How to do keyword research for a small business
The Doily team
Reviewed by the Doily team, Oct 2026 Updated 3 min read
Quick answer
Keyword research finds the phrases your customers use and sorts them by intent and business value. Start with your services and real customer questions, add queries from Search Console, check volume and difficulty estimates in a tool, and assign each keyword group to 1 page. Treat volume numbers as estimates.
Why it matters
Your own words for your services are often not the customer's words. A roofer says remediation, and the customer searches for a leaking roof. Keyword research closes that gap and decides which pages you need.
It also keeps effort honest. Some phrases bring plenty of searches and no buyers, while quieter phrases bring the calls. Sorting by intent and value shows where a small team should start.
Key takeaways
- Start from customer questions and your own Search Console data before opening any tool.
- Search volume and difficulty from third-party tools are estimates. Google says such tools cannot see its internal ranking data.
- Sort by intent and business value, not volume alone.
- Assign each keyword group to 1 page to avoid pages competing with each other.
Step by step
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List what you sell and what problems you solve
Write down each service, product, and customer problem in the customer's words. Add places you serve and the types of customer you want. This is your seed list, usually 10 to 20 topics.
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Collect real queries
Pull the queries already bringing impressions from the Search Console Performance report. Add questions from support email, sales calls, reviews, and site search. Note the autocomplete suggestions and related searches that appear when you type your seed topics into Google.
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Expand with a keyword tool
Run your seeds through a keyword tool to find related terms, questions, and variations, along with estimated volume and difficulty. Export the list. Remember the numbers are the tool's estimates and not Google's own data.
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Filter by intent and fit
Delete terms you cannot serve. Label each remaining term as learn, compare, buy, or local, using the live results as your guide. A term with high volume and a learning intent may suit a guide, not a service page.
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Judge difficulty with your own eyes
Search the term and look at who ranks and how strong those pages are. If every result is a national brand with deep content and you have 1 thin page, pick a narrower term or add a place name. Use the tool's difficulty score as a rough guide only.
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Prioritize
Rank terms by business value, realistic chance of ranking, and the effort needed. A good first target is a term where you already appear on page 2 and the page just needs improving. Pick 5 to 10 and start there.
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Cluster and assign pages
Group close variations together, such as water heater repair and fix water heater. Assign each cluster to 1 page, existing or planned. Record the primary query and secondary phrases in your keyword map.
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Track and revisit
Track rankings for your assigned terms and review the list each quarter. Remove terms that did not matter and add terms from new queries in Search Console.
A simple scoring sheet
Score each candidate from 1 to 3 on 3 factors, then add them up.
| Keyword | Business value | Chance of ranking | Effort | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| water heater repair Hartford | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| tankless water heater cost | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
| what is a water heater | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
Use a score of 3 for effort when the work is easy. Start with the highest totals. The scores are your judgment, so write down why you chose them.
How Doily helps
Doily's keyword research shows volume, difficulty, intent, and questions, and rank tracking checks your tracked keywords daily on Google, on desktop and mobile, by country, state, or city.
Questions
How many keywords do I need?
Start with 5 to 10 priority clusters tied to your main services. A short list that maps to real pages is more useful than a spreadsheet of thousands.
Do I need to include every wording variation?
No. Google says its AI systems understand synonyms and general meaning, so you do not need to worry about capturing every variation. Cover the topic well and use natural language.
Can I trust search volume numbers?
Use them to compare terms, not as exact counts. Google notes third-party tools do not have access to its internal ranking data, and their figures are their own estimates.
Sources
Primary sources, checked Oct 11, 2026.
