SEO Keyword Research In 2025: A Complete, Step-By-Step Guide

Keyword research is the heart of SEO. If you want your website to rank and bring in organic traffic, you must conduct quality keyword research. How do you do that?

With the help of our experts, we created a comprehensive SEO keyword research guide — by the end, you’ll have a solid understanding of the SEO basics and be equipped with all the knowledge to boost your website’s performance, no matter the topic at hand.

What Is SEO Keyword Research?

In search engine optimization (SEO), keyword research involves finding and using words and phrases that are relevant to your target audience. To identify these keywords, you need to think about what people search for or need related to a certain product or service.

Once you have a clear understanding, you can research the most relevant keywords and create content to rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). Through this process, businesses gain insights into how users interact with webpages, which can provide valuable information on how to better market their products or services online.

Tip: Combine keyword research with a solid marketing strategy. Leverage the expertise of advertising agencies to boost your brand’s visibility.

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Why Is Keyword Research Important for SEO?

Effective SEO keyword research is important because it helps businesses target the terms that accurately describe their offerings. This, in turn, assists Google in matching their content with the appropriate audiences.

Google uses machine learning (ML) to understand search queries and content with remarkable accuracy. Its algorithm scans content, "reading" through the HTML code and other resources, to identify keywords and related entities and to determine its contextual and nuanced meaning.

On average, Google receives 40,000 queries per second. For web users to be able to find what you offer, you need to discover what terms they use exactly through keyword research and include them in your SEO content writing.

How To Do SEO Keyword Research in 5 Steps

SEO keyword research can be done in five steps:

1. Identify your target audience
2. Understand how search intent works
3. Brainstorm important topics & keywords
4. Generate long-tail keywords
5. Analyze keyword difficulty & search volume

Step 1: Identify Your Target Audience

Identifying your target audience is the first and most important step when researching SEO keywords. You need to understand who you’re targeting, what their needs are, and how they search for them online.

By understanding your target market, you can tailor your keyword research to meet their specific needs. This will help ensure your content is relevant and useful for potential customers searching for information related to your industry or product and service offerings.

Step 2: Understand How Search Intent Works

Search intent is an important concept in keyword research as it helps marketers understand the underlying purpose behind a search query. When performing keyword research, consider why someone might be searching for a particular term and how your content can address their needs.

When analyzing search intent, there are three main types of searches to consider:

• Informational queries: Users are looking for information about a particular topic or industry.
• Navigational queries: Users are looking to find a specific website or page.
• Transactional queries: Users are looking to make a purchase or complete a transaction online.

Understanding the search intent can help you tailor your content to meet the specific needs of your audience.

Step 3: Brainstorm Important Topics & Keywords

For effective keyword research, the third step is to identify key topics related to your industry or offerings and brainstorm related keywords.

Start by thinking about all possible topics relevant to what you do. Consider broad topics and then break them down into more specific subtopics.

For example, if you run a photography business, the main topic could be “photography equipment.” Your subtopics may include “camera lenses” and “studio lighting.” These can be further broken down into even more specific keyword phrases, such as “wide-angle camera lens” or “LED studio lighting kit."

Create a master list of targeted keywords from these topics and subtopics. Consider refining your list through competitive research. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to gather additional data on average monthly searches and competition levels for each phrase being considered.

Step 4: Generate Long-Tail Keywords

Once you’ve completed the basic keyword research and identified a few core keywords, it’s time to focus on long-tail keywords. As search engines grow more sophisticated and can understand more complex phrases, long-tail keywords are becoming increasingly valuable.

Here are some ways you can generate long-tail keywords:

• Use keyword research tools to identify potential long-tail keywords related to your main topics. These tools can help you find phrases that are specific and relevant to your content.
• Utilize the autocomplete feature on search engines like Google to help you generate additional keyword ideas. As you type in a core keyword, the suggestions can reveal long-tail keywords and variations.
• Explore the “People Also Ask” section in search results to find related questions and phrases that users are searching for.

Step 5: Analyze Keyword Difficulty & Search Volume

The next step in our keyword research tutorial is analyzing the keyword difficulty and search volume. This is crucial if you’re to make the right decision on which keywords to target.

