What Is Keyword Research? In 2025, 91.8% of all search queries entered into Google are long-tail keywords — three or more words strung together by someone with a specific need...
What Is Keyword Research?
In 2025, 91.8% of all search queries entered into Google are long-tail keywords — three or more words strung together by someone with a specific need in mind, according to Backlinko’s analysis of 306 million search queries. That single figure exposes the central problem with how most businesses approach keyword research. They chase the big, obvious terms and ignore the specific language their customers actually use. Keyword research is not about stuffing the right words into a page. It is about mapping the precise language of customer demand to the content your business publishes. Done well, it is one of the highest-return strategic activities a business can undertake.
Key Takeaways
- Keyword research maps customer search language to your content — it is a demand intelligence exercise, not a technical SEO task.
- Long-tail keywords (3+ words) convert at approximately 2.5x the rate of broad head terms, making specificity a commercial advantage.
- In 2025, 52.65% of all searches are informational — understanding intent is what separates wasted content spend from content that drives pipeline.
- As of 2024, 58.5% of US Google searches end with zero clicks (Search Engine Land, 2024), making brand visibility in the SERP itself a strategic objective.
What Is Keyword Research and Why Does It Matter?
Keyword research is the process of identifying the words and phrases people type into search engines when they are looking for information, products, or services related to your business. In 2025, Semrush data shows that AI Overviews now appear for 27.55% of US mobile queries — up from 8.61% in 2024 — meaning the search landscape your content competes within is changing faster than at any prior point in the discipline’s history. Keyword research is the foundation that tells you which territory is worth competing for.
For a business owner or senior decision-maker, keyword research is not a marketing department technicality. It is a demand-sensing mechanism. It reveals what your market is actively searching for, at what volume, at what point in their decision-making process, and with what level of competition standing between you and visibility. Every content investment your business makes — every article, every service page, every landing page — should be grounded in this intelligence. Without it, you are publishing on instinct rather than on evidence.
The businesses that treat keyword research as a one-time setup task consistently underperform those that treat it as an ongoing intelligence function. Search behaviour shifts with market conditions, technology adoption, and competitor activity. A keyword strategy built in 2022 and left untouched is not a strategy. It is a historical document.
Keyword research connects three things that strategy must always connect: what your audience wants, what your business offers, and what the competitive environment allows. It is the bridge between intent and opportunity. [INTERNAL-LINK: learn how keyword research connects to your broader content strategy → content strategy pillar page]
What Are the Different Types of Keywords?
In 2025, Backlinko’s 306-million-query study confirmed that the median keyword gets just 10 searches per month — reinforcing that the keyword universe is vast, distributed, and dominated by specificity rather than volume. Understanding keyword types is the first step to identifying where your business can realistically compete and where the highest-value traffic lives.
There are two primary ways to classify keywords: by length and by intent. Length classification gives you a sense of competition and specificity. Intent classification tells you what stage of the buying process a searcher is in.
Classification by Length
| Keyword Type | Definition | Example | Typical Competition | Typical Conversion Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head Terms (Short-tail) | 1–2 words, broad topics | “keyword research” | Very high | Low |
| Mid-tail | 2–3 words, more specific | “keyword research tools” | High | Moderate |
| Long-tail | 3+ words, highly specific | “how to do keyword research for B2B SaaS” | Low to moderate | High (~36% average) |
Classification by Intent
| Intent Type | What the Searcher Wants | Example | 2025 Share of Searches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Informational | To learn or understand something | “what is keyword research” | 52.65% |
| Navigational | To find a specific brand or website | “Semrush login” | 32.15% |
| Commercial Investigation | To compare options before buying | “best keyword research tools 2025” | 14.51% |
| Transactional | To complete a purchase or action | “buy Semrush subscription” | 0.69% |
The intent classification data above comes from Search Atlas’s 2025 SEO statistics compilation. The implication for strategy is clear: the overwhelming majority of search activity is informational. Businesses that only publish transactional content — pricing pages, product pages, request-a-quote forms — are invisible to 85% of the search market.
The businesses that win search visibility in competitive B2B markets do so by publishing content that addresses the informational and commercial investigation stages of their buyers’ journeys — not by optimising product pages in isolation. Keyword research makes this strategy visible and actionable. [INTERNAL-LINK: content marketing for B2B → B2B content strategy guide]
What Is Search Intent and Why Does It Drive Keyword Strategy?
Search intent is the underlying goal a person has when they type a query into a search engine. In 2025, Semrush’s AI Overviews study confirmed that Google is aggressively expanding AI-generated answers for informational and long-tail queries, meaning that publishing content misaligned with intent does not just fail to convert — it fails to rank at all. Intent alignment is now a technical ranking signal, not just a content best practice.
The four intent categories — informational, navigational, commercial investigation, and transactional — map directly to stages in a purchase decision. A business owner searching “what is keyword research” is in a learning phase. A marketing manager searching “Ahrefs vs Semrush” is in a comparison phase. A procurement lead searching “Semrush agency pricing” is close to a decision. Each query type demands a different content format, a different level of depth, and a different call to action.
Intent Mapped to the Buying Funnel
Informational intent sits at the top of the funnel. Content here earns trust and builds awareness. It will not close deals directly — but without it, your business is invisible to the majority of people who will eventually become buyers. Commercial investigation intent sits in the middle of the funnel. Comparison guides, case studies, tool reviews, and methodology explainers serve this intent. Transactional intent is bottom of funnel. These searchers are ready to act and the content they need is concise, credible, and friction-free.
According to Search Atlas’s 2025 data, only 0.69% of searches carry transactional intent. This does not mean transactional content is unimportant — it means that competing only at the transactional layer leaves the other 99.31% of your potential audience unaddressed. A sound keyword strategy distributes content investment across all intent types in proportion to where your buyers spend their research time. [INTERNAL-LINK: search intent optimisation → search intent guide]
The practical implication: before selecting any keyword to target, define its intent. Then confirm that the content format you plan to publish matches what Google is already ranking for that query. If the top-ranking results for a keyword are all listicles, publishing a 3,000-word opinion piece will not succeed — regardless of how well-researched it is.
How Do You Conduct Keyword Research?
Effective keyword research follows a repeatable process. As of 2024, 58.5% of US Google searches end with zero clicks (Search Engine Land, 2024) — meaning that even ranking well does not guarantee a website visit if a competitor’s content or a Google feature answers the query directly in the SERP. This context makes keyword selection even more strategic: you must target queries where a click is likely, not just queries where ranking is possible.
The process has five stages:
1. Define Your Seed Keywords
Seed keywords are the broad, foundational terms that describe your core products, services, or topic areas. They are the starting point for expansion, not the destination. A professional services firm might start with “marketing strategy”, “B2B lead generation”, or “content marketing”. These seeds are then fed into research tools to generate a broader map of related queries.
2. Use Research Tools to Expand
The major keyword research platforms — Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Search Console — generate related keyword suggestions, surface search volumes, and estimate keyword difficulty scores. Google Keyword Planner is widely used but exercise caution: Ahrefs found it overestimates 91.45% of keyword search volumes, which can mislead budget and content prioritisation decisions. Cross-reference data from at least two tools before making targeting decisions.
3. Analyse Volume, Difficulty, and Intent
For each candidate keyword, assess three factors: monthly search volume (how many people are searching), keyword difficulty (how competitive the existing results are), and search intent (what the searcher actually wants). A keyword with 500 monthly searches, low difficulty, and clear commercial intent is frequently more valuable than a keyword with 50,000 monthly searches, high difficulty, and ambiguous intent. Volume is not value.
The median keyword on Google receives just 10 searches per month (Backlinko, 306M Keyword Study, 2024). This is not a discouraging figure — it is a strategic one. It confirms that the most commercially valuable keywords for most businesses are not the famous, high-volume terms. They are the specific, lower-volume queries that signal a precise buying need.
4. Prioritise by Business Impact
Filter your keyword list through a business lens. Which keywords, if you ranked for them, would most directly drive enquiries, leads, or sales? Which keywords address the questions your best prospects are asking in the first 60 days of their research process? The answers to these questions — not raw traffic potential — should govern your content investment priorities. [INTERNAL-LINK: keyword prioritisation framework → content planning guide]
5. Map Keywords to Content
Assign each priority keyword to a specific piece of content — either existing content that can be optimised, or new content that needs to be created. One keyword cluster per page. Never force multiple competing keyword groups onto a single URL, as this creates intent confusion that degrades both ranking potential and conversion performance.
What Keyword Metrics Actually Matter?
Most keyword research tools surface dozens of data points. In practice, five metrics carry the majority of the strategic weight. Since AI Overviews grew to cover 27.55% of US mobile queries in 2025 (Semrush), traditional click-through potential has become a primary filter — a keyword with high volume but low click potential due to SERP features is a poor investment of content resources.
The Five Metrics That Drive Decisions
Search volume indicates how many times per month a keyword is searched. It is directionally useful but not precise. Use it as a relative comparison tool between keywords, not as an absolute traffic forecast. Remember that Ahrefs found Google Keyword Planner inflates volume figures for 91.45% of keywords — treat all volume estimates with appropriate scepticism.
Keyword difficulty (KD) is a score — typically 0-100 — that estimates how hard it would be to rank on the first page for a given keyword. A low KD score combined with meaningful search volume and clear intent is the combination that identifies a genuine opportunity. New websites and those without significant domain authority should focus the majority of their effort on keywords with a KD below 30.
Cost per click (CPC) is the average amount advertisers pay for a single paid click on a keyword. High CPC signals high commercial intent — advertisers only pay premium rates for queries that produce revenue. When organic keyword data is ambiguous about intent, CPC is a reliable proxy for commercial value.
SERP features determine what the search results page looks like for a given keyword. Featured snippets, AI Overviews, knowledge panels, image packs, and local results all affect whether an organic ranking translates into a click. As of 2024, 58.5% of US searches end with zero clicks (Search Engine Land, 2024). Identifying keywords where organic blue-link results dominate the SERP — rather than features that answer the query without a click — is now a fundamental step in keyword qualification.
