If you’ve ever spent hours researching keywords only to see crickets on your blog or zero leads from organic traffic, you’re not alone. A lot of SEO advice sounds good in theory but doesn’t move the needle for real businesses.

Ranking is great but what’s ranking without more traffic and more leads? 

Over the last 11+ years, I’ve tested and refined a practical keyword research method that puts results first. My clients don’t just rank, they get found by the right people, at the right time, and turn those clicks into conversions.

Because conversions matter in SEO too!

This blog walks you through how to make an SEO keyword list that’s actually worth your time. Not just based on difficulty scores or vanity metrics, but real-world opportunity. It’s the same approach that’s helped my clients see 7–12x returns.

Let’s start by talking about what not to do.

The Problem with Conventional Keyword Research

Most SEO advice you’ll find online points you toward tools, scores, and formulas not results. The reality? A lot of keyword strategies look great on a spreadsheet but fall flat in the real world. They’re built around metrics like “difficulty” or “competition,” with little attention paid to who’s actually searching or why.

Keyword Difficulty Doesn’t Equal Opportunity

A low difficulty score might seem like a win but if only 20 people are searching that term a month (and none of them are ready to buy), ranking for it won’t help your business grow.

The truth is, many SEOs prioritize what’s “easiest” to rank for instead of what brings in the right audience. I’ve seen clients come to me with beautiful blogs ranking #1 for multiple keywords with no conversions to show for it.

That’s not an SEO win. That’s a misalignment between effort and return.

The Vanity Metric Trap

We all love to see high click-through rates or top rankings in a report. But those numbers don’t pay the bills. What I focus on and what I help clients measure is ROI. That means building keyword lists designed to support real customer actions, not just drive pageviews.

I had a client recently with a blog post that was 80% of their total traffic and they loved it. The problem with this focus is the traffic to that post while somewhat related to what they did was too far removed from their service offering and spoke to a different buyer in a different part of the buyer journey. 

The traffic was poor quality and was actually confusing their search and decreasing their other results. 

If a keyword doesn’t align with your offer, your funnel, or your customer’s journey it doesn’t belong on your list. And if your SEO strategy starts and ends with rankings, it’s time to rethink the goal.

The Keyword Opportunity Method: A 5-Step Process To Find Keywords

This is a method that’s helped real small business owners stop wasting time and start getting results from organic search. The secret? Focusing on real-world opportunities.

Step 1 – Start with the Customer

Before you open a single tool, start with the people you want to reach. Ask yourself:

What would my least tech-savvy customer type into Google if they needed help and didn’t know I existed?

That’s your foundation.

Skip the branded phrases, acronyms, or internal language your team uses. If your audience doesn’t speak that way, they won’t search that way.

Instead of “play-based therapist,” think “child therapist.” Instead of “nutritional coaching methodology,” try “meal plan for runners.” Plain language wins every time.

Step 2 – Build a Real-World Keyword List

Once you’re thinking like your customer, start building a base list using these components:

• What you do (your service or product name)
• Who it’s for (niche or audience)
• Where you are (location-based if applicable)
• The problem you solve
• Common questions, symptoms, or goals

Here’s a quick example for a pediatric sleep consultant:

• “baby sleep help”
• “infant won’t stay asleep”
• “sleep consultant near me”
• “book baby sleep consultation”

Now put this down as what I call a brain dump. At this step I try for at least 50 keywords that my customers would use to explain my business, product, and services. 

Step 3 – Prioritize by Opportunity

Once you’ve got a rough list, it’s time to assess what’s actually worth targeting. Use a balance of:

• Search Volume: Is anyone looking for this?
• Search Intent: Are they ready to act, or just browsing?
• Difficulty: Can you realistically rank, and is it worth the effort?

I like to cross-check SEMrush with Google Search Console to find hidden keywords that are already getting impressions but aren’t yet optimized on your site.

SEMRush is a high cost tool and my favourite tool for someone not doing a large amount of SEO is Ubersuggest (this is an affiliate link but if you have ever been to my courses you will know how much I love this tool!). The tool will give you the keywords volume, difficulty, and usually a cost per click for Google Ads. 

The Opportunity Formula

Once you have a list pulled from an SEO tool I move my list to a Google Sheet and add a new column called Value. The formula I add to this column is: 

The Opportunity Value: Volume / difficulty

This will give you a somewhat arbitrary number meaning it doesn’t matter what the number actually is or if it’s high or low but what this will do is allow you to sort your keywords by opportunity. 

You can sort your list by the best keyword to start targeting with the lowest difficult and highest volume. I used to do this manually and it would take hours. Now you know what keywords will help your SEO grow quicker. 

Step 4 – Align Keywords to the Funnel

Not every keyword should lead to a sale right away. Match each term to the right stage of the customer journey:

Funnel Stage	Keyword Example	Great For
Awareness (Top)	“why is my baby waking up at night”	Blog content, FAQs
Consideration (Middle)	“pediatric sleep consultant near me”	Service Pages
Conversion (Bottom)	“book infant sleep consultation online”	CTA’s, homepage, landing pages

This way, your content meets your customers exactly where they are whether they’re researching or ready to buy.

Step 5 – Plug Keywords into a Content Plan

Now that you’ve got your prioritized list, it’s time to assign each keyword to its rightful place:

• Blog posts
• Service pages
  Product or collection pages
• Resource hubs
• Metadata (titles, descriptions)

You’ll also want to use structured internal linking between them. If you’re unsure where to start, this Keyword Course shows you step by step instructions. 

How AI is Changing Keyword Strategy

Search isn’t what it used to be. With AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) influencing how people discover content, the way we approach keywords has to evolve.

The good news? If you’re already thinking in natural language and focusing on customer intent  you’re ahead of the curve.

Conversational Search is the Future

People are typing full questions into Google, not just keyword chunks. Instead of searching for “baby sleep help,” they might ask, “How do I get my 6-month-old to sleep through the night without feeding?”

AI understands nuance and delivers answers to complete questions, not just terms. That means your content needs to match that language, too.

Tip: Prioritize longer-tail keywords that mimic how someone would speak. Tools like “People Also Ask” and Google’s autocomplete can give you great ideas for phrasing.

I also recommend adding more FAQ sections to your site. They are great on service pages and as stand alone pages. 

Broader Topic Coverage Beats One-Off Terms

AI-driven search prefers pages that fully cover a topic with depth and structure. It also cares that you have spoken about the topic in the past so think of your content not just in keywords (they are there to guide you page by page) but as a whole topic. 

AI is in my opinion great for search. We are moving away from the hyper focus of keywords and onto a more semantic or full understanding and coverage of a topic. You used to need hundreds of pages now a site can perform well with 10. It’s no longer about quantity (although you do need some content) but we’re moving on to really focusing on better, more in depth content.