How to do keyword research for SEO
Keyword research is the process of finding the search terms your customers actually type into Google, and working out which ones your business can realistically rank for. It comes before any content is written, because every page you publish should target a term people are already searching for. Skip this step and you risk writing pages nobody looks for.
Why keyword research matters
Every search query is a signal of demand. When someone searches "SEO services Devon" they are telling Google, and anyone ranking for that term, what they want. Keyword research turns those signals into a plan: a list of phrases with real search volume, matched to the pages of your site that could win them. It stops guesswork and gives every page a job.
Step 1: build your seed list
Start with the words that describe what you sell, the way a customer would say them. If you run a plumbing business, your seeds are "plumber", "boiler repair" and "leaky tap", not industry jargon. These seeds are the raw material for everything that follows. A simple way to expand them is to type each one into Google and note the autocomplete suggestions and "People also ask" questions, which are real queries Google has already observed.
Step 2: find the demand behind each keyword
You need to know how often a term is searched, and how many other pages are competing for it. Free tools such as Google Keyword Planner give you search volume ranges. A more practical starting point for most business owners is our free SEO report: enter your URL and a target keyword at https://victory.digital/run-a-seo-report and you get a scored on-page analysis plus the fixes that would help that page rank. If you already work with us, Metrona shows how your keywords perform in Google and in AI engines such as ChatGPT and Gemini, so you can see which terms actually bring visibility.
Step 3: match keywords to intent
Not every keyword is worth targeting. Someone searching "what is a 301 redirect" wants an explanation; someone searching "SEO agency" is close to buying. Classify each keyword by intent: informational, commercial or transactional. A page targeting a keyword must satisfy the intent behind it, or it will not rank no matter how well it is written. This is why our keyword research phase for clients always agrees the target list before any content is written.
Step 4: map keywords to pages
Each page on your site should have one primary keyword and a small set of supporting phrases. Two pages chasing the same keyword create cannibalisation, where they compete with each other and neither ranks well. Mapping keywords to pages up front keeps the site focused: the homepage targets the brand, service pages target the money terms, and articles target the informational questions that bring new visitors.
Step 5: pick the keywords you can actually win
Search volume is only half the story. A term searched 50,000 times a month is no use if the top ten results are national brands with thousands of backlinks. For a small or new site, long-tail keywords, the specific, lower-volume phrases, are where wins happen first. They have less competition and often signal a user closer to a decision. As the site builds authority, you can take on the bigger terms.
This is the approach we take in every SEO campaign, and the packages reflect it: from GBP 980 a month for 15 hours of work, through to GBP 3,920 for 75 hours, with each tier built around research, content and technical fixes that compound.
If you would like to know which keywords your site can realistically rank for, start with a free SEO report, then talk to us about the full research phase.
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