What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the exact words and phrases people type into search engines when looking for information, products, or answers related to your business.

It goes beyond guessing likely terms. Real keyword research uses data on search volume, how many people search a term, and difficulty, how hard it is to rank for, to prioritize which terms are actually worth targeting.

Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, and DataForSEO pull this data directly from search engines, since guessing without data usually means targeting terms that are either too competitive or barely searched at all.

An SEO automation platform runs this same research step automatically before writing a single page.