Definition

Keyword research is the practice of discovering and analysing the queries that users type into search engines, in order to understand demand, intent, and the language an audience uses around a topic.

Keyword research draws on a mix of sources: a site's own query data in Google Search Console, third-party tools that estimate search volume, and tools such as Google Ads' keyword planner. Google's own guidance frames the underlying goal as understanding what an audience is looking for and creating content that genuinely addresses those needs, rather than producing pages tuned to keyword strings. The Search Console Performance report exposes the actual queries that already trigger a site in Google results, including impressions, clicks, click-through rate, and average position for each query.

Examples

• Search Console queries

  A recipe site opens its Search Console Performance report, sorts queries by impressions, and notices it appears for 'air fryer chicken thighs' on page two; the team uses that query to brief a more detailed recipe page.

• Topic discovery

  A travel publisher uses keyword research to find that 'is Japan rail pass worth it' is searched far more than 'JR Pass review', and adopts the question-style phrasing as the headline of an explainer article.

Sources

• Google Search Console Help — Search Performance report
• Google Search Central — Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content

Related terms

• Long-Tail Keyword
  A longer, more specific search query that typically has lower individual search volume but a clearer intent than broad terms.
• Search Intent
  The underlying goal a person has when entering a query into a search engine — what they actually want to find, do, or know.
• SERP
  The page a search engine returns in response to a query, including the list of results and any features such as ads, knowledge panels and rich snippets.
• Click-Through Rate
  The percentage of search impressions that resulted in a click. CTR = clicks ÷ impressions × 100.
• Impressions
  In Google Search Console, the number of times a link to a site appeared in Google Search results for a user, regardless of whether the user clicked it.

Where QueryCatch uses this

• Keyword Research
• Blog Topic Generator