Keyword Strategy
Keyword Research Before Optimisation Begins
Most sites optimise pages without a coherent keyword map, leading to cannibalisation, missed opportunities and wasted content investment. Our keyword research service provides complete search demand mapping before any content or optimisation work begins.
Industry Insight
90% of Pages Get No Organic Traffic — and Most Were Built Without Checking What People Actually Search For
Ahrefs data shows 90.63% of pages get zero organic traffic from Google, and the primary reason is misaligned keyword targeting. Pages built around assumed search language — rather than verified search data — attract no visitors regardless of how well they are written or how many links they have. Keyword research turns content decisions from guesswork into data-driven investment, ensuring every page you create or optimise is targeting a query with actual search demand.
The Problem
Why Most SEO Targeting Fails
Most businesses producing SEO content have never audited whether the pages they are optimising are targeting the right keywords, whether those pages are competing against each other for the same queries, or whether the highest-value keyword opportunities in their market have any page coverage at all.
Content created without keyword research typically has one of three problems: it targets keywords with negligible search volume, it competes against other pages on the same site for the same queries, or it targets queries the site cannot rank for at its current authority level.
Our keyword research service eliminates all three problems before a single piece of content is written or a single page is optimised. The result is that every optimisation effort and every content investment is directed precisely at the queries that will produce ranking improvements for your specific site.
Our Keyword Research Service
Our Keyword Research Service: Six Core Deliverables
Site-Wide Keyword Mapping
Our keyword research service assigns target primary and secondary keywords to every page on your site. Each page receives a primary target keyword, a cluster of supporting terms, and a recommended internal linking structure. The map distinguishes commercial, transactional, informational and navigational intent so your content and meta strategy aligns with the intent behind each query.
Competitor Keyword Gap Analysis
Our keyword research service compares your organic keyword footprint against your top 3 to 5 organic competitors in Ahrefs. Every keyword your competitors rank for in positions 1 to 20 that you have no coverage for is flagged as a gap, then segmented by intent and volume. This is your fastest route to high-value keyword opportunities because demand is already proven.
Keyword Cannibalisation Audit
Our keyword research service identifies every case where two or more of your pages are targeting the same or closely related keyword. Cannibalisation causes Google to split ranking signals across multiple pages, resulting in none of them ranking well. We provide a resolution instruction for each conflict: consolidate, redirect, differentiate content focus, or adjust internal linking to signal the preferred page.
Local Keyword Research
Our keyword research service builds a local intent keyword matrix for businesses targeting city, suburb or region-specific queries. We research city-level search volumes, suburb variants, 'near me' query structures, and service area combinations for every market you serve. The output informs whether location landing pages, schema changes, or service area content sections are required.
eCommerce Keyword Architecture
Our keyword research service maps commercial keywords across category, subcategory and product page levels for eCommerce sites. Category pages receive highest-volume, broadest commercial terms. Subcategories receive variant and filter queries. Product pages receive specification-level terms. The architecture prevents category and subcategory pages competing with each other for overlapping queries.
Content Gap Research
Our keyword research service identifies query clusters where your target audience is actively searching but your site has no content coverage. These content gaps represent ranking opportunities your site cannot currently access regardless of authority or optimisation effort. Each gap is prioritised by search volume, intent, and the difficulty of the pages currently ranking for it.
Our Process
Our Keyword Research Process: Step by Step
Seed Keyword Discovery
We begin by mapping your business model, service lines, and customer language to develop a seed keyword list of 80 to 200 terms. These come from your existing Search Console data, competitor URL structures and titles, Ahrefs autocomplete and related term expansion, and direct conversation with your team about how customers describe your services.
Volume and Difficulty Data Pull
Every seed keyword is expanded through Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner to capture search volume, keyword difficulty, click-through rate, and historical volume trend data. We filter by Australian search volume specifically, not global estimates, because geographic modifier terms and industry language vary significantly between Australian and international audiences.
Intent Classification
Each keyword in our keyword research service is classified by search intent: informational (research-stage), commercial (comparison-stage), transactional (purchase or enquiry-stage), or navigational. Intent classification determines what type of page should target each keyword, what content format is appropriate, and what conversion actions that page should support.
Competitor Gap Analysis
We run a full keyword gap analysis in Ahrefs comparing your ranking dataset against 3 to 5 direct organic competitors. Every keyword where competitors rank in positions 1 to 20 and you have no ranking is extracted, deduplicated, and classified by intent and volume. This produces your highest-priority unaddressed opportunities.
Cannibalisation and Site Mapping
We map your entire existing page inventory to the keyword data, identify every cannibalisation conflict, and assign final target keywords for each existing and planned page. Pages without clear keyword assignments are flagged as inactive or consolidation candidates. The final map shows every page with its primary target keyword and the intent type it serves.
Priority Recommendations and Content Briefs
Our keyword research service concludes with a prioritised action list: which pages to optimise immediately (existing pages with quick-win keywords), which new pages to create (content gap priorities), and which cannibalisation conflicts to resolve in what order. For each new content priority, we include a content brief with target keyword, intent, recommended format, competing pages, and internal linking targets.
Deliverables
What Our Keyword Research Service Delivers
Master keyword list
Every researched keyword with Australian search volume, Keyword Difficulty, current ranking position, and intent classification. Typically 300 to 2,000+ terms depending on site size.
Site-wide keyword map
Every existing and planned page assigned a primary keyword, supporting keyword cluster, and intent type. Cannibalisation conflicts flagged with resolution instructions.
Competitor gap analysis
Full Ahrefs keyword gap report showing every keyword your top 3 to 5 competitors rank for in positions 1 to 20 that your site does not, segmented by intent and volume.
