Keyword research guide: find the words your customers actually use
Keyword research is listening before you write. You collect the phrases real people type when they need what you sell, work out what each person wants to see, and give every distinct need one good page.
Worked example: one plumber, four kinds of search
- how long does a hot water system last
- why is my hot water lukewarm
- gas vs heat pump hot water
- hot water system replacement cost
- hot water installation quote
- book a plumber Saturday
- plumber near me
- emergency plumber Geelong
Example searches written for this guide, not data from a tool.
What keyword research is actually for
Keyword research closes the gap between the trade language you use for your business and the words customers use for their problem, so the page you write answers the question they came with.
Google's SEO starter guide makes the same point: someone who knows a topic well often searches differently from a beginner, and its example is charcuterie versus cheese board. In trade terms, an electrician says "switchboard upgrade" while a homeowner types "fuse box keeps tripping". Both are worth knowing, and they may need different pages.
What you end up with is a list of real phrases, grouped by what each group wants (which decides the type of page), and a map that gives each group one home on your site. Volume and difficulty scores only help you sort.
Six free sources, and what each one hides
Your customers, autocomplete, the results page, Search Console, Keyword Planner and Trends are all free, and each one has a blind spot that can send a small business after the wrong number.
Your own customers
Gives youThe exact words people use on the phone, in quote forms and in emails. "My gutters overflow every storm" is a search phrase before it's a job.
HidesHow often strangers search it. Pair it with the sources below to check demand.
Google autocomplete
Gives youPhrasing straight from Google. Its help page says predictions reflect real searches on Google and take the searcher's location into account.
HidesAny count. It also filters out predictions that break its policies, so use it for phrasing only.
The results page itself
Gives youThe questions in "People also ask", the related searches at the bottom, and the type of pages Google currently ranks. That last part shows intent best.
HidesVariation. Results change with place, device and time, so check from the area your customers are in.
Search Console Performance report
Gives youThe queries your site already appears for, with impressions, clicks and average position. Queries where you sit just off page one show where a better answer may be enough.
HidesRare searches. Google's Search Central blog (19 October 2022) explains that queries not issued by more than a few dozen users over two to three months are left out of the tables for privacy.
Google Keyword Planner
Gives youRelated keyword ideas and estimates of monthly searches and cost, built for advertisers.
HidesPrecision for small places. Google Ads Help says you need to finish setting up an Ads account, including billing details, to use it. Treat its numbers as rough bands.
Google Trends
Gives youSeasonality and direction. Air conditioning servicing before summer, tax help around the end of the financial year in June and July.
HidesVolume. Google's Trends help explains that results are scaled from 0 to 100 against all searches, so a 100 is a peak, not a count.
Sources read 4 October 2026: Google Search Help, "Sources of autocomplete predictions"; Search Central blog post on Search Console performance data filtering and limits (19 October 2022); Google Ads Help, "Use Keyword Planner"; Google Trends Help, "FAQ about Google Trends data".
Paid keyword tools build their own estimates from data they collect. They're handy for size comparisons and competitor research, but they aren't Google data: Google's guide to its AI search features says no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems.
Let the results page tell you what kind of page to build
Search the phrase and build the kind of page Google already ranks for it, because the page types on page one show what searchers have been happy with. Two phrases can look alike and want different things: "solar battery" might be someone learning, comparing or buying.
Guides and explainers rank
If page one is articles, how-to videos and a "People also ask" box, the searcher wants to understand something. Write the clear answer, then link to the service page for readers who are ready.
Comparisons and price pages rank
Words like "cost", "vs", "best" and "review" usually signal a person weighing options. If you can publish your own prices, this is where they earn their keep.
Service and booking pages rank
"Quote", "book", "install" and "hire" mean the decision is mostly made. The page should say what you do, where, roughly what it costs and how to start, with the contact options above the fold on a phone.
A map and business listings rank
When the local map pack sits at the top, Google is reading the search as "somewhere nearby". Your Google Business Profile does most of the work here, backed by a location page with real local detail.
A first page shared by guides, shops and the map means Google isn't sure, or the phrase covers several needs. Pick the need your business serves best and build for that one.
