Keyword Research for Client Websites: A Repeatable Agency Workflow

Keyword research is usually the first real deliverable in a new SEO engagement, and it sets the direction for months of content and optimisation work. Yet many agencies run it differently for every client, depending on who's doing it and which tools they happen to have open.

This is a six-step workflow you can repeat for every new client. It works whether the client is a local service business or a Shopify store with thousands of products.

Step 1: Start with the business, not the tool

Before you open a keyword tool, spend 30 minutes with the client (or their sales team) and write down:

• What they sell, and which products or services make the most money.
• Who buys, and the words those customers use, which are often different from the client's internal jargon.
• Where they sell: one city, a whole country, or worldwide.
• Who they lose deals to, meaning their real competitors, not just the ones they'd like to beat.

This keeps you from producing a keyword list that looks impressive but targets traffic that will never convert.

Step 2: Build a seed list

Seed keywords are the broad, obvious terms that describe the business. Pull them from:

• the client's product and service names;
• the words customers use in reviews, support emails and sales calls;
• competitors' navigation menus and category pages;
• Google's autocomplete and the "People also ask" box for each seed.

Aim for 15–40 seeds. You're not judging them yet; you're mapping the territory.

Step 3: Expand, then group by search intent

Run each seed through your keyword tool to find longer variations. Then, instead of sorting the list by search volume, group it by intent:

The quickest way to check intent is to search the keyword and look at what already ranks. If the top ten results are all product pages, a blog post won't rank there, however good it is.

Step 4: Score every keyword the same way

Give each keyword a simple score, so choices don't come down to gut feel. A practical scoring model:

• Business value (1–3): how directly the keyword leads to revenue for this client.
• Difficulty (1–3): how established the pages already ranking are, compared with the client's site.
• Volume (1–3): relative to the other keywords on the list, not an absolute number.

Weight business value most heavily. A keyword with 90 monthly searches that fits a high-margin service is usually worth more than one with 9,000 searches of loosely related traffic.

Step 5: Map keywords to pages

Every priority keyword group should map to exactly one URL, either one that already exists or one you plan to create. Record the mapping in a sheet with these columns:

• keyword group and primary keyword;
• target URL (existing or planned);
• intent;
• current ranking position, if any;
• action: optimise existing page, create new page or consolidate duplicates.

This mapping catches keyword cannibalisation, where two of the client's pages compete for the same search and neither ranks well. When you find that, merge the pages or clearly separate what each one targets.

Step 6: Turn it into a plan the client can see

Clients rarely read keyword spreadsheets. Turn the research into a short roadmap:

1. Quick wins: existing pages that rank on page two for valuable terms. Improving the title tag, headings and content depth can move these first.
2. Core pages: transactional and commercial pages that need building or rewriting.
3. Content calendar: informational topics scheduled over the next three to six months.

Then set up rank tracking for the priority keywords straight away, so next month's report shows movement against a baseline instead of opinions.

Mistakes to avoid

• Chasing volume over intent. High-volume informational terms bring visitors who rarely buy.
• Ignoring location. A plumber in Manila doesn't need to rank nationally in the US. Set your tools to the right country and language.
• One keyword per page, taken literally. Modern search engines understand topics. Target a group of closely related terms with one strong page instead of one page per variation.
• Researching once. Rerun the process every six to twelve months, because search behaviour and competitors change.

Run it with one set of tools

The SEO & Keyword Toolkit in the Devcom Digital suite covers the tracking and on-page audit side of this workflow. It's included in the same subscription as the rest of the suite, so there's no separate SEO bill for each client. See pricing for details.