/seo-keyword-research

name: seo-keyword-research
description: "Get a keyword map and an AI prompt panel grounded in how buyers actually search. Input: a site, niche, or seed topics (plus Google Search Console if available). Output: keywords mapped one-to-one to intent and pages, quick wins, a cannibalization check, an on-page placement matrix, and a 50-100 buyer prompt panel for ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode. Works without paid tools. Use for keyword research, search intent, keyword mapping, cannibalization, content gaps, prompt research, or deciding what to write and which queries to target."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: "Sorank (https://sorank.com)"
  version: "1.0.0"

SEO Keyword Research and AI Prompt Research

Keyword research matches the exact language buyers use to the pages a site offers. In 2026 it produces two deliverables, not one:

1. A keyword map: every target query validated against real usage, assigned to one search intent and one page. 2. A buyer prompt panel: 50-100 questions buyers ask AI assistants (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Claude, Gemini), each mapped to a page that can earn the citation.

Everything in this skill works with free sources: Google Search Console, Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, competitor sitemaps, Reddit, Wikipedia, and the words customers already use in support tickets and sales calls. Paid tools are an optional final layer, never a prerequisite.

Company knowledge first (Obsidian)

If the working environment contains an Obsidian vault or any local knowledge base (a folder of .md notes, often with a .obsidian directory), read the relevant notes before acting: brand and product facts, target keywords, competitors, and the SEO action log of what was already tried. Ground every recommendation in that context instead of asking the user for facts the vault already holds. At the end of the session, append the actions taken to the vault's SEO action log so the next session starts informed. Vault structure, read-first and write-back protocols: the obsidian-brain skill.

When to use this skill

Use this skill when the user:

• Asks which keywords to target, what to write about, or how people search for their product or service.
• Wants a content plan, an editorial calendar, a topic cluster, or a content gap analysis.
• Suspects two pages compete for the same query (cannibalization).
• Wants quick wins from existing Google Search Console data.
• Asks which prompts buyers type into ChatGPT or Perplexity (prompt research, query fan-out, AI topic selection).
• Is about to brief any new page: blog post (seo-content-blog), product page (seo-content-product-page), service page (seo-content-service-page), or collection page (seo-content-collection-page).

Hand off afterwards: the prompt panel built here is the measurement input for geo-tracking, and page-level citability work belongs to geo-visibility.

Quick start (30 minutes)

When time is short, run this compressed loop; the full workflow below scales it.

1. Export Google Search Console queries at average positions 5-20: that is the quick win list (10 minutes). 2. Type the top 5 candidate keywords into Google; harvest autocomplete and People Also Ask (10 minutes). 3. Run one cannibalization test on the two most similar pages of the site (5 minutes). 4. Draft 20 buyer prompts with the four prompt patterns from the GEO layer (5 minutes).

The output of the quick start is a defensible shortlist; the full workflow turns it into a complete map.

Core principles

1. Nobody types what you think they type

The most frequent finding in the field (field heuristic from 115+ agency audits): teams target their internal vocabulary while buyers type something else entirely. A consultancy writes "digital transformation enablement"; the buyer types "how to digitize invoices". A keyword is an empirical fact about other people's language, never a branding decision.

Validate every candidate keyword against at least two independent evidence sources before it enters the map:

• Google autocomplete (only shows queries people actually type)
• People Also Ask boxes (questions Google has verified at scale)
• Related searches at the bottom of the results page
• Reddit and niche forum threads (unfiltered buyer vocabulary)
• Customer words: support tickets, sales call notes, onboarding survey answers

If a keyword appears in none of these sources, treat it as jargon and find the variant that does appear.

Granularity matters: a keyword is a short expression people actually type, not the full article title. "how to invoice a client in germany" is a keyword; "the complete 2026 guide to invoicing your first international client in germany" is a headline that matches a query with zero volume. Title the page around the keyword, do not promote the title to a keyword.

2. One keyword, one intent, one page

Google ranks one page per intent per site in most cases, and a page built for two intents serves neither. Every keyword in the map points to exactly one URL, and every URL targets exactly one primary intent. Secondary keywords are allowed only when they share the primary intent (verified by the cannibalization test in step 6).

3. Long tail and head work together

The long tail (specific, lower-volume queries) converts better and ranks faster because competition is thin. The head (broad, high-volume queries) takes quarters of authority building. Start with the long tail to generate revenue now, plan head terms as a program. Two traps frame this rule:

• Ranking first on a query nobody types is worth nothing. Zero-volume trophies are a recurring audit finding (field heuristic from 115+ agency audits): validate demand before celebrating positions.
• No keyword strategy compensates for broken technical foundations. If the site has crawl, indexation, or rendering problems, fix them first with seo-technical; new pages would inherit the same invisibility.

4. Keywords and prompts are two maps of the same