Finding out what people actually type
Keyword research is not about finding high volume phrases. For a local business it is about finding the handful of searches that bring somebody who is ready to call you.
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Short answer
Keyword research means finding the words people use when looking for what you offer. For a small business the useful output is a short list of specific, high intent searches rather than a long list of high volume ones. Search Console, autocomplete and your own enquiries are the best free sources.
Volume is the wrong first question
A phrase with an enormous monthly volume is contested by everybody, and most of the people searching it are not ready to buy anything.
A phrase with a small volume and a clear intent, such as somebody naming a specific problem in a specific town, brings the person who picks up the phone.
For a business that needs a handful of new customers a month, the second kind is worth far more, and it is available where the first is not.
For a business needing a handful of new customers a month, the specific search is worth far more than the popular one, and it is available where the popular one is not.
The free sources that work
Search Console, once you have any traffic at all. It reports the exact searches that showed your pages, which beats every estimate because it is real.
Autocomplete in the search box. Type the start of a phrase and read the suggestions, which are drawn from what people actually search.
The questions people also ask, shown in results. And your own inbox and phone: the words customers use when they describe their problem to you are the words they typed to find you.
- Search Console, once you have any traffic at all
- Autocomplete in the search box
- The related questions shown in results
- The words customers use on the phone
- The subject lines of enquiries in your inbox
- What competitors' pages are actually titled
What the planner tools tell you
Advertising keyword tools give volume estimates in broad bands, grouped so that several different phrases report the same figure. They were built for buying ads, not for planning content.
They are useful for discovering phrasings you had not thought of, and unreliable for deciding which one matters.
Treat the output as a list of candidates to judge, never as a ranking of what to build.
They give volume in broad bands, grouped so several different phrases report the same figure. They were built for buying ads, not for planning content.
Grouping by intent, not by phrase
Most lists contain the same question asked several ways. Best website maker, top website builder, good site builder. Those are one intent with three spellings.
Group them, then write one page per group. That one page can earn all the variants, because everybody searching them wants the same answer.
Building a page per variant splits your effort and produces the pattern search policies name as doorway pages.
Building a page per variant splits your effort and produces the pattern named in doorway pages.
Judging whether you can compete
Search the phrase and look at who is there. If the first page is national brands, directories and comparison sites, a local business is not going to displace them soon.
If it is other local businesses with ordinary pages, you can compete on the strength of a better page.
That five minute look tells you more than any difficulty score, because you are reading the actual competition rather than an estimate of it.
Do it while signed out, or in a private window, so your own history does not shape what you are shown.
How many phrases you need
Fewer than you think. A local service business is usually well served by a page for each real service and a page for each place with genuine local detail.
That might be a dozen commercial pages, plus guides answering the questions customers ask before buying.
A list of four hundred keywords is a list of pages you will never write well, and writing them badly is worse than not writing them.
A list of four hundred keywords is a list of pages you will never write well, and writing them badly is worse than not writing them.
How ours is derived
Pages here are written from a conversation about your business, which surfaces the words you and your customers actually use rather than words from a tool.
The planner refuses depth it cannot ground, so a page is not created for a phrase you have nothing specific to say about.
Every page passes a check that runs before anything publishes, validated against Google Search Essentials and modern web standards, and pages too similar to their siblings are refused rather than published.
Questions people ask
Do I need a paid keyword tool?
For a small local business, rarely. Search Console, autocomplete and the questions in your own inbox cover most of it and are more accurate about your audience.
Are high volume keywords worth chasing?
Usually not for a small site. They are contested by everybody and the searchers are mostly not ready to buy. Specific, lower volume phrases convert far better.
How do I know if a keyword is too competitive?
Search it and look at the first page. If it is national brands and directories, you are not displacing them soon. If it is local businesses, you can compete.
Should I have a page for every keyword?
No. One page per intent. Several phrasings of the same question belong on one page, because everybody searching them wants the same answer.
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