SEO Keyword Research: guide for beginners and experts

A complete guide to SEO Keyword Research, useful for experts and beginners, with strategies and best practices for selecting keywords effectively

Keyword Research represents the foundation of every successful SEO strategy, transforming user search behaviours into concrete business opportunities. From content creation to site structure, from editorial planning to optimisation: discover how to master this essential practice with tools, techniques and approaches updated to search engine logic.

What is Keyword Research and why it's fundamental

Keyword research is the process of researching, analysing and selecting the keywords that users type into search engines when looking for information, products or services. This activity is not limited to collecting the highest volume terms, but involves an in-depth analysis of the real search intentions of one's target audience, with the objective of transforming those signals into concrete organic visibility opportunities.

In today's digital landscape, where billions of searches are performed on search engines every day, keyword research is configured as the strategic compass that guides every SEO decision. Without thorough keyword research, in fact, even the highest quality content risks remaining invisible, losing the opportunity to intercept one's audience at the exact moment when they express a specific need.

The true value of this practice lies, therefore, in its ability to transform data into strategic insights. Through keyword analysis, it's possible to map the user's decision-making journey, identify market gaps, anticipate trends and build a digital presence that is relevant and oriented towards real user demand.

Areas of application: from content creation to site structure

The versatility of keyword research is reflected in its ability to adapt to numerous operational areas, each characterised by specific dynamics and opportunities.

Creating multimedia content

In the process of ideation and content production, keyword research plays a crucial role: it not only guides the selection of topics to be addressed, but also suggests the most suitable format for each topic. In textual content, keyword analysis — particularly of long-tail keywords — allows one to intercept specific search intents and position oneself on less competitive, but highly qualified queries.

Regarding video content, keyword research helps identify topics of greatest visual interest and optimise strategic elements such as titles, descriptions and tags, fundamental for increasing visibility on YouTube and in search results. Even for formats such as podcasts and infographics, accurate keyword research allows optimisation of metadata, descriptive texts and supporting texts, facilitating indexing and cross-channel distribution.

Design and reorganisation of site structure

When working on a website's structure — both in the launch phase and revision — keyword research assumes an architectural value. By analysing user queries, it's possible to build a content taxonomy that faithfully reflects search methods, making navigation more logical, intuitive and consistent with SEO criteria.

This approach allows identification of main topic clusters, organise site sections in a semantic and functional way, and design an internal linking strategy that enhances core content, whilst simultaneously improving authority distribution between pages.

Editorial calendar planning

An effective editorial calendar cannot disregard thorough keyword research. Analysis of seasonal trends, detection of interest peaks on certain topics and keyword segmentation along the conversion funnel allow publishing content in line with real user needs, at the most opportune moment and with the right tone of voice.

Review and optimisation of existing content

Among the highest-yielding applications of keyword research is the optimisation of already published content. Through analysis of current performance and identification of new semantic opportunities, it's possible to update and enhance articles, pages and resources, improving their position in organic results and expanding their visibility. This type of intervention, often quick and measurable, represents one of the most effective levers for increasing traffic without having to produce large volumes of new content.

How Google interprets keywords

To develop truly effective SEO strategies, it's essential to understand how search engines and, in particular, Google interprets keywords today. The search engine has evolved profoundly: it has moved beyond the approach based on exact term matching to embrace advanced semantic understanding, focused on meaning and search intent.

With the introduction of algorithms like BERT and MUM, Google is able to analyse complex queries taking into account linguistic context, semantic nuances, synonyms and even requests formulated incompletely or ambiguously. This implies that modern keyword research can no longer limit itself to selecting isolated keywords, but must adopt a contextual approach oriented towards intent.

A further qualitative leap has been achieved with the integration of the knowledge graph, which allows Google to connect entities, concepts and relationships between information. This enables it to return relevant results even in the absence of literal correspondence with keywords present in indexed pages. Consequently, an effective SEO strategy must consider not only primary keywords, but also the entire semantic ecosystem that revolves around a specific topic.

Finally, understanding search intent is today the heart of analysis. Google classifies queries based on specific intents — informational, navigational, transactional or commercial — and adapts results to user needs at that moment. Truly strategic keyword research must therefore be able to map both keywords and underlying intents, to create content capable of effectively satisfying every phase of the customer journey.

Essential tools for effective Keyword Research

The market provides numerous keyword research tools, suitable for different levels of experience and economic availability. These range from essential free tools for beginners, to professional solutions capable of offering advanced analysis and high-level decision support.

