SEO library
How to do keyword research
Eight demand-discovery strategies drawn from interviews with working SEOs, each with a workflow and an MCP prompt for its data-backed steps.
Demand discovery in eight steps
Most guides teach you to export a volume report and sort descending. These strategies start earlier, where demand originates: customer language, question mining, your own Search Console. They end with pages mapped to intent, not keywords stuffed into paragraphs.
- 01
Seed from conversation, not a volume report
Harvest seed keywords from sales calls and support tickets using the language customers already use.
Read the guide - 02
What are long-tail keywords, and how to mine them
Find long-tail keywords in People Also Ask, autocomplete, and Search Console queries where your pages already rank.
Read the guide - 03
Search-intent mapping (hot, warm, cold)
Sort keywords by buying temperature before you write, then build high-intent pages first.
Read the guide - 04
Cluster keywords into topical hubs
Group keywords by intent and build topical hubs without creating competing pages.
Read the guide - 05
Programmatic discovery with Search Console
Use MCP to find Search Console queries and pages with room to gain more clicks.
Read the guide - 06
Opportunity sizing and forecasting
Estimate a cluster's difficulty, traffic range, and payback scenarios before you invest.
Read the guide - 07
Intent beyond Google (Pinterest, AI, LinkedIn)
Research demand on Pinterest, LinkedIn, and AI assistants.
Read the guide - 08
Map positioning to real demand
Check whether your category language matches the terms customers search for.
Read the guide
How to supplement Google Keyword Planner
Keyword Planner is built for planning search-ad campaigns. Its historical metrics combine close variants and report approximate monthly searches, so treat them as directional rather than a complete content-discovery dataset.
The strategies in this library supplement it with three sources you can inspect: your customers’ language (strategy 01), Google’s own question surfaces (strategy 02), and your Search Console data (strategy 05). Volume data still matters, but it is most useful after you understand the customer language and search intent.
Free sources for keyword discovery
Google’s free surfaces (autocomplete, People Also Ask) plus your own Search Console support the discovery. The data-backed parts of these workflows run on Ranktide’s keyword research and your connected Search Console. Through the Ranktide MCP, an assistant in Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can query both while it works through a workflow.
Search Console reads use no credits. Keyword metrics come from a paid data provider, so they use credits, and a quiet month costs less than a busy one. See pricing for how credits work.
Keyword research FAQ
How do you do keyword research for SEO?
Seed from customer language, expand into long-tails and questions, label by intent, cluster into one-page-per-intent hubs, then validate against Search Console. Volume is the final filter, not the starting point.
How do you do keyword research for free?
The discovery half runs on sources you already have: customer conversations, Google's autocomplete and People Also Ask, and your Search Console. Volume and difficulty data costs money, which is why the main plans of the big SEO suites cost more than $100 a month. Ranktide starts free with 1,000 credits, and paid plans start at $19 a month.
Can you do keyword research without Google Keyword Planner?
Yes. Keyword Planner combines close variants and reports approximate search-volume data designed for ad planning. Use it to sanity-check commercial value rather than as your only source for discovering topics.
What are the 3 types of keywords?
There is no universal set of three. Ranktide labels four intent types: informational, navigational, commercial and transactional. By shape, terms are often grouped as head, mid-tail and long-tail.
How do you do keyword research for a blog?
Blogs win in the tail: mine questions, cluster them into topical hubs, and let each post own one question-intent completely rather than skimming ten.
Run keyword research in Ranktide
Volume, difficulty, intent and the live SERP for any keyword, in the app or in your AI assistant over MCP. Start with 1,000 free credits. No card needed.