Keyword research tool

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the process of finding the words and phrases people type into search engines when they're looking for information, products, or services related to your business. It tells you what your audience is actually searching for, how often they search for it, how competitive those terms are, and what kind of content would satisfy their intent.

Done well, organic keywords are the foundation of any content or SEO strategy. It removes the guesswork from content planning and helps you create pages that search engines want to rank and users actually want to read.

Why keywords are the foundation of your content strategy

Search engines like Google connect users to content by matching search queries to relevant pages. If your content doesn't include the words and phrases your audience uses, it won't show up in those results, no matter how good it is.

Keyword research helps you understand demand before you invest time creating content. It tells you which topics have real search volume, which ones you can realistically compete for, and which ones are likely to bring in the kind of traffic that converts. Without it, you're essentially publishing content and hoping someone finds it.

The different types of keywords and when to use them

Not all keywords work the same way. Here are the main types of keywords and when to use them:

• Short-tail keywords are broad, high-volume terms usually made up of one or two words, like "keyword research" or "content marketing." They attract a lot of traffic but are highly competitive and often vague about what the searcher actually wants.
• Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases like "how to do keyword research for a new blog." They have lower search volume but much higher intent, meaning the people searching for them know exactly what they want. They're easier to rank for and tend to convert better.
• Informational keywords signal that someone is looking to learn something. Think "what is keyword research" or "how does SEO work." These are ideal for blog posts, guides, and educational content.
• Commercial keywords suggest someone is researching before making a decision. Terms like "best keyword research tool" or "Contentpen vs Semrush" fall into this category. These are great for comparison pages and feature-focused content.
• Transactional keywords mean someone is ready to act. Phrases like "sign up for keyword research tool" or "buy SEO software" indicate high purchase intent and work best on landing pages and product pages.
• Navigational keywords are searches where someone is looking for a specific brand or website, like "Contentpen login" or "Semrush pricing." These are less about discovery and more about getting somewhere specific.
• LSI keywords, or Latent Semantic Indexing keywords, are terms that are thematically related to your main keyword without being exact matches. For example, an article about keyword research might naturally include terms like "search volume," "ranking," "SEO strategy," and "content planning." Search engines use these related terms to better understand what a page is actually about.

Understanding the metrics behind every keyword

When you do keyword research, every keyword comes with data points that help you decide whether it's worth targeting. Here's what each one tells you:

• Search volume is the average number of times a keyword gets searched per month. Higher volume means more potential traffic, but it also usually means more competition.
• Keyword difficulty is a score that tells you how hard it would be to rank for a keyword based on how strong the pages currently ranking for it are. Lower difficulty means it's more achievable, especially for newer sites.
• Difficulty percentage goes a step further and gives you a more precise picture of the competitive landscape for that specific keyword, helping you prioritize with more confidence.
• Search intent tells you the reason behind a search. Is someone trying to learn, compare, or buy? Matching your content type to the intent behind a keyword is one of the most important factors in whether your page actually ranks and satisfies the reader.
• CPC, or cost per click, is the average amount advertisers pay when someone clicks on an ad for that keyword. Even if you're focused on organic SEO, CPC is a useful signal. High CPC usually means the keyword has strong commercial value, which is worth knowing when you're prioritizing which content to create.

How to pick the right keywords for your site

With potentially hundreds of keyword suggestions in front of you, choosing the right ones comes down to a few practical steps.

1. Start with relevance. 

A keyword can have high volume and low difficulty, but if it doesn't match what your business offers or what your content is about, it won't bring in the right audience. Check what's currently ranking for a keyword before you commit to it.

2. Balance volume with difficulty. 

The sweet spot is a keyword with decent search volume and a difficulty score your site can realistically compete with. Chasing high-volume keywords with a new or low-authority site often leads to content that never ranks.

3. Use intent to match content type.
   Informational keywords belong in blog posts and guides. Commercial keywords work well on comparison and feature pages. Transactional keywords belong on landing pages and sign-up flows. Putting the wrong content type behind a keyword is one of the most common reasons pages don't rank.
4. Pay attention to CPC as a value signal. 

If a keyword has a high CPC, advertisers are willing to pay for that traffic. That tells you the audience converting on those terms is worth something, which makes it a strong candidate for revenue-focused content.

5. Group related keywords together. 

Several similar keywords can often be targeted on a single well-structured page rather than creating separate pages for each one. This avoids keyword cannibalization and makes your content more comprehensive.

Follow our guide on how to do keyword research to learn more and perfect your content foundation.

Why topic clusters beat publishing random content

A topic cluster is a group of related content built around one central pillar page. The pillar page covers a broad topic at a high level, and supporting pages go deeper into specific subtopics, all linking back to the pillar.

Topic clusters matter because they help search engines understand that your site has real depth and authority on a subject. When your content is organized this way, it signals topical authority rather than isolated pages competing for random keywords. Sites with strong topical clusters consistently outrank sites that publish disconnected content, even when the individual articles are well-written.

Building topic clusters manually is time-consuming. Contentpen does it automatically by analyzing your keywords and grouping them into clusters based on intent, relevance, and your business context, so you can see the full picture of what to publish and how it all connects.

How Contentpen compares to other keyword research tools

Most keyword research tools give you data and leave you to figure out the rest. Here's how Contentpen stacks up against the tools your competitors are probably already using.

Ready to find keywords that actually rank?

You don't need to start from a blank page or spend hours in spreadsheets. Enter your brand name or a topic into Contentpen, and it pulls up keyword suggestions relevant to your niche, each with volume, intent, difficulty, difficulty percentage, and CPC already attached.

From there, you can import your own keywords to check their metrics, export your keyword list, build topic clusters around the keywords you want to target, and generate SEO-optimized content directly from those clusters, without switching to a separate tool. Finding high opportunity keywords with Contentpen is the easiest.

The best part?

The whole process, from finding keywords to publishing content built around them, happens in a single blog writing tool.