What is Keyword Research?
Finding the queries your audience actually types and mapping them to pages worth building. Teams that always do it report strong content results far more often than teams that skip it.
Related terms
Search Intent
The job behind a query: learn (informational), compare (commercial), buy (transactional), or navigate (navigational). Pages that mismatch intent rarely convert no matter how well they rank.
Keyword Mapping
Assigning each keyword cluster to exactly one canonical page. The map is the contract that stops two pages from chasing the same query.
Seed Keyword
The starting term expanded into a full keyword set ("website builder" → hundreds of variants). Good seeds are broad enough to branch, narrow enough to stay topical.
Informational Intent
Queries seeking to learn: guides, definitions, how-tos. Serve with complete explanations, examples, and next-step links rather than sales copy.
Transactional Intent
Queries ready to act: buy, sign up, download. Serve with product fit, proof, pricing clarity, and one primary call to action.
Commercial Investigation
Pre-purchase comparison queries ("X vs Y", "best X for Z"). Win with criteria tables, sourced claims, and honest fit statements instead of adjectives.