What is SEO keyword research? How to choose keywords that rank

According to Reputation911, 91.5% of users never click through to the second page of Google, which means a website outside the top results is almost “invisible” to customers and brings no conversions. At that point, only Keyword SEO is the best way to raise rankings, attract quality traffic and build brand credibility. So what is keyword SEO, and how do you optimize SEO keywords most effectively? Let's find out with MONA Media in the article below!

What is keyword SEO?

Keyword SEO is the process of improving your website so it appears higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) when users search for related keywords. It helps your site reach the right audience and bring in more organic traffic from search engines such as Google, Cốc Cốc and Bing…

So what is the difference between SEO keywords and keyword SEO?

• SEO keywords are the words or phrases that express what users want to find when they look things up online. Put simply, they are what people type into the search bar to find an answer or content that fits their needs.
• Keyword SEO is the process of optimizing a website by building SEO-standard articles around the target keyword, building backlinks, doing on-page SEO and more, to bring the site to the top of search results.

For example: you sell laptops and want to grow sales with an SEO strategy for gaming laptops.

• Target keywords (SEO keywords): “laptop gaming giá rẻ” (cheap gaming laptop), “laptop chơi game” (laptop for gaming), “laptop gaming dưới 20 triệu” (gaming laptop under 20 million VND).
• Doing keyword SEO: You can write review articles, add product descriptions, publish related blog posts, craft attractive titles and build a network of links from reputable sites.
• Result: When someone searches “laptop gaming giá rẻ” (cheap gaming laptop), your website may appear at the top, drawing in many interested customers and raising your conversion rate.

Why does keyword SEO matter?

According to recent reports, millions of websites compete fiercely for high positions in search results, so businesses need to adopt SEO strategy that stands out to improve their rankings. Among these, keyword SEO is the best way to get a site to the top and connect directly with customer needs. 

A well-run keyword SEO strategy brings practical benefits such as:

• Getting your website to the top of search: When you optimize keywords on Google, the search engine ranks your website higher for queries related to the products, services or information customers look for. Holding top keyword positions (top 1-3) can capture as much as 30 – 40% of all clicks, helping you get ahead of competitors.
• More visibility and reaching the right audience: Choosing and applying the right keywords shows your website to the right target customers. For example, someone searching “dịch vụ SEO từ khóa uy tín” (reputable keyword SEO service) usually wants to transact right away, while the query “dịch vụ SEO” (SEO services) is more for research. 
• Better conversion rates and more trust: When content is optimized for search intent, users stay on the page longer, engage more and take actions such as buying, signing up for a service or sharing their details. This is how an effective SEO keyword set raises revenue and brand credibility.
• Lower costs and lasting rankings: Unlike paid ads (Google Ads), keyword SEO brings organic traffic and reduces dependence on your marketing budget. A well-run keyword SEO strategy can hold rankings for a long time, saving costs and delivering lasting results.

How has AI changed the way Google understands keywords?

In the past, Google only read individual words to return search results. Today, with the help of artificial intelligence, Google understands intent, context and the relationships between words almost the way people do when they talk. Specifically, AI has changed how Google understands keywords in the following ways:

From keyword matching to semantic understanding

Google no longer works on a “what you type is what you get” basis. Thanks to AI, the search engine can understand the real intent behind each query, rather than just matching keywords. Businesses that need to run a Local SEO strategy should pay even closer attention to this change.

For example, when you type “cà phê ngon gần quận 4” (good coffee near District 4), Google does not just look at each word. It understands that you want a good coffee shop located near District 4, Ho Chi Minh City, possibly with extras such as parking or a convenience store.

As a result, the results show the coffee shops that best match your need, not simply pages containing the phrase “cà phê ngon gần quận 4”. 

Applying the AI algorithms BERT and MUM to keyword SEO

Artificial intelligence helps Google “read” and understand human language in context. Thanks to advanced AI models such as BERT and MUM, the search engine can now tell apart the meaning of sentences even when they look alike.

BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) helps Google understand the meaning of words in a specific context. One word can have several meanings, and BERT works out the right one from the whole sentence. As a result, long queries and question-style queries are handled more accurately.

For example, with BERT, in the phrases “quản lý nhân sự hiệu quả” (effective HR management) and “hiệu quả công việc” (work efficiency), the word “hiệu quả” is understood in two different contexts. This helps Google return results closer to what the user needs, especially for long, explanatory queries.

A website, on the other hand, is MUM (Multitask Unified Model) also helps Google handle complex questions phrased the way people naturally talk, for example “I climbed Mount Fuji last year and now want to climb a similar mountain. What do I need to prepare?”. Instead of just finding scattered information, Google understands that you want suggestions for a similar trip, and gives a fuller, more practical answer.

Focus on entities when researching SEO keywords

An entity is a specific object or concept with a clear identity that can be identified on its own. It can be a concept (SEO), a business (MONA Media), a product, a place (Ho Chi Minh City) or a person.

To process and connect this enormous amount of information, Google built the Knowledge Graph, a system that helps AI understand the relationships between entities in the same topic. So Google does not just “read” the content on a page; it also judges how well the website knows the subject.

For example, when you create content on “keyword SEO for business websites” as a whole, besides recognizing the keyword, Google's AI also recognizes related entities such as “SEO keyword research”, “on-page optimization”, “technical SEO” and more. When these entities are covered logically, in depth and linked tightly together, Google understands that the article describes a complete SEO strategy rather than an isolated piece of content, and rates your website as one with strong expertise.

See also: What is SEO entity? How to implement entity SEO for fast indexing

Types of SEO keywords

Classifying keywords is an important step in SEO keyword research, because it helps you choose the right keyword set and build an effective keyword SEO strategy. To recognize each type of SEO keyword, you can use the following criteria:

 → Read next: How to get your website to the top of Google that works

Navigational keywords (Navigational Intent)

Navigational keywords are what users type to reach a specific website or brand without entering the URL directly. Their goal is quick access to a product, service or content they already know.

Example: MONA Media, YouTube, “dịch vụ SEO tại Hà Nội” (SEO services in Hanoi).

Commercial keywords (Commercial Investigation Intent)

Commercial keywords appear when users research a product or service before deciding to buy. They want to compare, evaluate or find the best option. The commercial keywords you will often run into, and can rank for at the top of Google, include:

• “Đánh giá công ty SEO uy tín” (reviews of reputable SEO companies) => the customer wants to learn about a company before using its services.
• “So sánh gói SEO tổng thể” (comparing full-scope SEO plans) => the customer is weighing up two SEO companies.

Transactional keywords (Transactional Intent)

Transactional keywords are what users type when they are ready to complete a transaction, such as ordering a product, signing up for a service or downloading an app. This is the final stage of the customer journey, where conversion happens directly. Transactional Intent keywords often contain “mua” (buy), “giá rẻ” (cheap), “đặt hàng” (order), “ưu đãi” (deal), “khuyến mãi” (promotion) or “gần đây” (nearby).
Examples: “Mua Hosting tốc độ cao” (buy high-speed hosting), “đăng ký khóa học SEO” (sign up for an SEO course)…

Informational keywords (Information Intent) 

Informational keywords are phrases users type when they want to learn about a topic but have no intent to buy or take a specific action yet. They often appear as questions or contain words such as “là gì” (what is), “cách” (how to), “hướng dẫn” (guide), “tại sao” (why) and “làm thế nào” (how). 

Examples in the SEO field:

• SEO là gì (What is SEO)
• “Hướng dẫn SEO từ khóa” (keyword SEO guide)
• “Cách tối ưu SEO website” (how to optimize website SEO)

Even though users are not ready to buy right away, if your content is engaging and useful you can still steer them toward commercial keywords, which opens up sales opportunities down the line.

Competitor keywords

Competitor keywords are phrases related to a competitor's brand, products or services. Users typically type these when they are researching another brand, but you can use them to draw those users toward you. 