Search volume is the least reliable figure on your sheet
For Australian small businesses, volume is often the shakiest figure because the markets are small and the tools round hard.
A suburb-level phrase such as "dog groomer Mitcham" may show zero or a tiny band in every tool and still bring you two bookings a month. A tool showing "0 to 10" means the sample is too thin to say. For local trades and clinics, the better question is whether the phrase describes a job you want and whether the results page shows local businesses. If both are yes, the page is usually worth writing.
15%
of the searches Google sees each day are new to it, Google said in April 2017. Many of the phrases that will find your pages won't appear in any keyword tool yet.
Google, "Our latest quality improvements for Search", 25 April 2017Google's guide to its AI search features, last updated 10 July 2026, says its systems understand synonyms and general meaning, so you needn't capture every variation. A page that fully answers the need can be found for phrasings you never listed, including long-tail searches: longer, specific phrases that each get few searches but add up.
Difficulty scores deserve the same caution: they're a tool vendor's estimate, mostly based on links to pages that already rank, and can't see how good your page will be or how local the results are. Quicker: open the current top results. If they're thin, old or loosely on topic, a careful page has a fair chance whatever the score says.
- Worth writingDescribes a job or product you sell, has local businesses or small sites on page one, and comes up in your own customer conversations.
- Worth waitingPage one is all national brands and government sites, and the intent is only loosely related to what you sell.
- Worth skippingThe phrase is about something you don't offer, or the searcher clearly wants a free tool or a DIY fix you can't help with.
One need, one page: turning the list into a site plan
A list of 300 phrases usually collapses into a few dozen needs. Group phrases that want the same answer, pick the clearest one as the page's main term, and let the close wordings live on that same page in headings, examples and FAQ answers.
A worked example for a hypothetical business, written for this guide. Check the current Victorian rules for rental safety checks with Consumer Affairs Victoria before building a page like the last row.
Google's guide to its AI search features warns against making separate content for every variation of how people might search, including the "fan-out" queries its AI features generate. Doing that mainly to manipulate rankings breaks its scaled content abuse policy, and Google adds that more pages don't make a site more relevant. Separate pages also compete with each other, which SEOs call keyword cannibalisation.
When the site you already have fights the plan
An existing site fights the plan when its old pages split one need in two or lump many needs together. Three knots come up most.
Knot 1
Two of our pages take turns showing up for the same search
In Search Console's Performance report, click the query, then open the Pages tab. If two or more of your URLs collect impressions for it, and the one shown swaps from week to week, they are competing for one need.
Pick the page that answers it best, usually the one with the most clicks, and move anything useful from the other into it. Then point the weaker URL at the winner with a permanent redirect and update your internal links.
Knot 2
One "Services" page lists everything we do, and none of it ranks
A page that mentions ten services in a paragraph each gives no single searcher a full answer. Every row on the keyword sheet that is a distinct need with an Act intent, and that you sell, deserves its own page with the price guide, the process, photos and the questions buyers ask about that job.
Keep the original page as a short hub that links to each one. Don't split work you'd quote as a single job; that's one need, and one page.
Knot 3
Customers ask long, specific questions. Does keyword research still matter?
More than before, but the unit changes from phrase to question. Google says AI Mode suits questions that need comparisons and reasoning, and that its AI features may run several related searches across subtopics to build one answer. Those related searches are the follow-up questions your customers ask anyway: cost, timing, suitability, where you work.
So copy the full questions from enquiry emails and phone notes into the sheet as their own column, and answer them on the page that already serves that need.
Sources: Search Console Help, "Performance report (Search results)"; Google Search Central, "AI features and your website" (last updated 10 December 2025) and "Site moves and migrations". All read 5 October 2026.
How to do keyword research in an afternoon
We'd work in this order on a small business site. You need a spreadsheet and, if the site is live, access to Search Console.
Write down how customers talk
Go through the last few months of enquiries and quote requests. Copy the phrases people used to describe their problem, word for word, before you open any tool.
Pull what Search Console already knows
Export the queries from the Performance report using the longest date range it offers. Mark queries where you sit beyond the first page.
