Definition
Keyword research is the process of identifying, evaluating and prioritising the search queries your audience uses — to inform what content gets written, what pages get built, and which keywords each page targets.
Modern keyword research is much less about discovering keywords (most tools surface the same lists) and much more about prioritising them. The hard part is deciding which of the 5,000 keywords your tool returned actually deserve a page — based on search volume, competitive difficulty, search intent fit, and how well a Makreate-quality page on that topic would convert.
The output of keyword research isn't a spreadsheet; it's a content plan. Each row is a future page with a designated keyword cluster, intent type, format, and estimated effort-to-rank. If your research isn't producing a buildable plan, the research isn't finished.
Origin
Keyword research as a discipline emerged in the late 1990s with Goto.com (later Overture) selling search ads by keyword. SEO practitioners adapted the data-mining workflow for organic ranking, and the practice formalised through tools like Wordtracker (2001), SEMrush (2008) and Ahrefs (2011).
How it works
- Seed list: write down 20-30 root terms your audience would actually use.
- Expand each seed using a keyword tool — pull related, long-tail, and question-form variants.
- Filter by minimum search volume threshold relevant to your market (US/UK: 100+; smaller markets: 30+).
- Classify each by intent (informational, commercial, transactional, navigational).
- Score by difficulty vs. relevance vs. business value — kill keywords that score low on all three.
- Cluster related keywords into single-page targets (one page can rank for 50+ related variants).
When to use it
Use when
- Before building any content-driven SEO strategy.
- Before launching new product pages or service pages.
- Quarterly — keyword landscapes shift fast.
Skip when
- For navigational/brand queries — you already know what they are.
- For one-off pages where ranking isn't the goal.
Key metrics
- Total reachable monthly search volume
- Average keyword difficulty (lower = faster wins)
- Keyword-to-business-value mapping (how many target keywords actually lead to revenue)
Examples
- Our keyword research surfaced 80 high-intent terms our competitors weren't targeting — every one became a planned page.
- Half the keywords in our existing list had under 10 monthly searches. We cut them.
- The research told us we were chasing the wrong topic entirely; the real demand was one keyword over.
In practice at Makreate
Makreate SEO engagements always start with a multi-tool keyword research sprint — Ahrefs, SEMrush, GSC and Google's own auto-suggest combined. We don't believe in single-source keyword lists because every tool has blind spots. The output is a prioritised content plan, costed by effort and ranked by expected business value, so you can see exactly which pages to build first.
SEO →Common mistakes
- Targeting keywords without checking intent.
- Chasing high-volume keywords with impossible difficulty.
- Ignoring long-tail keywords (they convert better and are easier to rank).
- Not clustering — building one page per keyword wastes effort.
- Skipping competitor keyword gap analysis (they've already done half the research for you).
Frequently asked
Which keyword tool is best?
Ahrefs and SEMrush are the strongest for paid use. For free, Google's Keyword Planner plus Search Console give surprising depth — start there before paying for a tool.
How many keywords should a page target?
One primary keyword and 10-50 related variants in the same cluster. A page that tries to rank for too many unrelated terms ranks for none.
How often should keyword research be refreshed?
Quarterly for active SEO programs. Search behaviour shifts with seasons, news cycles and category trends.