Keyword difficulty

• This refers to how hard it is to rank for a certain word. Generally, keywords with high competition are more difficult to rank for.
• You should pick keywords that are not very competitive, especially if you are new to the market. These can be much easier to rank for and outperform your competitors.

Search volume

• This indicates how often people search for a particular phrase over a given period. Keywords with higher search volume are more likely to drive organic traffic to your website.
• Choose keywords people search for. While there’s no correct answer to what the best search volume is since there’s a lot to be considered, there should be some traffic.
• In some cases, targeting keywords with lower volumes can even be more effective than focusing on one with a high search volume since there’s less competition.

After identifying potentially relevant keywords with decent levels of both search volume and keyword difficulty, evaluate each keyword individually. This will help you determine which ones are worth pursuing for content creation and optimization.

7 Simple Ways To Generate Keyword Ideas for Your SEO Content

Our SEO keyword research guide also comes equipped with seven ideas you can use to generate keywords:

1. Explore Google search
2. Scroll down to Google-related searches
3. Research and engage with online communities
4. Use YouTube search
5. Explore social networks
6. Talk to your customers
7. Check out Wikipedia’s content

1. Explore Google Search

Most of the top SEO content writing experts use Google Suggest to find fresh keyword ideas. To use Google Suggest, start by typing your base keyword related to your business. Google will then provide a list of suggestions that include the specific term. These suggestions typically represent the phrases that people most frequently search for.

2. Scroll Down to Google-Related Searches

Enter your topic into Google search and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There, you’ll find the “related searches” section. This area often contains valuable long-tail phrases that can help guide your SEO keyword research.

3. Research and Engage With Online Communities

You can generate some amazing keyword ideas by exploring forums. Look for forums that attract your target market or visit the most popular ones like Reddit.

With over 1.22 billion users, Reddit is the most popular forum in the US, some of your audience is likely engaging there, asking questions, and sharing opinions. This gives you a gold mine of information for keyword research.

To take advantage of forums like Reddit:

• Join subreddits closely related to your search.
• Search for specific discussions or broad topics in your industry
• Observe threads with high engagement, such as those with lots of comments. Read through these to identify the terms your market uses to describe your (type of) services or products.

For instance, if you run an SEO agency with your own SEO tool, type “SEO tools” into the Reddit search bar. This will show a list of SEO-related communities and discussions on the topic. Jump into the relevant discussions and analyze the terms and language your market uses to describe their experiences with SEO tools.

4. Use YouTube Search

YouTube search is a valuable tool for generating SEO keyword ideas that can improve your overall SEO strategy. Simply go to YouTube and enter a relevant phrase. Just like Google, YouTube will provide related options that people search for most frequently.

5. Explore Social Networks

People often turn to social media when they have a problem or a question. Platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn host many groups related to your industry where your audience shares concerns, insights, and experiences. Here, you can find some brilliant keyword ideas and topics you can elaborate on in your content.

Similarly to Facebook and LinkedIn, you can also find great keywords for your SEO content strategy on Twitter by looking at popular hashtags and threads.

6. Talk to Your Customers

Whether through face-to-face interactions, email conversations, or surveys, use your customers’ input to generate relevant keyword ideas. This approach helps you better understand your clients, allowing you to come up with keyword and content ideas based on their needs and the language they use.

7. Check Out Wikipedia's Content

Wikipedia is an excellent source for niche research and should be part of your SEO content strategy. When you search for a broad term in Wikipedia, you'll get a comprehensive overview of the topic. Pay close attention to the table of contents, as it provides a list of all the subtopics that the page covers. This is a great source of content and keyword ideas.

SEO Keyword Research Tips

We covered how to conduct keyword research in detail, but here are a few key tips you should keep in mind when choosing the right keywords:

• Gather valuable metrics: Focus on keyword volumes, search intent, keyword difficulty, and other important metrics.
• Evaluate the costs: Quality SEO keyword research can be time-consuming and costly, but it may not always yield immediate results. Think about how much of your budget you’re willing to spend on your SEO keyword research strategy.
• Do keyword mapping: Gather a list of keywords and match them to the most relevant pages based on search intent.
• Create keyword clusters: Group related keywords to make it easier to place them strategically on your website.
• Look for long-tail and LSI keywords. As we mentioned, long-tail keywords shouldn’t be dismissed. Moreover, consider using LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords, which Google sees as semantically connected to the topic you’re ranking for.

