Keyword Research for Beginners: Complete Guide

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of discovering the words and phrases people type into search engines. When you know what your audience is searching for, you can create content that answers their questions — and rank in Google to bring in consistent organic traffic.

Good keyword research is the foundation of any SEO strategy. Without it, you might spend weeks writing content nobody is looking for.

Step 1 — Understand Search Intent

Before targeting a keyword, you need to understand why people search for it. Search intent falls into four categories:

• Informational — the user wants to learn (“what is keyword difficulty”)
• Navigational — the user wants to find a specific site (“redonapp login”)
• Commercial — the user is comparing options (“best free SEO tools”)
• Transactional — the user is ready to buy (“buy SEMrush subscription”)

Match your content format to the intent. Informational keywords need guides; transactional keywords need product/landing pages.

Step 2 — Find Seed Keywords

Start with 3–5 broad topics related to your niche. For a cooking blog, these might be: “meal prep”, “healthy recipes”, “cooking for beginners”. These are your seed keywords.

Type them into redonapp to instantly generate related keyword ideas, see search volumes, and identify which ones have low enough difficulty for a new site to rank.

Step 3 — Evaluate Keyword Difficulty

Keyword difficulty (KD) is a score from 0–100. The lower the score, the easier it is to rank. As a beginner, target keywords with a KD below 30 — these are beatable without a strong backlink profile.

The sweet spot is a keyword with decent volume (100–1,000/month) and low difficulty (under 30). These are your ranking opportunities.

Step 4 — Check the SERP

Before targeting any keyword, look at who's currently ranking. Use redonapp's SERP analysis to see the top 10 results — their domain authority, backlinks, and content type.

If the top 10 is full of Forbes, Wikipedia, and massive brands, skip that keyword. If you see small blogs and thin content, that's an opening.

Step 5 — Build Your Keyword List

Aim for a mix of:

• 1–2 main keywords per page (the primary focus)
• 3–5 supporting/LSI keywords (related terms to weave naturally into the content)
• Long-tail variants (specific phrases with low competition)