A man sits at a desk and types on a laptop. The man is smiling and wearing a muted green jacket, a white T-shirt, glasses, and mustard yellow pants. On either side of the desk is a rolling clothing rack filled with shirts and jackets on hangers.
When looking for keywords, start with a list of "seed" words related to your business. A clothing store, for instance, would start with "pants" and "jacket" as seed keywords. — Getty Images/miodrag ignjatovic

Keywords are fundamental to building a strong SEO strategy. Without the right combination of keywords, it can be challenging to increase your page ranking and get more views. But how do you find the best keywords for your business?

There are dozens of tools that can help you identify keywords. However, many of these tools are expensive; one resource estimates that SEO software for keyword rank tracking can cost between $500–$4,500 per month. Alternatively, you can do your own keyword research — but this strategy can be time-consuming. The best approach takes a combination of patience, research, and affordable SEO research tools built for small businesses on a budget.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding keywords — words or phrases that a user types into a search engine to find what they are looking for — related to your business. Keyword research helps connect your brand to those looking for the product or service it offers.

Before you start any keyword research, it's worthwhile to understand what makes a “good” keyword. There are three elements to consider:

  • Relevance, or how closely the keywords you choose align with your business, products, or services. Irrelevant keywords won't attract the right audience.
  • Authority, or how helpful or informative the content or website that has the keyword is to search engine users. If highly authoritative sites, like Mayo Clinic or Harvard Business Review, already use the same keywords, your site will have little chance of outranking them.
  • Volume, or how many people are searching for the keywords you choose. High search volume suggests potential traffic, but competition is often higher.

These factors can help you assess whether a keyword is worth incorporating into your SEO strategy. Now, let’s dive into how to find keywords.

How to perform keyword research

Finding the right keywords starts with an understanding of your audience and the type of phrases they might type in to find your company. Then, use the right tools to narrow your list down to the best keywords for your niche.

Create a giant list of potential words and phrases

Start with a simple list of phrases and words related to your business. These “seed” keywords define what customers are searching for when they’re looking for your product or service. For example, a sports equipment retailer could have words like “basketball hoop,” “footballs,” or “tennis rackets” on their list of seed keywords.

“Note that seed keywords themselves won’t necessarily be worth targeting with pages on your website. As the name suggests, you’ll use them as ‘seeds’ for the next steps in this process. So don’t obsess too much over your seed keywords,” wrote the SEO experts at Ahrefs.

Finding the right keywords starts with an understanding of your audience and the type of phrases they might type in to find your company. Then, use the right tools to narrow your list down to the best keywords for your niche.

See what you already rank for

Then, start researching what keywords you already rank for using website analytics software like Google Analytics or Google Search Console. “Drill down into your website’s traffic sources, and sift through your organic search traffic bucket to identify the keywords people are using to arrive at your site,” recommended HubSpot.

Keep expanding your list of keywords to include search terms around the keywords people are already using to find your site. AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini can help you generate more ideas.

Analyze your list of keywords

If the first two steps were about discovering relevant keywords, the next is about assessing the volume of your keyword to see if they’re valuable to your ranking effort. Free tools like Moz Keyword Explorer, SearchVolume.io, and Google Keyword Planner can give you insight into search volume for your list of words.

Volume is a tricky factor to get right. On one hand, too low a volume means that no one is searching for the word or phrase you’ve identified. On the other hand, a high volume means the word is too popular and your website will struggle to compete.

“Never select keywords based on their search volume alone,” wrote one SEO expert. In addition to volume, consider whether the keyword will bring value to your business—will someone searching with this keyword actually be interested in purchasing from your brand? Volume should be considered with competition and your website's authority.

Prioritize keywords and use them on your website

Finally, add the keywords that best match your business across your website. There are many ways to incorporate keywords on your site: Check out our A Beginner's Guide to SEO for ways to get started. This step is where you can start to build authority. Use keywords in your content and continually check your website performance to adjust your strategy over time.

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