Chapter 9: How to Do Keyword Research

Last updated: November 1, 2026.

In the previous chapter we talked about what a keyword is. In this chapter we come to what I think is one of the most important jobs in SEO:

Finding the right keywords.

We call this keyword research.

But we shouldn’t think of keyword research as “Type a keyword into a tool, export the list to Excel.” I think the real work starts before that.

1. First we need to understand what we sell or what we talk about

Before starting keyword research, the first thing I do is ask these questions:

• What do we sell?
• What services do we offer?
• What product groups do we have?
• Who is our target audience?
• Why do people choose us?
• Which country or region do we work in?

Because keyword research can’t be done without understanding the business model.

For example, let’s take a company that sells “agricultural sprayers.” We don’t just find the keyword agricultural sprayer and get started. Is the product:

• Mounted on a tractor?
• A backpack type?
• For gardens?
• For fields?
• An atomizer?
• A pulverizer?
• Sold to which country?

All of these change the keyword research. So first we need to understand the product and the market.

2. We can put together the first keyword list ourselves

We don’t have to start every research project with a paid tool. First we can write down the keywords that come to mind for the product or service.

For example, for a site that sells coffee machines, we can create a simple starting list like this:

• coffee machine
• automatic coffee machine
• filter coffee machine
• espresso machine
• home coffee machine
• office coffee machine

But the important thing here is not to accept this list as correct. It’s only a start. Because the name we give the product and the name users use may not be the same.

3. Use Google itself

I think one of the simplest and most valuable sources is Google. When you start typing a keyword, Google shows you suggestions.

For example, when you type coffee machine, suggestions such as coffee machine recommendations, coffee machine prices and coffee machine cleaning may come up. These give us an idea of how people search around that topic.

After running a search, these areas on the results page can also be very useful:

• Related searches
• People also ask
• Autocomplete suggestions

Here Google is showing us the user’s language directly. I explain in detail how we get keyword ideas from these areas in Chapter 12.

4. Don’t forget Search Console

If we have a live site, I think one of the most valuable sources is Google Search Console. Because here we see not an estimate but the queries Google actually shows us for.

Sometimes you may notice you’re getting impressions for a keyword you never targeted. For example, one of your pages may be built for coffee machine. But in Search Console you may see it also getting impressions from queries such as coffee machine for home, office coffee machine and coffee machine suggestions.

This gives us strong clues for new content ideas or for improving existing content.

It’s easier to do this page by page. In the Performance report, select a single page with the page filter and look at the Queries tab, and you’ll see which searches that page was shown for.

If we’re working with a new site, we may not have Search Console data. But on an existing site, I always look here.

5. Look at competitors’ keywords

I think one of the fastest ways to do keyword research is to study competitors. Because competitors have already done some of the research for us.

For example, in a tool like Semrush we can see which keywords a competitor ranks for. Here I look especially at:

• Which keywords does the competitor get traffic from?
• Which of their pages bring in the most traffic?
• Which categories do they have that we don’t?
• Which queries do they show up for that we never thought of?

But here again we shouldn’t copy the list blindly. The competitor’s target audience may be different from ours. We may not have the product they sell. Or that keyword may bring a lot of traffic but contribute nothing to sales.

So a competitor’s keyword doesn’t have to be our keyword.

6. Let’s collect data from tools

At this stage we can now use professional tools. For many years I’ve been using these sources together:

• Semrush
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Ubersuggest
• Search Console

In my old trainings, too, I taught Google Trends, Ubersuggest, Google searches and Keyword Planner as the core tools of keyword research.

From these tools we can get data such as:

• Search volume
• Similar keywords
• Keyword difficulty
• Trends
• Ad competition
• Competitors’ rankings

But this needs to be said clearly:

The numbers tools give you are not the absolute truth.

Two different tools may show you different search volumes for the same keyword. I think it’s better to see this data not as exact numbers but as data for comparing and finding direction. The same goes for keyword difficulty; I cover that in Chapter 11.

7. Understanding a keyword’s timing with Google Trends

A keyword may be searched a lot today but may be popular only two months of the year.

For example, searches for keywords like air conditioner, school bag, snow tires and valentine’s day gift aren’t the same throughout the year. Here Google Trends shows us how the keyword moves over time.

