How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: The 2026 Guide to Search Intent and Entities Strategy

Checked the backlink profile? Ok. Improved the content. Ok. Eliminated the technical errors? Ok. But, still not getting ranked on the first page of the SERP, or if yes, not getting enough traffic? Surely, you have issues with your keyword research strategy.

In 2026, keyword research is no longer just about identifying search terms. Now, it is about predicting user intent and mapping topics. With the rise of AI-driven search, like Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT search, Google doesn’t just match keywords. It understands concepts. Your goal is to find ‘Entities’ and ‘Clusters’ that prove to search engines that you are a topical authority, not just a content creator.

In this guide, I am going to tell you how to do keyword research in the right way to find the trending topics that will not only rank you at the top but also bring traffic to your blog.

“Keyword Research is the process of finding words and phrases, shortly called keywords, which are relevant to your niche.”

While relevancy is a key factor, several others, like keyword difficulty and search volume are also there to be considered.

What are Keywords?

As mentioned:

“Keywords are specific terms that are searched by the audience to grab specific sorts of information.”

Website owners and bloggers target them to write high quality content to educate their audience. For example:

• “Technical SEO Services”

It is a keyword with a good search volume and difficulty lying in the Easy category, as calculated by Ahrefs, shown in the image below.

You can create different topics related to this keyword, like the one I have created. “How to Hire Technical SEO Services?” in order to educate the users and provide them with the desired solution.

In the under section, I have provided a precise overview of the importance of keyword research. You should understand them. In this way, you will be able to know why it is necessary to perform proper keyword research when you start a blog or even run a well established site.

• Boosts Organic Traffic: When you target the right keywords, you can attract more visitors to your website.
• Improves Content Strategy: Keyword research lets you know what your audience is searching for. As a result, you create relevant and engaging content.
• Enhances SEO Ranking: Properly optimized keywords can improve your website’s search engine ranking.
• Increases Conversion Rates: Attracting the right audience with targeted keywords can lead to higher conversion rates.

Before moving ahead, it would be best to understand important terms used in keyword research. It will simplify the further steps. Here are these important terms.

• Search Volume: It is a calculation of the number of times a keyword is searched on the web on a monthly basis. The higher the volume, the more beneficial the keyword is for your site.
• Keyword Difficulty: Shortly known as KD, it is a measure of how difficult it is to rank in the SERP for a particular keyword. The lower the difficulty, the more will be the chances of achieving higher rankings.
• Short Tail Keywords: These are very general and small search terms, such as “SEO,” “Content Writing” etc. They have a higher search volume but are difficult to rank
• Long Tail Keywords: Long tail keywords are more specific as compared to short tail keywords. For example, “SEO Friendly Content Writing.” Although they have low difficulty, the search volume is also minimal.

Based on the terms I have explained in the previous section, the ultimate goal of the keyword research is to find the keywords that have:

• Low difficulty
• Higher search volume
• Are long tail keywords
• Have high CPC

In the under section, I have mentioned a step by step guide on how to do keyword research for SEO. Keep the previous discussion in mind to understand all the steps comfortably.

Research on Your Own

Firstly, you have to research on your own regarding your niche to find the keywords people usually search for. For example, if you are running an SEO agency, it is easy to understand that people are looking for solutions like Off Page SEO, On Page SEO, Technical SEO, and Backlinks.

Thus, you can write appealing content on them and perform clustering to cover these keywords from every aspect. 

Additionally, you can get help from Google Search suggestions to find the topics that are relevant to the one you are targeting currently.

In 2026, don’t just brainstorm words. Instead, you have to brainstorm questions and pain points. Use ‘Social Listening’ as your starting point. The best ‘seed keywords’ are found in Reddit threads, TikTok comments, and Discord communities.

So, you should look for ‘unstructured queries.’ These queries depict the natural way people talk to AI assistants. Instead of ‘best laptop 2026,’ brainstorm ‘which laptop can handle 4k video editing without overheating?'”

Use Different Tools

The following are the most popular ones that help you in finding the best keywords for your website or blog.