Cannibalisation conflict report
Every page pair competing for the same or overlapping queries, with a specific resolution recommendation for each conflict (consolidate, redirect, differentiate, or link signal).
Content brief priority list
Top 20 to 30 content creation priorities ordered by search volume, intent, and competition, each with a brief including target keyword, recommended format, and competing pages.
3-month optimisation roadmap
A prioritised sequence of on-page optimisation tasks, content creation briefs, and page restructure recommendations based on the keyword research output.
Results
Keyword Research Service Results for Australian Businesses
Melbourne, VIC
Challenge: A Melbourne accounting firm was investing in monthly blog content but seeing declining visibility in Search Console. Their content team had no keyword strategy: topics were chosen by staff interest rather than search demand. Fifteen blog posts were competing for overlapping tax-related queries, none ranking in the top 30. Meanwhile, 38 high-intent service queries with commercial intent had no corresponding page on the site.
Our service work: Our keyword research service mapped the firm's complete search opportunity across tax, accounting, and business advisory services. We identified 15 cannibalisation conflicts in existing blog content, a 38-query gap in service page coverage, and 22 local intent queries for Melbourne suburbs the firm served. The deliverable included a full site keyword map, cannibalisation resolution instructions, and a 6-month content brief priority list.
Australia-wide
Challenge: An Australian home goods eCommerce store had 300 product pages but only 12 category pages, all with duplicate or near-duplicate titles. Their keyword research had been done once at launch two years earlier and never updated. Ahrefs showed 420 competitor keywords with transactional intent that the store had no page coverage for, including 80 with over 500 monthly searches.
Our service work: Our keyword research service produced a complete category and subcategory keyword architecture, mapping 680 keywords across 48 category and subcategory pages (existing and new). We identified 80 high-priority content gaps and prioritised them by search volume and competition. The research also uncovered 14 buying guide topics with over 1,000 monthly searches where the store had no content.
Industries and Services
Our Keyword Research Service Across Every Industry
Why Us
Why Choose Our Keyword Research
We use Australian search data, not global volume estimates
Google Keyword Planner and many SEO tools default to global or US search volumes. Our keyword research service uses geofiltered Ahrefs data and Australian-specific Search Console data so every volume figure reflects actual Australian search demand, not international proxies.
We deliver a keyword map, not a keyword list
A list of keywords sorted by volume is not a research service. Our deliverable is a fully mapped site architecture showing which keyword targets which page, what intent each page serves, and what the optimisation and content priorities are. Every keyword is assigned, not just listed.
We identify attainable keywords for your current authority
Targeting keywords with KD 60+ when your DR is 15 wastes every optimisation effort applied to those pages. Our keyword research service segments the entire opportunity by attainability at your current Domain Rating and identifies which terms can be ranked now versus which require authority building first.
We include cannibalisation resolution, not just identification
Most keyword audits flag cannibalisation conflicts. Our service goes further: every flagged conflict comes with a specific resolution instruction — whether to consolidate, redirect, differentiate content, or adjust internal linking — so your team can act immediately without further analysis.
Our research drives every subsequent SEO and content decision
The keyword map produced by our research service becomes the foundation for on-page optimisation decisions, content brief priorities, internal linking architecture, and link building target pages. It is not a one-time document but the ongoing reference for all SEO activity.
We benchmark against your actual organic competitors
Our keyword gap analysis uses Ahrefs to compare your keyword footprint against the specific sites ranking above you for your target queries, not industry averages. This shows precisely which terms are within reach and where your competitors are capturing demand that should be yours.
Related Services
Complementary Keyword Research Services
On-Page SEO
Implementing keyword research output: title tags, heading structure, content length and internal linking aligned to the keyword map.
Technical SEO
Resolving crawl, indexing, and site architecture issues that prevent target keyword pages from being crawled and ranked.
Content Marketing
Ongoing production of content targeting the gap keywords and supporting informational queries identified in the research.
Link Building
Building domain authority so the competitive, higher-difficulty keywords identified in the research become attainable.
Locations
Our Keyword Research Service Across Australia
We provide keyword research services for Australian businesses in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and all major cities. All research uses Australian search volumes and Australian competitor data.
Answer Engine Optimisation
AI Search Cites Sites With Full Topic Cluster Coverage — Keyword Research Is How You Map That Cluster
Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT select sources based on topical authority — the depth and breadth of a site's coverage of a subject area. A site that covers the primary keyword, all supporting questions, comparison terms and long-tail variants of a topic cluster is far more likely to be cited than a site that has one page targeting one phrase. Keyword research is the process of mapping that complete cluster before content is built.
Client Results
Keyword Research Clients Ranking for the Right Terms
"We had 80 blog posts and were getting almost no organic traffic. The keyword audit showed we were targeting phrases with fewer than 10 monthly searches. Within three months of rebuilding our content strategy around actual search data, organic traffic increased by 340%."
"The competitor gap analysis identified 47 commercial keywords our top competitors ranked for that we had zero content targeting. We built pages for the top 20 and started ranking for 14 of them within 10 weeks. The content roadmap from the research paid for itself inside the first month."
"We were cannibalising our own rankings — four pages all competing for the same query. The keyword research identified the overlap and mapped a clear architecture fix. After consolidation and redirects, the surviving page moved from position 11 to position 3 inside six weeks."
FAQ
Questions About Our Keyword Research Service
Keyword Audit
Get a Free Keyword Audit
Our keyword research service maps your full search opportunity, identifies cannibalisation conflicts, and produces a prioritised content and optimisation roadmap. Most clients see the first ranking improvements within 8 to 12 weeks of implementing the recommendations.