A recent study revealed that 96% of webpages receive zero organic traffic. Behind this invisible content is the same problem: Someone had an idea, wrote about it, and hit publish without checking if anyone was actually searching for information on that topic.

Keyword research fills this void. A core component of any Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy, it identifies the terms your target audience is typing into Google so that you can create content that potential customers are actively looking for.

Not sure where to start? Here, our SEO specialists explain how to do keyword research that drives real results. Learn how this step-by-step process works, why it matters now more than ever, and what crucial factors you need to consider throughout.

Key takeaways:

• Keyword research starts with people. Before opening any software, talk to your sales team and customers. The language they use to describe their problems is often more useful than anything a tool will suggest.
• The goal is to find where real demand meets realistic opportunity. High volume and low competition rarely come together, so the job is to find terms with genuine search demand that your site can compete for with its current authority.
• There are keyword research tools for every budget. Paid platforms like Ahrefs and Semrush give you the full picture, but free tools like Google Trends and Google Keyword Planner cover the basics.
• 6 metrics tell you whether a keyword is worth pursuing: Search Volume, keyword difficulty, Cost Per Click, Search Intent, Traffic Potential, and Growth.
• Intent matters as much as volume. A page optimised for the wrong intent won’t convert even if it ranks. Two people can search the same keyword for completely different reasons, and Google has got very good at telling them apart.
• You’re probably already ranking for terms worth building on. Google Search Console often surfaces overlooked opportunities that are easier to capitalise on than starting from scratch.
• Depth beats breadth, especially early on. One to three topics covered properly will outperform ten covered thinly. Focused topical authority is what makes harder keywords achievable over time.
• Keyword research is never finished. Search behaviour shifts, competitors improve, and new opportunities emerge. Treat it as an ongoing process built into your content strategy, not a box to tick once.

Why is SEO keyword research important?

Keyword research is the starting point for every effective SEO strategy. Without it, you’re creating content based on assumptions instead of evidence, and guesswork rarely beats a competitor who actually knows what their audience is searching for.

Here’s how keyword research can benefit your business when it’s done properly.

It tells you exactly what your audience wants

The most direct benefit of keyword research is that it reveals what your potential customers are searching for. That knowledge shapes everything from your content topics to your site structure to the language you use across your whole digital presence.

Plus, when your content consistently answers the questions your audience is actually asking, search engines recognise the relevance and reward it with better rankings.

It reveals who you’re competing against

Search for any keyword, and the results page tells you who holds the ground you want. Keyword research maps that competitive landscape systematically, showing you which sites dominate which topics, where gaps exist in their coverage, and which areas of your niche are within reach.

In turn, you can create a smarter content strategy.

Rather than writing content that goes head-to-head with established sites in a certain space, you can identify the angles, topics, and search terms where you have a realistic path to the top of the results page.

Target a highly competitive keyword with lots of volume, and your content will likely get buried. Focus on one with low competition levels but no meaningful search volume, and you’re writing for an audience that doesn’t exist yet.

Careful keyword research finds the territory between those two extremes: terms with genuine demand, manageable competition, and a clear match with what your business offers. Here, ranking is achievable, and traffic can translate into real commercial results.

It builds topical authority

Search engines don’t evaluate individual pages in isolation. Instead, they assess overall domain authority and how comprehensively a site covers a given subject.

Domain authority refers to the level of trust and credibility a website has built with search engines over time. It’s shaped by factors like the number and quality of other websites linking to yours, the depth and consistency of your content, and how long your site has been an established presence online.

A newer or smaller site can absolutely compete, but it needs to be realistic about which keywords are within reach while that authority is still being built.

For instance, a business that only has one article on a topic is far less likely to rank than one that has a vast, interconnected body of content covering that topic from multiple angles.

The good news is that keyword research gives you the map for that content build.

By identifying the full range of terms, questions, and subtopics your audience searches within a given subject area, you can plan content that establishes genuine depth and the authority that comes with it.

It drives organic traffic that compounds over time

Organic search traffic, the kind generated by ranking well on Google for the right keywords, accumulates in a way that paid advertising doesn’t.

Every position you climb brings a meaningful increase in the number of people visiting your site. And that traffic doesn’t switch off when a campaign budget runs out.

A well-optimised page can continue attracting visitors for months or years after it’s published, without an ongoing spend to maintain it.

It boosts visibility in AI-generated search results

Keyword research has always been about getting in front of the right people at the right time. That principle hasn’t changed, but where those moments happen has.

With Large Language Models (LLMs) and Google’s AI Overviews linking back to pages that already rank high in organic search, the content you build around well-researched SEO keywords now has the potential to surface in AI-generated summaries, too.

