How to do keyword research: Tools and techniques.
1) Define goal, audience & competitors
- Business goals: traffic, leads, sales, installs, brand demand
- Audience: location, language, income, problems, phrasing
- Competitors: 3–5 direct/content competitors
- Success metrics: conversions, qualified traffic, revenue
2) Build your seed list
- Products, categories, services, pain points
- Real phrases: sales calls, chats, reviews
- Modifiers: best, price, near me, review, 2025, under ₹X, free
- Voice queries: “Ok Google, best phone under 15000?”
- India tip: Hinglish + transliterations
- Extra: YouTube, Amazon, Flipkart autocomplete
3) Expand keywords with tools
Free/Owned
- Search Console, Keyword Planner, Trends, SERP features
Paid/Free
- Ahrefs/Semrush (Gap, Top Pages, difficulty)
- Also Asked / Answer the Public (questions)
- KeywordTool.io, Low Fruits (long-tail, weak SERPs)
- Reddit/Quora (real phrasing)
4) Map to search for intent & journey
- Informational | Commercial | Transactional | Navigational | Local
- Search journey: awareness → consideration → decision → post-purchase
5) Judge keyword quality
- Volume buckets: 0–50, 50–200, 200–1K, 1K–10K, 10K+
- Difficulty: tool score + eyeball check
- Clicks per search: real click potential
- CPC & monetization path
- Trend: rising, steady, declining
- Localization & language variants
6) Validate with the SERP
- Format: blogs, category, product, video, forums, maps
- Content angle: “best under ₹X,” “2025 update,” “how to choose”
- SERP features: snippets, PAA, videos, images, map
- Competitor strength: beatable or not
- Zero-click: optimize for snippets or avoid
7) Cluster & map to pages
- Group by topic + intent
- One primary + 5–15 secondaries per page
- Use hub-and-spoke (pillar + clusters)
- Questions → H2/H3s
- Avoid cannibalization
8) Prioritize with a matrix
- Axes: Business value (H/M/L) vs Difficulty (L/M/H)
- Prioritize: High value + Low/Med difficulty
- Add business urgency (festivals, launches)
- Quick wins with KGR: (Allin title ÷ volume) < 0.25
9) Create content briefs
- Intent + format
- Primary + secondary keywords (natural)
- Outline: PAA + competitor subtopics
- Unique data/angle to beat page 1
- On-page: title, meta, intro promise, answer-first
- Microformats: tables, checklists, calculators
- Schema: FAQ, How to, Product, Local Business
- India tip: INR prices, delivery times, festival notes
10) Track, refresh & iterate
- Baseline: impressions, avg position, clicks
- Publish → index → monitor weekly
- 3–6 weeks: tweak headings, links, visuals
- Refresh cycle (3–6 months): update prices, models, comparisons
- Prune/merge cannibalizing pages
11) Special cases
- Local SEO: “near me,” city/area pages, WhatsApp CTA
- Ecommerce: category-level + product-level
- B2B: low-volume, high-value keywords
- YMYL: strong E-E-A-T, cite sources
- News/freshness: add years, update comparisons
12) Deliverables checklist (master sheet)
- Keyword, Intent, Cluster, Primary/Secondary
- Volume, Difficulty, CPC, Trend
- SERP features, Content type, Page type
- Status, URL, Notes (angle/data)
- Internal links, Owner, Due date
13) Quick weekly workflow (30–60 min)
- Pull new queries (Search Console) → tag quick wins
- Drop 3–5 seeds into tool → export top 100
- SERP-check 10–15 → remove mismatched intent
- Cluster → pick 3 pages → write briefs
- Add internal links → log in master sheet
Tool cheat sheet
- Search Console: Queries + cannibalization check
- Keyword Planner: Seeds + competitor URLs → grouped ideas
- Ahrefs/Semrush: Gap, Top Pages, Questions filter
- Trends: Compare terms, region = India/state
- Also Asked/Answer the Public: Build H2/H3s
1) Define goal, audience & competitors
Before you even touch a keyword tool, pause. Most mistakes happen right here.
Take Anita, a small entrepreneur in Pune running a homemade pickle business. She proudly told me her goal was “more traffic.” So, she started writing blogs like “Best Mango Pickle in India” and “History of Pickles.” A month later, her Google Analytics showed traffic coming from the US, UK, and Canada. She was excited until she realized not a single person ordered. Why? Because her real buyers were families in Pune and Mumbai. Not someone in New Jersey reading about achar out of curiosity.
I sat her down and asked, “Do you want traffic, or do you want sales?” That is when it clicked. Her true goal was not just traffic it was local orders. The moment she defined that, the audience became sharper. They were middle-class families in urban Maharashtra. They spoke Marathi, English, or Hinglish. And yes, they searched things like “achar online Pune” or “best mango pickle near me.”
Her competition? Not just big names like Priya or Mother’s Recipe. It also includes those Instagram sellers running D2C food brands from their kitchens. Once Anita saw this, her success metric shifted from “page views” to “orders via WhatsApp.”
Opinion: If you do not define your real goal, keyword research is just shooting arrows in the dark.
