Keyword research has a reputation for being complicated — spreadsheets, tools with 40 filters, jargon like "keyword difficulty" and "SERP features". Strip that away and it's a simple question: what do your customers type into Google when they need what you sell, and which of those searches can you realistically win?
This guide walks the whole process with a worked example. Meet our fictional business: a plumbing firm in Manchester. No real company, no real data — just the method, step by step, so you can run it for yours.
The jargon, decoded in 60 seconds
- Keyword: any search phrase, from one word ("plumber") to a full question ("why is my boiler making a banging noise").
- Search volume: roughly how many people search it per month. Roughly being the operative word — treat tool numbers as relative, not exact.
- Keyword difficulty: an estimate of how hard the phrase is to rank for. Every tool calculates it differently, so use it to compare keywords against each other, not as gospel.
- Search intent: what the searcher actually wants — to buy, to learn, to find a specific site, or to compare. Matching intent matters more than matching words.
- Long-tail keywords: longer, specific phrases ("emergency plumber Didsbury Sunday"). Low volume each, but high intent and far less competition.
Step 1: Brainstorm like a customer, not like a business
Businesses search their own industry language; customers search their problems. Our plumber doesn't just target "plumbing services Manchester". They list what customers actually type:
- "emergency plumber near me" / "emergency plumber Manchester"
- "boiler repair cost"
- "leaking tap fix"
- "new bathroom installation Manchester"
- "landlord gas safety certificate price"
Ask your front-line staff — the people answering the phones know the exact phrases customers use. Mine your enquiry emails and quote requests. This seed list of 20–40 phrases is the raw material; tools come later.
Step 2: Understand the intent behind each phrase
Google each seed keyword and look at what ranks. This is the fastest intent check there is:
- "emergency plumber Manchester" → local business listings and plumber homepages. Intent: hire someone now. Needs a service page with a phone number, not a blog post.
- "boiler repair cost" → articles and guides with price ranges. Intent: research. Needs an honest guide, not a sales page.
- "landlord gas safety certificate price" → service pages with pricing. Intent: compare and buy. Needs a dedicated page.
The golden rule: match the format Google already rewards. If the top results are guides, don't publish a product page and hope. Google has already told you what the searcher wants.
Step 3: Expand and prioritise with free tools
You don't need a paid subscription to start. Google's own suggestions (the autocomplete dropdown, "People also ask", related searches at the bottom) are free intent data. Google Keyword Planner (free with an Ads account) gives volume bands. Answer the Public visualises question-style searches.
Score each keyword on three axes: relevance (does it match something you actually sell?), intent strength (is the searcher close to buying?), and winnability (can a business your size realistically rank?). Our plumber's priorities shake out like this: "emergency plumber Didsbury" (high intent, winnable, local) beats "plumbing" (huge volume, unwinnable, vague) every time.
Step 4: Map keywords to pages (one intent, one page)
Every distinct intent gets its own page; similar intents share one. Our plumber ends up with: a homepage for the brand, service pages for emergency plumbing, boiler repair and bathroom installation, a pricing guide for the gas safety certificate, and blog posts for the DIY-style questions. Write the mapping down — keyword, intent, assigned page — and share it with anyone who writes content. This single document prevents the classic beginner failure: five pages all vaguely targeting "plumber Manchester" and cannibalising each other.
Building your keyword map (the document that prevents chaos)
The keyword map is a simple table — keyword, monthly volume (rough), intent, assigned page, current ranking — and it's the most valuable SEO document a small business can own. It stops the two classic failures: cannibalisation (three pages all targeting "boiler repair Manchester", splitting your authority three ways) and orphan keywords (great keywords nobody ever built a page for).
Build it in a spreadsheet, review it quarterly, and make it required reading for anyone who publishes content. When someone proposes a new page, the first question is "what keyword and intent does this serve, and does a page already own it?" If yes, improve the existing page instead. Most small businesses need 20–60 mapped keywords, not 2,000 — a focused map you actually use beats an exhaustive one nobody opens.
When to pay for tools (and when not to)
Free tools take you surprisingly far: Google's suggestions, Keyword Planner, Search Console's own query data (your best keyword source — real searches that already bring you traffic). Pay for a tool when you have a specific job free tools can't do: serious competitor keyword analysis, tracking hundreds of rankings, or backlink research. Don't subscribe "for SEO" in the abstract — subscribe for a task, use it hard for a quarter, then decide if it earned its renewal. Most SMEs get 80% of the value from Search Console plus a spreadsheet.
Beginner traps to avoid
- Chasing volume. 10,000 searches from people who'll never buy beats nothing; 50 searches from people with a burst pipe beats everything.
- Ignoring the "near me" reality. For local businesses, half your keyword universe is geographic. Build it in from the start.
- Targeting keywords you can't serve. Ranking for "free boiler grants" when you don't do grants brings traffic that never converts and bounces — which eventually hurts the rankings too.
- Doing it once. Language shifts, competitors move, new services launch. Revisit the research yearly, not once.
Keyword research is the foundation everything else stands on — get it wrong and every article and service page is built on sand. Our SEO services start every engagement with proper research and a keyword-to-page map. Ready to see what your competitors are targeting? Read our SEO competitor analysis guide next. Get a free consultation.