Structuring content around clear, intent-matched keywords gives AI search tools the signals they need to identify your pages as credible, citable sources.

How to do keyword research in 7 steps

Now that you know why it’s so important to perform keyword research, it’s time to get started so your business can experience its benefits.

Here, we guide you through the step-by-step process, from the first blank page through to a keyword list worth building a content strategy around.

1. Know your audience

Before you open a single keyword tool, you need to know who you’re writing for and what pain points are driving them to search in the first place.

Most businesses skip this step and go straight to the data. The problem is that keyword tools tell you what people search for, but not the frustration behind the search, the words they’d use to describe their problem, or the moment that finally made them go looking for a solution.

That context is what separates a keyword list that looks good in a spreadsheet from one that connects with real buyers.

To step into their shoes and really understand their mindset, ask your customers:

• What were you searching for when you first came across us?
• How would you describe the problem you were trying to solve?
• What other options did you look at, and what made you choose us?
• What do you wish you’d known earlier?
• Was there anything that nearly put you off?

It also helps to ask your sales and customer service teams:

• What questions do prospects ask most on calls?
• What objections keep coming up?
• What language do buyers use when they describe their situation?
• Where do leads tend to drop off?
• What do customers get confused about most often?

You’ll come away with phrases, questions, and frustrations that help inform your seed keywords in the next step.

2. Brainstorm seed keywords

Seed keywords are the broad words and phrases you feed into a keyword research tool to generate a more specific list of search terms. A seed keyword like “yoga” won’t be the term you ultimately target, but it’ll unlock hundreds of more specific phrases that might be.

Aim for five to 10 seed keywords that reflect the core topics your business operates within. These should map to your products or services, the problems you solve, or the subjects your audience genuinely cares about.

For a home renovation business, that might look like: kitchen renovation, bathroom design, house extension, building costs, and interior fit-out. For a digital agency, it might be: SEO, web design, content marketing, social media, and Google Ads.

Keep this stage loose. You’re not committing to anything yet. The goal is to give your keyword tool enough to work with.

Here are a few ways to build out your seed list before you open a tool:

• As mentioned above, talk to your sales team, support staff, and customers directly. They’ll use words and phrases no tool would think to suggest.
• Think about what you want to be known for. If someone described your business to a friend in one sentence, what words would they use? Those words are usually a good seed keyword.
• Use ChatGPT, Claude or another Large Language Model (LLM) for initial brainstorming. Share your initial ideas with a prompt like “suggest 10 related keyword ideas for each of the following topics.” It won’t give you search volume or other metrics, but it’s a fast way to expand your thinking.

Once you have your seed list, run each term through your keyword research tool of choice. Ahrefs and Semrush will return thousands of related phrases from a single seed keyword, which is where the real research begins.

One practical note: resist the urge to chase too many topics at once.

In our experience, focusing on one to three core topics and doing them properly will outperform a sprawling strategy spread thin across 10. So, build depth first and expand later.

3. Find related keywords

With your seed keywords in hand, the next step is expanding them into a full list of phrases worth evaluating.

Start with Google itself. Type a seed keyword into the search bar and scroll to the bottom of the results page.

The “related searches” section shows you terms Google directly associates with your query, which makes them a reliable indicator of what your audience is actually searching for.

The “People also ask” box is equally useful for surfacing question-based keywords you might not have thought to target.

Next, run your seeds through a keyword tool. Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer and Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool will both return thousands of related phrases from a single seed keyword, grouped by intent and sortable by volume and difficulty.

If you’re not ready to commit to a paid tool, Ahrefs’ free Keyword Generator returns 20 related keywords and 20 related questions for every seed you enter, along with a rough difficulty rating and monthly search estimate. It won’t give you the depth of a paid plan, but it’s a legitimate starting point.

You can also try Answer the Public. It pulls from Google’s autocomplete data to show you the questions, comparisons, and phrases people search around a given topic. You get three free searches per day, which is enough to add some genuinely useful long-tail ideas to your list.

As you collect keywords, make sure to evaluate each one against at least three metrics before it makes the cut: search volume, keyword difficulty, and search intent. We’ll cover each of these in detail in the next section.

Ultimately, though, the sweet spot is a keyword with solid search volume, manageable competition, and intent that aligns with what your business offers.

Make a list of these in a spreadsheet that includes each term alongside its key metrics.

4. Check if your website is ranking for keywords already

If your site has been live for a while, there’s a chance you’re already ranking for terms you never set out to target. Finding them can surface some of the most actionable opportunities in your entire keyword strategy.

