Keyword research is the foundation of SEO. The quality of your semantic core determines which queries your website will rank for and what audience it will attract.
Types of Keywords
- High-volume (head terms) — broad queries with large search volumes but high competition. Example: "buy laptop".
- Mid-volume (body terms) — more specific queries. Example: "buy laptop for programming".
- Low-volume (long-tail) — very specific queries with low competition. Example: "buy MacBook Air M3 16GB in New York".
- Informational — the user is looking for information: "how to choose a laptop".
- Transactional — the user is ready to take action: "buy", "order", "download".
- Navigational — searching for a specific website or brand.
LSI Phrases (Latent Semantic Indexing)
LSI phrases are thematically related words and word combinations that help search engines better understand the topic of a page. For the query "home renovation," LSI phrases would include: "finishing materials," "interior design," "cost of work," "contractor," "estimate." Using LSI phrases increases content relevance.
Keyword Research Methods
- Brainstorming — write down all words and phrases that potential customers might use to search for your product.
- Competitor analysis — study which queries your competitors' websites rank for.
- Search suggestions — Google and Yandex autocomplete shows popular query continuations.
- Related searches — the "People also search for" section at the bottom of search results.
- Tools — Yandex.Wordstat, Google Keyword Planner, Serpstat, Ahrefs.
Keyword Clustering
After collecting keywords, they are grouped by meaning (clustered). Each cluster is a group of queries that can be targeted by a single page. Queries within a cluster should share the same search intent: the user expects to see the same page for all of them.
Conclusion
Expand your semantic core with our keyword generator. To analyze text for over-optimization, use the SEO text analyzer.
