Keyword Research Service London

The basics

What is keyword research?

A keyword is whatever a person types or says to a search engine. It may be one word, but it is usually a phrase: "emergency plumber Stratford", "best accountant for small business", "how much does a loft conversion cost". Keyword research is the work of finding the phrases that matter to your business and understanding each one well enough to act on it.

For each keyword, four things matter. Volume is how many times it is searched in a month. Difficulty is how strong the pages are that already rank for it. Intent is what the searcher is trying to do. Value is how likely that searcher is to become a customer. The best targets are rarely the biggest. They are the keywords where reasonable volume, clear buying intent and beatable competition meet.

Why keyword research matters

• It tells you which pages to build. Each important keyword group needs its own page. Research shows which pages are missing.
• It stops wasted effort. There is no point in a page aimed at a phrase nobody searches, or one dominated by national brands.
• It finds easy wins. Specific, local and long phrases often have little competition and strong intent.
• It shapes your wording. Using your customers' own words makes pages rank better and read better.
• It makes advertising cheaper. The same research identifies the keywords worth paying for and those to exclude.

How we carry out keyword research

We start with your business

We ask what you sell, which services earn the most, which customers you want more of and which areas you cover. Research that ignores these questions produces a long list and no direction.

We build the seed list

From your services we create starting terms, then expand them with keyword tools, Google's own suggestions, the "people also ask" questions, and the searches your website already appears for in Search Console.

We study your competitors

We look at the businesses that rank above you and list the keywords that bring them visitors. Keywords where several competitors rank and you do not are clear gaps to fill.

We add the local layer

London searches are intensely local. People search by borough, by district, by station and by postcode, and "near me" searches are answered according to where the searcher is standing. We research your services combined with the places you serve, so that area pages can be planned on evidence.

We sort by intent

"Boiler repair Ilford" comes from someone ready to book. "Why is my boiler leaking" comes from someone looking for information. Both are useful, but they need different pages: a service page for the first and an article for the second. We label every keyword accordingly.

We check the difficulty by hand

Tools give a difficulty score, but we also look at the actual results page. If it is filled with directories and national chains, a small business needs a narrower target. If it shows local firms with thin pages, the keyword is winnable.

We group and map

Similar keywords are grouped, and each group is assigned to a single page. This prevents the common fault of several pages competing against each other for the same search.

What you receive

You receive a spreadsheet and a short written summary. The spreadsheet lists every keyword with its monthly volume, difficulty, intent and the page it belongs to. The summary explains, in plain English, the main opportunities and what we recommend you do first.

The keyword map shows your existing pages and the keywords each should target, with suggested titles and headings. The page plan lists the new service pages, area pages and articles worth creating, ranked by likely return. You can act on it yourself, give it to a writer, or ask us to carry it out through our SEO content writing service.

Types of keyword we look for

Service keywords

The core phrases that describe what you do, with and without a location: "loft conversion", "loft conversion East London".

Local keywords

Your services combined with boroughs, districts and postcodes. These bring the nearest and most likely customers, and they feed local SEO as well as your website.

Long-tail keywords

Longer, more specific phrases, such as "same day end of tenancy cleaning Newham". Each has low volume, but together they make up most searches, competition is light and the searcher knows exactly what they want.

Question keywords

Questions about cost, time, choice and method. They suit articles and FAQ sections, and they are the type of query that AI assistants answer most often.

Commercial keywords

Phrases with words such as "best", "cost", "prices", "reviews" and "near me", which signal that the searcher is close to choosing.

Keyword research for Google Ads

Paid search runs on keywords too, and the research carries over. For advertising we add two things: the likely cost per click for each keyword, and a list of negative keywords, which are searches your advert should never appear for, such as "free", "jobs" or "course". A good negative list is one of the simplest ways to stop an advertising budget leaking. See Google Ads management for how campaigns are built on this.

Keywords and AI search

A growing share of searches is now answered by AI tools, which respond to full questions instead of short phrases. Keyword research has widened to match. We include the questions people ask in conversation, so that your pages contain clear, direct answers that an AI assistant can quote. Our generative engine optimisation page explains this in more detail.

Why choose Website Designer 1

Our research is done by people who also build the pages, so it ends in a practical plan and not only a spreadsheet. We tell you honestly which keywords are out of reach for now and which are realistic. And because we are a London business, we know how the city's customers describe where they are.

In detail

A worked example: keyword research for a London trade

Take an electrician based in Newham who wants more domestic work. Asked how customers find him, he says they search for "electrician". That keyword exists, but on its own it is too broad: it is searched across the whole country and the results are full of directories and national firms.

Research turns that one idea into a structured list. Service keywords appear first: rewiring, fuse board replacement, electrical safety certificates for landlords, EV charger installation, emergency call-outs. Each is a separate search with its own customers, and each deserves its own page. Then the local layer is added: the same services with Newham, East Ham, Stratford, Forest Gate, Ilford and Barking. Then the questions: what a rewire costs, how long a safety certificate lasts, whether a fuse board has to be replaced.

Sorted by intent and difficulty, the list shows where to start. "Landlord electrical certificate East London" may have modest volume, but the searcher needs the job done, the competition is thin and the work is repeatable. That becomes the first new page. The broad national term is left alone. The electrician ends up with a plan for a dozen pages, each aimed at a search he can realistically win.

Keyword research for a new website

The best time for keyword research is before a website is built. The research decides the structure: which services get their own pages, which areas are covered, what the menu contains and what each page is called. Building the site first and researching later usually means rebuilding parts of it. That is why keyword targeting is part of the planning stage of every website we design, from a one-page site upwards.

Keyword research for an existing website

For a site that is already live, research starts with what Google already shows it for. Search Console lists the real searches and the position for each. Two groups stand out. Keywords where you sit just outside the first page are the quickest wins, since a better title, fuller content or a few internal links may be enough to lift them. Keywords where the wrong page appears show that two pages are competing and need to be merged or separated. We then add the keywords you do not appear for at all and plan the pages to cover them.

How search volume should be read

Volume figures are estimates, and they should be treated with care. A phrase shown with ten searches a month is not worthless: tools under-report rare and local phrases, and one enquiry from such a search may be worth hundreds of pounds. Equally, a phrase with thousands of searches may bring visitors who never buy. We judge each keyword by the likely value of the customer behind it, not by the size of the number beside it.