How to Do Keyword Research: A Step-by-Step Guide for Small Businesses

What Is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the exact words and phrases your potential customers type into Google when they're looking for what you sell. It sounds simple. But done well, it's one of the most valuable things you can do for your business.

Why Keyword Research Matters

Most businesses write content about what they think their customers want to know. Keyword research tells you what they actually search for. The difference is enormous. A page optimised for the wrong keyword gets no traffic no matter how good it is. A page optimised for the right keyword can bring in customers every single day.

Step 1: Start with Your Customers

Before you open any tool, ask yourself: what problems does my product or service solve? What questions do my customers ask me? Write down 10–20 topics. These are your starting seeds. For example, if you run a yoga studio: "beginner yoga classes", "yoga for stress", "yoga near me", "online yoga for beginners".

Step 2: Expand with Keyword Tools

Take your seed topics and run them through a keyword tool to find related terms, search volumes, and difficulty scores. Good options:

• Google Search Console (free, shows what you already rank for)

• Google's autocomplete (start typing and see what Google suggests)

• AnswerThePublic (free version available)

• Oh So SEO (built for small businesses, includes keyword suggestions and tracking)

Step 3: Understand the Metrics

Search volume: how many times per month this keyword is searched. Higher isn't always better — a lower-volume keyword that's highly specific might convert much better. Keyword difficulty: how hard it is to rank on page one (usually scored 0–100). New sites should target under 30. Established sites can go higher. Search intent: what is the person actually trying to do? Are they looking to buy, learn, compare, or find a location?

Step 4: Choose Your Keywords

A good keyword to target has:

• Clear relevance to your business

• Enough search volume to be worth the effort (50+/month)

• A difficulty score you can realistically compete with

• Intent that matches what your page offers

Step 5: Group and Prioritise

Organise your keywords by theme. Each theme becomes a page or piece of content on your site. Don't try to target everything at once. Pick 5–10 priority keywords and focus on those first.

FAQ

How many keywords should I target? Start with 10–20. Quality over quantity. One page ranking well for the right keyword beats twenty pages ranking for nothing. Can I use the same keyword on multiple pages? Be careful here. Targeting the same keyword on multiple pages can confuse Google about which page to rank. Give each page its own unique keyword focus. How often should I do keyword research? Review your keywords every 3–6 months. Search trends change, new opportunities appear, and your business evolves. What's a long-tail keyword? A longer, more specific search phrase (e.g. "yoga classes for beginners in Bristol" vs "yoga"). Long-tail keywords have lower volume but higher intent — and are often much easier to rank for.