives.

Key Metrics to Track

• Impressions vs clicks: Use CTR to identify optimization opportunities—e.g., title tag tweaks.
• Average position & visibility: Track changes via rank trackers.
• Page-level metrics: Analyze time on page, bounce rate, conversions.
• SERP feature opportunities: Optimize to win featured snippets, “People Also Ask,” image packs through content structure.

Refinement & Refresh Cycle

Set milestones to revisit and update content:

• Every 3-6 months: Audit keyword performance by traffic and rankings.
• Re-optimize underperforming pages: Add/upweight secondary keywords, refresh content, improve UX.
• Capture semantic gaps: Use Search Console and tools to surface related queries; integrate them as H2s or FAQs.
• Monitor SERP changes: Adjust if competitors overtake, or if Google introduces new features or layouts.

Semrush emphasizes setting Position Tracking campaigns with target keywords and subtasks, identifying ranking fluctuations and CTR drops to guide content updates.

Advanced Tactics & AI Tools

There advanced tactics and AI tools to help you in SEO and keyword research.

Competitor Gap Analysis

Use tools like Ahrefs’ Content Gap or SEMrush’s Keyword Gap to surface terms competitors rank for that you don’t. These make for high-opportunity targets.

AI-Powered Keyword Discovery & Clustering

Top SEO platforms now integrate AI:

• ChatGPT & Perplexity AI: Assist with ideation, clustering, outlines, snippet creation.
• OpenAI Deep Research: Agentic AI that can research, summarize, and cite. These are invaluable for large-scale ideation.
• Surfer SEO, Alli AI, MarketMuse: Offer built-in keyword suggestions based on page structure, target topic depth, and SERP competition.

Multilingual & Local AI Solutions

• Sarvam AI: Indian LLM tuned for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, great for non-English markets.
• Tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT support global keyword research, analyzing intent and clusters across languages.

Conclusion & Next Steps

This blog answers for you in depth what is keyword research and how to find keywords for SEO. Researching keywords is a constantly changing strategy, not merely a preparatory exercise. You can lay the groundwork for long-lasting SEO success by adhering to our thorough process, which includes goal definition, list building, on-page keyword mapping, performance monitoring, and AI utilization.

Next steps:

1. Audit your current keyword landscape: Use GSC and a rank tracker to get baseline insights.
2. Build a seed list & use at least one beginner-friendly and one AI tool (e.g., Google Planner + ChatGPT).
3. Map keywords intentionally using the guidelines here.
4. Set up a monitoring routine—ideally monthly check-ins.
5. Schedule quarterly refreshes— refining or expanding content based on data and AI insights.

Need expert help? Get in touch with us. Wildnet is your AI-powered SEO company where we help brands like yours rank on top of search results and attract good leads. Have doubts? We’re all ears.