Additional Non-Keyword-Research Tips To Help You Get Started

Keywords won’t do much if they’re not used the right way. So, here are other tips to make finding topic ideas easier:

• Know your niche well: Make sure you know your niche well so you can come up with highly specific long-tail keywords. The better you know your industry and the subtopics it covers, the more likely you are to find the keyword opportunities that deliver a high ROI.
• Understand your audience: To attract the ideal customers, know what your target market searches for and desires. Create buyer and negative buyer personas to ensure your efforts are focused on attracting the right audience for your content.
• Monitor your competition: Identify key terms your competitors are targeting and the phrases they rank for. This insight helps you focus your SEO efforts on creating content that can outperform your competitors in search results.
• Consult with IT experts: For a deeper understanding of technical SEO and analytics, consider consulting IT services firms that specialize in these areas. Their expertise can give you a competitive edge in your SEO strategy.

Best SEO Keyword Research Tools To Use in 2025: Free & Paid

An SEO keyword research tool doesn’t just make the process of finding important topic phrases for your content easier. It can also help you do competitor keyword research.

These are the best tools worth using in your SEO content strategy in 2025:

• Ahrefs
• Soovle
• Google Analytics + Google Search Console
• Jaaxy
• Ubersuggest
• WordStream
• Keywords Everywhere
• Google Keyword Planner
• Moz Keyword Explorer

1. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a powerful tool for competitor keyword research, allowing you to spy on your competition's keywords, backlinks, and strategies. With Ahrefs, you can gather extensive data on the key phrases you search for, along with variations of those keywords to optimize your SEO efforts.

Ahrefs offers four pricing plans:

• Lite ($129/month)
• Standard ($249/month)
• Advanced ($449/month)
• Enterprise ($14,990/month)

You can also get a Starter plan for $29/month.

2. Soovle

Soovle is a free SEO keyword research tool you can use in your SEO content strategy. It can suggest key phrases from multiple sources in one place. Additionally, it provides variations from Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, and other platforms.

What’s great about this tool is that you can also save your favorite ideas and download them to a CSV file.

3. Google Analytics + Google Search Console

There are many free Google SEO tools, including Google Analytics and Google Search Console. When combined, these tools become a powerful resource for SEO keyword research. These tools provide in-depth data on key metrics like clicks, CTR, average position, and more. This information helps you identify popular keywords and generate ideas for your SEO content.

Additionally, Google Search Console can assist with competitor keyword research by showing which phrases your competitors rank for. Best of all, these tools are completely free.

4. Jaaxy

Jaaxy generates a wide range of unique keyword ideas while providing valuable data such as traffic, competition, search volume, and more. One standout feature is the QSR (Quoted Search Result), which indicates the number of websites ranking on Google for the exact keyword you search.

Jaaxy also excels at identifying unique long-tail keywords that can boost your business.

Jaaxy offers two pricing plans:

• Pro plan: $49 per month, offering all essential features for keyword research
• Enterprise plan: $99 per month, ideal for marketers who manage extensive keyword lists for multiple websites.

Additionally, you can create a free account to perform up to 30 search queries.

5. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a free SEO tool for generating new keyword ideas. It offers a range of features, including long-tail keyword suggestions, data on search volume, SEO, PPC competition, and CPC — critical metrics for PPC agencies. What’s more, this tool also shows related keywords, questions, prepositions, comparisons, and more.

6. WordStream

WordStream is a specialized SEO tool that allows you to target specific industries. By placing a keyword and choosing a niche, you can get unique suggestions and topics for your SEO content writing.

All you need to do is enter the keyword, the industry, and the country where your page is ranking, and you’ll get a list of related keywords, including their search volumes. You can also enter a URL and get the keywords from that site.

Note that WordStream gives 25 keyword searches right away. For the full list, you’ll have to enter your email address, and it will send you the list by email.

7. Keywords Everywhere

To use Keywords Everywhere, you must install its extension. Then, when you search for a certain phrase, this SEO keyword research tool will provide you with “related keywords” and “people searched for” phrases for free.

However, to get additional info on volume, CPC, and competition you need to choose one of its pricing plans:

• Silver ($6/month)
• Gold ($25/month)
• Platinum ($80/month)

8. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is one of the most reliable sources, especially for businesses on a budget. It provides accurate data directly from the most popular search engine in the world.

