Keyword Prioritization: Are You Doing It Right?

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94.74% of keywords get fewer than 10 monthly searches, showing a big chance in long-tail SEO.
Content targeting buyer-intent keywords leads to 67% more conversions than generic traffic hacks.
Automated content generation tools can make SEO efforts pay off faster by quickly making content for keywords.
Keyword prioritization links SEO efforts directly to business results like leads, sales, and revenue.
Many companies waste SEO spend by chasing irrelevant or overly competitive keywords.

Most businesses jump into keyword research with enthusiasm—only to become overwhelmed by massive lists and unclear direction. The real business advantage comes from keyword prioritization, the filtering and ranking process that turns keyword data into a focused strategy that helps the business make money. When done right, this process boosts traffic quality, improves content effectiveness, and links directly to getting leads and growing revenue.

What Is Keyword Prioritization?

Keyword prioritization is the way to figure out which keyword chances are most valuable for your business goals.

Instead of making content just based on how many people search for a term, keyword prioritization makes sure your keywords fit actual user needs, what makes you different, and how likely you are to rank. It makes sure your SEO strategy goes after terms that matter—not just popular ones.

Good keyword prioritization connects keyword research and doing the work. Keyword research is about finding chances, but prioritization is about ranking those chances to decide where to start for the best results.

Why Prioritizing Keywords Is Essential for SEO and Business Outcomes

Keyword prioritization isn’t just about better rankings—it’s about smarter business decisions. Here’s why it matters

Saves resources: By focusing on keywords with real value, you avoid wasting time or content budget on terms that won’t lead to sales or rank.
Boosts conversions: According to Semrush’s 2023 Content Marketing Report, content based on buyer-intent keywords gets 67% more conversions than general SEO content.
Improves visibility on the right terms: Google doesn’t reward keywords with lots of searches—it rewards what fits and what's valuable. Prioritizing gets rid of numbers that don't really matter and helps you focus on showing up where it helps your business.
Helps teams work better together: It creates a shared focus between marketing, sales, and content teams, making sure each piece of content gets a result you can measure.
Gets the most out of your investment: Whether you’re working alone or for a big company, focusing on the right keywords makes your return on investment bigger across content, SEO, and getting people to buy.

Treating all keywords the same weakens your results. Good prioritization, on the other hand, makes your efforts count more with fewer things, but higher value.

The 4 Key Factors to Consider When Prioritizing Keywords

Figuring out which keywords are best needs you to look at different things. Here are the four main things to look at for good keyword prioritization

Search Intent: Understanding the “Why” Behind the Words

Search intent is the reason a user has when typing something into a search engine. Google's algorithms now care more about this than just using keywords a lot.

There are typically four types of search intent

Informational: Looking to learn (“how-to”, “best way to”, “why does…”).
Navigational: Looking for a specific website or brand (“YouTube login”, “Nike shoes homepage”).
Commercial/Investigational: Comparing features or vendors (“HubSpot vs Mailchimp”, “best CRM for startups”).
Transactional: Ready to take action or buy now (“buy standing desk”, “SEO agency near me”).

Make your content fit each type of search intent. For example

Informational keywords need educational content like blogs or articles.
Commercial intent works well with comparison pages or feature breakdowns.
Transactional keywords turn into sales best with product pages, service landing pages, or local SEO.

Putting out content that doesn't match the intent leads to people leaving quickly, not staying long enough, and finally, bad SEO results.

Search Volume: Not All Traffic Is Good Traffic

Search volume shows how many people search for a term each month. It’s tempting to go after keywords with lots of searches—but volume without context doesn't mean much.

Let’s compare

“real estate” = ~300,000 searches/month
“first-time homebuyer agent in Austin” = ~80 searches/month

While the first gets more traffic, ranking for it is very hard and the intent is unclear. The second is specific, actionable, and linked to business results (buyer leads). Multiply 80 monthly searches by conversion rate and lead value—and it starts to look much better for your business.

