Before you start

What you'll need

• —Basic familiarity with spreadsheets (sorting and filtering columns)
• —Access to a Google Search Console property, for the quick-win step

Keyword Difficulty (KD)

a 0-100 score estimating how hard it would be to rank on page one for a term, based on the backlink strength of pages currently ranking.

Search Intent

the underlying goal behind a search, informational, navigational, commercial, or transactional, which determines what kind of page should target it.

The process

4 steps

keyword-export.csv, sorted by intent

TRANSACTIONAL (2 rows, ready-to-buy searchers)
  project management software free trial        590 vol   KD 31   cpc $14.90   rank 5
  project management software demo               390 vol   KD 27   cpc $7.90    rank 13

COMMERCIAL (24 rows, comparing options — sample of 5)
  project management software                 40,500 vol   KD 78   cpc $12.40   rank 14
  free project management tools                18,100 vol   KD 58   cpc $3.10    rank —
  project management app                       12,100 vol   KD 61   cpc $10.90   rank 19
  project management templates (informational, for contrast) — not counted here
  ...19 more commercial rows

INFORMATIONAL (13 rows, avg ~3,623 vol/mo) + NAVIGATIONAL (1 row)
  1 navigational row: project management software login, 590 vol, KD 18, rank 3
  (already ranking #3 because it's a branded/product-page query, not a content opportunity)

REALISTIC now (KD under 35, real buyer intent, not yet ranking)
  project management software pricing          880 vol   KD 29   cpc $5.50    rank —
  project management software for agencies      480 vol   KD 34   cpc $16.20   rank —

THE TRAP (big number, no realistic shot without existing authority)
  free project management tools               18,100 vol   KD 58   cpc $3.10    rank —
  enterprise project management software        1,900 vol   KD 62   cpc $18.40   rank —

Sorted by CPC, descending (top 5)
  enterprise project management software        $18.40 cpc   1,900 vol   KD 62   commercial
  project management software for agencies      $16.20 cpc     480 vol   KD 34   commercial
  project management software for remote teams  $15.60 cpc   1,300 vol   KD 42   commercial   rank 6
  project portfolio management software          $15.10 cpc     720 vol   KD 46   commercial
  project management software free trial         $14.90 cpc     590 vol   KD 31   transactional  rank 5

For contrast, the single biggest volume row in the whole sheet:
  project management software                    $12.40 cpc  40,500 vol   KD 78   commercial   rank 14

Rows currently ranking positions 11-20 (page 2 of Google, borderline)
  project management software comparison       1,900 vol   KD 38   cpc $6.80    rank 11
  best project management software 2026        2,400 vol   KD 44   cpc $11.80   rank 12
  project management software demo                390 vol   KD 27   cpc $7.90    rank 13  (transactional)
  project management software                40,500 vol   KD 78   cpc $12.40   rank 14
  simple project management tool                1,600 vol   KD 33   cpc $6.70    rank 16
  task management software                     9,900 vol   KD 55   cpc $8.75    rank 17

Best quick-win candidate: 'project management software comparison', rank 11, KD 38 —
one spot off page 1, real commercial volume, and a difficulty score a page with any
existing authority can realistically clear.

Analyze your findings

What to look for

Intent

Does the keyword's intent match a landing page, or is it blog/help-center fodder?

Difficulty vs authority

Is the keyword difficulty score realistic for a site with the marketer's current backlink profile?

Commercial signal beyond volume

Does CPC suggest advertisers are paying for clicks that convert, even though the raw volume looks modest?

Existing rank

Is there a page already ranking on page two that a light on-page fix could push to page one?

Recommendation · Priority: High

“This quarter's content budget should fund the pricing page (880 vol, KD 29) and the agencies page (480 vol, KD 34) as new landing pages, both realistic targets for a site without established authority. In parallel, the 'project management software comparison' page already ranking #11 should get an immediate title, H1, and opening-paragraph rewrite, the fastest ranking gain available in this sheet. 'Free project management tools' (18,100 vol, KD 58) should be explicitly declined for this quarter and logged as a 12-18 month goal once the site has a stronger backlink profile.”

Common mistakes

What trips people up

• ×

  Prioritizing by raw search volume alone — the 40,500-volume flagship term (KD 78) is a multi-year authority play, not a Q1 deliverable, while a 480-volume term with the right intent and CPC is winnable now.

• ×

  Writing a sales page for an informational query — a searcher looking up 'project management methodology' wants a definition, not a demo request form, no matter how large the volume is.

• ×

  Skipping the Search Console quick-win check — commissioning brand-new content while a page already ranks #11 wastes budget on the hardest way to gain the same ranking territory.

• ×

  Treating every unranked commercial keyword as equally realistic — KD 29 and KD 62 both look like 'commercial, not yet ranking' rows in a filtered view, but only one is winnable this quarter.

Final deliverable

A one-page prioritization memo: 2 new pages to brief this quarter (with why), 1 existing page to fix this week (with the exact on-page change), and 1 high-volume keyword to explicitly decline, with the KD-based reason written out.

Applying the same four-step lens to Zillow's own early keyword sheet (illustrative): 'zestimate accuracy' (rank 9, moderate KD) got the on-page fix this sprint instead of a new page. 'home value calculator free' (huge volume, KD 70+) was logged as an 18-month authority goal, not a Q1 deliverable. 'home value estimator for a divorce settlement' (tiny volume, high commercial intent, high CPC) got greenlit as new content because the searcher is clearly close to paying for a professional referral. The whole memo took 25 minutes once the sheet was sorted.

Success criteria

You're done when you can:

• Correctly separated the 2 transactional and 24 commercial rows from the 13 informational/1 navigational rows before prioritizing anything
• Picked at least one KD-under-35 unranked commercial row as a new-page target, not the highest-volume row in the sheet
• Named 'project management software comparison' (or an equally well-justified rank 11-20 row) as the fastest win, not a brand-new article
• Explicitly declined at least one high-volume/high-KD row in writing and stated the KD-based reason

Key takeaway

Keyword research isn't about finding the biggest numbers, it's about matching each keyword's intent, difficulty, and buying signal to the right action: a new page, an existing-page fix, or a deliberate decline. The four-step lens in this project, intent first, then difficulty, then CPC, then existing rank, turns a flat spreadsheet into a defensible quarterly plan.