What is keyword research?

Effective keyword research starts with understanding how your clients actually search – not how you describe your own services.

Most professional services firms assume prospects search for their job title plus location (e.g., “financial adviser Melbourne”). While these searches exist, they represent a small fraction of actual search behaviour. Prospects more commonly search for the problems they are experiencing: “how to structure retirement income,” “can I consolidate my super funds,” or “what does a conveyancer actually do.”

Problem-based keywords typically have lower competition and higher conversion rates because they indicate active intent – the person is looking for help with a specific issue, not just browsing.

Keyword research tools (such as Ubersuggest, Ahrefs, or Google’s own autocomplete suggestions) reveal search volume, competition levels, and related terms you might not have considered.

The output of keyword research is a prioritised list of pages to build. Each page targets a specific keyword cluster – a group of related terms that share the same search intent. This prevents keyword cannibalisation (multiple pages competing for the same term) and builds topical authority in your area of expertise.

For professional services, the most valuable keywords are long-tail phrases (4+ words) that combine a specific problem with a service context.

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