While this SEO keyword research tool is designed to help brands with paid ads rather than organic search, keywords that are valuable for paid advertising are often worth considering for SEO as well.

9. Moz Keyword Explorer

With Moz Keyword Research Planner, you can enter a keyword to get important metrics such as difficulty, organic CTR, and search volume. What’s more, this SEO keyword research tool provides keyword suggestions and SERP analysis for the provided phrase. It also allows you to track your rankings, crawl and audit your website pages, and find linking opportunities.

Moz offers four pricing plans:

• Starter ($49/month)
• Standard ($99/month)
• Medium ($179/month)
• Large ($299/month)

Moz also offers a 30-day free trial.

Where To Use SEO Keywords

Here are the key spots where you should incorporate your keywords to strengthen and improve your SEO content strategy:

• Headline: Include the keywords on your titles to clearly indicate the subject of the page or the topic. This lets both your audience, and the search engines know what the page is about. Learn how to write compelling headlines.
• Subheadings: Subheadings describe your paragraphs and make your content easily scannable. By incorporating keywords and related phrases in subheadings, your readers and search engines can grasp your content’s relevance to their query.
• Content body: Always mention your focus keyword within the first 100 words of your articles and throughout the content. This boosts the content’s relevance and SEO performance.
• Title tag: Title tags are the headlines users see on SERPs and are crucial for on-page SEO. They should also contain the focus keyword, and it should be as close to the beginning as possible.
• URL: Descriptive and concise page URLs with the focus keyword provide a clear indication of the page’s content.
• Meta description: Meta descriptions offer a summary of your content and help Google determine how relevant your content is. Include the focus keyword to support the topic and attract clicks.
• Alt text: Use keywords in alt texts to improve image relevance and signal to search engines how the images are related to the content and topic.
• Image file names: Optimizing your images for SEO is also important. Image file names can include focus keywords or related terms to increase page relevance.

Keyword Mistakes That Can Hurt Your SEO

After you’ve picked your keywords, it’s time to create your SEO content. However, be mindful of these common keyword usage mistakes to maintain SEO best practices and ensure high quality content:

• Keyword stuffing: Avoid overusing keywords or adding irrelevant ones to your content — Google penalizes this practice. Instead, use your keywords wisely and aim for a 1.5% keyword density, as expert marketers suggest.
• Keyword cannibalization: Don't optimize multiple pages for the same keyword. This can confuse search engines about which page to rank for that target keyword. Focus on using unique keywords per page.
• Writing for Google instead of your audience: Always write to help your audience find what they need, not just to meet search engine requirements. If your pages don’t offer value, readers may leave after just a few seconds, increasing your bounce rate. Google values user experience, and a high bounce rate can negatively impact your rankings.

Ready To Start Your Keyword Research?

By following our keyword research tutorial, you’ll be well on your way to optimizing your SEO strategy. Alternatively, you can choose to hire top SEO agencies or look for affordable SEO services for small businesses.

Remember, always focus on your audience when searching for popular terms and developing your content. Google values user experience, and you can only satisfy your leads by providing them with high-quality content.

SEO Keyword Research FAQs

1. What is the difference between SEO and PPC keyword research?

Generally, SEO and PPC keyword research both focus on finding the right words and sentences that your audiences use. But they differ mainly in their intent. SEO’s goal is to optimize your website for long-term reach, while PPC focuses on the short-term and increasing commercial sales.

2. How often should you update your SEO keyword strategy?

As a rule of thumb, it’s best if you reassess your SEO keyword strategy every quarter. However, SEO is a long game, and it’s a good idea to be patient with your strategy rather than experimenting too frequently.

3. Why is understanding user intent important in SEO keyword research?

When conducting SEO keyword research, it’s important to glean the problem a user is looking to solve. This is best represented in their search intent, which can be understood through research and considered when crafting SEO-optimized content.

Simply put, understanding user intent helps you come up with an effective content strategy and allows you to target keywords — and subsequently have visibility — for queries you’re best equipped to address.

4. What is the most important thing in SEO keyword research?

The most important thing that will make your SEO keyword research a success is relevance. Your keywords must be relevant to the search intent of your customers, and the content must be formulated to address that intent.