Keyword Research
Keyword research is the systematic process of identifying the search queries a target audience uses to find information, products, or solutions. Queries are sized by search volume, ranked by competitive difficulty, and classified by intent, in order to inform what content to create for organic search and what terms to bid on in paid search. It is the bridge between what a company wants to sell and the language a customer actually uses to look for it.
Modern keyword research classifies queries by intent into four categories: informational ("what is a SAFE note"), navigational ("startups.com lexicon"), commercial-investigation ("best CRM for startups 2026"), and transactional ("buy hubspot starter plan"). Different intents need different content formats and convert at very different rates. The standard tooling stack includes Google Search Console (for queries a site already ranks for), Google Keyword Planner (free, paid-search oriented), Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, and AnswerThePublic (for question-format demand). Free alternatives that have become useful include Reddit search (for genuine question phrasing), People Also Ask boxes in Google results, and the autocomplete dropdown itself. A practical workflow: start with a seed list of 20 to 50 customer-language phrases, expand each in a keyword tool to find adjacent terms and volumes, group the result into topic clusters by intent, then prioritize within each cluster by the ratio of search volume to competitive difficulty. The 2024 to 2026 shift is that volume from informational queries is being absorbed by AI Overviews and chat answers, which has pushed serious teams to focus more on commercial-investigation and transactional intent (where users still click through to compare and buy) and on becoming the source AI answers cite.
Ryan's Take
Keyword research is the part of SEO that founders skip because it feels tedious and then suffer for over the next two years. The reason: the content you publish is downstream of the keywords you target, and the keywords you target are downstream of the language your customers use. Skip the research and you end up writing about what you think the customer is searching for, not what they are actually typing. The fastest way to find out you were wrong is to look at Search Console six months in and see that you rank for terms you never planned to rank for and nothing for the ones you wrote about. Do the research first. Save yourself the two years.
What founders get wrong: Chasing high-volume head terms instead of high-intent long-tail terms. A keyword with 50,000 monthly searches and 80 difficulty is unrankable for a new domain. Three long-tail variants with 500 searches each and 20 difficulty add up to the same traffic in a fraction of the time and convert better because the intent is sharper.
Related: SEO · SEM · Content Marketing · Organic Traffic · Paid Search
FAQ
What is keyword research?
The systematic process of identifying the search queries a target audience uses, sized by volume, ranked by difficulty, and classified by intent, to inform what content to create for organic search and what terms to bid on in paid search. The bridge between what you sell and how customers search.
What are the four types of keyword intent?
Informational (learning a concept), navigational (finding a specific brand or site), commercial-investigation (comparing options before buying), and transactional (ready to purchase or sign up). Different intents need different content formats and convert at very different rates.
What tools do I need for keyword research?
Google Search Console (free, shows what you already rank for), Google Keyword Planner (free, paid-oriented), and one paid tool from Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz for volume and difficulty data. AnswerThePublic is useful for question-format demand. Reddit search and People Also Ask are useful free supplements.
Find this article helpful?
This is just a small sample! Register to unlock our in-depth courses, hundreds of video courses, and a library of playbooks and articles to grow your startup fast. Let us Let us show you!
Submission confirms agreement to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.