Hello! How are you? I am Juanma Nieto, and at WeLoveWeb I make sure our clients’ Branding, Web Design, and Digital Marketing always pull in the same direction. Today I would like to talk to you about something I am passionate about and that, frankly, is the foundation of any success online: professional Keyword Research.
You have probably heard a thousand times that “content is king”. Well, let me tell you that if content is king, keywords are the treasure map. Without professional Keyword Research, writing a blog post or designing a services page is like trying to give a talk in an empty auditorium: what you say may be incredible, but if nobody is listening (or nobody is searching for you), it is pointless.
Join me on this journey where we are going to break down how we work at our SEO agency in Spain to find those terms that not only bring visits, but bring customers ready to buy.
What is professional Keyword Research, and why do 90% of SMEs do it wrong?
Doing keyword research is not simply typing “cheap shoes” into a free tool and seeing what comes up. Professional Keyword Research is a strategic analysis that matches your business goals with user psychology.
The most common mistake I see every week is trying to rank for words with massive search volume but zero purchase intent. There is no point in attracting 10,000 people if none of them is willing to buy. Modern SEO is not about traffic; it is about business.
The key is Search Intent
This is the most important concept you must internalize. Before choosing a word, ask yourself: What does the user expect to find when they type this? According to research on consumer behaviour by Search Engine Journal, there are four main types of intent:
- Informational: The user is looking to learn something (“how to make bread”).
- Navigational: They are looking for a specific brand (“WeLoveWeb login”).
- Commercial: They research before buying (“best trail running shoes”).
- Transactional: They are ready to buy (“buy iPhone 17 Pro Max”).
Professional Keyword Research must balance all these search types to cover the entire sales funnel.
Must-have tools for professional Keyword Research
I will not lie to you: to do top-level work, you need top-level tools. At WeLoveWeb we combine several to get a 360-degree view.
1. Semrush and Ahrefs: The heavyweights
They are the industry standard. They allow us to (lovingly) spy on the competition, see which keywords they rank for, and uncover “market gaps” that nobody is taking advantage of. Knowing what works for your rival is the fastest way to beat them.
2. Google Search Console: Your own personal goldmine
This tool is free and often the most underused. It tells you which keywords people are already finding you for. One trick we use at our SEO agency in Spain is to look for keywords that are in positions 11 or 12 (Google’s second page) and optimize that content to push it onto the first page. This is the SEO tactic with the highest immediate return on investment.
3. Answer The Public
Ideal for finding questions people ask. It is essential for targeting informational intent and appearing in Google’s “Featured Snippets”.
Step-by-step methodology: How we do professional Keyword Research at WeLoveWeb
So that this article brings you real value, I am going to share my personal “recipe”. The one I use when a client entrusts us with their online visibility.
Step 1: Brainstorming and Seed Keywords
We start with “seed keywords”. These are the core terms of your business. If you are a psychologist in Madrid, your seeds would be “psychologist”, “therapy”, “anxiety”, etc. Assume nothing; sometimes clients use terms you, as an expert, would never even imagine.
Step 2: The power of Long Tail (long-tail keywords)
This is where the magic happens. Generic terms are very difficult to rank for. However, an academic study by Backlinko on keyword analysis reveals that long-tail keywords make up the vast majority of searches online.
- Generic: “Marketing” (impossible to rank for and unclear).
- Long Tail: “professional Keyword Research for online fashion stores”. Long-tail keywords have less competition and a much higher conversion rate.
Step 3: Difficulty analysis (Keyword Difficulty)
Each tool has its own metric. If you see a keyword with a difficulty of 90% and your website is new, forget about it for now. In professional Keyword Research, we choose battles we can win. It is better to be first for a keyword with 100 searches than 50th for one with 10,000.
E-E-A-T: Why Google is no longer satisfied with keywords alone
For some time now, Google has become very serious about E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust). This means your professional Keyword Research should not be an isolated list, but a structure that demonstrates you are an expert.
At WeLoveWeb, we apply the Topic Clusters strategy. Instead of writing standalone articles, we create a “pillar page” and surround it with secondary articles that dive deeper into specific topics, all linked to each other. This tells Google: “Hey, this person really knows what they are talking about.”
To better understand how Google evaluates quality, I strongly recommend that you take a look at the Google Quality Rater Guidelines. It is a dense document, but it is the bible for understanding what the search engine considers “expert” content.
Common mistakes you must avoid at all costs
If you decide to do your own professional Keyword Research, be careful of these traps:
- Keyword stuffing: Repeating the keyword until the text becomes unreadable. Google will penalize you, and your users will hate you. Write for humans; optimize for robots.
- Ignoring location: If your business is local, there is no point in ranking in Mexico if you are in Seville. Use geographic modifiers.
- Not updating your research: The market changes. What people searched for two years ago is not what they search for today. Professional Keyword Research is a living document.
The value of experience: Why hire an SEO agency in Spain?
Doing professional Keyword Research takes time, expensive tools, and above all, a great deal of experience interpreting data. I have seen companies spend thousands of euros on writers for articles that never ranked because the foundation (the chosen keywords) was wrong.
At WeLoveWeb, we do not just give you a list of keywords. We give you a growth strategy. We analyze which terms are generating revenue for your competitors and create an attack plan to take that market share from them. SEO is not an expense; it is the most profitable long-term investment for your brand.
Start your journey to the top of Google today
If you feel your website is a desert that not a soul passes through, it is time to act. Professional Keyword Research is the first step to transforming your digital presence. Do not let your competition keep taking your potential customers simply because they appear when someone searches for your services.
Would you like us to do the dirty work for you? At WeLoveWeb, we are ready to analyze your sector, uncover your best opportunities, and design a winning roadmap. Visit our SEO agency in Spain service and request an audit. Let’s make sure your phone never stops ringing!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about professional Keyword Research
SEO is a long-term game. Once the professional Keyword Research has been implemented in your content, the changes usually start to be noticeable between 3 and 6 months, depending on your domain authority and the competitiveness of the sector.
For a basic level, Google Keyword Planner can work. But for professional Keyword Research that truly makes a competitive difference, paid tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs are indispensable because of the depth of data they offer on the competition.
There is no magic number. Ideally, you should have one primary keyword for each service page or blog post, supported by 4 or 5 secondary or semantic keywords that reinforce the context of the topic.
The most important thing is Search Intent. A keyword with 50 monthly searches and a clear purchase intent is preferable to one with 5,000 searches where the user is only browsing without spending a euro.
We recommend doing a thorough review at least once a year. However, in highly dynamic or technology-driven sectors, it is best to monitor trends quarterly so as not to miss opportunities to new competitors.
