How to find the keywords that bring me real clients?
The essentials: The keywords that make you money are not those with the highest search volume. They are those that capture a prospect at the precise moment they are looking to buy. This article gives you the method to find, prioritize, and exploit them — without drowning in hundreds of useless terms.
What you will learn:
- Why search volume is a poor indicator for choosing keywords
- How to distinguish a keyword that sells from a keyword that informs
- 5 methods to find the keywords your real clients search
- Which free tools to use (and which to avoid)
- How to prioritize 10 keywords that will make 80% of your results
Before continuing: This article is for SMB directors who already have a website — regardless of its quality — and want clients, not visitors. If you do not have a site yet or if you are looking for a method for a 100% informational blog with no buying intent, part of this content will not serve you.
Published on June 30, 2026 Ӣ Updated on June 30, 2026
All SEO tools talk about search volume. “This keyword has 5,000 searches per month! Target it!” Except that 5,000 searches mean nothing if the person searching is looking for information, not buying.
The problem: Most SMBs I meet spend hours listing “promising” keywords that never bring them a single client. They optimize their pages for terms their prospects use to FIND INFORMATION, not to BUY.
The solution: This article gives you the opposite approach — starting with buying intent, not volume. Finding the 10 to 20 keywords that really matter, those your real clients search when they WANT to pay someone like you to do something.
The proof: I support SMBs daily. The first indicator I look at in Google Search Console is not traffic — it is the number of queries with commercial or transactional intent. And in 9 out of 10 cases, I discover that the keywords that bring in the most are not the ones the client wanted to work on.
Why searching for “large volume” keywords no longer works in 2026?
This is the number one trap in SEO. A keyword with 5,000 searches per month but an informational intent will bring you visitors who read, leave, and never buy. Worse: with the rise of Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT, these informational queries are increasingly “cannibalized” — the user gets the answer directly in Google without ever clicking on your site.
What I learned in the field: A client told me “I want to be first on ‘web agency Toulouse’ — over 1,000 searches per month. We looked at his Search Console: he was already receiving traffic on “how to create a free website”, a high-volume informational keyword. Zero contacts from this page. We optimized his page instead for “cheap web agency Toulouse” (80 searches/month) and he had 3 quote requests the first month.
The problem is known: 96.55% of web content receives no Google traffic according to a massive study of 14 billion pages (Ahrefs study, 2024). But the real problem is not volume — it is intent. You can be in the 3.45% that receive traffic and have no clients.
| Keyword Type | Volume | Intent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| ”How to create a website” | High | Informational | Traffic, no clients |
| ”Cheap web agency Toulouse” | Low | Transactional | Low traffic, many clients |
| ”Showcase website price 2026” | Medium | Commercial | Qualified traffic, quotes possible |
| ”Best landscaper Toulouse” | Low | Transactional | Direct calls |
What is the difference between an informational keyword and one that sells?
This is the most important question in this article. If you remember only one thing: an informational keyword answers a question, a transactional keyword answers a buying intent.
Google classifies search intentions into 4 categories:
- Informational — the user wants to learn something
- “how to prune a rose bush”, “what is SEO”, “average price of a heat pump”
- Navigational — the user is searching for a specific site
- “Facebook login”, “Oplia”, “Leroy Merlin”
- Commercial — the user compares before buying
- “best landscaper Toulouse”, “web agency reviews”, “heat pump dualclim vs Atlantic”
- Transactional — the user is ready to buy
- “landscaper quote Toulouse”, “buy heat pump”, “cheap web agency Toulouse”
The keywords that bring you clients are in categories 3 and 4. Categories 1 and 2 bring you traffic, not prospects.
“Search engines are moving from keywords to intent at an accelerating pace… some current practices around keyword research will probably slowly become obsolete and we must move to intent research as a practice.”
— Frederic Dubut, Bing
What this means for you: do not look for keywords. Look for intentions. The query “mason contractor Albi” hides a very different intent from “how to choose a mason”. The first looks to hire. The second looks to understand. You want the first.
How to find the keywords my real clients search?
Here are 5 methods I use for each client. They do not require a subscription to an expensive tool.
Method 1: Google Search Console — your ignored gold mine
Most SMBs have Google Search Console installed on their site without ever opening it. Yet it is the most powerful tool to find keywords that already work for you.
