How to make most out of content SEO and what research techniques will I need to find must-winning keywords?

That’s the right question, because I believe that now it’s time to finally revise our current approach to content SEO and research techniques we’re currently using to identify the core target keywords. I mean that we should stop considering the search terms used for content optimization – from the viewpoint of their volumes. As for me, it’s far better to talk about the keywords in terms of the user’s search intent (i.e., regarding how valuable they can actually be for the whole business/non-commercial project involved). Given that there are no one-size-fits-all approaches to content SEO or research techniques that have a guaranteed efficiency, we can still use some pretty good practices that can potentially provide definitely more consistent results over time. Below let’s quickly run through my best findings – for you to see what ideas would be best for your current online project, and what current ones should be probably revised or reworked. So, let’s delve.

How to Get Your Keyword SEO and Search Techniques Right

Understanding the Basics of Search Volume 

I'm going to be captain obvious here and tell you that search volume must be among your core metrics used when choosing the right search terms that would be your must-winning ones throughout the whole process of on-page content optimization. The thing is that you're most likely to be using Google's Keyword Planner to complete the task. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that good old tool, initially designed to be used by PPC paid advertisers. Note, however, that regarding long-tail keywords, it would be far better to use another online helper specifically tailored for SEO (like UberSuggest, or KeywordTool.io) or even full-stack analytical SEO platforms (such as well-known Moz's Open Site Explorer, or my fave Semalt Website Analyzer toolkit).

Understanding the Basics of Search Intent

User's search intent is something that we would have never imagined before, for example, a decade ago. I mean the most common situation when from the viewpoint of generating maximum search traffic solely, a given keyword with a search volume of, let's say, 20000 – would be apparently much more beneficial than the other closely relevant keyword having it, for instance, of just 3000. But let's face it – pumping as much search traffic as possible isn't your ultimate business goal. After all, your job is to set a solid income-generating potential via the actual product sales/service orders, leads, subscriptions, etc. And here is exactly when the user's search intent comes into play – it means that we should understand what motives behind the search are actually driving your potential customers through the marketing funnel. 

Here is what I recommend to that point:

• Basically, the best way of researching the actual user's intent behind the keywords you're going to optimize for is simply running Google searches for them – putting yourself in the shoes of your target audience and potential clients/buyers. 
• That way, you should examine not only the type of Google's SERPs displayed on the first page, but a bit more specific elements seen over there, such as custom content result blocks, featured snippets, rich answers, and knowledge panels.
• Remember, for the search queries entered by the user with ambiguous and actually too general intent, the major search engines (like Google itself) are trying to respond with a wide range of diverse results. It happens because there are many different common and actually unrelated interpretations that might as well be matching the same given keyword-based query filled in the search bar.
• At the same time, however, upon filling in the same keyword request, the search engines can often provide completely different organic SERPs, which are tailored to the current search location, as well as several other user's modes of personalization (for example, the recent search history, frequently searched topics/items, etc.).

Understanding the Basics of Keyword Competition

No need to say that Google's process of ranking all web pages within its index, as well as the most searched keywords themselves – is a really complex doing. There are a lot of different factors taken into account, and online competition has been identified as one of them. From the viewpoint of content SEO, search techniques, and the best of your potentially winning keywords already employed by your competitors, it means that you need to go a bit deeper when running a broad analysis of their search competition. When looking at the competitor's website rich with the same search terms you want to target with your own content SEO strategy, ask yourself the following simple questions:

• Whether a given web page, which seems ranked for the same core keywords, is a "mixture" of different content types? It can be explicitly commercial, targeted mainly in a non-commercial way, deeply informative (i.e., long-form body content), short-form or even seemingly poor, as well as more visualized (i.e., coming with concise tables, spreadsheets, infographics, diagrams, on-page images, embedded videos, CTA buttons, banner ads, etc.).
• Is it's main on-page content backed with any form of supportive content (i.e., affiliate blog pages, or any other closely-related third parties within the same business industry or a given subject discussion)? What kind of keyword glossary is seen prevailing over there?
• Where lies the primary domain focus? Is it mainly targeted at providing only commercial web copy, or probably has a clearly informative/educational content nature? Is there any business branding represented directly within that domain itself?
• How well your competitor's brand is associated with the core search terms, or the whole keyword topic you're going to involve too? Can you see a surging activity related to brand promotion, participation in PR, or probably any other actions related to offline marketing?

Bottom Line

Of course, this example may seem a bit obscure, but I hope you've got the point. Given that you got a broad strategy in content SEO via different research techniques – without limiting yourself with a single keyword focus (e.g., their search volume and nothing else) – it's fine, and you're already moving on the right track. That's it.