2) Build your seed list
This is where listening skills matter more than tools.
I worked with a coaching institute in Delhi. Their core services are IIT JEE and NEET coaching. Now, here is the thing students and parents do not speak in polished “SEO friendly” terms. They speak raw, emotional phrases.
A parent once called and asked, “Sir, is this the best IIT coaching near Rajouri Garden?” That is a keyword right there. Another parent whispered, “Fees Kitna Hai per month?” Again, golden seed material.
Students search differently. They type,
- “Best JEE crash course 2025”
- “NEET coaching under 50k”
- “Top physics coaching near me”
- Or simply, in Hinglish “Neet ka crash course”
One evening, I tested voice search on Google, “best IIT coaching near me.” Guess what? Their competitor’s ad popped up, not theirs. That is when it hit them voice searches and steal leads.
Lesson: Your best keywords are hidden in your customer calls. They are also in your WhatsApp chats. You will even find them in YouTube comments and voice queries.
3) Expand keywords with tools
Now the tools make sense after you know the real language of your buyers.
I once worked with a budget smartphone brand. Their ads were bleeding money because they targeted “buy smartphone.” Too broad.
When we checked Google Search Console, we found something interesting. They were already getting impressions for “best phone under 10000.” They had not even optimized for it.
We plugged this into Keyword Planner. Suddenly, related searches appeared:
- “Best android phone under 8000”
- “Battery phone under 10000”
- “5G phone under 15000”
Google Trends showed spikes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for “5G phones.” That explained why local distributors there were suddenly asking for stock.
On YouTube, autocomplete showed “best phone under 15000 for gaming.” We used that for a blog, and it went viral among students.
Competitor analysis? We ran Realme through Ahrefs. Their biggest traffic magnet? “Best phone under 15000.” It was like opening their playbook.
Emotion: The first time you see competitor data on tools like Ahrefs, it feels surprising. It is almost like peeking into their diary.
4) Map to search for intent & journey
Here is where most businesses go wrong. They rank for a keyword but do not understand why the user searched for it.
Take a fitness startup in Bangalore. One student searched “how to build stamina at home.” That is an informational query. Another searched “best gyms near Indiranagar Bangalore.” That is transactional.
One guy literally typed “Cult vs Gold’s Gym Indiranagar.” That is commercial investigation he is comparing before buying. Finally, another searched “Cult membership login.” That is navigational.
I told the founder, “Your blog about stamina building is great. But unless you link it to your gym membership, you will just be teaching for free.” He laughed, but the point stuck.
Tip: Map keywords to the customer journey: awareness → consideration → decision → retention.
5) Judge keyword quality
Not every keyword is worth chasing.
I recommended a home appliance brand in Chennai. We found “best water purifier in Chennai” with just 150 searches/month. They ignored it, thinking it was too small.
But here is what I showed them:
- CPC was ₹45+, meaning competitors knew it converted.
- Search trend spiked every summer when water shortages hit.
- Page 1 had weak local dealer sites. Easy to outrank.
Compare that to “best water purifier in India” with 10,000+ searches. Tempting, right? But the first page was filled with Amazon, Flipkart, NDTV, and top affiliate blogs. A new brand would not survive there.
They went after the smaller keyword. Within two months, their local sales doubled.
Opinion: Small, local keywords are often the hidden gold.
Keyword research is not about stuffing Google with words. It is about empathy. About sitting in your customer’s shoes and asking, “What would I type if I really needed this product?”
Indian businesses have their quirks. They include Hinglish searches. They also include regional terms. Seasonal spikes are another factor. For example, there are “Diwali offers.” There are also “monsoon repairs.” Sometimes, it is “exam results coaching.”
If you treat keyword research as a human problem, not just a technical task. You’ll stop wasting energy chasing irrelevant traffic. You will start attracting the people who are ready to buy from you.
Every successful keyword strategy I have seen in India began with listening. The tools came later.
6) Validate with the SERP
I will admit it when I started, I never bothered with SERP checks. I thought keyword volume was all that mattered. Big mistake.
Back in 2014, I tried ranking a single product page for “best budget laptops under 30,000.” I spent weeks on page optimizing, meta tags, H1, internal links, and the works. After three months? Nowhere. Why? Because that SERP was already dominated by list, YouTube reviews, and comparison blogs. My poor product page never stood a chance.
Fast forward, I watched a student of mine in Vijayawada repeat the same error with an LG AC page. He spent months, only to realize Google wanted lists and videos. The day he published a blog titled “Best ACs Under 30K With Installation in Andhra Pradesh.’ The tables turned. WhatsApp leads started buzzing.
Lesson? Do not fight the SERP. Respect it. It is like cricket pitch conditions if it is a turning track, do not keep bowling pace.
7) Cluster & Map to Pages
This one is close to my heart because I have made this blunder too many times.
I once worked with a bakery in Bangalore. She stuffed every keyword. Custom cakes, birthday designs, eggless, fondant all onto a single page. Google got confused. Customers got confused. Nobody ranked.
I told her, “Imagine walking into a bakery. Every cake chocolate, pineapple, red velvet, fruit—is smashed into one plate.” Would you eat it? Google feels the same way.”
