When someone sets up a new WordPress website, the first instinct is usually to start writing. They pick topics that seem relevant, write a few articles, hit publish, and wait. Weeks pass. Nothing happens. The content exists, but nobody finds it.
The missing step is almost always keyword research. Without it, there’s no way to know whether anyone is actually searching for what you’ve written, or whether the way you’ve phrased it matches how they’d search for it. That disconnect is why otherwise decent sites sit unread.
Keyword research doesn’t require expensive tools or advanced technical knowledge. For a new website, the basics are enough to get started and make genuinely better content decisions from day one.
Quick Answer
Keyword research means finding the specific words and phrases people type into search engines related to your topic. You use those phrases to guide what content to create and how to structure it. For a new website, the priority is finding low-competition, specific search phrases (called long-tail keywords) that you can realistically rank for before the site has built authority.
Why This Matters
Search engines match pages to queries based on relevance. If your content doesn’t reflect the way people actually search, it won’t surface in results — even if the information itself is good. Keyword research closes that gap. It tells you what language to use, which questions to answer, and where there’s realistic opportunity for a newer site to compete.
It also prevents wasted effort. Writing content nobody searches for is a real problem on new sites, and it’s entirely avoidable. Spending an hour on keyword research before writing a post is time well spent.
Step-by-Step: How to Do Keyword Research for a New Website
1. Start with Your Core Topics
Before you open any tool, write down the main topics your site covers. These are broad subject areas, not specific post ideas. A site about WordPress website building might list: WordPress setup, SEO, website design, ecommerce, website speed.
These become your starting points — the seed topics from which you’ll find actual keywords. Keep the list to five or fewer at first. You’re not trying to cover everything immediately; you’re establishing the areas where you’ll build content depth over time.
2. List the Questions People Ask
For each topic, think about what a person new to the subject would actually type into Google. They’re usually looking for help with a specific problem or task. Try to get into their mindset: what do they not know yet, and what are they trying to figure out?
Write these out as phrases, not keywords. “How to install WordPress on shared hosting” is more useful than “WordPress install” because it reflects how someone with a real question searches. You’ll refine these later, but starting with natural language questions gives you better raw material to work with.
3. Use Google’s Own Suggestions
Type one of your seed phrases into Google and pay attention to what happens before you press enter. The autocomplete suggestions are a direct window into what people are searching for. These aren’t guesses — they’re based on real search data.
After you see results, scroll to the bottom of the page. The “People also search for” section and the related searches at the bottom of the results page give you additional phrases people use around the same topic. Screenshot these or keep a note — they’re genuinely useful keyword candidates.
This approach is free and requires no tools. In my experience, it turns up more usable keyword ideas per minute than most paid alternatives, especially for a new site still defining its content direction.
4. Find Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases with lower search volume but also much lower competition. For a new website without authority, these are almost always the right starting point.
“WordPress” has millions of monthly searches and is dominated by major publications. “How to add a custom font to WordPress without slowing the site” has far fewer searches but is specific, answerable, and achievable. A new site can rank for it. Rank for enough of these and organic traffic starts to accumulate.
Long-tail keywords also tend to come from people who know what they need — which means they’re more likely to actually read the article and find it useful.
5. Check Search Intent
Before you settle on a keyword, understand what someone searching it actually wants. Search intent falls into a few broad categories:
- Informational — they want to understand something (“what is a canonical URL”)
- Navigational — they want to reach a specific site or page (“WordPress admin login”)
- Transactional — they’re ready to do or buy something (“best WordPress hosting plans”)
- Investigational — they’re comparing options before deciding (“Astra vs GeneratePress”)
The easiest way to check intent is to search the phrase yourself and look at the top results. If all the top results are tutorials, a product listing page isn’t going to rank there. Match the content format to what’s already ranking — that tells you what Google thinks the intent is.
6. Use a Free Keyword Tool to Validate Ideas
Once you have a list of candidate keywords from Google suggestions and your own topic thinking, use a tool to check search volumes and get variations. Google Keyword Planner is free with a Google account and shows real volume data. Ubersuggest has a free tier. Ahrefs and Semrush offer limited free searches daily.
