Keyword research: how to choose keywords

Keyword research is the work of finding the words and phrases people type into Google when they look for something, so you can choose the right keyword for each page. You look at four things: search volume, difficulty, intent and seasonality. It’s the first job in any SEO project: before writing a page you need to know what people search for.

What is a keyword?

A keyword is the word or phrase someone types into Google. It can be short, like “green tea”, or long, like “how to make green tea without it turning bitter”.

You don’t choose it on instinct: you look at a few data points, always the same ones.

How to choose keywords: the 4 data points

Data point	What it tells you	Where to find it
Volume	How many times a month it’s searched	Keyword Planner, SEO tools
Difficulty	How hard it is to reach the first page	SEO tools (estimate)
Intent	What the searcher wants to do	By looking at Google’s results
Trend	Which months it’s searched most	Google Trends

Volumes are always estimates: use them to compare keywords, not as exact numbers.

Tools for finding keywords

Tool	Cost	What it gives you
Google Keyword Planner	Free with a Google Ads account	Average monthly volume, trend, keyword ideas
Google Trends	Free	Trend over time and comparison between terms
Google Search Console	Free	The searches already bringing your site up on Google
Google itself	Free	Autocomplete, «People also ask», related searches at the bottom
SEO suites (Semrush, Ahrefs and similar)	Paid, with free trials	Estimated difficulty, competitors’ keywords

How to read Keyword Planner data

Keyword Planner is Google Ads’ free tool. To get volumes you use «Get search volume and forecasts», choosing country and language. Three things to know:

1. Volumes are ranges: 10, 20, 30… 1,000, 1,300, 1,600. They aren’t exact numbers.
2. «Competition» is about ads: low, medium or high tells you how many companies pay to appear on that term, not how hard it is to rank without paying.
3. Similar phrases are merged: «what does a brand manager do» and «brand manager what do they do» show the same number because Google treats them as the same search.

A real case: in November 2026, to choose the titles for this blog, we measured more than a thousand keywords for Italy with Keyword Planner. «Manuale del brand» (Italian for brand manual) had fewer than 50 searches a month, while «brand book» had about 1,000 and «brand guidelines» about 720: many people in Italy search the English term. That’s why the Italian article is titled after brand book and brand guidelines. We also found figures to treat with caution: «comunicato stampa» (press release) had one month with over 100,000 searches and the others around a few thousand, so the average was inflated. And remember: volumes depend on the country you choose; English keywords measured for Italy don’t tell you about UK or US searches.

Short and long keywords

• Short (“tea”): huge numbers of searches, mixed intent, very strong competition.
• Long (“organic loose-leaf green tea”): fewer searches, but whoever types them already knows what they want.

For a young site, long keywords are the starting point: you reach the top sooner and the visits are more useful. Long keywords are also called long tail.

A step-by-step example

Five Leaf is Peacchy’s fictional tea shop. It has to choose the keyword for its green tea page.

1. Makes a starting list. Writes how a customer would search: “green tea”, “organic green tea”, “buy green tea”, “green tea benefits”, “sencha”.
2. Looks at volumes. “Green tea” has a huge number of searches, “organic green tea” far fewer.
3. Checks intent. Searches “green tea benefits” on Google: articles come up, not shops. It’s not right for a page that sells. There’s a dedicated article on intent: search intent explained simply.
4. Looks at the trend. Searches for hot teas rise from October, iced teas in summer: the page needs improving before the peak.
5. Chooses. For the category: “organic green teas”. For the blog article: “green tea benefits”, written without health claims.

One keyword, one page

If two pages on the same site target the same keyword, Google doesn’t know which to show and often shows both lower down. It’s called cannibalisation.

The fix is a simple map: for each page, its main keyword, written in a spreadsheet. Before creating a new page, check the keyword isn’t already “taken”.

The most common mistakes

• Choosing only on volume.
• Using the same keyword for several pages.
• Translating keywords word for word from another language: people search differently in each language.
• Filling the text with repeated keywords (keyword stuffing): Google treats it as spam and readers leave.
• Chasing huge terms with a different intent: people searching «google ads» (over 100,000 searches a month in Italy) want to open the tool, not read a guide.

Test yourself

In Peacchy’s SEO Simulation you’ll find a keyword research tool with volumes, intent and month-by-month trends, plus an exercise on cannibalisation between two of the shop’s pages.

Sources

• Use Keyword Planner (Google Ads Help)
• Google spam policies: keyword stuffing (Google Search Central)