Finding keywords is the easy part. Any tool will give you a list of hundreds of them in under a minute. The hard part, and the part where most business owners go wrong, is knowing which ones to actually go after.
Pick the wrong keywords and you spend months optimising for terms that either drive no traffic, attract the wrong visitors, or are so competitive you have no realistic chance of ranking. Pick the right ones and your website starts pulling in qualified enquiries from people who are actively looking for exactly what you offer.
In this article we walk through the four criteria that separate a keyword worth pursuing from one that will waste your time and budget. We use real Australian examples throughout so you can see how this works in practice, not just in theory.
If you have not read the first article in this series, What Are Keywords and Why Do They Matter for Your Business, it covers the foundations and is worth starting there.
The Four Things That Make a Keyword Worth Targeting
When we evaluate keywords for clients at Ape-X, every keyword gets assessed against four criteria:
- Search volume
- Keyword difficulty
- Commercial potential
- Search intent
No single criterion tells the whole story. A keyword with huge search volume might be impossible to rank for. A keyword with low search volume might drive your most valuable leads. The skill is in weighing all four together and making a judgment call that fits your specific business situation.
1. Search Volume: What It Is and Why You Should Not Chase Big Numbers
Search volume is the estimated number of times a keyword is searched per month. It is the number most people look at first, and the one most people misread.
The instinct is natural. More searches means more potential traffic, so surely bigger is better? Not quite.
Here is the reality. A Brisbane mortgage broker targeting the keyword “mortgage” is going up against some of the largest financial institutions in Australia and the world, all of whom have been investing heavily in SEO for years. Even if the search volume for “mortgage” is in the hundreds of thousands per month, the chance of a small to medium business ranking on page one for it is essentially zero.
Meanwhile, a keyword like “mortgage broker for self-employed Brisbane” might get searched 80 to 150 times per month. That sounds modest. But if that broker ranks number one for it, and research from Backlinko across 4 million search results puts the average click-through rate for position one at 27%, they are looking at 20 to 40 highly qualified visitors every month, all of whom have already told Google exactly what they need. Those are the people most likely to pick up the phone.
The key lesson: search volume sets the ceiling on potential traffic, but it tells you nothing about whether that traffic is achievable or valuable.
The Truth About Search Volume Data
Search volume figures are estimates, not exact counts. They are modelled approximations based on historical data, and they come with real limitations that most guides do not explain clearly enough:
- Google Keyword Planner only shows precise volume figures to accounts that are actively spending on Google Ads. Without ad spend, it shows broad ranges like “1K to 10K” rather than exact numbers. A keyword showing that range could have 1,200 searches or 9,800 searches per month and Keyword Planner will not tell you which. Google itself acknowledges that its search volume statistics are rounded and influenced by seasonality and other factors
- Third-party tools like Ahrefs, Semrush and Moz all use different methodologies to estimate volume, which is why the same keyword will show different numbers in different tools. Semrush scores typically run 15 to 25 points higher than Ahrefs for the same keyword. Neither is definitively correct. They are all informed approximations
- AI-driven search is adding further complexity. Queries answered by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s own AI Overviews do not always generate traditional search impressions, meaning some real search activity is invisible to keyword volume tools entirely
The practical implication: treat search volume as a directional indicator, not a precise measurement. Use it to compare the relative popularity of keywords against each other, not to predict exact traffic numbers.
Accounts with active Google Ads spend, like this one, see exact search volume figures. Accounts without spend typically see broad ranges like ‘1K to 10K’ instead.
2. Keyword Difficulty: Can You Actually Rank for This?
Keyword difficulty is a measure of how hard it would be to rank on page one of Google for a given keyword. Most SEO tools score this from 0 to 100, with higher numbers meaning tougher competition.
Understanding difficulty is what separates businesses that make real progress with SEO from those that spin their wheels for twelve months and wonder why nothing moved.
Here is how it works in practice. When you search for a high-volume, competitive keyword like “accountant Brisbane,” the first page of Google is likely filled with well-established accounting firms, major directories like Oneflare or Yellow Pages, and industry associations. These sites have years of content, hundreds of backlinks, and strong domain authority. A new or small website trying to break into page one for that exact keyword faces a very steep climb.
