Keywords, those little words that weigh a lot
You can have the most beautiful website in the world, a design worthy of an art gallery, smooth animations, a killer logo… but if nobody finds you on Google, you are the digital equivalent of a shop hidden at the end of an alley with no sign.
And do you know what makes Google find you? Or rather what makes Google SHOW YOU in the search results? Keywords. Those little terms your customers type frantically when they are looking for a service, a product or an answer to their problem.
That is where keyword research for your website comes in. Not a very sexy concept? Wait a moment. You will see that behind this slightly technical name lies the key to a formidable strategy (even a slightly fun one, if you look at it through the right glasses) to boost your SEO.
At Web Opteam, we love figures, trends, improbable queries and, above all, helping our clients turn a simple web page into a real visitor magnet. And it all starts with keyword research for a website done to perfection.
What exactly is keyword research for a website?
It is a bit like a full check-up of your website’s SEO health. A complete assessment where we put your content, your pages and your visibility under the magnifying glass, like an SEO doctor examining your site with a stethoscope… connected to Google.
Keyword research is the moment we ask the right questions (the real ones):
- What do people really type into Google? (spoiler: it isn’t always what you think. You say “customer service advisor”, they type “friendly bank manager Lyon”.)
- Which keywords is your site already ranking for? And is it bringing you anything? Or are you just hidden on page 8 of the SERPs, where even Google’s robots no longer go?
- Which keywords are you missing to attract the right visitors? The ones with a clear intent, ready to click, read and buy. In short, qualified traffic.
- And above all: how do you work these words into your site intelligently? Without forcing it, without indigestible stuffing, without turning your sentences into an Excel sheet.
Website keyword research is a bit like scanning your visitors’ brains before they even discover your site. You understand their language, their expectations, their doubts, their search habits. You get inside their heads and answer them before they have even clicked. Magic? No. Just strategy.
And then? You line up with their vocabulary, rework your content, and tell them in essence: “Hey, I’m exactly what you were looking for. And I’m cool too.”
Why keyword research is essential (really)
You wouldn’t go on a road trip without a GPS, would you? Or you end up at a lost petrol station 80 km from your real destination, with no signal and a 2004 road atlas. Well, building a website without researching keywords is exactly that… the digital version. You move forward blind. You build, you write, you publish, and you hope someone, somewhere, will stumble on your page.
Except no. Without real website keyword research, your content risks floating in the great void of the internet, invisible to Google, inaudible to people and useless for your SEO.
So why is it essential? Because it lets you:
Speak your visitors’ language
You may think your audience is looking for “personalised digital support in tailor-made omnichannel strategy”. Spoiler: they type “redo website cheap” into Google. We often write for ourselves, to please ourselves or because it sounds professional. But the people looking for you don’t always speak your language.
Keyword research refocuses all that. It forces you out of your bubble and makes you listen to what people really type.
Spot the real opportunities
Not all keywords are equal. Some look pretty on paper but attract nobody. Others have volume but fierce competition (hello, budget going up in smoke). And then there are the gems: precise, less visible terms that attract visitors ready to convert.
Good research lets you identify them, rank them and build a strategy around them. And that is when you really start doing smart SEO.
Avoid the classic traps
A concrete example: you think “best photographer Paris” is a great keyword? Bad news: it is so competitive that even the biggest names struggle to stay there. On the other hand, “corporate photographer Paris 15”? Typed less, admittedly, but ultra-targeted. The result: less competition, more qualified traffic and a better chance of climbing the Google rankings.
Boost all your content (and not by a little)
Once you have the right terms, your content takes on a whole new dimension. You no longer write just to fill pages. You write to answer precise searches. You add useful sections, adapt your headings, optimise your tags, add FAQs.
The result? Your pages climb the SERPs, your traffic grows, your bounce rate drops… and your site finally becomes visible where it counts: in the search results.
The different types of keywords (and why you need to know them all)
Generic keywords
Example: “shoes”. Heavily searched, very vague. A lot of volume, little precision. Ideal for the ecommerce giants. For everyone else? Beware of a budget that melts faster than an ice cube in Marrakech.
Long-tail keywords
Example: “waterproof men’s hiking boots size 10”. Less volume, but much more targeted. We love these ones. They convert better, cost less (in PPC too) and speak to a precise audience.
Transactional keywords
They show buying intent: “buy cheap electric bike”. If you run an online shop, they were made for you.
Informational keywords
Something like “how to choose a mattress”. Perfect for creating blog posts that answer an active search while showing your expertise.
Local keywords
Add a city or a neighbourhood and you become visible where you really sell. Essential for local SEO.
Each type of keyword has its role. A good SEO strategy is a well-balanced mix of all five.
How to do good website keyword research (the Web Opteam method)
No magic spell book needed. Just a bit of method, some tools and a curious mind. Here is our house recipe:
Step 1: Brainstorming at home
We list everything a visitor might type to find your site. We think like them, not like us. We are not afraid of synonyms or twisted wording.
Step 2: Analysis tools
We pull out our favourite tools: Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, AnswerThePublic… We look at volumes, competition, trends. That is where we discover that “romantic restaurant Paris 11” is typed more than “chic restaurant Paris”.
Step 3: Competitor analysis
We look at what the others are doing. We spy (nicely). We identify the keywords they rank for. And we do better.
Step 4: Organising the keywords
We group the words by theme, by intent, by page. Each page must have its own list of key keywords (yes, we can say it like that).
Step 5: Optimised writing
We write or rewrite the site’s content, working these keywords in. Without stuffing. Naturally. Telling a real story, not a catalogue of words.
