Keyword Research: A Step-by-Step Guide for Smaller Companies
How to collect search terms, assess them at no cost and decide by page type which topic truly deserves a page of its own.
Keyword research is the work of finding out which search terms your customers really type into Google – and which of them justify a page of their own. The decisive question is not volume but page type: does Google show guides or provider pages for the term? Check that before writing and you publish five pages a year that bring enquiries, instead of fifty nobody finds.
Key points at a glance
- Start with your customers' vocabulary, not with a tool: enquiries in your inbox, phone notes and the wording of your quotes are the best first source.
- Reliable figures are free via Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console and Google Trends – these three are enough to begin.
- For every term, check the search intent and the page type in the results. If only shops and provider pages appear, the term is closed to a guide article.
- Group related terms into one topic and give each topic exactly one page. That way two of your own pages never compete for the same query.
- Prioritise by capacity: four well-maintained pages per quarter last longer than twenty thin texts.
What is keyword research and what does it give a smaller company?
Keyword research maps your customers' language onto your pages: you collect real queries, group them by topic and then decide which page answers which question. The result is not a list but a plan.
For a small or medium-sized company that plan is the actual gain. An electrical firm with two people in the office cannot publish a page every week. It needs the answer to a different question: which four pages are worth it this year? A clean research round delivers exactly that – and it also delivers the reason why a topic is not worth it.
Without this groundwork, content follows instinct: texts about whatever currently interests the team rather than what people search for. Such pages are not wrong, they simply stay unvisited – and you notice only months later, once the time is spent.
The rest of search engine optimisation builds on this. If you want the basics alongside, see our article on SEO basics for small and medium-sized companies; this text stays with the step before that, choosing the terms.
How do you find your first search terms without a paid tool?
You find your first keywords not in a database but in your own inbox: in enquiries, quotes and the questions that keep coming back on the phone. Those phrasings are real demand already, merely uncounted.
Three sources are enough for a first list:
- Your own correspondence: note word for word how enquirers name their problem. "Retrofit a switch cabinet" ranks nowhere in a tool, yet appears in your mail every week.
- Search itself: type a term into Google and read the autocomplete suggestions as well as the "People also ask" block. Both are aggregated user behaviour and cost nothing.
- Google Search Console: the performance report shows which queries already earn your website impressions – often terms nobody in the company had considered.
Take phrasings from these sources literally, even when they read awkwardly. A subheading that asks a question exactly as people search it becomes a citation candidate for search results and AI answers.
Collect broadly at this stage and do not sort. A first list of forty to sixty terms is a good basis for assessment.
How can you determine search volume without paying for it?
Reliable figures on search volume come free of charge from Google Keyword Planner, which reports average monthly queries for Germany. A Google Ads account is required, a running campaign is not.
Two quirks are worth knowing. First, without ad spend the tool returns ranges rather than exact figures; for a ranking order that is sufficient. Second, the "competition" column describes the crowd of advertisers, not the difficulty in organic results – a term with low competition can be fiercely contested organically.
Two further free sources complete the picture: the Google Search Console performance report shows clicks and impressions of your own pages per query, and Google Trends shows the pattern across the year. For a seasonal business the pattern often matters more than the average: a term with a moderate mean that peaks in March has to be ready in January.
Which search intent sits behind a search term?
Search intent is the purpose behind a query, and Google reveals it by placing a particular page type at the top for each one. So read the results page before you assess the term.
| Intent | Typical wording | What Google shows | Matching page at your end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information | "… guide", "what is …", "cost" | Guides, tutorials, comparisons | Blog article |
| Orientation | "… providers", "… comparison" | Lists, reviews, directories | Overview or service page |
| Local intent | "… near me", "… Cologne" | Map with business profiles | Location and profile care |
| Commission | "hire …", "… quote" | Service and product pages | Service page, not an article |
With local intent a text rarely wins; a well-kept profile does. How the two work together is shown in our article on local visibility through the Google Business Profile. That Google reads queries by meaning rather than by letters is described in its own documentation on how Google Search works.
How do you recognise that a results page is closed to you?
A results page is closed to your article when the first ten hits consist almost entirely of product, shop or provider pages. Google expects no editorial result there, and a text will not rank however much effort goes in.
This comparison is the step most guides skip – and it is the cheapest one. Count how many editorial pages sit among the first ten hits. At seven or more the term is open to an article. At two or fewer it belongs on a service page, not in the editorial plan.
While planning our own editorial calendar we examined seventy-two search terms in a single pass in October 2026. Two cases were instructive: one term that looked like a safe bet came to twenty queries per month. Another had plenty of volume but showed provider and product pages in eight of ten hits. The first was too small, the second closed – both left the plan before any working time went into them.
When reading the results page, also check whether an AI answer sits above the hits. That changes which phrasing gets quoted; the consequences are covered in our article on visibility in AI search systems.
How do you prioritise terms when your capacity is limited?
Prioritise by closeness to a commission and by effort, not by the largest volume. The costliest mistake small teams make is the page on the strongest term that lies unfinished after three months.
- Group the raw list into topics. Terms that ask the same question form one group and later receive a single page.
- Delete groups without measurable demand. Two or three queries per month do not justify a page.
- Delete groups whose results page is closed, and note the reason. Otherwise the next planning round reopens the same topic.
- Assess the remaining groups by closeness to a commission: is someone asking here with buying intent or out of curiosity?
- Assign each group a page type – article, service page or profile care – and a realistic completion date.
- Take as many groups into the quarter as you can genuinely finish. The rest stays on the waiting list with its reason.
Record one line per group: term, estimated demand, share of editorial hits, decision. These four entries take two minutes and replace a complete reassessment next time round.
This order has a side effect worth more than any score: the waiting list explains at the next pass why a topic was rejected. Without that note a team discusses the same question twice a year.
How does keyword analysis prevent cannibalisation on your own site?
Keyword analysis prevents cannibalisation by assigning exactly one page to each topic and checking beforehand whether an existing page of yours already covers the term. Analysis therefore assesses what research collected; two pages on the same question weaken each other.
Two checks are enough. First, compare the top ten hits for two terms. If they are largely the same addresses, it is one topic and therefore one page. If they differ clearly, two pages may be created. Second, look for the planned term in your Search Console performance report. If one of your pages already appears with impressions, expanding that page is usually cheaper than writing a new one.
If the decision favours a new page, connect it to the existing overview page on the topic and back again. Readers and search engines can then see which page is the main one and which answers a detail question. If you would rather not maintain that structure yourself, we take it on as part of ongoing SEO support.
Frequently asked questions about keyword research
How many search terms does a single page need?
A page needs one main term and two to four related phrasings that ask the same question. More terms do not mean more visibility; they usually mean a page that answers no question in full.
Is SEO work with free tools still worthwhile?
For the first few years free tools are enough. Keyword Planner, Search Console and Trends deliver volume, your own figures and the seasonal pattern. Paid databases save time on long lists, but they replace no decision about page type.
How long does keyword research take?
For a small company's first full round, one to two working days are usually enough: collect, check figures, determine page type, group. After that a full revision twice a year suffices, plus a short look into Search Console each quarter.
What do you do when your niche has hardly any search volume?
Small volume with clear intent is worth more than large volume without buying intent. In narrow niches the work moves from reach to precision: few pages, exactly in the language of your audience, but with a complete answer.
From your first list to an editorial plan mit ZeuZ IT
We take on research, prioritisation and implementation as one package – with fixed prices and a clear word when a topic does not justify the effort. What that costs is set out in our overview of prices and packages.
Send us the three queries your customers ask most often. You will receive an assessment of those terms from us and a fixed price for the first pages.