Keyword Research for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Keyword research for beginners comes down to six steps: list the topics your customers care about, expand them into real search phrases, check demand with free tools, work out the intent behind each phrase, judge whether you can compete, and map one main keyword to one page. You do not need expensive software to start. A Google account, a spreadsheet and an hour of focused work will give you a usable keyword list for a small business website.

At Softwix we have run keyword research for clients in Bangladesh, the UK, the US and Europe since 2017, and the process below is the one we use as the starting point for client sites. If you would rather have the research done for you as part of a wider campaign, see our SEO services.

Keyword research for beginners at a glance

Step	What you do	Free tool to use	Output
1. Seed topics	List your products, services and customer problems	Your sales notes, customer emails	10–20 seed topics
2. Expand	Turn seeds into real search phrases	Google autocomplete, “People also ask”, related searches	100–300 phrases
3. Check demand	Estimate monthly searches and seasonality	Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends	Volume ranges per phrase
4. Read intent	Decide what the searcher wants	Google results page itself	Intent label per phrase
5. Judge difficulty	See who ranks and whether you can beat them	Google results page, Search Console	Shortlist of realistic targets
6. Map to pages	Assign one main keyword per page	A spreadsheet	A content plan

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the words and phrases people type into search engines when they look for what you sell or know about. It tells you what to write, which page should target which phrase, and how much demand exists.

Google’s own SEO Starter Guide puts it simply: think about the words a user might search for to find your content. The guide also reassures site owners that they do not need to anticipate every variation, because Google’s language matching systems understand how a page relates to many queries.

That second point matters for beginners. Keyword research is not about squeezing exact phrases into every sentence. It is about understanding the language and questions of your customers, then building pages that answer them well.

Why does keyword research matter for a small business?

Keyword research stops you spending time and money on content nobody searches for. It also shows you the gaps where competitors are weak and you can win traffic quickly.

Without it, most businesses write about what they want to say rather than what customers ask. The result is a blog full of company news that attracts no visitors. With it, every page has a clear job: answer a specific question for a specific type of customer.

If you are still deciding whether search is worth the investment at all, our guide on why SEO is important for business covers the wider case.

Step 1: How do you find seed keywords?

Start with what you already know about your customers, not with a tool. Write down your products, services, and the problems customers describe when they first contact you.

Good places to look:

• Sales and support conversations: the exact words customers use on calls, WhatsApp, email and Messenger.
• Your product or service list: each category is usually a seed.
• Competitor menus: how competing websites name their categories and services.
• Reviews: your own and your competitors’ reviews show what buyers care about.

Aim for 10 to 20 seeds. For a Dhaka interior design studio, seeds might include “interior design”, “office interior”, “kitchen cabinet”, “false ceiling design” and “interior design cost”.

Write seeds in the language your customers search in. In Bangladesh many people search in English, some search in Bangla, and some mix both (“flat interior design dhaka”). Include all three patterns if your customers use them.

Step 2: How do you expand seeds into real search phrases?

Use Google itself to turn seeds into the phrases people actually type. Autocomplete, “People also ask” boxes and related searches at the bottom of the results page are all free and based on real behaviour.

1. Autocomplete: type a seed into Google slowly and note the suggestions. Add letters after the seed (“interior design a”, “interior design b”) to surface more.
2. Question modifiers: type “how”, “what”, “why”, “cost”, “best” or “near me” before or after your seed.
3. People also ask: open each question; Google loads more as you click.
4. Related searches: scroll to the bottom of the results page and record them.
5. Your own data: if your site already gets traffic, check the queries in Google Search Console (covered below).

Paste everything into a spreadsheet with one phrase per row. Do not judge them yet. A typical small business ends this step with 100 to 300 phrases.

Why long-tail phrases deserve your attention

Most searches are specific, low-volume phrases rather than big head terms. Ahrefs’ guide to long-tail keywords (updated in 2026) reports that keywords with fewer than 10 searches per month make up almost 93% of its US keyword database.

For a beginner, this is good news. Long-tail phrases usually have less competition, clearer intent and higher conversion rates. “Kitchen cabinet price in Dhaka” is a far more useful target for a local interior studio than “kitchen”.

Step 3: How do you check search volume for free?

Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends are the two main free sources of demand data. Keyword Planner gives monthly search estimates; Trends shows how interest changes over time and between regions.

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner sits inside Google Ads. According to Google Ads Help, it lets you discover new keywords related to your business and see estimates of the searches they receive and the cost to target them. Google notes that you must complete account setup, including billing information, to access features such as “Get ideas for new keywords”. You do not have to run a live campaign to use it.

How to use it:

1. Open Keyword Planner and choose “Discover new keywords”.
2. Enter three to five seeds, or your website address.
3. Set the location (for example Bangladesh, or the UK) and language.
4. Download the ideas and the “Avg. monthly searches” column into your spreadsheet.

Accounts without active ad spend often see volume as broad ranges, such as “100–1K”, rather than exact numbers. That is fine for beginners. You are sorting phrases into “some demand”, “good demand” and “no demand”, not forecasting traffic to the visit.

The “top of page bid” columns are useful too. A high suggested bid usually means advertisers make money from that search, which signals commercial intent.

Google Trends

Trends does not show search volume. As the Google Trends help page explains, each data point is divided by total searches for that place and time, then scaled from 0 to 100. A score of 100 means peak relative interest in the period you chose.

Use Trends to answer three questions:

• Is interest rising or falling? Compare the past five years.
• Is it seasonal? Searches for “Eid gift box” or “winter jacket” peak at predictable times, so publish a few weeks before the peak.
• Which wording is more popular? Compare up to five phrases, such as “mobile cover” and “phone case”.

Step 4: What is search intent and how do you identify it?

Search intent is what the person wants to achieve with their search. The quickest way to identify it is to search the phrase yourself and look at what Google already ranks on page one.

Intent	What the searcher wants	Example phrase	Best page type
Informational	To learn or solve a problem	how to clean leather sofa	Blog post or guide
Commercial	To compare options before buying	best accounting software for small business	Comparison or review post
Transactional	To buy or enquire now	buy office chair dhaka	Product, category or service page
Navigational	To reach a specific brand or site	daraz login	Usually not worth targeting unless it is your brand

Match your page to the intent Google already rewards. If page one for “website design cost” is full of price guides, a service page with no prices will struggle, however well optimised it is.

Add an “intent” column to your spreadsheet and label every phrase you plan to keep. Delete phrases whose intent does not fit your business at all.

Step 5: How do you know if you can rank for a keyword?

Look at who already ranks. If page one is full of big national brands, government sites or marketplaces, choose a more specific phrase. If it includes small business sites, forums or thin pages, you have a real chance.

Paid tools give a “keyword difficulty” score, but beginners can judge difficulty by eye. For each shortlisted phrase, search it and check:

• Who ranks: big brands, or businesses your size?
• How good the pages are: are they complete, current and useful, or old and thin?
• Whether results match the phrase: loosely matched results suggest Google lacks a strong answer.
• Local results: a map pack means local signals matter; read our local SEO checklist for those phrases.

Give each phrase a simple score: 1 (easy), 2 (possible) or 3 (hard for now). A new site should focus on 1s and 2s. Return to the 3s once you have built authority.

Use Google Search Console if your site already has traffic

Search Console shows the real queries that already bring impressions and clicks. The Performance report lists clicks, impressions, click-through rate and average position, with the past three months shown by default.

Filter for queries where your average position is between 8 and 20. These are “nearly there” keywords: you already rank on page one or two, and improving the page often moves you up faster than writing something new.

Step 6: How do you map keywords to pages?

Give every important page one primary keyword and a few closely related secondary phrases. Never point two pages at the same primary keyword, or they will compete with each other.

Group phrases that mean the same thing. “Interior design cost Dhaka”, “interior design price in Bangladesh” and “how much does interior design cost” belong on one page, not three. A useful test: if Google shows mostly the same results for two phrases, one page can target both.

Your finished map can be as simple as this:

Page	Primary keyword	Secondary keywords	Intent	Status
/kitchen-cabinets/	kitchen cabinet dhaka	kitchen cabinet design, modular kitchen bd	Transactional	Existing – optimise
/blog/kitchen-cabinet-price/	kitchen cabinet price in bangladesh	kitchen cabinet cost per foot	Commercial	New post
/blog/small-kitchen-ideas/	small kitchen design ideas	small flat kitchen layout	Informational	New post

Once a page has its keyword, use it naturally in the title tag, H1, opening paragraph, at least one subheading and the URL. Our on-page SEO checklist covers the full list of fixes for each page.

What mistakes do beginners make with keyword research?

The most common mistakes are chasing high-volume head terms, ignoring intent, and stuffing keywords into text. Each wastes effort and can hurt rankings.

• Chasing volume only: 50 searches a month from ready-to-buy customers is worth more than 10,000 from people who will never buy.
• Keyword stuffing: Google’s SEO Starter Guide states that keyword stuffing is against its spam policies, and excessive repetition tires readers.
• Using the meta keywords tag: the same guide confirms Google Search does not use it, so skip it.
• Buying keyword-stuffed domains: Google says keywords in a domain name or URL path alone have hardly any effect beyond appearing in breadcrumbs.
• One page per tiny variation: this creates thin, competing pages. Group variants instead.
• Doing it once: customer language, products and competitors change. Review your list every six months.

Which keyword research tools should a beginner use?

Start with the free tools from Google. Move to a paid tool only when you need competitor data or work on several sites.

Tool	Cost	Best for
Google autocomplete and “People also ask”	Free	Finding real phrases and questions
Google Keyword Planner	Free with a Google Ads account	Search volume ranges and commercial value
Google Trends	Free	Seasonality and comparing wording
Google Search Console	Free	Queries you already appear for
Paid suites (Ahrefs, Semrush and similar)	Monthly subscription	Competitor keywords, difficulty scores, larger datasets

AI assistants can help you brainstorm seeds and group phrases, but they do not have reliable search volume data. Always check demand in Keyword Planner or Trends before you commit to a topic.

How does keyword research turn into content?

Each mapped keyword becomes a brief: the page type, the questions to answer, and the subheadings to use. “People also ask” questions make excellent H2s, and they are also the kind of direct answers that AI search features pick up.

A simple brief includes the primary keyword, intent, target reader, three to six questions to answer, and the internal pages to link to. Hand that brief to whoever writes, whether that is you, a staff member or a professional content writing team.

Frequently asked questions

How long does keyword research take for a small business?

A first round for a small business site usually takes a few hours to a day. Most of that time goes into expanding seeds and checking what ranks. After that, a short monthly review in Search Console keeps the list current.

How many keywords should one page target?

One primary keyword plus a handful of closely related secondary phrases. If two phrases show mostly the same Google results, they can share a page. If the results differ, they usually need separate pages.

Is Google Keyword Planner free?

Keyword Planner sits inside Google Ads and you need an account with billing details completed to use its keyword ideas feature. You do not have to run ads, but accounts without spend often see search volumes as broad ranges rather than exact figures.

Should I target keywords with zero or very low search volume?

Often, yes, if the intent matches what you sell. Volume tools estimate and can under-report specific phrases, and a page ranking for many low-volume variations can add up to steady, high-quality traffic. Confirm the topic is real by checking autocomplete and “People also ask”.

Do I need to research keywords in Bangla as well as English?

If your customers search in Bangla, yes. Many Bangladeshi users search in English or a mix of English and Bangla, so test each version in Google and Keyword Planner. Create Bangla content where demand and intent justify it.

Get help with keyword research

Keyword research is the foundation of every page you publish, so it is worth doing carefully. Follow the six steps above, start with realistic long-tail targets, and review your list as your site grows. If you want a second opinion on where your site stands and which keywords you could win, request a free SEO audit from the Softwix team.