Keyword research: finding the words your readers search for

Keyword research answers two questions. Which words do people use when they look for what you sell or explain, and how many of them search each month? The first decides what a page says. The second decides which pages are worth writing first.

Google's SEO Starter Guide frames it from the reader's side. People who know a topic well search with different words than people new to it. Its example is one person typing charcuterie while another types cheese board for the same thing.

Keyword Planner sits in the Tools menu of Google Ads. It's built for planning Search ad campaigns, and you need to finish account setup with billing details before keyword ideas appear. Choose Discover new keywords and start either from words that describe your products or services, or from a website. Google reads that site's content for ideas but ignores the contents of its links. Entering both a keyword and a URL can return more ideas than a URL alone.

From the results, filter by competition or keyword text, and use the Refine keywords panel to drop whole themes. If you're researching running shoes and only care about red ones, untick the other colors. Save the keywords you keep to a plan. If you already have a list, Get search volume and forecasts takes a pasted list or a one-column CSV headed Keyword.

Use the words you found where readers will see them, in the title, the headings and the text. Google's guide says compelling, useful content will likely influence a site's presence in search more than any of its other suggestions. So a keyword list tells you what to cover, not how many times to repeat a phrase.

You don't need a page for every variant. The guide tells site owners not to worry about anticipating every way someone might search, because Google's language matching can connect a page to queries that don't use its exact terms.

Keyword Planner's figures are estimates. Very low volume keywords and sensitive topics such as health or finance return nothing, so a blank result doesn't mean nobody searches for the term. Forecasts cover ad clicks, impressions and conversions, and they're refreshed daily from the last 7 to 10 days. Google says real results also depend on your bid and budget, on ad quality and targeting, and on customer behavior in your industry.

For organic search, expect a delay. Google's guide says changes can take a few hours or several months to show, and suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change helped.