Keyword research for UK small businesses

What keyword research is for

Keyword research isn't about finding the biggest numbers. It's about understanding how your customers describe their problem, so your pages use the same language and answer the same questions. A heating engineer who writes about "hydronic system maintenance" when customers search "boiler service" is speaking to nobody.

For a small business, the output should be modest: a list of phrases grouped by topic, each group matched to one page on your site.

Start with what you already know

Before opening any tool, write down:

• The services or products that make you the most money.
• The questions customers ask on the phone or in the shop.
• The words they use. Listen for "fix", "repair", "replace", "cost", "near me", "same day".
• The places you work, at the level customers name them. People search for "Headingley" as well as "Leeds".

This list is often better than anything a tool produces, because it comes from real conversations.

Free sources of real searches

Google Search Console

If your site has been live a while, the Performance report shows the queries that already bring you impressions. Sort by impressions and look for phrases where you appear but rarely get clicked. Those are your quickest wins.

Google itself

Type your main service into Google and note:

• Autocomplete suggestions as you type.
• The "People also ask" questions.
• "Related searches" at the bottom of the page.

Do this on your phone too, logged out or in a private window, from your area.

Your competitors' pages

Look at the businesses that appear for your main phrases. What pages do they have? What headings do they use? You're not copying them. You're checking which topics customers clearly expect to see covered. Our competitor analysis guide goes further.

Keyword tools

Google Keyword Planner, which sits inside Google Ads, gives rough search ranges. Paid tools offer estimates too. Treat every figure as a guide, not a fact. Tools disagree with each other, often by a lot, and small local phrases may show no data at all even though real people search them.

Judge the intent behind each phrase

The same topic can mean very different things. Group phrases by what the searcher wants:

• Ready to buy or book. "Emergency electrician Bolton", "book MOT Swansea".
• Comparing options. "Combi vs system boiler", "best conveyancing solicitor reviews".
• Learning. "Why is my boiler pressure dropping", "how long does probate take".
• Looking for you. Your business name, with or without a town.

Look at what Google already shows for each phrase. If the top results are all service pages, a blog post won't compete. If they're all guides, a sales page won't either. Google's results tell you what format it thinks fits.

Choose what you can realistically win

A new site won't outrank national brands for broad phrases like "car insurance". It can win local and specific phrases. Favour:

• Phrases that include your town or area.
• Specific services rather than broad categories: "sash window repair" rather than "windows".
• Longer questions that big sites answer badly.
• Phrases where the current results are weak, outdated or not quite on topic.

Map phrases to pages

This is the step most people skip. Build a simple table with three columns: page, main phrase, related phrases.

In practice that might look like this for a family law firm:

• Divorce page: "divorce solicitor Norwich", with "how much does a divorce cost", "no-fault divorce".
• Child arrangements page: "child arrangements order", with "residence order", "contact with children after separation".
• Fees page: "family law fees", with "fixed fee divorce".

One main topic per page. If two pages target the same phrase, they compete with each other. That's keyword cannibalisation, and it usually means merging them or giving each a clearer focus.

Turn the list into actions

For each page in your table, decide whether it:

1. Already exists and needs improving. 2. Exists but targets the wrong phrase. 3. Needs creating.

Start with category 1. Improving a page that already has some visibility is almost always quicker than creating a new one from scratch.

Mistakes to avoid

• Chasing volume over relevance. A hundred visits from people who'll never buy are worth less than five from people who will.
• Writing for the tool. Repeating an exact phrase awkwardly doesn't help. Google understands synonyms and natural language.
• Ignoring local wording. Customers in different regions use different words. "Takeaway" and "take-out", "estate agent" and "letting agent", "joiner" and "carpenter".
• Doing it once. Searches change. Revisit your list every six months.

Questions