Google Search Console is a great starting point. It’s free, shows you every query your site is appearing for in Google, and tells you how many clicks and impressions each one is generating.

The catch is that Search Console doesn’t show search volume or keyword difficulty. So if a term is sending you a trickle of clicks each month, you’ve got no way of knowing whether it’s worth pursuing further or if it’s a dead end.

Pairing Search Console with a more in-depth tool like Ahrefs or Semrush gives you the missing metrics, a clearer picture of where you currently stand, and which low-hanging fruit you can focus on for quick wins.

Once you have all the keywords you’re ranking for, add them to your list if they aren’t already there.

5. Analyse competitor performance for keyword gaps

Many of your competitors have probably already done a version of this research, making the terms they rank for validated opportunities. Your target audience is searching for them, and a page on your site could be the one that shows up instead.

Start with an incognito search in Google using the keywords you’ve gathered so far. Incognito removes your browsing history from the equation to give you a more precise view of what’s ranking. Make a note of the sites that appear consistently.

Some will be direct competitors offering the same thing you do. Others will be indirect, targeting similar keywords from a different angle. Both are worth analysing.

Take those competitor URLs and run them through a keyword research tool alongside your own. What comes back is a list of terms your competitors rank for that your site doesn’t.

Filter by volume, difficulty, and intent, strip out anything branded, and you’ve got a ready-made list of gaps worth closing. Add these to your keyword list.

Before you chase any of them, though, pull up the pages that are ranking well and read them properly. If the content is thin, generic, or clearly written for an algorithm rather than a person, that’s an opening.

A well-researched, genuinely useful page can outrank a more established domain more often than you think. Authority helps, but it doesn’t make weak content untouchable.

Learn more about researching SEO competitors.

6. Categorise your keywords

By this point, you’ll have a substantial list of terms. Before you do anything with them, organise them. A messy keyword list is almost as useless as no list at all.

Group keywords by topic cluster, with subtopic levels if needed. Keywords that share a subject belong together because you’ll eventually want a content piece targeting each cluster rather than individual terms in isolation.

You can also categorise terms by factors like industry, application, location, and target audience, or whatever else makes sense for your business.

This systematic structure does two things.

Firstly, it makes it easy to map high-value terms to your service or product pages and avoid keyword cannibalisation, which is when multiple pages on the same website compete for the same search engine rankings. By assigning clear terms to each page, you can create specific, purposeful and genuinely helpful content for your audience.

It also equips you with a strategic content roadmap, so you always know what to build next.

7. Prioritise a primary keyword for each page

Each page needs a primary keyword to zero in on. To find these, you need to prioritise the terms that make the most sense for your business right now, given your goals, your authority, and your resources.

While there’s no single formula for this, here are the filters we tend to look at when helping clients decide where to focus first:

• Your audience: The better you understand who you’re targeting, the easier it is to judge whether a keyword is worth pursuing. A term that looks attractive on paper might be completely unsuited to the specific buyer you’re trying to reach.
• Volume: If you need traffic quickly, prioritise terms with meaningful search volume and manageable competition. High volume with low difficulty is the sweet spot, but it’s rarer than most people expect.
• Keyword difficulty: If your site is newer or still building authority, start with lower-difficulty terms you can realistically rank for. Early wins build the topical credibility that makes harder keywords achievable down the track.
• Semantic relevance: Does this keyword connect directly to what you sell or the problems you solve? The closer a term sits to your offer, the more likely it is to convert. A keyword that reels in traffic from the wrong audience is a waste of time.
• Buyer journey: Many businesses lead with informational content to establish authority on a topic before targeting commercial and transactional terms. It’s a sound approach, but not a rigid rule. If a high-intent term is within reach, there’s no reason to hold off.

At the end of the day, keyword prioritisation is a balancing act between what you want to achieve and what your site can realistically compete for.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the most common metrics to consider.

6 core SEO metrics for keyword analysis

Keyword research tools will happily hand you thousands of ideas. That’s why the real challenge is knowing which ones are worth your time. These key metrics cut through the noise, giving you a clear basis for prioritising what to target.

Search volume

Search volume is the average number of times a keyword gets searched per month. It’s the most commonly referenced metric in keyword research, and also the most often misread.

Importantly, higher volume doesn’t automatically mean a stronger opportunity.

A keyword attracting 2,000 monthly searches might be completely out of reach for a business without significant domain authority behind it. One attracting 50 searches might send highly qualified traffic to your site within weeks.

