Keyword Research

Two businesses. Same service. Different results.

Two decorators work in the same part of Milton Keynes. Both do good work. Both have websites. One gets three or four enquiries a week from Google. The other gets none.

The difference is not design. It is not even the quality of the content. The first decorator's site has pages built around the phrases people actually type into Google: "painter and decorator Stony Stratford," "kitchen respray Milton Keynes," "exterior house painting quote." The second decorator's site says "Welcome to our company" in the main heading and lists services using internal terminology that no customer would ever search for.

Keyword research is how you become the first decorator. It identifies the exact language your potential customers use when they search for what you provide, and it gives every page on your site a specific job in capturing that traffic.

The keyword map

Before any content gets written or any page gets built, I produce a keyword map. It is a simple document, but it governs the entire site.

Every URL gets assigned one primary keyword. The homepage might own "web design Milton Keynes." A service page owns "brochure website design." A location page owns "web design Wolverton." Supporting terms sit alongside each primary keyword, but the rule is strict: no two pages target the same phrase. If they do, they cannibalise each other in Google's results and both perform worse than either would alone.

The map also records the intent behind each keyword. A search like "how much does a website cost UK" is someone researching, not buying. That term belongs on an informational page or a pricing page, not a service page with a "contact me" message. A search like "web designer near me" is someone ready to hire. That term belongs on a page built to convert. Matching the content type to the intent is half the battle, and it is decided at the keyword research stage, not after the site is live.

Small numbers, big value

A keyword with 50 monthly searches and clear buying intent behind it will generate more revenue than one with 5,000 monthly searches where people are just browsing. This is the concept that trips up most DIY keyword research: chasing volume instead of value.

Long-tail keywords (three, four, five words strung together) tend to have lower search volumes, lower competition, and higher conversion rates. "Web design" is a two-word war you will not win against national brands. "Hand-coded website for small business" is a longer phrase with a fraction of the traffic but a visitor who already knows what they want and is much closer to picking up the phone.

I build keyword strategies around these realistic opportunities. The targets are terms where a small business can genuinely compete, where the person searching has a clear need, and where ranking on page one is achievable within months rather than years.

Applied, not reported

The industry standard for keyword research is a deliverable: a PDF or spreadsheet listing terms, volumes, and difficulty scores. The client receives it, forwards it to their developer, and hopes the recommendations get implemented correctly. Most of the time, they do not.

I skip that step entirely. The research feeds straight into the site build. The URL structure reflects it. The title tags and headings are written from it. The location pages are planned around it. There is no document sitting in a folder waiting for someone to act on it because the acting and the researching are the same process, handled by the same person.

On the Growth plan, the keyword strategy is revisited monthly using live data from Google Search Console. If a page starts appearing for a term it was not originally targeting, I evaluate whether to lean into that opportunity or stay the course. If a competitor publishes a stronger page for a term you currently rank for, I adjust the content to hold the position. The strategy stays alive because someone is watching it and responding to what the data says.

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