6-Step Essential Guide to Choosing Keywords

What good keyword research accomplishes

Good keyword research aligns user intent (what a searcher wants) with your ability to compete and convert. The best keywords are those you can realistically rank for, that have meaningful search volume, and that match an audience likely to buy, subscribe, or engage with your content.

Key tools you’ll use in this process include Google Keyword Planner (for seed ideas and search-volume baselines), SEMrush’s Keyword Magic Tool (deep expansion and grouping), MozBar (on-the-fly competition metrics), and platforms like Ahrefs or Moz that incorporate clickstream or other aggregated data to estimate real-world clicks and volumes. 

How to choose a keyword

Start with seed ideas that describe what you do (products, services, problems you solve).

1. Expand that seed list with tools to discover long-tail variations and related topics.
   
2. Filter by competition and volume to find opportunities you can realistically pursue.
   
3. Prioritize by buyer intent and revenue potential.
   
4. Validate with CTR and trend data (so you’re not chasing ghosts).
   

Step #1 — Create a Keyword List 

Start with 6–20 seed keywords: short phrases that describe your core offerings (e.g., “software development service,” “custom software developer,” “tailored software solution”). Use these seeds to expand into hundreds of keyword ideas.

Tools & tactics:

• Google Keyword Planner — free inside Google Ads; great for discovering keyword ideas and getting baseline search-volume estimates. Use “Discover new keywords” with your seed terms. 

• SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool — paste seeds to generate large lists, view grouped topics, and export curated lists. It shows volume, difficulty, intent, and CPC. Use filters to find long-tail opportunities.

• Google Suggest / People Also Ask / Related Searches — quick manual ways to expand natural-language variants. Type your seed into Google and collect suggestions and related queries.

• Seed Keywords — spend time brainstorming the correct seed keywords — these define the universe you’ll explore. For example, if a site sells bikes, “road bikes” and “mountain bikes” could be seed keywords. 

Step #2 — Find Low-Competition Terms

You want phrases that offer a path to rank without going head-to-head with entrenched authorities.

How to measure competition:

• MozBar (Chrome extension) shows Domain Authority, Page Authority, backlink counts, and on-page elements directly in the SERP so you can eyeball how strong existing ranking pages are. If top results have low DA/PA and few backlinks, it’s a signal you can compete.
• Keyword Difficulty Scores — different tools compute difficulty differently (Moz, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.). Moz’s Difficulty score analyzes the strength of the top 10 organic results to estimate how hard it will be to break into the top 10. Use these scores as relative guidance, not absolutes.

Practical approach:

• Filter your list for difficulty below a threshold that matches your site strength (e.g., if your site DA is 20–30, you’d deprioritize keywords with difficulty 60+).
  
• Use the SERP itself with MozBar: inspect the top 5 results — if they’re smaller niche sites or low backlink counts, that’s an opportunity.
  

Step #3 — Identify Search Volume

Search volume tells you how many people search for the phrase, but raw volume can be misleading.

Where volume estimates come from:

• Google Keyword Planner provides search volume ranges; many SEO tools combine Google data with other datasets. Some platforms (Ahrefs, Moz) process clickstream or aggregated user behavior to refine volume/“clicks” metrics so you can see how many searches actually translate into clicks. This is why a keyword with high search volume might yield low actual clicks if SERP features (shopping, knowledge panels) reduce click-throughs.

Practical tips:

• Use multiple sources to triangulate volume (e.g., Google Keyword Planner + SEMrush + Ahrefs). If all three show reasonable traffic, treat that as more reliable than any single tool.
  
• Prefer keywords with consistent volume over time unless you’re intentionally targeting a seasonal spike.
  

Step #4 — Assess Earning Potential

Not every high-volume keyword is valuable. You need keywords that match commercial intent.

Ask these questions:

• Does this keyword capture someone ready to buy or only researching? (Transactional vs. informational)
  
• Can the landing page for this keyword convert (product page, lead form, pricing, demo request)?
  
• How much is a conversion worth? Multiply expected organic visits × conversion rate × average order value to estimate ROI.
  

Example categorization:

• High earning potential: “buy [product]” or “[product] price” or “[service] near me.”
  
• Lower earning potential: “how to [do task]” — but these can be great for top-of-funnel content if they feed conversion flows later.

Step #5 — Estimate Organic CTR

Getting to page one is great; getting the click is the real win. CTR varies strongly by rank and by SERP layout (ads, featured snippets, maps, shopping):

• Use published CTR studies and your own analytics to estimate expected clicks by rank. Recent industry analyses show the #1 organic result often captures ~20–40% of clicks depending on the dataset, and the top 3 results capture the majority of clicks. If a SERP has a featured snippet, map pack, or heavy shopping results, organic CTR for the top result can drop dramatically.

Practical approach:

• For any target keyword, check the SERP: is there a featured snippet, People Also Ask, or heavy ads? Those reduce organic CTR.
  
• Use an estimated CTR by position (conservative numbers: pos1 = 25–30%, pos2 = 10–15%, pos3 = 6–10% — adjust using recent CTR studies and your niche). Multiply estimated clicks by your conversion rate to estimate value.

Step #6— Choose Trending Keywords

Trending keywords can be gold — or a time sink if the trend dies quickly.

Where to check trends:

• Google Trends (global and regional views), social listening (Twitter/X, Reddit), and spikes in search volume from your keyword tools. If a keyword has rising interest and matches your offering, move faster.
  
• Watch seasonality: some keywords peak annually (e.g., “best heaters” in winter). Track historical interest before committing.

When to pursue:

• If trends align with your content calendar and the content can be created fast, you can capture early momentum. If the keyword is a short-lived meme, consider smaller investments like social posts rather than a big SEO play.
  

Putting it all together — a prioritized workflow

1. Compile seeds → expand in Keyword Planner and SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool. Export to spreadsheet.
2. Add columns: Volume, Difficulty, Intent, Earning Potential, CTR estimate, Trend score.
   
3. Filter: remove extremely low volume (<10 monthly) and ultra-high difficulty above your threshold.
   
4. Analyze top candidates in SERP with MozBar to eyeball competitor strength.
   
5. Run a final ROI estimate: (Estimated organic visitors × conversion rate × AOV). Prioritize by projected ROI.
   
6. Build a content/landing page plan: transactional keywords → product pages; informational keywords → content that funnels to conversion.
   

Example (short)

Imagine you sell “tailored software solutions.” Seed: “tailored software solution.” SEMrush expands to long tails like “tailored software solution for small business.” Volume is moderate; difficulty is mid-range. MozBar shows top results come from agencies with small backlink profiles → you can compete by building a strong, conversion-focused service page + case studies. Use Google Trends to ensure this phrase isn’t only a short-lived phrasing. (This is the type of analysis illustrated in the sample chart I created above.)

Tools recap (quick)

• Google Keyword Planner — seed ideas + baseline volume.
• SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool — massive expansion and grouping. 
• MozBar — quick SERP competitor inspection.
• Ahrefs / Moz / DataForSEO — clickstream-informed metrics and refined “clicks” estimates.
• Google Trends — trending and seasonality checks.
  

Final tips & anti-patterns

• Don’t chase volume alone. Volume without intent = traffic that doesn’t convert.
  
• Don’t over-trust a single tool. Cross-check volumes and difficulty across at least two tools
  
• Optimize for clusters, not single keywords. Build topic clusters: a core landing page + several supporting articles that target long tails.
  
• Monitor and iterate. Keyword opportunities can shift with competitor moves and SERP feature changes — review quarterly.