Example: If customers are searching for HP laptop reviews but you sell ASUS laptops, you can publish a comparison of the two products that shows them what they gain by choosing yours.

Competitor keywords widen your reach and put you in front of potential customers who are weighing up the brands in your industry. During rollout, though, take great care not to break the law or Google's advertising policies.

Conversational keywords

The rise of smart assistants such as Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa has changed how people search. Instead of typing terse keywords, users increasingly use voice search in natural language, as if they were talking to an expert.

How to recognize them: These are usually long-tail keywords (long-tail keywords), phrased as complete questions with clear question words (who, where, how, why and so on).

Real examples:

• Traditional query: “SEO service price”
• Conversational query: “How much does a full-scope SEO plan cost for a small business?”
• Traditional query: “free backlink checker”
• Conversational query: “How can I check backlinks for free without creating an account?”

Done right, conversational keyword SEO gives your website a chance to be referenced and cited by AI in direct answers on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini and others. That brings more traffic and puts you in front of customers anytime, anywhere. 

Entity queries

Google has moved decisively from simple keyword matching to understanding what things actually are, through the Google Knowledge Graph. Users now search for precise information about entities and the relationships between them.

Entity queries usually contain specific proper names of experts, businesses, tools, or clearly defined specialist concepts.

Real examples:

• Comparing entities: “Compare Ahrefs and Semrush features for keyword analysis.” (Comparing two SEO tools.)
• Attribute queries: “What does MONA Media do?” (An attribute query about a business entity.)
• Relationship queries: “The relationship between E-E-A-T and the Helpful Content Update.” (Connecting two important SEO concepts.)

When your content builds a tight network of links between these entities, Google sees your website as authoritative and trustworthy in its field.

Criteria for choosing keywords in an SEO strategy

Whether an SEO campaign succeeds or fails depends heavily on how you choose and evaluate keywords. Below are the core factors for analyzing and optimizing keywords properly, so you can improve rankings and draw more traffic to your website.

Average monthly search volume

Average monthly search volume tells you how many people search for a keyword in a month. SEO keywords with high search volume can bring more visits and put your website in front of more potential customers online. 

However, a high search volume does not automatically make a keyword a good choice. Some keywords are popular but too generic, so optimizing for them does not deliver the results you expect.

Some ways to judge keyword difficulty:

• Use tools such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs or SEMrush to check how competitive a keyword is.
• Look at how many pages are already optimized for that keyword.
• Calculate the KEI (Keyword Efficiency Index) using this formula: KEI = (Search volume)^2 / Number of competing pages. This index helps you work out which keywords have the best SEO potential.

Suggested Bid and CPC

Suggested Bid (suggested bid) and Cost-Per-Click (CPC) are key indicators of a keyword's commercial value. A high CPC shows the keyword can be profitable, since many businesses are willing to pay to advertise on it. If you do keyword SEO for conversions, prioritize keywords with a high CPC but not fierce competition.

Keyword competition

Keyword competition measures how hard it is to get a keyword to the top of the search results. When many businesses “compete” for a keyword with ads or SEO, it shows the keyword is valuable.

However, the more valuable something is, the harder it is to win! Highly competitive keywords usually take a lot of time, effort and resources to rank well. So when doing SEO, weigh it carefully: should you invest in “hot” keywords with fierce competition, or pick niche keywords that are easier to optimize and deliver results sooner?

SEO keyword research process in the AI era

Google keeps updating complex algorithms to understand natural language more deeply, so businesses have to optimize more to adapt and hold their rankings. To make keyword SEO easier, MONA shares a keyword research process that combines the power of AI, so your SEO strategy delivers the results you want:

Step 1: Pin down intent and topics before doing keyword SEO

Instead of starting with a list of high-volume keywords, start by pinning down search intent and answering these questions:

• Who is your target customer? What industry, age group and needs do they have?
• What core problem are they facing?
• At each stage (awareness => consideration => decision), what kind of information do they care about?
• How do they usually phrase the problem, as a question or a short phrase?

