Keyword research and intent: targeting the queries that bring customers

The keyword isn't the goal, the intent is

It all starts with a simple question: what does your future customer really type, and what do they want at that precise moment? Queries fall into four intents, and each calls for a different type of page:

Ranking on an informational query with a sales page, or the reverse, means giving the wrong answer — Google sees it, and the visitor leaves. Before volume, before difficulty, always ask: which intent, and does my page really answer it?

The three numbers that guide the choice

For each candidate keyword, three indicators steer the decision. Search volume (how many times the query is typed per month) measures potential. Difficulty (often noted KD, from 0 to 100) estimates the effort to rank against incumbents. Business relevance — invisible in the tools, yours to judge — says whether these visitors become customers. A high-volume query with no link to your offer attracts traffic that doesn't convert. It's better to rank first on a precise query that brings ten customers than twentieth on a generic query that brings a thousand browsers.

Start free: Search Console and autocomplete

You already have a free gold mine if your site exists: the Performance report in Google Search Console lists the queries you already appear on, often on page 2 or 3. These are your easiest wins: optimizing a page that's just shy of the top 10 pays off faster than starting from scratch. Add to that Google's own free suggestions: search bar autocomplete, the "People Also Ask" section and the "related searches" at the bottom of the page reveal your customers' real language, with no paid tool at all.

Dedicated tools: from free to pro

When you want to dig deeper, several tools exist, in increasing budget order:

• Google Keyword Planner (free with a Google Ads account): volumes in ranges, built for ads but useful for SEO.
• Ubersuggest (limited free, lifetime plan around €100–300): volumes, difficulty, ideas — good value to start.
• AnswerThePublic (limited free): visualizes the real questions around a theme, perfect for informational content.
• Google Trends (free): seasonality and trends, so you don't bet on a declining topic.
• Semrush and Ahrefs (subscriptions €100–230/month depending on the plan): the pro references — huge keyword databases, reliable difficulty, competitor analysis. Often reserved for a growth phase or an established budget.

The rule: you only pay for a pro tool once you've exhausted the free options and have a real volume of pages to steer.

Spying on competitors: the most profitable shortcut

Rather than guessing, look at what your competitors rank for. With Ahrefs or Semrush, enter a competitor's domain and get the list of keywords bringing them traffic. You instantly spot the topics that work in your market, the queries you missed, and the pages to beat. Without a paid tool, a DIY version works: type your target queries, note who shows up in the top 5, and analyze what those pages do better than you. SEO is a comparative game: you don't rank in the absolute, you rank better than others.

The treasure of long-tail queries

Short, generic queries ("CRM") are heavily contested. Long-tail queries — precise, several words ("free CRM for building tradesperson") — have less individual volume but a clear intent, weak competition, and a better conversion rate. Added together, they make up the majority of searches on the web. For an entrepreneur starting out, this is the winning strategy: target ten accessible long-tails rather than one unreachable generic word. You then climb toward broader queries, once authority is established.

Building your keyword table

The concrete deliverable of this chapter is simple: a table (a Google Sheet will do) with one row per target keyword and columns for intent, volume, difficulty, business relevance, and the page that will handle it. You group close queries that call for a single page (no need to create ten near-identical pages — Google would have them cannibalize each other). This table becomes your editorial roadmap: it says what to write, in what order, and why. Without it, you produce at random; with it, every page has a target and a reason to exist.

AI as an accelerator, not a pilot

An AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) speeds up the ideation phase: generating query variants, grouping intents, listing a persona's questions. But it knows neither your real volumes nor your local competition — it sometimes invents numbers. The right method: AI to brainstorm and structure, SEO tools and Search Console to validate with real data. AI proposes, data disposes. It's this duo that saves time without losing reliability.