Fundamental free tools

Google Keyword Planner represents an indispensable reference tool for those approaching keyword research. Although primarily designed to support advertising campaigns on Google Ads, it offers reliable insights on search volumes and suggests related keywords, constituting a solid foundation for initial analysis. Its direct integration with Google data guarantees reliability, making it particularly useful for identifying emerging trends and search behaviours.
Google Search Console, instead, is configured as a strategic resource for website owners already online. Through the organic performance report, it allows analysis of queries actually used by users to reach the site, monitor positions in SERPs and identify improvement areas. This tool is essential for optimising existing content, measuring the impact of SEO actions over time and refining strategies based on real data.
Google Trends, finally, allows analysis of interest evolution over time for specific keywords, compare their relative popularity and identify seasonal patterns or emerging trends. It proves to be a strategic tool in planning timely, updated content aligned with market dynamics and user behaviour.

Professional solutions

Among paid solutions, tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz and other specialised software offer a range of advanced features that go well beyond simple search volume analysis. Despite being based on non-proprietary data, these platforms allow conducting in-depth research on direct and indirect competition, evaluate keyword difficulty, analyse backlink profiles for off-site SEO and monitor organic position trends over time, facilitating constant performance monitoring.

The integrated use and interpretation of this data allows approaching keyword research with a more strategic and results-oriented vision, transforming this information into concrete and actionable insights, capable of guiding editorial, structural and positioning choices in a conscious, sustainable and measurable way over time.

How to conduct Keyword Research: a strategic approach

Conducting keyword research today means adopting a strategic and multidimensional approach, capable of adapting to search engine evolution and, above all, to the continuous change in how people search for information online. It's no longer sufficient to collect generic or high-volume keywords: a holistic vision oriented towards business objectives is needed.

Objective definition and target analysis. Everything starts with a fundamental question: what do we want to achieve? Keyword research cannot disregard a clear understanding of business objectives and target audience. Identifying who ideal users are, what problems they want to solve and how they express them online is essential for intercepting truly relevant queries with high conversion potential.
Seed keyword mapping and initial collection. Once objectives are defined, one moves to primary keyword mapping or seed keywords. This phase includes brainstorming activities, competitor analysis and use of SEO tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ahrefs etc. It's important to immediately expand the semantic perimeter, including variants, synonyms, long tail and related keywords to create a rich foundation to work on.
Search intent analysis. Every keyword carries an intention. Understanding whether the user is seeking information, evaluating solutions or is ready to purchase is crucial for associating the right type of content (e.g. informative blog post, comparative guide, product page). Intent analysis therefore allows aligning content strategy with user expectations and relevance criteria rewarded by Google.
Opportunity evaluation. At this point, it's fundamental to analyse search volume, competition level and strategic relevance. Not all keywords require the same efforts: some represent quick and low-effort opportunities (quick wins), others require more consistent investments over time. The objective is to build a realistic, sustainable and results-oriented roadmap.
Continuous monitoring and optimisation. Keyword research is not a static activity nor one to be performed only once; in fact, search behaviours change, new competitors emerge and search engine algorithms undergo constant updates. For this reason, to remain competitive, it's fundamental to set up a constant monitoring system, based on concrete metrics and periodic strategy updates. Only a dynamic, iterative and data-driven approach can therefore allow maintaining high performance and guaranteeing organic visibility in the long term.

Final considerations: from research to understanding real needs

Today keyword research is much more than simple collection of high-volume keywords: it's a strategic activity that places people, their intentions and their concrete needs that they express online at the centre.

In a continuously evolving digital context, dominated by algorithms increasingly oriented towards semantic understanding and search intent satisfaction, knowing how to read the signals behind every query becomes crucial. The real challenge is not finding keywords, but interpreting the real problems that users are trying to solve, to then build around these needs, targeted content, pathways and relevant solutions.

If inserted within a broader strategy, well-articulated keyword research can guide the informative structure of a site, orient an effective editorial plan and contribute to building a solid, lasting and measurable organic presence. In this perspective, keyword research becomes an enabling factor for growth, capable of transforming data into concrete actions and results.

In an increasingly crowded market, the ability to adapt, anticipate needs and respond with precision and value to user searches represents a real competitive advantage, which goes beyond search engine positioning and fits into a vision of integrated digital marketing, conscious, performance-oriented and focused on real business value.