By answering these questions, you identify the big topics that reflect what your customers actually need.
For example, instead of going straight for “phần mềm quản lý bán hàng” (sales management software), you could start from a topic like “streamlining the sales process for small shops” or “reducing losses in inventory management.”

This approach to Google keyword SEO points your website in the right direction from the start and avoids rambling optimization that brings no conversions.

Step 2: Use AI to expand and find new ideas

Once you have the core topics down, bring in AI tools such as ChatGPT or Gemini to uncover angles that people easily overlook. It is a smart way to choose SEO keywords and cover a niche thoroughly.

You can do this in three ways:

1. Use AI to expand your topic cluster

2. Use AI to find hidden questions

3. Use AI to find semantic SEO keywords

Step 3: Analyze the SERP through an “AI lens”

Once you have your list of topics and ideas, search for them on Google and analyze the SERP. The goal now is not just to “look at competitors” but to understand how Google (and Google's AI) interprets search intent.

Pay close attention to these elements:

• AI Overviews: What information is Google summarizing at the top of the page? Where does the data come from?
• Display features: Does Google favor video, images, a Featured Snippet or the “People Also Ask” box?
• Content formats that reach the top: Is it a detailed how-to guide, a listicle, or a service/product page?

For example, for a query related to “website SEO,” Google may favor step-by-step guides for beginners over service promotion pages. That directly shapes how you do keyword SEO and which content format you need to produce.

Step 4: Combine AI and SEO keyword tools to validate the data

AI is powerful at generating ideas, but successful keyword SEO for a website still rests on real numbers. Go back to traditional SEO tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner to verify your list of ideas.

Filter and prioritize keywords by these metrics:

• Search Volume: To see how popular the keyword is.
• Keyword Difficulty: To judge how well your website can compete against rivals.
• CPC (cost per click): To measure the keyword's commercial value and how likely it is to convert.

The aim is to find keywords with steady search demand and manageable competition that still hit your customers' urgent needs.

Step 5: Map SEO keywords to the customer journey

The last step in choosing SEO keywords is to place keywords and topics at the right stage of the customer journey. So how should a business arrange them?

• Awareness stage: Focus on informational keywords that explain concepts. (Examples: “What are the benefits of SEO-friendly content?”, “Why doesn't my website reach the top?”)
• Consideration stage: Target comparison and evaluation keywords. (Examples: “Writing posts yourself vs hiring a content service”, “Reviews of AI writing tools”)
• Decision stage: Go hard on transactional, closing keywords. (Examples: “Full-package SEO content service quote”, “Reliable SEO writing company in Ho Chi Minh City”)

Tips for choosing effective SEO keywords

Choosing the right SEO keywords brings better results, saves research time and keeps the keyword set for your website high quality. That is why it is worth focusing on keywords that can actually lift your site's performance. Below, MONA shares several effective ways to choose SEO keywords.

Evaluate and choose keywords based on your website's strength

A common mistake when choosing SEO keywords is to chase only keywords with “huge” search volume and forget how competitive they are. If your website is new or not yet “strong” enough, trying to rank for these keywords can cost you a lot of time and still get you nowhere. Start with long-tail or niche keywords, which have lower competition. 

For example, instead of trying to reach the top with a broad keyword like “giày thể thao nam” (men's sneakers, with tens of thousands of searches), you could pick a more specific phrase like “giày thể thao nam giá rẻ Hà Nội” (cheap men's sneakers in Hanoi). The search volume is lower, but your chance of reaching the top is higher, and you reach potential customers faster and more effectively.

A smart keyword SEO strategy starts with keywords that fit your website's current strength. Once you have a solid foundation, you can expand to bigger keywords that bring more traffic.

Choose SEO keywords by grouping them into detailed topics

A common mistake in keyword SEO is picking just one keyword per topic, which slows down ranking and leaves content disconnected. Instead, doing keyword SEO by topic group gets better results and helps you reach more customers.

