Keyword analysis is the evaluation step within keyword research. Once you have candidate terms, you look at each one closely: what the searcher wants, how much demand exists, who ranks today, and what a visit would be worth to the business. The output is a judgment on whether to target the term, with which page, and with what level of effort.
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What to evaluate
Each metric answers a narrow question. Used together, they support a decision that no single score can make.
- Intent: informational, commercial, transactional or navigational
- Demand: estimated search volume and its trend over time
- Competition: the pages and sites ranking now, plus any difficulty score
- Value: how closely the search connects to the product
- Result page: ads, AI Overviews and other features that affect clicks
Look at the live results
The actual result page is often the most useful evidence. It shows the format searchers are being served, how specific the top pages are and whether smaller sites appear at all. If every result is a software comparison, a how-to article will likely struggle, whatever a tool's difficulty score suggests.
Reading the metrics with care
Volume and difficulty figures are estimates, and vendors calculate difficulty in different ways, so one tool's score will not match another's. Google Trends data is scaled from 0 to 100 and shows relative interest, which makes it useful for spotting direction and seasonality but not for counting searches. Your own Search Console data is direct evidence of searches where your site already appears.
Example
A popular term that failed the check
Hypothetical project tool Dunmarrow considered targeting "task list." The volume looked attractive, but the results were mostly simple consumer apps and templates. Those searchers seemed unlikely to want team software.
A narrower term about client approval workflows showed much less demand but matched the product's main use. The team targeted that first and wrote a template page separately as a lower priority.
Common mistakes
Trusting a single difficulty score
Difficulty is a vendor's model. Check the actual pages ranking before deciding.
Skipping the result page
Metrics cannot fully show intent. Search the term yourself and read what appears.
Frequently Asked Questions
Research finds candidate terms. Analysis evaluates them to decide which are worth pursuing, though the two usually happen together.
Google Search Console, Keyword Planner and Google Trends are free starting points. Commercial SEO tools add difficulty scores and competitor data.
No single metric decides it. For most businesses, intent and relevance to the product should carry the most weight.
Keep reading
- Keyword Research: Keyword research is the work of finding the searches your buyers make, judging what each is worth, and deciding which ones to build pages for.
- Keyword Difficulty: Keyword difficulty is a tool's estimate of how hard it would be to reach the first page of Google for a search. Each tool calculates it differently.
- Search Volume: Search volume is the estimated number of times a keyword is searched per month. Tools model it, so figures vary and small B2B searches are often under-counted.
- Search Intent: Search intent is the goal behind a search: what the person actually wants to find, learn or do. Pages that match it are the ones that rank.
- Alternative Keywords: “Alternative” keywords are searches like “Mailchimp alternatives” from people looking to replace a product. They often signal dissatisfaction and high intent.
- Best Keywords: “Best” keywords are searches like “best CRM for startups” where buyers want a ranked shortlist. Results are usually roundups from publishers and review sites.
- Branded Keywords: Branded keywords are searches that include a company or product name, such as “Acme pricing”. They signal strong intent and need their own tracking.
- Click-Through Rate: Click-through rate is clicks divided by impressions: the share of times your result was shown that someone clicked it. Position and SERP layout drive it heavily.