Click potential is the estimated proportion of searchers who will actually click through to a website after seeing the search results. It is the metric that translates volume into realistic traffic opportunity. A keyword with 10,000 monthly searches and 15% click potential delivers fewer actual visits than a keyword with 2,000 monthly searches and 70% click potential. Evaluate click potential alongside volume — never volume alone. [INTERNAL-LINK: understanding SERP features → SERP analysis guide]
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does keyword research take?
A thorough initial keyword research project for a single business typically takes between eight and twenty hours, depending on the industry’s complexity and the number of target audience segments. This covers seed keyword generation, tool-based expansion, intent classification, difficulty analysis, and content mapping. Ahrefs and Semrush both offer streamlined workflows, but the analysis and prioritisation stage requires human judgement that cannot be automated. Quarterly review cycles of two to four hours maintain currency. [INTERNAL-LINK: keyword research process → step-by-step keyword research guide]
What is the difference between short-tail and long-tail keywords?
Short-tail keywords are broad terms of one to two words with high search volume and high competition. Long-tail keywords are specific phrases of three or more words. Long-tail keywords account for 91.8% of all search queries (Backlinko, 306M Keyword Study, 2024) and convert at approximately 36% — roughly 2.5 times higher than short-tail terms. For most businesses, a keyword strategy weighted toward long-tail specificity delivers superior commercial return.
Do I need to pay for keyword research tools?
Free tools — Google Search Console, Google Trends, and the autocomplete and “People Also Ask” features within Google itself — provide meaningful foundational data. Paid platforms such as Ahrefs (from approximately $129/month) and Semrush (from approximately $130/month) provide search volume estimates, keyword difficulty scores, SERP analysis, and competitor gap identification that free tools cannot replicate. For businesses making significant content investments, a paid tool’s data quality typically justifies the cost within the first month of use.
How often should I update my keyword research?
Industry standard is a full keyword audit every six to twelve months, with lightweight quarterly reviews for high-priority topic clusters. This cadence is increasingly important: Semrush data shows that AI Overviews appeared for 27.55% of US mobile queries in 2025, up from 8.61% in 2024 — meaning SERP composition for any given keyword can shift materially within a single quarter. Static keyword strategies decay faster than ever. [INTERNAL-LINK: content audit process → quarterly SEO review guide]
What is keyword cannibalism and why does it matter?
Keyword cannibalism occurs when two or more pages on the same website target the same keyword or keyword cluster, causing them to compete against each other in search results. This splits ranking signals, confuses search engines about which page is authoritative, and typically results in neither page ranking as well as a single consolidated page would. Studies consistently show that consolidating cannibalised content improves ranking performance in the majority of cases. One keyword cluster, one page — always.
Conclusion
Keyword research is not a technical SEO task delegated to a specialist. It is a strategic intelligence function that should inform every content decision your business makes. The data is unambiguous: long-tail specificity converts at 2.5 times the rate of broad terms, over half of all Google searches now end without a click, and search intent classification determines whether your content ranks and converts or simply exists. These are not tactical details. They are strategic realities with direct revenue implications.
The businesses that generate sustained organic growth share one characteristic: they treat keyword research as ongoing market intelligence rather than a one-time setup task. They revisit their keyword maps quarterly, align content formats to search intent precisely, and prioritise click potential over raw volume. That discipline is what separates content that builds pipeline from content that consumes budget.
If your business has not conducted a structured keyword research review in the past twelve months, that is the right place to begin. Start with your core service areas, map the intent behind each keyword cluster, and audit whether the content you have published actually matches what the search results for those queries demand. [INTERNAL-LINK: get started with a keyword audit → contact or services page]
Sources
Backlinko, “We Analysed 306M Keywords. Here’s What We Learned About Google Searches,” retrieved 2025, https://backlinko.com/google-keyword-study
Search Engine Land, “Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024,” retrieved 2024, https://searchengineland.com/google-search-zero-click-study-2024-443869
SE Roundtable, “Similarweb Says No Clicks From Google Grew From 56% to 69% Since AI Overviews,” retrieved 2025, https://www.seroundtable.com/similarweb-google-zero-click-search-growth-39706.html
Search Atlas, “300+ SEO Statistics and Facts in 2025,” retrieved 2025, https://searchatlas.com/blog/seo-statistics/
Semrush, “Semrush AI Overviews Study: What 2025 SEO Data Tells Us About Google’s Search Shift,” retrieved 2025, https://www.semrush.com/blog/semrush-ai-overviews-study/
Circulatedigital, “45 Statistics About Long-Tail Keywords (2025),” retrieved 2025, https://circulatedigital.com/blog/45-stats-about-long-tail-keywords/
Ahrefs, “Keyword and search traffic metrics,” retrieved 2025, https://ahrefs.com/academy/how-to-use-ahrefs/ahrefs-seo-metrics/keyword-and-search-traffic