But search for “accountant for tradies Brisbane” and the picture changes significantly. The competition thins out. Fewer pages are specifically optimised for that term, the sites that do rank are often less authoritative, and a business that creates a genuinely useful page targeting that keyword has a realistic shot at ranking.
What Drives Keyword Difficulty?
The main factors that determine how hard a keyword is to rank for are:
- Number of referring domains to competing pages: How many other websites are linking to the pages currently in the top 10? This is the primary signal Ahrefs uses to calculate its difficulty score
- Authority of competing domains: How established and trusted are the websites you would need to outrank?
- Content quality and depth of competing pages: How thorough is the existing content ranking for this keyword?
- SERP features: Does the results page include a local map pack, featured snippets, AI Overviews, or shopping results that push organic listings further down?
One important thing to know: difficulty scores are not standardised across tools. Ahrefs bases its score almost entirely on the number of referring domains pointing to the top 10 ranking pages. Semrush factors in domain authority scores, SERP features, and link ratios as well, which is why Semrush scores often run 15 to 25 points higher than Ahrefs for the same keyword. If you are using both tools, do not compare scores directly between them.
Also important: the Ahrefs difficulty scale is non-linear. A score of 50 is not “medium difficulty.” It is hard. According to Ahrefs’ own data, a keyword with a KD of 40 requires approximately 56 referring domains to enter the top 10 results. At KD 60, that rises to around 249 referring domains. For most small and medium Australian businesses, the realistic target zone in the early stages of SEO is keywords in the KD 0 to 30 range on Ahrefs, building toward harder terms as authority grows.
| Ahrefs KD score | What it means in practice | Realistic for |
| 0 to 10 | Very low competition | Brand new websites with minimal backlinks |
| 11 to 30 | Low to moderate competition | Small sites with some content and a few links |
| 31 to 50 | Meaningful competition | Established sites with growing authority |
| 51 to 70 | Hard | Strong domains with solid backlink profiles |
| 71 to 100 | Very hard | Major national or international players |
Note: if you are using Semrush, add approximately 15 to 25 points to these ranges to get a comparable picture.
Our article on topical authority in SEO explains how smaller websites systematically outrank bigger competitors by building depth in a focused area rather than trying to compete across everything at once. It is one of the most effective strategies available to Australian small businesses and directly reduces the effective difficulty of the keywords you are targeting.
3. Commercial Potential: Will This Keyword Actually Bring You Customers?
This is the criterion that most SEO guides gloss over, and it is the one that matters most for your bottom line.
Not all traffic is equal. A page that ranks for an informational keyword might bring thousands of visitors a month, very few of whom have any intention of buying. A page that ranks for a commercial keyword might bring a hundred visitors a month, the majority of whom are ready to make an enquiry right now.
Commercial potential is a measure of how likely the people searching for a keyword are to become paying customers.
Here is a practical way to think about it. Imagine a financial adviser in Sydney. They could target:
- “What is compound interest” – high volume, purely informational, searchers are learning not buying
- “Financial adviser fees Australia” – moderate volume, investigational, searchers are weighing up their options
- “Financial adviser for small business Sydney” – lower volume, high commercial intent, searchers want to hire someone
The first keyword might drive a lot of traffic. The third keyword drives the right traffic. For most service businesses with limited time and resources to invest in SEO, starting with the highest commercial intent keywords and working outward from there is the most efficient approach. This is exactly how we build keyword strategies for clients at Ape-X through our SEO service.
How to Gauge Commercial Potential
There are several reliable signals that a keyword has strong commercial potential:
- The keyword includes buying intent words such as “hire,” “cost,” “price,” “quote,” “near me,” or a specific suburb or city name
- The top-ranking pages for the keyword are service pages or local business listings, not purely informational blog posts or Wikipedia entries
- The keyword has a meaningful cost-per-click in Google Ads, which signals that businesses are already paying to appear for it because it converts for them
- The search returns a local map pack, which almost always indicates commercial or local intent
A useful shortcut: if you would confidently run a Google Ads campaign targeting this keyword because it drives enquiries, it almost certainly has commercial potential. If you would not, it is likely informational.
