Keyword Research Is Procrastination

I know an SEO who spent six months building a keyword research spreadsheet. 50,000 keywords. Perfectly categorized. Search volume, difficulty scores, business value, content gaps, the works.

They published zero pages during that time.

Keyword research is the most productive-feeling way to do nothing.

The Illusion of Progress

Keyword research feels like work. You're in a tool. You're exporting data. You're building spreadsheets. You're "strategizing."

But nothing is actually happening. No pages are being created. No traffic is being earned. No rankings are being won.

You're organizing your sock drawer while the house burns down.

The Diminishing Returns

Here's the thing about keyword research: the first 20% takes 5 minutes. The last 80% takes months. Pareto was right.

Five minutes of keyword research: "What questions do my customers ask? What problems do they have? What do they search for?"

That's enough. That's actually enough to get started.

Everything after that is optimization theater. Finding the "perfect" keywords. Calculating opportunity scores. Building content calendars.

Meanwhile, the person who spent five minutes on research and started publishing is already ranking for long-tail variations you haven't even discovered yet.

The Reality of SEO

Here's what actually happens when you publish content:

You rank for things you didn't target. Most traffic comes from keywords you never researched. Long-tail variations. Related queries. Semantic matches.

Your research becomes obsolete. Search trends change. New queries emerge. Competitors publish. That perfect spreadsheet is outdated before you use it.

Google tells you what to write. Search Console shows you what queries you're already appearing for. Double down on those. Actual data beats theoretical research. In fact, there's a simple Search Console trick that finds quick win opportunities most people miss.

The Better Approach

Spend 30 minutes on keyword research. List the obvious topics. Check what competitors rank for. Note any obvious gaps. Done.

Publish something. Write the best piece you can about an obvious topic. Make it genuinely useful.

Check Search Console in a month. See what queries you're actually getting impressions for. See what questions people are actually asking.

Iterate based on reality. Not theoretical keyword data. Actual performance.

This approach beats months of spreadsheet building every time. And if you're still tempted to build that perfect keyword strategy, remember: there's no such thing as an SEO strategy anyway.

The best keyword strategy is publishing and seeing what works. The worst is perfecting a spreadsheet you'll never use.

Close Ahrefs. Open your CMS. Start writing.