Look for search volume that is a good mix of these three things

You can actually rank for it (with your current authority/content).
It's very relevant to what you sell or who you're trying to reach.
The user is likely to take a clear next step (ready to buy or get qualified).

Keyword Difficulty (Competition Level)

Keyword difficulty shows how hard it will be to rank on page one of search results.

Things that affect difficulty include

How many and how good the backlinks are for pages already ranking.
How strong competitors' websites are (Domain authority).
How complete and deep the content is.
What features are on the search results page (like featured snippets, reviews, ads) that take over the results.

You can check how hard keywords are using tools like

Ahrefs KD Score: Pulls together backlink profiles and how much competitors are there.
SEMrush Keyword Difficulty Score: Looks at how much certain results take over the page and keyword trends.
Google Keyword Planner: Gives a simple competitive range (High/Medium/Low).

Keywords that are easy to rank for, have high intent, and a moderate number of searches are often hidden gold mines. Long-tail keywords—known for being very specific and having less competition—are especially valuable. According to Ahrefs, 94.74% of all keywords get fewer than 10 monthly searches. These terms give you specific chances to get a specific, motivated audience to take action.

Business Value & Conversion Potential

The most important thing when prioritizing is how closely a keyword is linked to what your business offers and how it helps people.

Ask

Is this keyword closely related to a product, service, or problem I solve?
If I rank for this term, will I get valuable visitors who are likely to become customers?
Does it go after real problems faced by your buyers?

For example, a startup selling software might want to focus less on technical terms like “API integration syntax” (even if lots of people search for it) and more on “best integrations for small business CRMs”—keywords that fit what buyers actually care about getting done.

Create a scoring system (0-5) for how relevant something is to your business. A keyword related to a main product gets a 5. A blog topic that's not directly related gets a 1 or 2.

Focus on those with total scores of 7–10. Volume and difficulty come after they fit your strategy.

buyer journey stages on printed marketing roadmap

Step 1: Map Keywords to the Buyer Journey

Each buyer goes through stages: Awareness → Consideration → Decision. Keyword prioritization should show these stages.

Here’s how to think about each stage

Awareness

What they want: Finding a problem or wanting to learn.

Example Keywords: “how to get mortgage pre-approval,” “what to expect during home inspection”
Best Content Types: Blog posts that teach, videos that explain things, articles that define terms.
Consideration

What they want: Looking at options and comparing services.

Example Keywords: “top rated mortgage brokers,” “broker vs. agent in real estate”
Best Content Types: Articles comparing things, reviews, case studies.
Decision

What they want: Ready to take action or buy now.

Example Keywords: “real estate agent Austin TX,” “book home appraisal service”
Best Content Types: Landing pages, descriptions of services, testimonials, calls to action.

Connecting your keywords to these stages creates content that not only gets the user interested, but moves them closer to becoming a customer.

Step 2: Score Keyword Relevance to Your Business

Not every keyword is worth your time—even if lots of people search for it. It has to be relevant to what you sell; that's a must.

Make a grid to score how relevant keywords are. Give each keyword a score (1-5) for

How well it fits your business: Does it directly relate to what you sell?
What the buyer wants to do: Is it for someone ready to take action or spend money?
Long-Term Value: Will people keep searching for it over time vs. is it just a trend?

Example:

Keyword Business Fit Buyer Intent Score

“mortgage calculator” 3 2 5

“first-time homebuyer agent Denver” 5 5 10

“housing market crash predictions” 2 1 3

Focus on those with total scores of 7–10. Volume and difficulty come after they fit your strategy.

hands on laptop using seo keyword tool

Step 3: Analyze Keyword Difficulty and Find Smart Opportunities

Once you’ve narrowed things down based on relevance and intent, look at how likely you are to compete well.

Tips

Use tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find keyword difficulty (KD).
Look at the search results page: Are the results taken over by big brands, government sites, or old content?
Use “allintitle:” Google searches to see how many pages use that exact phrase—a simple way to guess how much competition there is.
Group long-tail terms that are easier to rank for into content hubs.