That’s why the information “It’s searched 50,000 times a month.” isn’t enough on its own. You need to know whether those 50,000 searches are spread over 12 months or happen within two weeks.

This is especially important for seasonal businesses.

There’s one thing we need to know here: the numbers you see in Google Trends aren’t search counts. Google divides each data point by the total searches for that time range and region and turns it into a relative value between 0 and 100. Keywords with very little search volume can show up as 0 (Google Trends Help). So Trends doesn’t answer “How many people searched?” It answers “When and where was it searched more?” It makes more sense to use other tools for volume and Trends for timing.

8. Let’s build a topic pool instead of a single keyword

I think one of the biggest mistakes in keyword research is creating a 1,000-keyword Excel file and calling the job done.

I prefer to divide keywords into topics as much as possible. For example, for coffee machines:

• Buying: coffee machine prices, buy coffee machine
• Comparison: best coffee machine, coffee machine recommendations
• Information: how to use a coffee machine, how to clean a coffee machine
• Product type: filter coffee machine, espresso machine, automatic coffee machine

This way the keyword list starts to turn into content and site architecture.

We’re not just collecting keywords. We’re trying to understand which page we need for which keyword.

9. Don’t automatically pick the one with the highest volume

Let’s say we have two keywords:

• shoes: 100,000 searches
• men’s black running shoes: 2,000 searches

Which one is better? At first glance, 100,000. But in SEO the answer isn’t always that simple.

With the second keyword, the user may know much better what they want. It may be more relevant to our product. It may be closer to a purchase. Our competition may be lower.

That’s why when choosing keywords, I don’t look only at search volume; I look at these together:

• Search intent
• Relevance
• Competition
• Conversion potential
• The quality of the page we can build

10. If we work globally, research needs to be done country by country

We gave the example of agricultural spraying equipment in Chapter 8.

The same product may be searched under one name in Turkey, another name in Germany, another name in the UK, and even under different terms in different regions of the same country.

That’s why in global SEO, translating the Turkish keyword into English and using it is not keyword research. In each target market, we need to research again which word the user actually uses.

Google Trends helps here too. You can compare different names for the same product, for example pulverizer and atomizer, and see which one is searched more in which country or region. But the regional comparison is relative as well. Google points out that two regions showing the same search interest don’t necessarily have the same total search volume.

I think the sentence worth repeating here is this:

Translation is one thing, keyword research is another.

Coffee machine example: From keyword to page

When we take the topic pool one step further and write the intent next to each keyword, along with the type of page that will serve it, we get a table like this:

There’s no search volume column in this table. You can add volume from tools, but first the intent and the page type need to be clear. And it’s better to write the intent not by guessing but by looking at what types of pages appear on Google’s first page for that keyword. I explained this in the search intent chapter.

One thing stands out in the table: best coffee machine and coffee machine recommendations go to the same page. If the user wants the same thing in both, creating two separate pages can lead to the two pages competing with each other for the same keyword. I explain how to turn this table into a keyword map in Chapter 13.

What should we have at the end of keyword research?

It shouldn’t be just an Excel file with hundreds of rows. At the end of the research, I want to see:

• Which topics matter to us?
• How do users search for these topics?
• Which keywords are commercial?
• Which ones are informational?
• Which ones can we compete for?
• Which page do we need for which keyword?
• Which one should we start with first?

Because finding keywords in SEO isn’t hard. Today any tool can give you thousands of keywords in a few seconds.

The real issue is choosing the right ones for us from among those thousands of keywords.

I think good keyword research starts exactly here.

Practice

• What do you sell, who do you sell to, and which country or region do you work in? Answer these questions in writing, and only then start your keyword list.
• Put together your own starting list for your main product or service. Then compare it with Google’s autocomplete, Related searches and People also ask suggestions.
• Look at the queries for the last three months in Search Console. Which queries are you getting impressions for that you didn’t target?
• Check your potentially seasonal keywords in Google Trends with a view of several years. In which months do searches rise?
• Compare the different names for your product in Google Trends. Which one stands out in the country or region you’re targeting?
• Next to each keyword on your list, write its intent and target page type. Is there a keyword group that has no matching page on your site?

Previous: Chapter 8: What Is a Keyword? · Contents · Next: Chapter 10: What Is Search Volume?

This chapter was first published in Turkish on X (September 7, 2026).