Widen the list with autocomplete and the results page
Type each core phrase into Google and note the predictions, the "People also ask" questions and related searches. Do it for the suburbs and cities you serve, because predictions shift by location.
Add rough demand
Run the list through Keyword Planner or a paid tool for volume bands and seasonality. Use Trends for timing. Don't delete a phrase just because it shows zero.
Group by need and tag the intent
Merge phrases that want the same answer into one row. Tag each row Learn, Compare, Act or Visit after looking at the live results, not before.
Map rows to pages and pick an order
Match each row to an existing page or a page you'll create. Start with the rows closest to a sale and the pages that already have impressions. Then revisit the sheet each quarter with fresh Search Console data.
If you'd rather hand the whole process over, our SEO content service does this research before any page is written, and our guide to building a content strategy for SEO explains how the map becomes a publishing plan.
Keyword habits Google says don't help
Six common keyword habits are addressed directly in Google's own documentation, so you can drop them with confidence.
Filling the meta keywords tag
Google's starter guide says Google Search doesn't use it. It does no harm and no good.
Repeating the phrase over and over
Google calls this keyword stuffing and lists it in its spam policies, including blocks of text that list cities a page wants to rank for.
Buying a keyword domain for rankings
The starter guide says keywords in the domain name or URL path alone have hardly any effect. Pick a name customers will remember.
Writing to a word count
Google says content length alone doesn't matter for ranking. Write as long as the answer needs and stop.
A page for every wording
Close variants belong on one page. Splitting them out to rank is the scaled content pattern Google's spam policies target.
Exact match in every heading
Google's systems understand synonyms, so headings can read naturally. Varying your wording, the starter guide notes, can even help you show up for more searches.
Google Search Central, "SEO Starter Guide" (updated 10 December 2025) and "Spam policies for Google web search" (updated 28 August 2026), both read 4 October 2026.
Keyword research questions, answered
What is keyword research in SEO?
Keyword research in SEO is finding the words people type into Google when they need what you offer, working out what each searcher wants, and giving each of those needs one page on your site. It decides what you write and how you phrase it, so your pages answer searches that really happen.
Is keyword research still important in 2026?
Yes. Google understands synonyms well, so chasing exact wordings matters less than it did. Knowing which needs your customers search for, and which type of page satisfies each one, matters as much as ever.
How do I do keyword research for free?
Combine your customer enquiries, Google autocomplete, the "People also ask" box, the Search Console Performance report and Google Trends. Keyword Planner adds free volume estimates once you set up a Google Ads account. For most small local businesses, those sources are enough to build a sound first map.
Is Google Keyword Planner accurate for small Australian towns?
Treat it as rough. It was built for advertisers planning budgets. In small suburbs and regional towns the numbers are often thin or shown as zero even when real people search. Use it to compare phrases, then confirm demand with Search Console and your own enquiries.
What is keyword cannibalisation?
It's when two or more of your own pages target the same need, and compete in search, so neither does as well as one strong page would. The fix is usually to merge the pages, redirect the weaker URL to the stronger one and update your internal links.
What is keyword stuffing?
Keyword stuffing is repeating a phrase, or lists of places, so often that the text reads unnaturally. Google's spam policies name it directly, and its starter guide says it's tiring for readers. Use the main phrase where it fits naturally, then write normally.
How many keywords should one page target?
Think in needs rather than counts. One page should answer one need fully, and that need may be searched in dozens of ways. Put the clearest phrase in the title and main heading, and let close variants appear in subheadings, examples and answers.
Is keyword research for Google Ads different from SEO?
The sources overlap, but the decisions differ. In Google Ads you pay per click, so cost per click and match types drive the choices. In SEO you're deciding which pages to create and how to write them, so intent and the type of page that ranks matter more than the bid estimate. Our comparison of SEO and Google Ads covers when each makes sense.
Questions drawn from Google autocomplete suggestions for "keyword research", "is keyword research" and "what is keyword", checked from Australia on 4 October 2026.
Where keyword research leads
Want a keyword map for your site?
Our free audit includes a first look at the searches your pages already appear for.