Keyword Research: Finding the Right Terms to Target

Keyword optimization is an important aspect of SEO. Knowing which terms to target and how to target them is a fundamental part of any content strategy. This post is going to break down the basics behind finding and utilizing specific search terms in your site content to boost your search engine rankings and visibility in AI-generated search summaries.

Finding Keywords

Whether you’re creating content for an entire website or just one blog post, you probably have a topic in mind. This is the starting point for creating a list of target keywords. The best posts deal with specific issues within the general site topic and target a focused cluster of queries. By utilizing your own knowledge of your topic alongside modern online tools, you can find the best phrases to target with your content.

But how do you know which phrases people are searching for?

A classic place to start is the Google Ads Keyword Planner, which provides data on monthly traffic volume. However, in 2026, combining this with tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, or Ahrefs gives you a much more accurate picture of actual search behavior. Starting with a few seed keywords regarding your article’s topic, you can quickly build a larger list of related queries and questions your audience is asking.

How do you know which search terms are the best?

Keyword research tools give you a lot of data to work with, and initially, it’s not easy to see how it all combines to affect your choice. Should you target the keywords with the most monthly traffic? Should you target the terms with the lowest competition score? The answer depends on a few key factors:

Search Volume

This metric is easy to understand at face value but can be misleading. Obviously, more search volume means more opportunities for users to visit your site, but a term with higher traffic is not always better. For a water ski dealer in Miami, the phrase “Buy a water ski in Miami” with 500 monthly searches will likely bring in more direct sales than “water ski” with its 50,000 searches per month. The first group has a specific need the dealer can meet, whereas the 50,000 users might just be looking for a Wikipedia definition. Search volume is an important metric, but it is not the only aspect to consider.

Search Intent

Search intent should be the primary driver of your keyword strategy. There is likely a specific action you want users to take on your website, which dictates the type of intent you need to target.

An online shop wants visitors to eventually make a purchase, so targeting “Commercial” and “Transactional” intent brings in better quality traffic with a higher conversion rate.

Competition and Authority

The competitiveness of a particular keyword requires checking the actual search results. If no sites comparable to yours appear in the top results—or if the answers are entirely dominated by quick AI Overviews—it may be too competitive. Large sites have built up massive “Topical Authority” in Google’s eyes. If you are a small local business trying to tackle a broad search term dominated by massive national publications, you’re fighting an uphill battle. You’re better off competing for long-tail, hyper-specific terms where your unique, first-hand experience (part of Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines) can shine.

Using Keywords

Now that you’ve thoroughly researched the best keywords, it’s time to start writing. All of your careful planning will go to waste if you do not take equal care in writing your post.

A Note on Modern Ranking: Today, your keyword strategy must be paired with genuine helpfulness. Placing your target keywords in the right spots matters, but only if the content itself satisfies the user’s query better than the competition.

Best Places for Target Terms

Back in the early days of SEO, keyword optimization was as simple as using a phrase as often as possible. Search engines were far less complex. Today, algorithms use advanced neural networks to understand topics conceptually. There is much more to ranking than using a word repeatedly; placing your target terms strategically provides the best result.

• Title Tags: This is where you want to place your main keyword. This is the clickable text in standard search results, and having the exact phrase here helps increase your Click-Through Rate (CTR).
• Heading Tags (H1, H2, H3): The H1 tag is your top-level page heading. However, your H2s and H3s are incredibly valuable for securing placement for secondary keywords and natural questions. Using a proper HTML heading hierarchy shows search engines that you provide in-depth, organized information.
• URL: A beneficial area to place key phrases is in the page URL. A Content Management System like WordPress lets you define a clean permalink structure. Keep URLs short and keyword-focused.
• Other Beneficial Areas: The image alt attributes are strategic areas to describe visual content using natural key phrases. The meta description, while not a direct ranking factor, is crucial for convincing users to click your link instead of a competitor’s.

Why Old Keyword Strategies Don’t Work

You might be wondering, “Shouldn’t my main keyword appear in the actual content dozens of times?” The answer is an absolute ‘No.’ Here is why modern SEO requires a different approach:

Semantic Search and Entities (Replacing “LSI”)

For years, SEOs talked about “Latent Semantic Indexing” (LSI) as a way to sprinkle related keywords into text. Today, Google does not use LSI. Instead, it uses advanced AI (like MUM and Gemini) to understand entities and semantics.

Search engines now understand human language contextually. For example, Google knows that a page mentioning “Apple,” “Tim Cook,” “iPhone 17,” and “iOS” is about a technology company, without you needing to artificially cram the keyword “Apple tech company” into the text 15 times. Search engines understand these relationships to the point that it is no longer necessary to ‘write for robots.’ Returning to a natural, conversational, and highly expert writing style is your best strategy.

Areas to Avoid

This brings us to the old meta keywords tag. If you’ve been paying attention to SEO over the last decade, you realize this tag is completely obsolete. Search engines ignore it, and using it only signals that your SEO knowledge is severely out of date.

Furthermore, avoid using AI writing tools to just spin up generic content padded with keywords. Google’s systems heavily reward original insights and first-hand experience. If you’re wondering whether a specific tactic is going to get you penalized, it’s best to consult Google’s Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines).

Putting It All Together

Now that your target terms are strategically placed in your headings and tags, optimization should take a backseat to writing readable, deeply relevant content that appeals to humans. Make an effort to naturally incorporate industry terminology, entities, and concepts related to your main subject. Interacting with communities and knowing the actual lingo of your industry is the best way to write authoritative content.

As you incorporate natural language, you’ll end up ranking for an extremely diverse group of long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are highly specific search phrases. They tend to have lower search volume, but their specificity brings in traffic that is ready to convert. Often, the combined traffic from hundreds of long-tail variations will far exceed the traffic of your primary keyword.

Knowing all this, you’re now well-equipped to drastically improve your digital marketing strategy. Whether you’re writing a quick blog post or a massive, ten-thousand-word definitive guide, these modern principles will help you develop an iron-clad on-page SEO strategy.