Here’s a rough overview of ranges:

• 10 to 100: Low volume, but often very specific and commercially valuable
• 100 to 1,000: A practical sweet spot for most businesses building out a content strategy
• 1,000 to 10,000: Competitive territory, more suited to established sites with existing authority
• 10,000+: Dominated by major brands; only realistic for businesses with a strong SEO foundation already in place

There are a few things worth knowing before you over-index on this number.

Firstly, search volume is an annual average, so a keyword that spikes sharply in one month (think “Black Friday deals”) and sits dormant for the rest of the year will show a misleadingly moderate monthly figure.

Additionally, not everyone who searches for this term will visit your website, even if it’s ranking number one. In reality, ranking first for a keyword rarely delivers more than 30% of its stated search volume in actual clicks, often less.

Don’t dismiss low-volume or “zero volume” keywords either. Individually, they’re small, but a cluster of highly specific, low-competition terms can accumulate into a meaningful volume of targeted traffic over time.

Keyword Difficulty

Keyword difficulty (KD) is a score, typically from zero to 100, that estimates how hard it would be to rank on page one for a given term. Most tools calculate it based on the authority of pages currently holding the top positions.

Here’s a general guide to KD scores:

• 0 to 30: Accessible for newer sites with limited authority
• 31 to 60: Requires some existing authority and genuinely useful content
• 61 to 80: Needs strong domain authority and a solid backlink profile
• 81 to 100: Held by major brands and high-authority publishers

There are two things people consistently get wrong with this metric. The first is filtering exclusively for low-difficulty keywords and ignoring everything above a certain threshold.

High-KD keywords often represent link-worthy topics: if the pages ranking for them have accumulated hundreds of backlinks, that’s a signal the topic generates genuine interest. Create something original and authoritative on that topic, and you give other sites a reason to link to you.

The second mistake is treating the score as a final verdict. No tool can distil the full complexity of Google’s ranking algorithm into a single number. KD is a useful starting point, not a substitute for manually assessing the search results and understanding what’s actually ranking and why.

Cost Per Click (CPC)

Cost per click is the amount advertisers pay for a single click on a paid search result for a given keyword. It’s primarily a metric for paid search campaigns, but it also carries useful signals for organic strategy.

When advertisers are willing to pay $10 per click for a keyword, that’s a strong indication that the traffic converts. People searching that term are likely close to a decision, which makes the keyword commercially valuable whether you’re running ads or targeting it organically.

For example, compare “digital marketing services” (high CPC, transactional intent) with “what is digital marketing” (low CPC, informational intent).

The first signals a buyer; the second signals someone at the research stage. Both have a place in a content strategy, but for different reasons and different pages.

There’s one caveat to note here: CPC is volatile.

Unlike search volume, which stays relatively stable month to month, CPC shifts constantly as advertisers enter and exit the auction.

That means the figures in keyword tools are snapshots, not guarantees. For real-time CPC data, Google Ads is the more reliable source.

Search intent

Search intent is the reason behind using a keyword. Two people might both search “SEO agency”, but one wants to hire someone today, and the other is just curious about what an SEO agency does.

It’s the same keyword, but for a completely different need, and with completely different content required to serve it well.

Google has become very good at detecting intent and ranking content accordingly. That means even technically strong content won’t perform if it doesn’t match what the searcher actually wants.

In turn, many keyword research tools specify the search intent for each term, typically mapping keywords to the following categories:

• Informational: The person wants to learn. (“How does keyword research work?”)
• Navigational: The person wants to reach a specific site. (“Redback Web login”)
• Commercial: The person is comparing options. (“Best SEO agencies in Australia”)
• Transactional: The person is ready to act. (“Hire SEO agency Newcastle”)

Getting intent right is crucial when angling your content. It’s the difference between a page that ranks and converts, and one that gets traffic but sends everyone straight back to Google.

Traffic Potential

Traffic potential estimates the total monthly search traffic the top-ranking page for a keyword actually receives, across all the variations of that query it ranks for.

This distinction matters more than most people realise. A page doesn’t rank for one keyword in isolation; it ranks for dozens or hundreds of related phrases simultaneously.

Two keywords might show identical search volumes of 250 per month, but the top-ranking page for one attracts 1,000 monthly visitors while the other attracts 500. The difference comes down to how many related queries that page picks up alongside the primary term.

So, relying on search volume alone can give you a narrow view of a keyword’s real potential. Traffic potential gives you the fuller picture of what ranking for that topic could actually deliver.

Growth/Trend

Growth or Trend data (the name varies according to the platform) shows how search interest in a keyword has changed over a defined period, typically the past 12 months.

