Keyword Research

Website and SEO

Find the exact words your customers use when they search for you.

Beginner • 3 to 4 hours • 6 steps • 4 templates • 4 tools

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Playbook details

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What you'll walk away with

Overview

What this playbook covers

Keyword research is the foundation of all SEO. Get it right and every other SEO task becomes easier and more focused. Get it wrong and you could spend a year optimising your website for terms nobody searches — or terms that attract completely the wrong people. This playbook walks you through the process from scratch.

Most common mistake

Businesses skip the foundation work and jump straight to tactics. Every playbook assumes you’ve done the thinking first. If you rush the early steps, the later ones won’t land as well.

Section 1

The Recipe — step by step

Follow these steps in order. Each one builds on the last.

Brainstorm your seed keywords

Start with the basics. List every word or phrase a customer might type into Google when looking for what you do. Include your product and service names, the problems you solve (in plain language, not business speak), and location terms if you serve a specific area. Aim for 30 to 50 seed terms before you open any tools.

Tip: Think in customer language, not business language. They search ‘fix leaking tap Auckland’ not ‘residential plumbing services’. Write the way they talk.

Expand your list with a keyword tool

Take your seed keywords into a tool — SEMrush, Ahrefs, or the free Google Keyword Planner. For each seed, look at: monthly search volume (how many people search this term), keyword difficulty (how hard it is to rank), and the suggested related terms. Export everything into a spreadsheet. You're building a raw list to work from, not making decisions yet.

Assess search intent for every keyword

For every keyword, ask: what does the person actually want? Informational (learning something), navigational (looking for a specific site), transactional (ready to buy or enquire), or commercial investigation (researching before deciding). Your page must match the intent — a transactional keyword needs a product or service page, not a blog post. Intent mismatch is one of the most common SEO mistakes.

Tip: The easiest way to check intent: Google the keyword and look at what types of pages rank. That’s what Google thinks the searcher wants.

Score and prioritise your keywords

Rate each keyword on three criteria: relevance to your business (1 to 5), monthly search volume (use the actual number), and your realistic chance of ranking based on difficulty (1 to 5). Multiply the three scores together and sort descending. Focus your initial effort on the top 10 to 20. These are your target keywords.

Tip: Don’t chase the highest-volume keywords first. They’re dominated by established sites. Go for medium-volume, lower-difficulty terms you can actually win — and build from there.

Map keywords to pages

Each page on your website should target one primary keyword and two to four closely related supporting keywords. Group your prioritised keyword list by page — your homepage, your service pages, your location pages, and any blog articles you plan to write. This keyword-to-page map becomes your SEO content plan.

Set up tracking before you start

Before you change a single word on your website, set up Google Search Console (free) so you have a baseline. Connect it to Google Analytics. These two tools together tell you exactly which keywords you already rank for, which pages get traffic, and how performance changes over time as you make improvements.

Section 2

Templates and downloads

Everything you need to execute without starting from scratch.

Keyword Research Master Spreadsheet

Download spreadsheet here

Keyword Prioritisation Scoring Matrix

Download spreadsheet here

Keyword-to-Page Content Map

Download spreadsheet here

Search Intent Classification Guide

Download spreadsheet here

Section 3

Recommended tools

Tried and tested tools for this playbook. Affiliate links support the Toolbox at no extra cost to you.

SEMrush

Comprehensive keyword research, difficulty scoring and competitor gap analysis

Google Keyword Planner

Free keyword volume data straight from Google — requires a Google Ads account

Ahrefs

Deep keyword difficulty analysis and backlink data

Google Search Console

See exactly which keywords your site already ranks for — free

Section 4

Ask MAX to help you execute

MAX is loaded with everything in this playbook. Customise this prompt for your business and MAX will work through it with you step by step.

MAX Prompt

Help me do keyword research for my business. I [describe what you do] in [location if relevant]. Start by generating a list of 30 seed keywords in plain customer language, then help me score and prioritise them using the relevance, volume and difficulty framework.

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