Start from buyer conversations, not a keyword tool. Use tools afterwards to size and sort what you found.
For anyone about to build a keyword list. You will end with a short list of searches, each tied to one page and one buyer situation.
Most keyword research starts in a tool and ends with a spreadsheet of thousands of terms nobody trusts. A more reliable way to start is with the words your buyers already use, then use tools only to check and size what you found.
1Collect the buyer's own words
Read call notes, chat transcripts, support tickets, review-site comments and community threads in your category. Copy out the phrases people use to describe the problem, the tools they compare and the objections they raise. Keep the wording messy. A tidy phrase from a marketer is less useful than the awkward one a customer actually said.
- How they name the problem before they know your category
- The tools or spreadsheets they use now
- Competitors they compare you with
- The questions they ask just before they buy
- Words that appear in reviews of your category
2Look at the results before you look at any number
Search each phrase and read the first page of results. The results tell you whether searchers want a guide, a comparison, a tool or a product page, and whether you could realistically build something that belongs there.
| Results are mostly | It means | Do this |
|---|---|---|
| Guides and explainers | Searchers want to learn | Write a practical guide |
| Comparison and list pages | Searchers are choosing | Build a comparison page |
| Product and pricing pages | Searchers want to buy | A product or pricing page may fit |
| Forums and news | Hard to win with a page | Probably skip |
| Very large publishers | Hard for a new site to compete | Look for a narrower phrase |
3Size what is left, with care
Use a keyword tool or Search Console to get a rough sense of demand for the phrases that survived. Treat every figure as an estimate. Tools often show nothing for newer or niche phrases that real people do search.
4Group searches by the page that would answer them
Searches whose results are largely the same belong on one page. Searches with different results need different pages. Comparing the top results for two phrases is the fastest test.
Two pages (different results)
"fernhollow vs rival" and "fernhollow pricing" show comparison pages and a pricing page. Different intent, so two pages.
One page (same results)
"report templates for retailers" and "retail report templates" show the same pages. Same intent, so one page.
5Turn the list into a plan
- One row per group of searches
- The page type that ranks
- The buyer situation behind it, in one line
- Rough demand as a range
- An owner and a priority
Worked example
From a call to a page (illustrative)
A made-up inventory tool hears "we track stock in a spreadsheet and it keeps breaking" on several calls. The team searches that phrase and a few variants. The results are practical guides and template pages, not product pages, and several are thin.
They group the variants into one page, a guide to moving stock tracking out of a spreadsheet, with a free template and a comparison of the options, and queue a separate page for the competitor names buyers also mention.
Say it in 30 seconds
The 30-second version
Start from what buyers actually say on calls and in chats. Search each phrase and keep the ones where the results are pages you could build. Size demand last, treat the numbers as estimates, and give every group of similar searches one page.
Worksheet
Buyer search discovery sheet
The full guide and a worksheet to fill in, as a PDF you can print or share with your team. The worksheet covers:
- Collect twenty raw phrases from calls, chats and reviews, unedited
- Note every competitor name buyers mention
- Search each phrase and write down the page types in the top results
- Mark each phrase: can we credibly build one of these pages?
- and 6 more
One email with the PDF. No list, no follow-ups.
