SEOKeyword ResearchContent StrategySearch MarketingOrganic Growth
Conduct Keyword Research
T. Krause
Stop chasing keywords your audience never searches for. This prompt builds a structured keyword research process that uncovers high-intent queries, maps them into topical clusters, and prioritizes by realistic ranking potential.
Keyword research is the foundation of every organic search strategy — and the place where most teams quietly waste months of work. The common pattern is to chase high-volume head terms, write content for whoever might be searching them, and wonder why the traffic doesn't convert into customers. The discipline that separates winning SEO programs from spinning ones is matching specific search intent to content a realistic domain can actually rank.
This prompt walks you through that discipline. It groups your keywords into topical clusters, ranks them by intent and competitive realism, and identifies the long-tail terms you can win in the next 90 days. The output is a prioritized map you can hand to a writer or use to plan your own content calendar — not a 5,000-row spreadsheet you'll never look at again.
What It Does
- Builds 5–7 topical clusters anchored in your audience's real problems, not just keyword variants.
- Maps every keyword to intent type, rough difficulty, journey stage, and a recommended content format.
- Highlights the quick-win long-tail keywords you can prioritize first, based on competitive realism rather than volume alone.
The Prompt
#CONTEXT:
I need to build a structured keyword research strategy for my website. I want to find search terms that match my audience's intent, are realistic to rank for given my domain authority, and align with my product or content goals. I also want a repeatable method I can re-run quarterly without starting from scratch every time.
#ROLE:
You are a senior SEO strategist with 12 years of experience building organic search programs for B2B SaaS, e-commerce, and content businesses. You understand that search volume alone is a vanity metric — the real value is in matching specific search intent to content that converts. You know how to balance head terms, long-tail queries, and topical clusters to build authority sustainably.
#RESPONSE GUIDELINES:
1. Begin by analyzing my business, audience, and current content to surface 5–7 core topic clusters that should anchor my keyword strategy.
2. For each cluster, generate at least 8 keywords spanning informational, commercial-investigation, and transactional intent.
3. For each keyword, estimate intent type, rough difficulty (low / medium / high), and which stage of the buyer journey it fits.
4. Highlight 5–10 "quick win" long-tail keywords I should prioritize immediately based on lower competition and high commercial intent.
5. Recommend a content format for each keyword group — pillar page, comparison post, how-to guide, case study, listicle — based on the type of content currently ranking.
#KEYWORD RESEARCH CRITERIA:
1. Prioritize search intent over search volume. A keyword with 200 monthly searches and clear buying intent often outperforms one with 20,000 searches and no intent.
2. Group keywords into topical clusters so multiple posts reinforce one another and build topical authority.
3. Filter out SERPs dominated by Wikipedia, government sites, or pure brand pages — those are unwinnable for most domains.
4. Include question-based and "alternatives to" queries — these have high commercial value and lower competition than head terms.
5. Match the recommended format to the live SERP. If the top results are listicles, do not propose a long-form essay.
#INFORMATION ABOUT ME:
- My business: [BUSINESS — what you sell, to whom]
- My target customer: [CUSTOMER_PROFILE]
- My product or service offer: [OFFER]
- Existing content URL or content theme: [URL_OR_THEME]
- My competitors: [COMPETITORS — 2–4 domains I want to compete with]
- My current domain authority or stage: [DA_OR_STAGE — e.g., new domain, DA 30, DA 60]
#RESPONSE FORMAT:
Topic Clusters:
- Cluster 1: [Name] — [One-sentence description]
- Cluster 2: [Name] — [Description]
- ...
Keyword Map by Cluster:
Cluster 1 [Name]:
- [Keyword] — Intent: [type] | Difficulty: [low/med/high] | Journey stage: [stage] | Format: [content format]
- [Keyword] — ...
Top 10 Quick Wins:
1. [Keyword] — [Why this is winnable now] — [Recommended format]
2. [Keyword] — ...
Content Calendar (Next 90 Days):
- Month 1: [Recommended posts]
- Month 2: [Recommended posts]
- Month 3: [Recommended posts]
Validation Checklist:
- [Step 1 — confirm volume and difficulty in a keyword tool]
- [Step 2 — manually inspect the live SERP for each quick win]
- [Step 3 — verify intent match against your offer]
How to Use
- Be honest about your domain stage. A new site needs different keywords than a DA 60 publisher — the prompt's quick-win recommendations depend on this input.
- List 2–4 real competitor domains. The output gets dramatically sharper when the model can reason about a specific competitive set instead of an abstract market.
- After running the prompt, validate volume and difficulty in a real keyword tool (Ahrefs, Semrush, or Google Keyword Planner) before committing to a content calendar.
- Manually open the top 3 results for each quick-win keyword. The live SERP tells you more about intent and format than any tool metric.
Example Input
## Information about me
- My business: I sell a project management SaaS aimed at marketing agencies (5–50 people)
- My target customer: Agency operations leads and account directors who manage client work across designers, writers, and PM
- My product or service offer: $29/user/month tool for tracking client projects, time, and approvals
- Existing content URL or theme: agencyflow.com/blog — currently 12 posts on agency operations, light traffic
- My competitors: teamwork.com, asana.com, monday.com
- My current stage: DA 24, ~600 monthly organic visitors
Tips
- Build clusters around problems, not features. "Client approval workflow" is a cluster. "AgencyFlow approval tool" is not. Customers search for problems they have, not products they don't know exist yet.
- Always inspect the live SERP before writing. A keyword tool can tell you the volume, but only the SERP tells you what content actually wins for that query.
- Use the "alternatives to [competitor]" pattern. These keywords are short, easy to write for, and signal high commercial intent. They consistently outperform broader category searches in conversion rate.
- Re-run this prompt every 90 days. Search intent and SERP composition shift faster than most teams realize, and last quarter's quick wins may already be saturated.
- For each cluster, plan one pillar page plus 4–6 supporting posts. Internal linking between them is what turns isolated keywords into topical authority.