The keywords you target determine the type of customers who find you. Isaac explains how to think about attracting the right visitors, not just more of them.
4. Search Intent: Are You Giving People What They Actually Want?
Search intent is the why behind a search query. It is the most important of the four criteria and the one Google takes most seriously when deciding which pages to rank.
If your page does not match what the searcher actually wants, it will not rank. It does not matter how well you have optimised it technically or how many backlinks you have pointing at it. Google measures whether your page satisfies searchers through signals like click-through rate, time on page, and whether users return to Google immediately after clicking. A mismatch between your page and the searcher’s intent will show up in those signals and hurt your rankings.
The Four Types of Search Intent
| Intent type | What the searcher wants | Example | Best content type |
| Informational | To learn something | “what is keyword research” | Blog post, guide, explainer |
| Navigational | To find a specific brand or page | “Ape-X SEO Brisbane” | Homepage, about page |
| Commercial | To research before buying | “best SEO agency Brisbane” | Comparison page, case studies |
| Transactional | To take action right now | “book SEO consultation Brisbane” | Service page, landing page |
The fastest way to identify the intent behind a keyword is to search for it on Google and look at what is already ranking. Google has essentially done the research for you. If the top results are all blog posts and guides, the intent is informational. If the top results are service pages and local business listings, the intent is commercial or transactional.
Here is a real example. Search “how to do keyword research” on Google and the results are almost entirely educational articles and step-by-step guides. Writing a service page targeting that keyword would be working against Google’s interpretation of what searchers want. But search “keyword research service Brisbane” and the results shift to agency service pages and listings. Now a service page is exactly what Google wants to show, and optimising your service page for that keyword is working with Google rather than against it.
A Note on Intent and AI Overviews
As we covered in the first article in this series, Google’s AI Overviews appear predominantly for informational queries. This is another strong reason to prioritise commercial and transactional keywords with local modifiers. Those keywords are largely unaffected by AI Overviews and continue to drive direct clicks to your website.
Here’s the difference search intent makes in practice. An informational query returns guides and how-to content, while a commercial query returns agency service pages ready to take an enquiry.
Once you understand the four types of search intent, your keyword choices and the content you build around them become much clearer.
Putting It All Together: A Real Evaluation Example
Here is how all four criteria work together. Say you run a bookkeeping firm in Brisbane and you are considering targeting the keyword “bookkeeping services Brisbane.”
| Criteria | What we find | Assessment |
| Search volume | Estimated 100 to 500 searches per month | Achievable volume, meaningful for a local service |
| Keyword difficulty | Low to moderate on Ahrefs, mostly small local firms ranking | Realistic to compete with solid content and some links |
| Commercial potential | High, searchers want to hire a bookkeeper, CPC confirms value | Strong buying intent |
| Search intent | Service pages and local listings dominate the first page | A service page is the right content type |
All four signals point in the same direction. This is a keyword worth targeting.
Now compare that with “what does a bookkeeper do,” which might have higher search volume but is purely informational, has no commercial potential for a firm trying to win clients, and would require a blog post rather than a service page. That blog post might be worth writing eventually to build authority on the topic, but it should not come before the service page is ranking.
The Honest Reality About Keyword Research
Keyword research is not a science. It involves judgment calls, and those judgment calls get better with experience and with access to proper data.
What separates businesses that build real SEO momentum from those that do not is usually not access to better tools. It is having a clear framework for evaluating keywords, the discipline to prioritise commercial and local intent keywords first, and the patience to create genuinely useful content around those keywords rather than rushing to produce volume.
For a broader look at how keyword research fits into your overall digital strategy, our article on the pros and cons of SEO gives useful context on what to expect from the process as a whole. And our guide to how to use keywords on your website covers exactly where to place them once you have identified the right ones.
Want Someone to Do This For Your Business?
Keyword research done properly takes time, data, and experience. Targeting the wrong keywords means months of effort that does not move the needle.
Our Free Website and Marketing Review includes a full keyword analysis of your current website, showing you what you are ranking for now, which keywords your competitors are capturing that you are missing, and where the clearest opportunities are for your specific business. It is performed by a real human marketer and costs nothing. Request yours at Ape-X.
