Keyword Research
Growth StrategiesKeyword research is the practice of finding the search terms an audience uses, evaluating them, and choosing which to target with content. It is the core input for SEO, content planning, and paid search, and it is the difference between content that ranks and content that lives in obscurity.
It has shifted in the last five years. Pure volume-chasing ("target the highest-volume keyword in our category") has given way to intent-and-cluster work, where the question is not just "how many searches does this keyword get" but "who is searching it, what are they trying to do, and what cluster of related content do we need to be authoritative on the topic."
Contents
Key takeaways
- Keyword intent (informational, commercial, transactional) matters more than search volume. A 200-search-per-month transactional keyword produces more pipeline than a 20,000-search informational one.
- Long-tail keywords (3+ words, lower volume, higher specificity) account for 70% of search traffic and convert at 2 to 5× the rate of short-tail terms.
- Topic clusters outperform isolated keywords: a cornerstone page plus 10 to 15 supporting articles on related sub-topics builds the topical authority Google rewards.
What is keyword research?
Keyword research is the process of finding and evaluating search terms relevant to a business, then deciding which ones to target. The output is a keyword list with three attributes per term:
- Search volume: roughly how many times the term is searched per month.
- Difficulty: how hard it is to rank in the top 10 for the term, scored 0 to 100 by SEO tools.
- Intent: what the searcher is trying to do (learn, compare, buy).
From that list, the team prioritizes which keywords to write content for. Priority depends on the business question: a brand-building program weights informational intent higher; a pipeline-driving program weights transactional intent.
How do you do keyword research?
Five steps:
- 1.Seed the list. Start with 10 to 30 obvious terms describing the product and category. "Employee advocacy software," "LinkedIn advocacy tool," "social selling platform."
- 2.Expand using SEO tools. ahrefs, Semrush, or Google's own Keyword Planner take seed terms and produce hundreds of related queries with volume and difficulty data.
- 3.Cluster by topic. Group related keywords into 5 to 15 topic clusters. Each cluster will become a content pillar.
- 4.Score for intent. Tag each keyword as informational ("what is"), commercial ("best," "vs," "comparison"), or transactional ("pricing," "buy," "demo").
- 5.Prioritize. Combine volume, difficulty, intent, and business fit into a priority score. Most teams target a mix of high-volume informational keywords for traffic and lower-volume commercial keywords for pipeline.
The single most useful adjustment: include zero-volume keywords. Tools report zero search volume for many keywords that actually receive small but consistent traffic. The keywords with low reported volume often have the cleanest intent and the best conversion rate, and they are usually undefended.
Why intent matters more than volume
Three intent buckets cover most B2B search:
- Informational. The searcher wants to learn. Examples: "what is employee advocacy," "how does ABM work." High volume, low conversion to pipeline. Useful for brand building and topical authority.
- Commercial. The searcher is comparing solutions. Examples: "best employee advocacy tools," "linkedin scheduling tools comparison." Medium volume, higher conversion to pipeline. The most commercially valuable bucket per visit.
- Transactional. The searcher is ready to buy or evaluate. Examples: "Heyoo pricing," "book a demo." Lowest volume, highest conversion. Should be defended with branded SEO and paid search.
A realistic ratio for B2B SaaS: 60% of content traffic from informational, 30% from commercial, 10% from transactional. The pipeline contribution is roughly inverted: 10% from informational, 60% from commercial, 30% from transactional.
Topic clusters and topical authority
Modern SEO rewards depth on a topic, not just individual keyword optimization. The topic-cluster model:
- Cornerstone page: the definitive long-form on a single topic (e.g., "Employee Advocacy: The Complete Guide").
- Supporting articles: 10 to 15 narrower pieces on sub-topics, each linking back to the cornerstone ("How to measure employee advocacy," "Employee advocacy vs influencer marketing," "Employee advocacy ROI").
- Internal linking: every supporting article links to the cornerstone; the cornerstone links to relevant supporting articles.
This structure signals to Google that the site is authoritative on the topic, which lifts rankings across the entire cluster. A site with 1 cornerstone plus 12 supporting pieces typically ranks for 3 to 5× the number of keywords as a site with 13 isolated articles, because the cluster reinforces itself.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?
Short-tail keywords are 1 to 2 words with high volume and broad intent ("employee advocacy"). Long-tail keywords are 3 or more words with lower volume but specific intent ("employee advocacy software for B2B SaaS"). Long-tail accounts for around 70% of total search traffic and converts at 2 to 5× the rate because the intent is clearer.
How many keywords should I target?
Target topic clusters, not individual keywords. A B2B SaaS site typically supports 5 to 15 active clusters, each with one cornerstone and 10 to 15 supporting pieces. The full keyword list per cluster is 50 to 200, but the team writes for the cluster, not for each keyword in isolation.
Are keyword research tools accurate?
Approximately. Tools like ahrefs and Semrush use clickstream and crawl data to estimate volume and difficulty. The numbers are reliable for relative comparisons (this keyword is bigger than that one) and reasonable for absolute estimates (within 30% for high-volume terms). For low-volume keywords, expect more variance, and watch for zero-volume terms that actually drive consistent low-level traffic.