What you can miss if you skip keyword research (spoiler: a lot)
Ignoring keyword research is like:
- Opening a shop on a street where nobody walks,
- Speaking Japanese to a Spanish audience,
- Launching an ad campaign for ski boots in the middle of August in Marseille.
In short, you talk but nobody listens. You create content, but Google doesn’t understand it. You spend time, but your website doesn’t take off.
Poor research (or worse, none at all) stops you from:
- Reaching the right customers (the ones you actually want),
- Attracting a qualified audience,
- Answering the real questions people ask,
Showing your expertise where it counts.
The mistakes we come across (too) often
- Settling for two or three “high-volume” keywords for your services or products without exploring the long tail.
- Copy-pasting competitors’ keywords without thinking about your own positioning.
- Choosing misspelt or overly technical words.
- Targeting too many broad terms without thinking about context.
And of course… forgetting to evolve your keywords! A keyword that was relevant to people’s searches in 2020 is not necessarily still relevant today. Search evolves, and so does the site’s keyword mapping! You need to think tracking, updates, an evolving strategy. Luckily, at Web Opteam, that is our cup of tea (or our strong espresso).
The best SEO tools to analyse keywords (free and paid)
Want to do good keyword research for a website? You need a good tool. And by “good tool” we mean one that gives you clear, reliable data, and above all data that is useful for improving your organic search performance.
Here is our list of favourites, tested and approved by the Web Opteam team:
Google Keyword Planner
Google’s official tool (not to be confused with Search Console). Free, handy, reliable in its data. It gives you search volumes, trends, ideas for related terms, and even an estimate of competition. If you are starting out, Google Keyword Planner is a good base.
Semrush
It is our darling. The Swiss Army knife of SEO. You can:
- Analyse your competitors’ sites’ strategy,
- See their ranking in the search engines’ SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages),
- Track your site’s ranking on each keyword and compare it with your competitors,
- Get ultra-precise information on your organic traffic (and your competitors’).
Yes, it is paid. But if you want to climb the Google results, it is worth every penny.
Ubersuggest
An accessible, clear, visual tool. It gives you plenty of keyword suggestions, information on volumes, ranking difficulty, and the best pages already well ranked on the subject.
AnswerThePublic
You type in a keyword, and this tool shows you all the queries people phrase around that theme. Ideal for finding article topics or enriching your content with useful questions and standing out from your competitors.
And of course, don’t forget the good old Google Trends, Ahrefs, Moz and co. If you want us to help you choose the right tools for your website, just give us a shout.
And let’s not forget competitors when analysing keywords!
Doing keyword research (and its keyword mapping) without looking at what others are doing is like playing chess with your eyes closed. The truth is that every competitor gives you plenty of clues. You just have to know where to look.
With tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs, you can:
- See how many keywords a competitor ranks for, and which ones (and even export the list with the data),
- Find out the search volume of these terms and other related data,
- Spot each competitor’s best-performing pages,
- And identify untapped opportunities compared with your competitors.
The goal is not to copy but to find different angles, to answer people’s queries better, to produce content that is more complete, clearer and more engaging. In short: analyse to outdo.
What Google expects from you (hint: not just keywords)
Ah, Google. That good old search engine that changes its rules every two weeks. What it wants today is not just pages stuffed with keywords. It wants:
- Useful content,
- Well structured,
- That answers a real search,
- And that brings real added value.
Your strategy must not be centred only on volume data. You must identify the intent behind each term and understand what the user really wants.
Do they want to buy? To get information? To compare? To solve a problem? Depending on the intent, you adapt your vocabulary, your pages, your tone and even your formatting.
You don’t write for robots. You write for humans, who go through search engines. And if you understand that, you gain places in the SERPs (and karma points at Web Opteam).
How to use the right keywords on your site
OK, you have done your website keyword research, you have your list, your data, your shiny Excel file. Now what? It is time to place all of it intelligently in your website.
The strategic SEO spots
- Page titles (H1),
- Title tags,
- Meta descriptions,
- URLs (clean and descriptive),
- Subheadings (H2, H3…),
- The body of the content (naturally, without stuffing),
Image alt tags.
One main keyword per page
Each page must target one main keyword, plus a few secondary ones. If you want to rank for 10 different terms, you need 10 different pages. Otherwise it is confusing for Google… and for your ranking.
Update your content regularly
Sleeping content means a falling ranking. Remember to go back to your pages, enrich them, and adapt them to new searches, new services or changes in your market. The semantic cocoon technique can help you always have fresh, regular content (but be careful not to fall into keyword cannibalisation).
What a good agency does (and why you might want to call us)
Doing website keyword research is a first step. But the real magic happens when that research fits into an overall SEO strategy.
At Web Opteam, we don’t stop at throwing words into an Excel sheet:
- We create relevant content that is well written and has real SEO value,
- We technically optimise the website (loading time, linking, structure),
- We track SEO rankings over time,
- We adapt the strategy to the results and the data collected.
And above all, we talk to you in real words. Not just “average mobile CTR on high-volume keywords in cluster B”. If you want results, we know how to deliver. And with a smile. We are a Paris-based agency and we work remotely with clients worldwide, in English.
What to remember about website keyword research
Keyword research for websites is not an option. It is a must. A strategic must. One that turns your website into a real targeted traffic machine.
Do you want to:
- Improve your ranking in the SERPs,
- Get more qualified traffic,
- Speak your audience’s language,
- Create content that matches what people expect,
- And outdo your competitors?
Then it is time to look seriously at your keywords, analyse the data, use it intelligently and make your site a visible player on Google.
And if you want to save time (and avoid headaches), you know where to find us.
