How to Do Keyword Research: Step-by-Step SEO Tips from Reddit

How to Do Keyword Research: Step-by-Step SEO Tips from Reddit

This guide is based on a broad Reddit discussion among SEO practitioners and hobbyists about how to do keyword research. Comments ranged from tool recommendations to strategic debates. Below you’ll find a synthesized, step-by-step workflow built from Reddit consensus, common disagreements, practical tips, and additional expert insights to help you turn keywords into traffic and conversions.

Quick overview: Reddit consensus and disagreements

Reddit users generally agreed on a few core points:

• Start with seed topics, expand with tools, then validate with SERP analysis and Google Search Console.
• Search intent matters more than raw volume—content must match what users expect.
• Use a combination of free and paid tools depending on budget; no single tool is perfect.

Where opinions diverged:

• Which tool is best: some swore by Ahrefs or SEMrush, others preferred free tools like Google Keyword Planner, Keyword Surfer, Ubersuggest, or AnswerThePublic.
• Volume vs intent: some prioritize high-volume, low-competition keywords; others focus on low-volume, high-intent phrases that convert better.
• Keyword density and exact-match placement: seasoned SEOs pushed back against rigid density rules and favored natural, topical coverage and semantic usage.

Step-by-step keyword research process (actionable)

Follow this practical sequence to go from idea to prioritized keyword list.

1. Define goals and audience

• Decide what success looks like: traffic, leads, sales, or engagement.
• Map buyer personas and intent: are they researching, comparing, or ready to buy?

2. Create seed keywords

Start with 5–20 seed terms. These are simple topic words or phrases related to your niche (e.g., “running shoes,” “email marketing”). Seed keywords come from your experience, customer questions, forums like Reddit, and competitor sites.

3. Expand keyword ideas with tools

Use several tools to expand from seeds into thousands of variations. Popular Reddit-recommended tools include:

• Free: Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console (GSC), Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, Keyword Surfer.
• Paid or freemium: Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Ubersuggest.

Tip from Reddit: cross-check results — tools report different volumes and competition metrics, so use multiple sources.

4. Group and cluster keywords

Group similar keywords by intent and topic to avoid cannibalization and to build content clusters. Use simple Excel/Sheets or clustering tools (or AI) to group queries into potential pages or topic hubs.

5. Evaluate metrics (and which matter)

• Search volume: shows potential traffic but can be noisy—look at trends and seasonality.
• Keyword difficulty/competition: represents how hard it is to rank. Use tool KD scores as guidance, not law.
• Clicks vs impressions: GSC gives you clicks per query, revealing actual user behavior.
• CPC: paid cost-per-click can indicate commercial intent.
• SERP features: featured snippets, People Also Ask (PAA), shopping, video—these affect click-through rates.

6. Analyze the SERP

Manual SERP analysis was one of the most repeated Reddit tips. For each prioritized keyword, inspect the top results:

• What type of content ranks (blogs, product pages, long-form guides)?
• Is Google favoring authority sites or newer pages?
• Are there featured snippets or PAA boxes you can target?
• Note common headings, content length, and media types (video, images).

7. Prioritize by ROI and intent

Redditors recommended prioritizing keywords that align with business goals and have a realistic path to ranking. Create a simple scoring model that factors in:

• Search volume (or estimated clicks)
• Difficulty score
• Commercial intent (CPC, transactional modifiers like “buy,” “best”)
• Topical relevance to your site

8. Map keywords to content types

Decide whether the phrase is best served by a blog post, product page, category page, comparison, or FAQ. Use content clusters and internal linking to build topical authority.

9. Create optimized content and measure

Write to satisfy intent. Pay attention to title tags, H1s/H2s, meta descriptions, and natural use of the target keyword plus related terms. Track rankings, impressions, and clicks in GSC and adjust based on performance.

Specific Reddit tips you can use today

• Use “site:” searches to see which pages rank on your site for specific terms.
• Check “People also ask” and related searches for question-driven content ideas.
• Leverage GSC to find low-hanging fruit—queries with high impressions but low CTR or pages ranking on page 2.
• Export as CSV from tools and use filters to prune by intent and cost-benefit.
• Look for long-tail phrases with buyer intent—these often convert better despite low volume.
• Monitor seasonal trends with Google Trends before creating content that may be cyclical.

Expert Insight: Go beyond keywords—think entities and topics

Reddit advice is solid for traditional keyword research. To get an edge, shift from a keyword-centric model to an entity/topic model. Google’s algorithms understand topics and entities (people, products, places). Structure content around complete topical coverage rather than forcing exact-match keywords. Use schema markup for entities, enrich pages with related subtopics, and include internal links to build authority. This approach helps you rank for many related queries without targeting each keyword individually.

Expert Insight: Expected traffic value formula

Instead of chasing volume, estimate potential traffic value. Use a simple formula:

• Estimated traffic = Search Volume x Estimated CTR (based on projected rank) x Relevancy Factor.
• Assign a monetary or conversion value to that traffic to prioritize keywords by expected ROI.

This helps focus resources on keywords that will actually move the needle for your business.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Relying on a single tool — cross-check volumes and KD across multiple sources.
• Chasing high-volume keywords without intent alignment — high traffic is useless if visitors don’t convert.
• Forgetting about SERP features — featured snippets and PAA can steal clicks; optimize for them when appropriate.
• Creating thin content to target many keywords — prefer comprehensive, authoritative pages that satisfy intent.
• Ignoring on-site data — GSC and analytics reveal user behavior that tools can’t predict.

Practical workflow checklist

• Define goals and personas.
• Collect seed keywords from product pages, questions, and forums.
• Expand with 2–3 tools and export results.
• Filter by intent and cluster similar queries.
• Manually analyze SERPs for top 10 results.
• Score and prioritize keywords by expected ROI.
• Create content briefs that map to intent and SERP features.
• Publish, monitor with GSC and analytics, then iterate.

Tools and resources mentioned on Reddit (shortlist)

• Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, Google Trends
• Ahrefs, SEMrush, Moz, Ubersuggest
• AnswerThePublic, Keyword Surfer, Keywords Everywhere
• Excel/Google Sheets, Python or Google Colab for automated scraping and clustering

Final Takeaway

Reddit’s seasoned SEOs emphasize that how to do keyword research is a process, not a one-off task. Start with goals, use multiple tools, prioritize by intent and ROI, and validate with manual SERP checks and Google Search Console. Move beyond chasing raw volume: group keywords into topics, target the right intent, and build comprehensive content that matches what users and search engines expect. Combine Reddit’s practical tips with the expert insights above (entity-driven content and ROI modeling) to make smarter keyword investments and drive measurable results.

Read the full Reddit discussion here.