For example, if you sell website design, expand with related keywords such as “SEO-friendly website design”, “business website design”, “sales website design””.

This way your content supports itself, and you have a better chance of showing up on Google and attracting potential customers. Your website also gets a tight set of articles that lead users from one to the next, which lifts conversion rates and improves SEO.

Avoid overly generic keywords in a sales-driven strategy

Very generic SEO keywords can bring high traffic but no conversions if your goal is to sell. These keywords rarely show clear buying intent, so you can rank at the top and still struggle to generate revenue. For a website with little strength especially, competing on generic keywords makes high rankings hard to reach.

Rather than focusing only on broad keywords, combine them with more specific ones to reach the right potential customers. If you SEO by topic, you can pick a few generic keywords, but you still need niche keywords to support them. Conversely, if you cover many topics with only broad keywords, results will be weak. So if your SEO budget is limited, prioritize detailed keywords that match real needs, to raise your conversion rate and improve your Google rankings.

Want more tips for getting your keywords to the top quickly and durably in 2026? Don't miss the video “SEO in 2026 Made Easy in Just 5 Minutes” – a short, very practical guide that gives you the full formula for keyword optimization under the latest trends!

Tools that help you find SEO keywords

Choosing SEO keywords can't rest on gut feeling alone; it takes specialist tools. These tools help you find, analyze and optimize keywords effectively:

• Google Keyword Planner: This is Google's free tool for SEO keyword research, with accurate data straight from Google Search. Google Keyword Planner helps you analyze search volume and competition and suggests suitable keywords to optimize your content and ads.
• Keyword Tool.io: A powerful tool for discovering long-tail keywords, expanding your SEO keyword list across Google, YouTube, Bing and other platforms. Keyword Tool.io is especially useful for finding detailed phrases with high search volume but low competition.
• Ahrefs: Ahrefs offers in-depth SEO keyword analysis, with data on difficulty, search volume and the sites that rank highest. It also supports competitor keyword research, helping you refine your keyword SEO strategy.
• Google Trends: To follow search trends in real time, Google Trends is a great choice. It shows how interest in a keyword changes over time and by region, so you can keep up with the latest trends and tune your SEO campaigns.
• LSI Graph: LSI Graph helps you find related keywords using Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). When choosing SEO keywords, LSI Graph makes your content read more naturally, improves the relevance of your articles and raises your chances of ranking high on Google.
• AI tools: Besides the familiar SEO tools, you can use AI tools such as GPT, Google Gemini or Claude to help find keywords. They suggest content ideas, analyze user search intent and group keywords sensibly, which makes your keyword SEO strategy more effective.

Things to note when doing keyword SEO for a content strategy

To get the most from keywords in SEO, you need a concrete plan and a sound keyword strategy. Here are some important notes to help you use keywords to support your SEO campaign and content plan.

Keep SEO keyword density reasonable

SEO keyword density is how often a phrase appears on a page relative to the total word count. It helps Google understand what an article is about, but stuffing in keywords does not earn a higher ranking.

If the main keyword appears only once, the optimization effect is weak. But if you overuse it and place keywords too densely, your content may be judged as spam. Instead of repeating one phrase many times, use variants or related keywords so the content reads naturally and still meets SEO needs.

Avoid keyword stuffing

How often an SEO keyword appears in an article should be kept reasonable so the content stays natural and easy to read. Repeating a phrase too many times can make Google think you are trying to manipulate the algorithm, which is a sign of keyword stuffing. 

If keyword SEO focuses on quantity and ignores content quality, the reader experience suffers. Instead, use keywords flexibly and in the right context, so your article is friendly to search engines and also gives readers real value.

Keep content quality high when doing keyword SEO for your website

Content quality plays an important role in keyword SEO strategy, because Google increasingly favors content with real value. In the past, many SEOers simply stuffed SEO keywords into articles hoping to improve rankings. That no longer works, and it can get your site rated poorly by Google.

