Keyword Analysis for SEO: A Practical Mini-Guide
A practical 5-step mini-guide to keyword analysis: discover intent, expand and cluster keywords, score & prioritize targets, and map the right content formats to win organic traffic at scale.
Vincent JOSSE
Vincent is an SEO Expert who graduated from Polytechnique where he studied graph theory and machine learning applied to search engines.
LinkedIn Profile
Every winning SEO campaign starts with a clear map of the terrain. Keyword analysis is the exercise of building that map—discovering how people search, how tough each query is, and which terms will actually move the needle for your business. If you want to scale content production with AI or human writers, nailing this step is non-negotiable.
Why Keyword Analysis Still Matters
Google’s 2025 AI Overview and chat-style SERPs changed the look of search results, but the fundamentals remain: you must satisfy documented demand before you can earn traffic or citations. Recent data from Ahrefs shows that 92% of keywords still drive at least one organic click per search, even with AI summaries on screen (source). The takeaway: do your homework and you will still capture meaningful visits.
Key Concepts
Search intent: informational, transactional, commercial, navigational.
Monthly volume: average queries per month. Prioritize potential reach, not vanity numbers.
Keyword difficulty (KD): proprietary score estimating how many backlinks you’ll need. Treat it as a relative, not absolute, metric.
SERP features: featured snippets, AI Overviews, People Also Ask, videos. Mapping them tells you which formats to create.
Business value: how well a keyword aligns with your conversion funnel. A bottom-funnel term with 200 searches can beat a top-funnel giant with 10,000.
A 5-Step Mini Workflow
1. Seed List
Brainstorm 10-20 obvious phrases from product pages, sales calls, and customer emails. Example seeds for BlogSEO could be “ai blog generator” or “auto publish seo articles.”
2. Expand
Feed those seeds into a research tool of your choice. BlogSEO’s built-in Keyword Research module pulls live volume, difficulty, SERP features, and competitor counts in one click. Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, and AnswerThePublic are solid complements.
3. Group by Intent
Cluster siblings that answer the same user need. If “keyword analysis tool” and “keyword analysis software” share identical intent, keep the stronger one as the primary and list the rest as secondary variants. For a deep dive on clustering, see our guide From Keywords to Clusters.
4. Score & Prioritize
Create a simple scoring matrix:
Metric | Weight | Explanation |
Volume | 30% | Raw traffic potential |
Difficulty | 25% | Competitive effort |
Business Value | 35% | Conversion fit |
SERP Opportunity | 10% | Presence of snippets/AI gaps |
Normalize each metric from 1-10, multiply by weight, sum, and sort. Anything scoring 7+ is a high-priority target for the next content sprint.
5. Assign to Content Types
Match keywords to formats Google already rewards:
Definitions + mini-FAQ for quick answers (great for AI Overviews)
Step-by-step guides for process queries
Comparison tables for “vs” or “best” terms
Case studies for bottom-funnel pain points
Need inspiration? Our post on SEO blog examples Google cites breaks down seven proven structures.
Free vs. Paid Tools Snapshot
Tool | Cost | Volume Data | Difficulty Score | Intent Tagging | Notes |
Google Keyword Planner | Free | ✔ | ✖ | ✖ | Great for PPC ranges, limited organic features |
AnswerThePublic | Freemium | ✖ | ✖ | ✔ | Best for question mining |
Semrush | Paid | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Robust database, pricey for small teams |
Ahrefs | Paid | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | Large click-stream panel, solid KD |
BlogSEO | Included in plan | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | One-click clustering, auto-publishing pipeline |
Feature availability verified November 2025.
Common Pitfalls
Volume obsession. High search volume often equals fierce competition. Balance with KD and business value.
Ignoring cannibalization. Publishing two articles for the same intent dilutes authority. Our article on duplicate content prevention explains how to avoid it.
Static lists. Search behavior shifts. Refresh keyword data quarterly.
No SERP inspection. Always open the results page. If YouTube dominates, consider video instead of text.
Measuring Success
After publishing, track:
Impressions and clicks per keyword in Google Search Console.
Top-10 keyword count (BlogSEO’s dashboard updates daily).
Assisted conversions from analytics.
AI Overview citation share if you target answer snippets.
Set benchmarks before launch and review 30, 60, 90 days post-publish.
When to Automate
Manual spreadsheets work for a handful of pages, but they break at scale. BlogSEO automates the heavy lifting:
Imports thousands of keywords with live volume and KD.
Auto-clusters them into topic hubs.
Generates SEO-optimized drafts linked to your internal structure.
Publishes directly to WordPress, Webflow, Shopify, and more.
Teams that used this workflow cut research time by 70% and published 5× faster, as detailed in our 90-day SaaS case study.
FAQ
How many keywords should I target per article? Aim for one primary keyword plus 3-5 secondary variants that share identical intent.
Is keyword difficulty the same across tools? No. Each provider calculates KD differently. Compare scores only within the same tool.
Do I still need keywords for AI Overviews? Yes. LLMs pull data from pages optimized for entities and clear answers, both of which start with proper keyword research.
Next Steps
Ready to turn your keyword list into traffic? Start a free 3-day trial of BlogSEO and see automated keyword research and publishing in action, or book a live demo with our team:
