Keyword research: a three-step process for finding rankable keywords

Executive overview

Most websites target keywords they can't rank for or that don't convert. The fix is choosing long tail keywords with clear intent, low competition, and transactional relevance — then qualifying and prioritising them by cost to rank.

Three phases: find keyword opportunities → qualify by intent and competition → prioritise by estimated ranking investment.

The biggest keyword research secret: People Also Ask phrases are real searches Google validates in real time, yet almost no competitor tracks them.

Why head and body keywords fail

• Head keywords (single word, e.g. "cars") have unclear intent, poor conversion, extreme competition, and high SERP volatility
• Body keywords (2–3 words, e.g. "used cars") are cleaner on intent but still massively competitive
• Long tail keywords (4+ words, e.g. "used cars Douglas Georgia") show clear intent, low KD (12% vs 99%), and higher conversion despite lower volume

Three methods for finding keyword opportunities

• Existing keyword profile — enter your domain in Semrush > Organic Research > Positions to see all keywords ranking in the top 100
• Segment into three buckets: low-hanging fruit (positions 2–15), existing targets (16–50), clustering opportunities (51–100)
• Clustering opportunities signal pages that aren't targeted enough; create a dedicated page for that keyword phrase to rank far better
• Keyword Magic Tool — use a broad seed keyword, then filter by KD (start lowest), language, and exclusions to surface a pool of relevant targets
• Exhaust a topic, then go to Wikipedia for subtopic seeds to repeat the process
• usealsoask.com — pulls all People Also Ask phrases for a seed keyword; second and third tiers get highly specific with near-zero competition

Seven factors for qualifying keywords

1. Current position — prioritise keywords you already rank for
2. Minimum search volume — 100/month for most industries; lower for local
3. Keyword difficulty — target low KD first, increase as authority grows
4. Transactional intent — work from bottom-of-funnel upward
5. Relevance — hyper-relevant to core offer, not just broadly related
6. Trend — when in doubt, pick the keyword trending upward (Semrush overview tab)
7. CTR potential — check SERP features column; more features and ads = lower organic CTR

Prioritising keywords by ranking investment

• Select one primary keyword per page — choose the variation with the highest search volume
• Different intent = different page; don't consolidate keywords that serve separate queries
• For each primary keyword, collect target word count via Semrush On Page SEO Checker > Top 10 Benchmarking > Content Length
• Find referring domain averages for top 10 ranking pages using Semrush SERP Analysis
• Estimate total cost to rank (content + backlinks), then rank keywords by lowest investment first