• Ahrefs: Enables you to find low KD keywords
• Semrush: Gives insights into the High CPC Keywords
• Keywords Everywhere: Lets you find High Volume keywords
• UberSuggest: Helpful for finding Long Tail Keywords
• Moz: Best for overall keyword research

While traditional tools like Ahrefs and Semrush remain essential for data, you must supplement them with AI-native research. Tools like Perplexity or Gemini can help you find “Semantic Gaps.” These are the topics your competitors missed.

Also, pay attention to ‘Zero-Click’ data. If a keyword is fully answered by an AI summary on the SERP, it might not be worth targeting unless you can provide a deeper, “hands-on” perspective that AI cannot replicate.”

Analyze Keywords Your Competitor is Ranking For

Don’t just look at what your competitors rank for. Instead, you should look at their E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). In 2026, Google prioritizes ‘First-hand Experience.’

If a competitor ranks for a keyword with a generic AI-written article, you can beat them by targeting the same keyword with ‘Evidence-based content’ (real photos, original experiments, or expert interviews). Use tools to find ‘Content Gaps’ specifically where competitors are using ‘thin’ AI content.

Determine Relevancy and Search Intent 

Relevancy and search intent are the most important factors to consider when performing keyword research. I can help you understand this with examples. 

• Relevancy: As WebTechSolutions is an SEO agency, me and my team publish content related to different aspects of SEO. This is called relevancy. What if I start writing about pets on an SEO blog? Sounding weird? Definitely! That’s what you have to avoid.
• Search Intent: The search intent of the keyword also matters. It is very difficult to rank promotional content on an informational keyword. Also, you won’t be able to click despite getting ranked at the top if your search intent is not right.

The best way to determine search intent is to understand how your competitors have targeted a specific keyword. Additionally, you can get help from People Also Ask to determine how users are searching topics relevant to that keyword.

For example, when I search White Hat SEO on Google, the SERP results are:

When checking People Also Ask and also the way other websites have covered this keyword, it is clear that the user intent is informational. That’s why I have provided a complete guide on White Hat SEO, instead of offering services.

You also have to follow the same to make sure you can attract the desired audience by writing the article in the right way.

In 2026, we add a fifth intent: ‘Assistance Intent.’ This is when a user wants a tool, a calculator, or a specific step-by-step guide to complete a task immediately. When analyzing intent, check the ‘AI Overview’ on Google.

If the AI provides a summary, your intent should be to provide Information Gain, like adding a unique case study, a personal opinion, or proprietary data that the AI doesn’t have in its training set yet.”

Use Keywords Properly

Till the previous step, I have covered the complete guide on keyword research. Lastly, I have mentioned the ways you have to use keywords for optimal results. Here are the important sections where you should place them.

• Title Tags: Include primary keywords in your page titles.
• Headings (H1, H2, H3): Use keywords in your headings and subheadings.
• Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions with keywords.
• URL Structure: Create SEO-friendly URLs with keywords.
• Image Alt Text: Use keywords in your image alt text for Image SEO.

Beyond H1s and Meta tags, you have to optimize keyword placement for “Answer Engine Optimization’ (AEO).” It can be done through using:

1. Structured Data: Use Schema markup (FAQ, How-to) so AI agents can easily parse your data.
2. The ‘TL;DR’ Block: Place a concise 2-3 sentence answer to the primary keyword right at the top of the post to ‘feed’ the AI Overview.
3. Entity Density: Ensure you mention related “Entities” (people, places, and related brands) to help Google’s Knowledge Graph connect your content to the broader topic.”

These are the details about how to do keyword research for SEO. I have mentioned all the steps you have to follow to make sure that you can find the right keywords that match your niche and improve your chances of getting a high SERP ranking in Google results.

Furthermore, you have to understand the functioning of the right SEO tools to check different metrics of keywords like difficulty, search volume, intent, and CPC. Lastly, if you focus on advanced techniques besides these basic tactics, you can pave the ultimate way to desired outcomes.