Try to get a mix of

Easy wins (low difficulty, good fit).
Medium chances (medium difficulty, very relevant).
Goals that are harder to reach but worth it for the long term (high difficulty, but worth it).

Bonus Step: Identify Gaps & Audit Competitors

You don’t work alone—and your competitors have already accidentally created a roadmap for you.

Check for gaps in content using tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to

See keywords your competitors rank for—but you don’t.
Find out which terms help them rank and get visitors.
Go after those gaps with content that fits better or is stronger.

Pro tip: If a competitor ranks with thin content, pages that aren't optimized well, or a bad user experience—take over that keyword by offering a much better experience for the user.

The Best Tools for Effective Keyword Prioritization

Here are some tools that help with the process of finding keywords → prioritizing → planning → doing

Ahrefs – Good for seeing backlinks, keyword difficulty, and looking at search results pages.
SEMrush – Full SEO and competitor information.
Ubersuggest – Costs less and has good features for small teams or people working alone.
Keywords Everywhere – A Chrome extension to see keyword data as you browse.
Google Keyword Planner – Great for SEO plans that also use paid ads, and for seeing trends.
Surfer SEO – Mixes keyword targeting with help for writing in real time.

Choose based on what you need—if you want to compare yourself to competitors, use SEMrush. If you need ideas and help planning content, choose Surfer.

overwhelmed marketer surrounded by search charts

Common Keyword Prioritization Mistakes to Avoid

Knowing what mistakes to avoid is just as important. Don't fall into these common traps

Chasing high search volume blindly: Just because a term is popular doesn't mean it will make you money.
Ignoring user intent: Content that doesn't match what someone is looking for leads to people leaving quickly—which hurts rankings.
Not using long-tail chances: They are easier to rank for and often turn into customers better.
Just relying on tools: You need human understanding plus tool data for a real strategy.
Not mapping the buyer journey: Good rankings don't pay the bills—good experiences do.

How Content Automation Bridges Research and Results

Even good keyword prioritization won’t make a difference unless you do it quickly.

Modern tools that automatically create content take your prioritized SEO keyword strategy and automatically create things like

Blog posts
Social posts
Product descriptions
Landing page copy
Email sequences

Benefits

Speed: Go from planning to publishing in hours, not weeks.
Consistency: Makes sure the tone, style, and SEO fit are always the same.
Scale: Make 10–100x more content without needing more people on your team.

Use platforms like Jasper, Content At Scale, or Clearscope to turn your top SEO keywords into real content that helps get customers.

real estate agent reviewing local keyword leads

Case Scenario: From Prioritization to SEO Growth

Think about a small real estate business in Dallas. Instead of going after terms that everyone uses like "homes in Dallas" (lots of searches, very hard to rank), they

Did keyword research and found “affordable housing near SMU” and “best neighborhoods for first-time buyers in East Dallas.”
Scored these keywords based on relevance, intent, and how hard they were to rank for.
Created local guides, social media content, and a bunch of blog posts using automation tools.
Ranked in regular search results within 60 days, getting steady local leads.

One small decision to prioritize changed their SEO plan from just reacting to things to actually making money.

Action Plan: Start Prioritizing with This Simple Framework

Get the most out of your keywords with this simple checklist

Figure out your goals for SEO and your business (like getting sales, leads, or making people aware of your brand).
Do keyword research using different tools.
Group keywords by

What people are looking for (Intent)

Where they are in the buying process (Funnel Stage)
How relevant they are to your business
Give each keyword a score based on

How many searches it gets

How hard it is to rank for
How relevant it is
How likely someone is to buy (Commercial Intent)
Make a content plan using your top 20–50 keywords.
Use automation tools to create, publish, and make more of your content based on these keywords.

Final Words

Keyword prioritization isn’t about making longer lists—it’s about making smarter choices. Doing it right turns your keyword research into an SEO strategy that works well and doesn't just rank but also makes money. Make sure it fits user intent, check for business value, and use automation to grow. Whether you’re a startup or a big company, keyword prioritization is the main thing you need for SEO to work. The difference between just getting views and making money? Prioritization.