We broke things down. One pillar page on custom cakes. Smaller cluster blogs on birthday cakes, eggless options, and fondant vs cream.
Suddenly, she had a neat SEO menu. Within weeks, her eggless cake blog in Bangalore started pulling orders. Customers came from Koramangala and Indiranagar.
She called me one night, voice trembling with excitement. She said, “I finally got my first order from Google. I did not even know the customer!”
That is the emotional payoff of clustering done right.
8) Prioritize with a Matrix
One Diwali, a Delhi lighting shop owner asked me, “Should I go after big keywords like Diwali LED lights?” I checked the SERP. Amazon, Flipkart, Pepper fry giants everywhere.
I said, “Don’t try to fight Goliath. Lets pick a keyword that is closer to home.” We chose “Fairy lights for Diwali decoration in Delhi.” Only 300 searches, but it had local intent.
Guess what? Calls started pouring in. His exact words: “Bhaiya, Pehle Baar Google se itne phone aaye ki staff ko extra chai banani padi.”
I have seen this repeatedly. Chasing high volume terms is like running in a marathon with no shoes. Sometimes, those “small” 300 search keywords bring the biggest business impact.
And yes, I am a fan of the KGR trick. One of my earliest wins was “best mixer grinder under 2000 rupees.” Low competition, low attention, but high payoff. That article ranked in weeks. It gave me the confidence to keep experimenting.
9) Create Content Briefs
When I train students, I always use the cooking example. Do not start frying onions without chopping tomatoes first. Same with content you need your brief.
A Pune-based smartphone shop was struggling. Their competition was TechRadar and 91mobiles for ‘best phone under 15000 in India.’ They were losing badly. I said, “You can’t beat them at their game. But you can play your own.”
We built a content brief that included:
- Local Pune offline shop prices (Amazon never shows that).
- Delivery times within Pune.
- FAQs like “Which phone has the best camera under 15000?”
- Pros and cons in simple Hindi English style, not tech jargon.
The blog did not just look different, it felt authentic. Customers started visiting the shop because the page seemed more “real” than Flipkart. The owner told me, “For the first time, my customers quoted my blog to me while buying.” That’s when I knew we’d nailed it.
10) Track, Refresh & Iterate
This is where most people give up. They publish once, rank the keywords, and they move on.
I nearly quit blogging in 2017 because of this. My article on “Best Diwali Gift Ideas 2016” was a hit one year, dead the next. I felt crushed. But when I updated it to “Best Diwali Gift Ideas 2017” and added trending gift baskets from Amazon. I also refreshed images. Boom, rankings came back. That was my aha moment.
Same with a saree boutique in Jaipur. Their “Best Silk Sarees for Weddings 2024” page dropped. We refreshed it with organza and linen styles in 2025, added new images, and they bounced back. The owner told me, “Earlier, my blogs felt dead. Now they feel alive.”
Refreshing content is like watering a plant. Without it, even the strongest tree will wither.
11) Special Cases I Have Seen
- Local SEO: A Lucknow dentist cried on call because nobody was finding him. I built him a “Dentist in Lucknow with WhatsApp Booking” page. Within weeks, he was ranking for “dentist near me.”
- E-commerce: A dosa tawa seller in Coimbatore shifted from “buy tawa” to “best dosa tawa under 1000.” His tiny blog outranked big brands.
- B2B: A Gurgaon SaaS startup targeted “warehouse management software India.” Just 50 searches, but one lead closed worth ₹7 lakhs.
- YMYL: A Mumbai nutritionist cited ICMR and WHO. Her trust score skyrocketed. Patients told her, “We came because your blog felt more reliable.”
- Freshness: Cricket bloggers who add new IPL stats every season never fall off. One even told me, “IPL is my yearly SEO bonus.”
12) Deliverables Checklist
One Hyderabad client of mine wasted two months targeting the wrong page type. They pushed a product page when the SERP was clearly blog dominated. After that, I never skip intent, SERP format, angle, or status in any keyword sheet.
Think of it as a cockpit you miss one dial, the plane crashes.
13) Quick Weekly Workflow
My favorite story here is from Kolkata. A tuition teacher told me, “Sir, I do not have time for SEO. I teach 10 hours a day.”
I asked him to give me just one hour every Saturday.
- Pull queries from Search Console.
- Check 10 SERPs.
- Cluster them into 2 ideas.
- Post one blog or FAQ on Sunday.
He stuck it for six months. Today, his little tuition site outranks massive coaching centers. He laughed and said, “I never thought my 1-hour hobby would beat ads worth lakhs.”
That’s the power of consistency. Small, steady steps beat big, random leaps.
The truth is, all of this comes from mistakes I made early on. I wasted months chasing impossible SERPs, writing aimless blogs, and ignoring refreshing cycles. What saved me was learning from real businesses. Bakeries, saree shops, tuition teachers, and small store owners across India.
And if there is one emotional takeaway, I would leave you with, it is this. SEO is not about ranking first. It is about being useful in the way people are searching. Once you align with that, everything else starts falling into place.