You’re not trying to optimise for the highest-volume keyword at this stage — you’re trying to confirm that people do actually search for the phrase you’re targeting, and to find variations you may have missed. A keyword with 200 monthly searches is worth targeting if competition is low and the topic is directly relevant to your audience.
7. Group Keywords into Content Topics
Related keywords often cluster around the same topic and can be covered in a single post. “How to set up WordPress permalinks” and “how to change WordPress URL structure” both belong in the same article. Trying to write separate posts for each wastes effort and risks cannibalising your own rankings.
Group your keyword list by topic, identify the primary phrase for each group (the one with the clearest intent and the most realistic search volume for your site), and use the rest as supporting phrases within the content. This becomes the foundation of your content plan.
8. Assess Competition Realistically
Search the phrase and look at what ranks. If the top five results are from major publications with thousands of posts, a new site isn’t going to displace them quickly. Look for results from smaller sites, forums, or pages that are thin on detail — these suggest the space is more open.
For a new site, the most useful signals are: are there any smaller, independent sites ranking? Are the existing results actually answering the query well? If the top results are mediocre on a specific topic, a well-structured, practical article has a genuine shot over time. Once you’ve selected your keywords and mapped out your topics, turn those decisions into properly written posts — the guide to writing an SEO-friendly blog post covers how to structure them for search.
Practical Tips
Do keyword research before you write, not after. It seems obvious, but the habit of writing first and trying to retrofit keywords is common. It usually results in awkward content that doesn’t quite match what people are searching for.
Keep a running keyword list. As you build your site, you’ll come across new ideas constantly — competitor articles, reader questions, Google suggestions. Log them somewhere and review monthly. Keyword research isn’t a one-time task.
Once your site has some history, Google Search Console becomes one of the best keyword research tools available — it shows you exactly what phrases people used to find your site, including terms you weren’t targeting. Using Search Console to find new post ideas is something worth setting up early so the data starts accumulating.
Don’t obsess over exact search volumes. The numbers from any tool are estimates, and they vary considerably between tools. A phrase with 150 monthly searches that’s genuinely relevant and low competition is more valuable than a 1,500-search phrase you have no realistic chance of ranking for.
Common Mistakes
Targeting broad keywords too early. New sites don’t have the authority to rank for short, high-volume terms. Starting with specific, long-tail phrases is more effective and builds a foundation of traffic that supports targeting broader terms later.
Ignoring search intent. Writing an informational article for a transactional keyword (or vice versa) almost never ranks well. If someone searching the phrase wants to buy something and your article explains the concept, Google won’t send them to you.
Keyword stuffing. Repeating a keyword phrase excessively throughout an article is a holdover from early SEO practice that now actively hurts performance. Write naturally for the reader; use the keyword phrase where it fits logically in headings and early paragraphs, and leave it at that.
Skipping the competition check. Choosing the right keyword without checking what’s already ranking means you could spend time on content that has no realistic chance of appearing in results. Check the SERPs before you commit.
When to Use Paid Tools
Free methods and Google Keyword Planner are enough to get started and will serve most new sites well for the first several months. Paid tools like Ahrefs or Semrush add meaningful value once you have a clearer picture of your content direction — they’re better for competitive analysis, tracking rankings over time, and finding keyword gaps across an established content library.
If you’re not yet publishing consistently, a paid tool is unlikely to change your results much. Get the fundamentals right first.
Once you’re comfortable with the fundamentals, using AI for keyword research can speed up the ideation and intent-mapping stages significantly — particularly useful when you’re trying to find content gaps or build out a topic cluster from a seed keyword.
Conclusion
Start with Google’s own suggestions, focus on specific long-tail phrases, check search intent before you commit, and use free tools to validate volume. That process will produce better content decisions than guessing — and on a new site, making fewer wrong turns early is what separates sites that grow from sites that stall.
Etienne Basson works with website systems, SEO-driven site architecture, and technical implementation. He writes practical guides on building, structuring, and optimizing websites for long-term growth.