Keyword research, the AI-native way
Start with AI to brainstorm and classify, then use a keyword tool for the one thing AI can't do — real search volume. Two ways: hand the whole job to a chatbot with one prompt, or do it in steps.
Fastest path: one prompt, end to end
Paste this into ChatGPT or Claude and fill in the brackets:
🤖 AI prompt — paste into ChatGPT / Claude
You are an SEO strategist for a DTC ecommerce brand.
Product: [describe your product in one sentence]
Ideal customer: [who they are]
Do this and return ONE markdown table:
1. Brainstorm 30 seed keywords a buyer would actually type — mix product terms, problems, use-cases, and "best / vs / review / buy" modifiers.
2. For each, label search intent: Informational, Commercial, or Transactional.
3. Get the REAL monthly search volume and keyword difficulty for each term. If you can browse the web, open a keyword tool — Google Keyword Planner (ads.google.com), Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator (ahrefs.com/keyword-generator), Semrush, or Keywords Everywhere — and read the actual numbers; do NOT invent them. If you have no web access, leave Volume and Difficulty blank and tell me to fill them from one of those tools.
4. Group them into 8-10 topic clusters; for each cluster name one page to create and its primary keyword.
5. Mark the 10 highest-priority terms for a NEW site (lower difficulty + clear buying intent) and give a 6-word reason.
Columns: Keyword | Intent | Volume | Difficulty | Cluster | Suggested page | Priority (Y/N)
If your chatbot can browse (ChatGPT with search, Claude with web tools, Perplexity, Gemini), it can pull the real volume and difficulty straight from those tools.
If it can't browse, it will guess — never trust a guessed number. Open Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs' free generator (below) and fill the two columns yourself before you commit.
Or do it in 6 steps
- Brainstorm seeds with AI. Don't stare at a blank sheet — ask ChatGPT/Claude: "List 30 keywords a [customer] would search for [product], mixing product terms, problems, and best/vs/buy modifiers." Paste into a spreadsheet.
- Expand + get real volume with a tool. Run the list through Google Keyword Planner (free, needs a Google Ads account), Ahrefs, or Semrush for related terms and the two numbers AI can't give you: monthly search volume and keyword difficulty (KD). Delete 0-volume terms.
- Let AI tag intent. Paste the expanded list back: "Label each keyword Informational, Commercial, or Transactional, and flag the ones with buying intent."
- Score winnability. New site → target KD < 20 and long-tail (3+ words); established site → KD 20-40. Prefer a 100-1,000-volume buyer term over a 50,000-volume vanity term you'll never rank for.
- Cluster with AI. "Group these into topic clusters; for each, give one page to build and its primary keyword."
- Pick 10, one page each, ranked by volume × intent ÷ difficulty. That ordered list is your content plan.
Why AI-first: AI is unbeatable at the creative, tedious parts — brainstorming, labeling, clustering — but has no real search data. Pair it with a keyword tool: AI drafts and organizes, the tool verifies the numbers.
Worked example — a real pull for "matcha"
Here's the method run for real. Seed matcha in Ahrefs' Free Keyword Generator (Google, United States) returned 198,600 keyword ideas — the top of the actual result:
The free tier shows difficulty as Easy/Medium/Hard and volume in ranges (>100K, >10,000); exact numbers need Google Keyword Planner or a paid tool. Even so, the intent + difficulty split is enough to plan. Tagging intent and clustering the real terms:
| Keyword | Intent | Difficulty | Volume | Do first? |
|---|
| ceremonial grade matcha | Transactional | — | >10,000 | ✅ product |
| matcha whisk | Transactional | Easy | >10,000 | ✅ product |
| matcha set | Transactional | — | >10,000 | ✅ bundle |
| how to make matcha latte | Informational | Easy | >10,000 | ✅ blog |
| does matcha have caffeine | Informational | Easy | >10,000 | ✅ blog |
| matcha benefits | Informational | Hard | >10,000 | ⏳ later (Hard) |
| what is matcha | Informational | Hard | >100K | ⏳ later (Hard) |
| matcha near me | Local | Easy | >100K | ❌ skip (local) |
For a new matcha store, the winners are the Easy, buyer-intent terms — matcha whisk, ceremonial grade matcha, matcha set, how to make matcha latte — not the >100K head terms (matcha, what is matcha) you can't outrank yet.
Full working sheet (18 terms, mapped to pages): the Matcha keyword research sample under "Go deeper".
Re-run quarterly — demand shifts and competitors move.