Because search volume is reported as an annual average, it can smooth over meaningful shifts in demand and leave you targeting a topic that’s quietly declining or missing one that’s on the rise.

Take “tax return Australia” as an example. Across a full year, it might show a moderate average monthly search volume. However, that number masks a dramatic surge between July and October as the Australian financial year-end triggers a wave of searches.

If you publish content targeting that keyword in May and give it time to index and gain traction, you’re positioned for the peak. Publish in August, and you’ve already missed most of it.

Ultimately, a keyword with modest volume today but a consistent upward trend is often worth prioritising ahead of a higher-volume term that’s plateauing or falling.

Getting established on a rising topic early means you’re building authority while competition is still thin.

Google Trends is the most accessible free tool for this kind of analysis. Pair it with the growth metrics inside Ahrefs or Semrush to separate the keywords gaining momentum from the ones quietly losing it.

The best keyword research tools for small businesses

Not all keyword research tools are created equal. Some are built for agencies running complex multi-client campaigns. Others are lean, free, and well-suited to a small business getting started with SEO.

The right choice comes down to where you are, what you need, and how much you want to spend. Here’s what we’d put on the shortlist.

Ahrefs

Best for: Understanding why pages rank and where link authority matters
Cost: Free plan with restricted access; paid plans from US$129/month

Ahrefs is our go-to keyword research platform. At Redback, we use it every day to understand the competitive reality of each keyword, not just its surface-level stats.

The Keywords Explorer tool shares detailed traffic and difficulty scores, as well as topic clusters, to give you an in-depth view of potential performance.

You can also see which keywords a competing page ranks for, identify gaps in your own coverage, and find low-competition terms your rivals have overlooked.
The backlink analysis ties directly into the keyword strategy, too.

With visibility over exactly how much link authority top-ranking pages have accumulated, you can make informed decisions about which terms are worth chasing now and which ones need more groundwork first.

Semrush

Best for: End-to-end SEO campaign management
Cost: Limited free access; paid plans from US$117/month

Semrush is a full SEO platform that happens to include one of the most powerful keyword research tools on the market.

Feed it a single seed term, and the Keyword Magic Tool returns thousands of related phrases, filtered by intent, difficulty, and search volume.

But the real value sits beyond keyword discovery: competitor gap analysis, content briefs, rank tracking, and reporting all live in the same dashboard.

For businesses that want one platform to manage their entire organic strategy, Semrush can be a great choice.

Ubersuggest

Best for: Keyword ideation without the enterprise price tag
Cost: Free tier (three searches per day); lifetime paid plans from US$490

Ubersuggest suits content marketers who want a simple way to generate keyword ideas and gauge competition without committing to a monthly subscription.

It produces keyword suggestions, basic difficulty scores, and content ideas quickly, and the Chrome extension surfaces search data directly inside Google results as you browse.

It’s an easy, practical, and reasonable stepping stone before upgrading to a more powerful platform.

Google Trends

Best for: Timing content around seasonal demand and spotting emerging topics
Cost: Free

Google Trends doesn’t show exact search volumes, which is why it works best alongside another tool rather than as a standalone research method.

What it does exceptionally well is show direction, whether interest in a topic is climbing, declining, or peaking at predictable times of year.

That context can be the difference between publishing a piece at exactly the right moment and spending weeks on content that’s already past its peak.

You can compare multiple terms at once, filter by Australian state or territory, and identify rising queries before they hit their search volume ceiling.

For businesses targeting specific regions, that geographic breakdown alone makes it worth checking regularly.

Google Keyword Planner

Best for: Accurate search volume data and early-stage research
Cost: Free with a Google Ads account

Because Keyword Planner draws its data directly from Google, the search volume figures it produces are about as reliable as you’ll find anywhere.

This tool was built for paid search campaigns, but the underlying data is just as applicable to organic keyword strategy. You’ll need a Google Ads account to access it, though you don’t need a live campaign running.

Once you’re in, visit Tools, then Keyword Planner, and then “Discover new keywords.”

Pair what you find there with Google Trends to check for seasonality and longer-term demand shifts before you commit to building content around a term.

Leave your keyword research to Redback

Keyword research is one of those things that’s easy to understand in theory and genuinely time-consuming to do well in practice. It takes the right tools, a clear strategy, and enough experience to know which data really matters.

If you’ve made it through this guide, you’re already ahead of most. But there’s a difference between knowing the process and executing it consistently across a comprehensive and ongoing content strategy.

We’re here to help. Our SEO specialists equip clients of all sizes to stand out on search engines with keyword research that’s grounded in data and built around real business goals.

Get in touch today and let’s work out where your biggest opportunities lie.