The business's Google's algorithms search engines keep getting smarter, so low-quality content with keywords cleverly slipped in will not earn your website a good position either. Google increasingly cares about user experience, which pushes SEOers to focus on real value rather than just optimizing for search engines. What matters most is balancing quality content with sensible keyword optimization, so your website ranks high and keeps readers around longer.

Build topic clusters when doing keyword SEO

MONA encourages businesses to move to a topic cluster strategy, because it is currently seen as the most sustainable way to do keyword SEO for a website. It makes your site structure more logical and keeps users on the page longer.

• Pillar page: Build one core article that covers a big topic comprehensively. For example: “What is SEO? The latest on Search Engine Optimization.” This article carries the ranking for short, high-volume, general keywords.
• Cluster content: Around the pillar page, publish a series of detailed articles that each tackle a smaller, more specific problem within the main topic. For example: “SEO-friendly article structure” or “SEO strategy for websites.” These articles are how you choose keywords for long-tail queries, hitting the specific needs of the reader.

Linking mechanism: The strength of this model lies in the connections. Make sure every supporting article has an internal link to the pillar page and vice versa. This creates a closed network of information that lets Googlebot crawl easily and shares ranking strength across the whole cluster.

Steps to optimize keywords on your website

Once you have researched and planned your content, put the strategy into practice with careful on-page technique. Here is a standard process that helps Google understand and rate your content highly, making keyword SEO for your website more effective than ever:

• Put keywords in the title, URL and meta description: Work your main keyword into the title tag, URL and meta description, so search engines recognize your page topic as soon as they crawl it.
• Place keywords in the content naturally: Smart Google keyword SEO is not stuffing but keeping keyword density moderate and the context right. Your content must truly relate to the keyword and give readers real value.
• Build a tight linking system: Use internal links to guide readers through related pages, which helps Google understand your site structure. At the same time, cite reputable sources (external links) to make your articles more trustworthy.
• Optimize images when doing keyword SEO: Google does not “see” images like people do; it “reads” them through data. So name image files without diacritics, with hyphens and the keyword, and fill in the image description (alt text) so bots understand what the picture shows.

If you are struggling among countless SEO strategies and still not getting the results you want, it is time for a more structured approach. Full-scope SEO services at MONA can help your website pull ahead in today's competitive market. 

The MONA team does not stop at ranking your website on Google. We optimize the whole site to be AI-friendly so it can improve its ranking in AI Overviews and be chosen as the answer on AI platforms. With hands-on experience across hundreds of SEO projects large and small, MONA understands how Google's algorithms work and knows which AI SEO direction suits your business best.

So what sets full-scope SEO at MONA apart:

• Sustainable SEO, no chasing short-term trends: Every strategy is built on thorough market research, so your website holds its rankings over the long term and is not thrown off by sudden algorithm changes.
• An experienced team of SEO specialists: The MONA team keeps up with Google's latest algorithms and applies modern keyword SEO strategy, so your website stays strong through any market change.
• Full optimization from content to technical: Beyond SEO keywords, MONA also handles UX/UI optimization, page load speed and building a system of backlink quality links to boost your website's credibility.
• Optimized for AI and Google: Content follows conversational intent, so it is easy to understand, easy to cite and properly optimized for AIO checklist, so AI can choose your website as a direct answer instead of it merely appearing in a list of results.
• Helping your brand show up across platforms: MONA optimizes so your business stands out on Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and voice search tools, widening your reach to customers in the era of AI search.

Whether your business is new or long established, MONA helps you win the online market with a full-scope SEO strategy that combines SEO AI to deliver results. Contact us HOTLINE 1900 636 648 for SEO services quote and get advice on the SEO roadmap that suits your website best!

Chasing hot keywords that don't match your goal is like shooting an arrow at a wall and then painting the bullseye around it. Instead, invest time in researching and sorting Keyword SEO and choosing SEO keywords that fit your audience. You don't have to rank first for high-volume keywords; ranking at the top for niche keywords often brings in far better customers. SEO is a long road, but go the right way and you will see clear results!