Alright, now let us focus on keywords. It would be fair to assume that, if you have spent some time in digital marketing, you could recall times where keyword research used to be an almost mechanical process of launching a tool and picking a keyword marked by a high value. But here is the thing: this approach to SEO became a piece of old history long ago. And if in 2026 you are focusing solely on volume, you are simply pouring money down the drain without even knowing what to expect.
Because today keyword research is less of a technical exercise and more of a psychological quest, where we are trying to read the mind of a person who is tired of browsing the internet and sitting on the couch at 11:00 PM asking a question through his phone.
To me, the toughest thing to do will be to try not to use high volume keywords. It might sound very cool to claim: “Hey, we have 100,000 search requests for ‘laptop.’ How cool it is!” But actually, the trouble with such approach is that no one will ever know what intentions the user had while searching for this keyword: it might have been a desire to find the repair service for this gadget, get some information on its origin or buy it as a present. This is where the idea of Search Intent comes into play; it is extremely important to realize what exactly people are looking for with this keyword.
One should figure out whether the visitor has been looking for some information (Informational Intent) or he/she wanted to compare some products and services offered by various companies (Commercial Intent) or intended to make a purchase right away (Transactional Intent). The last two types of users should be targeted first if you run a small business. As far as I am concerned, having 50 people willing to buy your goods will pay off much better than 5,000 people only reading the definition of your company’s activities.
Another oddity about today’s SEO landscape is that the most profitable keyword appears in the analytics tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush as having “zero searches”. It sounds strange, doesn’t it? If no one is searching for the keyword, why would I write anything for it?
However, remember that the tools can only make predictions based on historical data. People become more precise in their search queries. They search not for “hiking boots”, but “the best waterproof hiking boots for narrow heels and ankle support.” The keyword is predicted to have zero searches since it is very specific. The user who writes that query is a “hyper-qualified” lead. If your content provides the answer to the question, you’ll get the traffic. Period. “Long-tail” keywords refer to such queries. However, we can call them “human” keywords.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that we tend to treat keywords as isolated islands. We pick one, write a post, and move on. But that’s not how the human brain works, and it’s definitely not how Google’s algorithm works anymore. We have to start thinking in Topic Clusters.
In essence, you aim to create a “hub” for your content. As a watch expert, rather than writing a single article titled “How to buy vintage watches,” you write an article on detecting fakes, another on the history of individual movements, a third on cleaning lenses, and even one on identifying trusted dealers. Through such coverage of secondary keywords that relate to the main subject, you tell the search engine that you’re not merely interested in ranking, but that you’re an expert in the field. In 2026, expertise is king.
In case you asked for my opinion? Sure, use these tools for baseline data collection, but after that, just turn them off and go to the forums. Reddit. TikTok. See how they phrase their questions in the “People Also Ask” box on Google. That’s where the real gold lies!
People aren’t using corporate jargon when they write to the forums. No matter how many times your sophisticated SEO software tells you that certain questions cannot be used, if you see them repeating in any single subreddit, that’s your keyword and your customer’s true concern. Now imagine taking that exact language and putting it on your web page. It would be a win-win situation.
In the end, though, all the keyword research in the world is simply another form of listening. You are listening to concerns and queries and questions, and you are listening to when people are primed to spend their money. There is an art and a science to doing this successfully, and it will take some time before you figure out the nuances of how best to go about doing it.
You are going to choose some “bad” keywords in the process, and that’s okay, you might still be choosing them too. All that matters is being relevant, rather than being right. The more you are willing to listen to your potential customers and understand their needs and interests, the easier it will become for you to choose the right keywords.
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