What to do:
- Log in to Google Search Console
- Go to “Search results” > “Queries”
- Select 3 months of history
- Sort by impressions descending
- Go through the list and note queries containing words like: price, quote, buy, cheap, reviews, best, comparison, or your city
These queries, even at low volume (10-20 impressions/month), are your cash cows. A single conversion on this type of query can be worth hundreds of informational visits.
Method 2: Google Keyword Planner (free)
No need for an active Ads campaign to use the tool. Create a free Google Ads account and access the Keyword Planner.
The technique:
- Enter 3 to 5 “seed keywords” — the basic terms of your trade (e.g., “landscaper”, “gardener”, “garden design”)
- In the results, filter by “Commercial intent” if available
- Look especially at the “Proposed bid” column — the higher it is, the more Ads competition there is, meaning advertisers know this keyword converts
- Note keywords combining: your trade + your city + an action word (quote, price, buy)
Tip: Keywords with a high Ads bid (even a few cents) are a strong signal: if advertisers pay to appear on this term, it’s because it makes money.
Method 3: What your clients already tell you
This is the most underestimated method. Your current and past clients give you all the keywords you need — you just have to listen to them.
How to do it concretely:
- Reread your prospect emails — what words did they use to describe their need to you?
- Note the questions you are asked most often — these are informational queries you can turn into content
- Ask 3 good clients: “Before finding me, what did you type into Google?”
- Look at your WhatsApp/Messenger conversations with prospects — the exact phrasing they use are often the keywords they search
What I learned in the field: A landscaper client was convinced his clients searched “landscaper Toulouse”. Looking at his exchanges, 70% of his prospects used the phrasing “landscaper for small garden” or “cheap landscaper Toulouse”. We created a page for “small garden landscaper Toulouse” — 40 searches/month in Search Console, 2 calls per week.
Method 4: Inspect your competitors (without a paid tool)
Type your trade + your city into Google. Look at the top 5 results.
Analyze:
- What keywords do your competitors use in their page titles?
- Do they answer specific questions you do not address?
- Are there “angles” (urgency, geographic area, client type) they do not cover?
Look also at the “Related searches” section at the very bottom of the Google page. These suggestions are pure gold — they are the exact keywords Google estimates related to your search.
Method 5: The “3 circles” method
This one is my favorite because it is ultra-fast.
Draw 3 circles:
- What you do — your trade (e.g., “website creation”)
- For whom you do it — your typical client (e.g., “SMBs”)
- Where you do it — your geographic area (e.g., “Toulouse”)
The winning keywords are at the intersection of the 3 circles. Examples:
- “website creation SMB Toulouse”
- “artisan website Toulouse”
- “SMB site redesign 31”
One circle alone = too broad. Two circles = better. Three circles = client.
What free tools to use to find keywords that convert?
You do not need Ahrefs or Semrush at €100/month to start. Here is what I use daily:
| Tool | Free? | What it does best | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search Console | 100% free | Shows keywords already bringing you traffic | Averaged data, not real-time |
| Google Keyword Planner | Free with Ads account | Gives estimated monthly volume and intent | Requires an Ads account |
| Google Trends | 100% free | Compares the trend of several keywords, 5-year data | No exact volume |
| Google “Related searches” bar | 100% free | Suggestions at the bottom of SERPs, highly qualitative | Manual, no export |
| Ubersuggest (Neil Patel) | Limited free version | Keyword ideas + approximate volume | 3 searches/day in free |
My advice: start solely with Google Search Console and the Keyword Planner. If you master these two tools, you will have 90% of what you need.
How to prioritize the right keywords without getting lost?
This is the step where everyone drowns. You have 200 potential keywords. How to know where to start?
The Oplia prioritzation matrix:
For each keyword, rate from 1 to 5:
- Intent — does this keyword show a buying intent?
- Volume — do people type it (even a little)?
- Competition — can you reasonably rank in the top 10?
- Relevance — does this keyword match EXACTLY what you sell?
- Urgency — does this keyword capture a prospect searching now?
Prioritize keywords with a total score ≥ 20. Start with those. The others can wait.
Note: Intent and relevance are the two most important criteria. A keyword with perfect buying intent but only 30 searches/month is worth 10x more than an informational keyword with 500 searches/month. Do not let yourself be blinded by volume.
What did search intent change with the arrival of AI?
