Keyword research strategies
Eight strategies that follow search demand from the first customer conversation to a page plan. Each is a walkthrough, and the steps that need data are written as prompts an agent can run.
Where these strategies start
Most keyword research begins with a volume export and a sort. These begin earlier, with the language your customers use and the queries your site already appears for, and end later, with pages assigned to intent rather than a list pasted into a spreadsheet. The data-backed steps are agent prompts, so you run them instead of clicking through them.
Seed keywords from customer conversations
The first keyword you type sets the limits of the whole list. Pull seeds out of call transcripts and ticket threads, in the words customers chose, then check which of them anyone searches.
02Mine long-tail and question keywords
The tail is where a small site can still rank. Collect question queries from autocomplete, People Also Ask, and the impressions your existing pages already earn, then group them by the page that should answer each one.
03Map search intent before you write
Every keyword carries a why: learn, compare, or buy. Label each one hot, warm, or cold first, so the pages you build match how far along the searcher already is.
04Turn a keyword list into a site structure
A long keyword export is not a plan. Group keywords by intent, give each intent exactly one page, and you get a site structure instead of a pile of pages competing with each other.
05Find page ideas in your own Search Console
Your query report is measured, not modeled. Mine striking-distance rankings, pages with impressions and no clicks, and the queries Google reports without naming them.
06Size the opportunity before you build
Put a traffic range and a payback case on a keyword cluster before it takes a quarter of your roadmap. Difficulty, click potential, and what the page has to earn to cover the work.
07Research demand outside Google
Pinterest, LinkedIn, and AI assistants all carry intent, and none of it shows up in a keyword tool. What carries over from Google research, and what you have to do differently.
08Check your positioning against real searches
If nobody searches for the words you use to describe your product, the fix is positioning, not content. Test the language before you build pages around it.
What Google Keyword Planner is for
Keyword Planner exists to plan ad campaigns. Its figures combine close variants and are reported as ranges for advertisers, which makes them a reasonable sense-check on commercial value and a poor source of topics. Find the topics with the strategies above, then use Keyword Planner on the ones you intend to spend budget against.
What you can do without paying for data
Half of this work runs on sources that cost nothing: customer conversations, autocomplete, People Also Ask, and your own Search Console. The paid part is competitor data. You can run the data-backed steps with Doverity's keyword research and a connected Search Console, and the MCP lets an agent query both while it works through the workflow. You get some credits the moment you sign up. After those, the paid tier is $10 a month for $10 of usage, and running Doverity yourself costs nothing.
Keyword research FAQ
What is the right way to do keyword research?
Start from the words customers use, expand into long-tail and question queries, label each one by intent, group them into one page per intent, then check the result against your Search Console. Volume is the last filter you apply, not the first.
Does keyword research have to cost money?
The discovery half, yes: conversations, autocomplete, People Also Ask, and Search Console all cost nothing. Competitor data is where the paying starts, and that is why the established suites sit around $100/month. Doverity hands you credits when you sign up, then charges $10 a month for the paid tier with $10 of usage in it, and you can run the whole thing yourself at no cost.
Do you need Google Keyword Planner?
No. It is built for planning ad campaigns, its volumes fold close variants together, and its numbers are approximations. Use it as a sense-check on commercial value, not as the place your topics come from.
How many types of keywords are there?
Four intents cover almost everything: informational, navigational, commercial, and transactional. Length gives a second axis, running from head terms out to the long tail. The first axis decides what you build. The second decides how hard the ranking will be.
Is keyword research different for a blog?
A blog competes in the tail. Collect the questions, group them into hubs, and let one post answer a single question thoroughly instead of ten posts skimming it.
Keyword research playbook
All eight strategies plus the seed-to-brief checklist, in one PDF. No form and no email.