Since 2025, Google AI Mode and ChatGPT have transformed search. Users no longer type “landscaper Toulouse” — they write sentences like “I’m looking for a landscaper to redesign my garden in Toulouse who can come before summer”.
This is what Liz Reid, head of Google Search, calls keyword fragmentation: AI allows users to express long and detailed queries they previously reduced to short keywords. Result: the traditional “1 keyword = 1 optimized page” model becomes less relevant.
What this changes for you:
- Do not search for ONE keyword per page. Optimize your pages for a theme or a situation
- Category Entry Points (CEPs) replace keywords: identify the situations pushing your clients to search, not the words they type
- Example: instead of optimizing for “water leak repair”, think of the situation “I have water leaking under my sink and I’m panicking”
What I learned in the field: A plumber client had optimized his site for “plumber Toulouse” — impossible to rank against large brands. We created instead a page for “emergency plumber Toulouse night and weekend”. Result: less traffic, but 100% emergency calls — his best clients. The situation (emergency, night) captured the intent much better than the generic keyword.
“Only 12% of AI mode citations match organic top 10 URLs. What this means: being in the top 10 helps, but you need broad keyword coverage.”
— Moz, AI Mode citations study
What should you NOT waste time on when searching for keywords?
Here are the classic mistakes I see every day.
Error 1: Wanting to be first on a keyword that is “too big”
“I want to be first on plumber Toulouse.” This is the dream of all plumbers in Toulouse. But it is also the most competitive keyword possible. Major platforms, directories, agencies — everyone fights over it.
What to do instead: Choose your battle. “Emergency plumber Toulouse Sunday” has 50 times less competition and 10 times more chances of securing a call.
Error 2: Optimizing for keywords nobody searches
Some free SEO tools generate keywords nobody really searches. Always check volume in Google Keyword Planner or Search Console before creating a page.
Error 3: Putting all your eggs in one keyword
One single keyword = one type of prospect. Diversify: a few pages for transactional queries, some for commercial queries, and informational content to feed your credibility.
Error 4: Ignoring what already works
90% of the SMBs I support already have keywords bringing them clics in Search Console — and they do not know it. Before creating new content, look at what already performs and optimize it.
Your checklist — the complete keyword audit
- Open Google Search Console and note your 20 most promising queries
- Create a Google Keyword Planner account and generate 30 keyword ideas
- Ask 3 clients about the words they typed to find you
- Apply the 3 circles method to find your perfect keywords
- Priorize with the Oplia prioritzation matrix (intent + relevance > volume)
- Create or optimize one page for your most promising keyword
- Check in 30 days if this keyword generates clics in Search Console
| # | Action | Done? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Search Console open — 20 promising queries noted | ☐ |
| 2 | Keyword Planner — 30 keyword ideas generated | ☐ |
| 3 | 3 clients surveyed on their real search terms | ☐ |
| 4 | 3 circles (trade + client + area) applied | ☐ |
| 5 | Prioritization matrix completed (score ≥20 = priority) | ☐ |
| 6 | 1 page created or optimized for a priority keyword | ☐ |
| 7 | Search Console tracking scheduled at D+30 | ☐ |
Interpret your score:
- 0-2 checked: You are still searching for keywords “in a vacuum”. Start by opening Search Console — the answer is already there.
- 3-5 checked: You have the right bases. Take action: optimize your first page this week.
- 6-7 checked: You have the method. The result is coming — hold the course for 30 days and adjust.
Key Takeaways
- Intent comes before volume — a keyword with 30 searches/month but a buying intent is worth 10x more than an informational keyword at 500 searches.
- Search Console is your best ally — your clients are already there. Open it and look at what works.
- Free tools are enough to start — Google Search Console + Keyword Planner = 90% of what you need.
- The real keywords are in your clients’ mouths — listen to them, note their exact formulations.
- AI changes the game but not the rule — buying situations (CEPs) are more important than the keywords themselves.
The point is not to find 500 keywords. It is to find 10 your real clients search at the precise moment they want to buy. Start with the 3 circles. Open Search Console. Listen to your clients. And create a single page, well made, that answers the exact intent.
SEO does not cost much. Targeting the wrong keywords does.
To go further
- My website does not appear on Google: where to start? — know where you stand before choosing your keywords
- How to make my brand appear in ChatGPT? — understand how AI changes search
- Attract clients in your city and region — optimize your geographic area
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