AI Keyword Optimization: Find the Terms That Actually Make Money

You’re building a business with AI. You know SEO matters. But keyword research feels like a black hole.

Every tool shows different numbers. Established competitors dominate the obvious terms. And you’re not sure which keywords will actually bring in customers versus just tire-kickers.

Here’s the problem most new business builders face: they target keywords based on search volume instead of buyer intent. High-traffic terms that never convert. Or they go after the same keywords as sites with 10 years of authority and wonder why they’re stuck on page 5.

I’ve built multiple content sites from zero. The keyword research process I use now takes 45 minutes instead of 6 hours. More importantly, it surfaces the profitable keywords established competitors overlook.

This guide gives you the exact workflow. Copy the prompts. Feed them your business data. Walk away with a keyword strategy that matches your actual authority level and revenue goals.

How Keyword Strategy Works for New Sites

If you’re starting a business, forget everything you’ve read about “targeting high-volume keywords.”

That advice is for established sites with domain authority. You don’t have that yet. And that’s actually an advantage. You can be strategic where they’re bloated.

Google and AI search engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity) now understand topics, not just exact phrases. They reward comprehensive coverage and fresh content. Over 70% of pages cited by ChatGPT were updated within 12 months, with content from the last 3 months performing best.

What this means for your business:

• You CAN outrank established competitors on specific, buyer-intent terms
• Comprehensive topic coverage matters more than keyword repetition
• Fresh, well-structured content gets picked up by AI search faster
• Your exact-match keywords go in titles, URLs, and H1s, body content covers the topic naturally

The goal isn’t ranking for vanity keywords.

The goal is owning the search terms that bring in customers.

The 45-Minute Keyword Research Workflow

This is the exact process I use for every new site. Do this before you write a single piece of content.

Step 1: Generate Your Keyword Universe

Start with 3-5 terms related to your business. AI will expand these into hundreds of targetable variations.

Copy this prompt into Claude:

You're helping me research keywords for a new [NICHE] business.

My business model: [How you make money - affiliate, lead gen, info products, etc.]
My authority level: [New site / 6 months old / established]

Starting seeds:
- [Keyword 1]
- [Keyword 2]
- [Keyword 3]

For each seed, generate:

1. 15 long-tail variations (4+ words) - these are winnable for new sites
2. 10 question-based keywords - people searching these are actively looking for solutions
3. 5 comparison keywords ("[X] vs [Y]") - high commercial intent
4. 5 commercial intent keywords ("best," "review," "top") - buyers, not browsers
5. 5 problem-aware keywords ("[issue] with [topic]") - people ready to pay for solutions

Format as a table: Keyword | Search Intent | Revenue Potential (1-5) | Difficulty for New Site (1-5)

Then list your top 10 opportunities specifically for a NEW site competing against established players. Explain why each one is winnable.

Why this works: Claude’s context window lets you include your business model and authority level. Generic keyword tools don’t factor in whether you can actually compete. This prompt does.

Step 2: Turn Keywords Into a Content Plan

Raw keyword lists don’t build businesses. You need a content plan that tells you exactly what to publish and in what order.

Clustering groups related keywords so one piece of content can rank for multiple terms. This is how you compete efficiently, one comprehensive guide instead of 50 thin posts fighting each other.

Copy this prompt:

I have a list of keywords for my [NICHE] business. Turn them into a content plan.

My monetization: [affiliate links / lead gen / info products / services]
Publishing capacity: [X posts per month]

Keywords:
[Paste your list]

For each cluster:
1. Name the cluster (this is your content topic)
2. List all keywords it can rank for
3. Primary target keyword (put this in the title/URL)
4. Content format (guide, comparison, tutorial, listicle)
5. Monetization angle - how does this content make money?
6. Priority score (1-5) based on revenue potential vs. difficulty

Flag any cannibalization risks - keywords that would compete against each other.

Then give me a 90-day publishing calendar starting with the highest-impact pieces.

The monetization angle is key. Every piece of content should have a clear path to revenue. If you can’t explain how a keyword makes you money, don’t target it.

Step 3: Find What Competitors Missed

Your competitors have done the hard work. They’ve tested keywords, built content, earned rankings. Your job is to find the gaps they left open.

This is where new sites win. Established competitors get lazy. They chase high-volume terms and ignore the long-tail variations where buyers actually convert.

Copy this prompt:

I'm building a [NICHE] business and need to find keyword opportunities my competitors missed.

My business model: [How you monetize]
My site's current state: [New / has X pages / ranking for Y terms]

Top competitors (paste their URLs):
- [Competitor 1 URL]
- [Competitor 2 URL]
- [Competitor 3 URL]

Analyze their keyword strategies and identify:

1. GAPS THEY LEFT OPEN
   Topics they don't cover well or at all

2. OUTDATED CONTENT
   Where their information is stale (I can publish something current)

3. WEAK PAGES
   Topics where their content is thin, poorly structured, or missing buyer intent

4. LONG-TAIL THEY IGNORED
   Specific variations they're not targeting directly

5. ANGLES THEY MISSED
   Problems their content doesn't address that my business could solve

For each opportunity, rate:
- Traffic potential (1-5)
- Conversion likelihood (1-5)
- Difficulty to outrank (1-5)

Then rank the top 10 opportunities for a NEW site trying to establish authority quickly.

The “outdated content” filter is gold. Competitors with 5-year-old posts on rapidly changing topics are vulnerable. You can outrank them with fresh, comprehensive content.

Match Buyer Intent or Waste Your Time

This is where most new business builders screw up. They rank for a keyword and get no sales.

Ranking means nothing if the keyword doesn’t match what your business sells. A #3 ranking for “what is SEO” brings information-seekers, not buyers. A #10 ranking for “best SEO tools for agencies” brings people with credit cards.

The Four Intent Types (And Which Ones Make Money)

For a new business, prioritize commercial and transactional intent. Informational content builds authority over time, but it doesn’t pay the bills directly.

Before writing any content, Google your keyword. Look at page one. That’s what Google thinks searchers want. If the top 10 results are listicles, write a listicle. If they’re product pages, that keyword needs a product page.

Don’t fight Google’s intent classification. Match it, then make yours better.

Intent Analysis Prompt

Analyze search intent for my keyword list. I'm building a [NICHE] business that monetizes through [affiliate/lead gen/products/services].

Keywords:
[Paste your list]

For each keyword:
1. Primary intent (informational/navigational/commercial/transactional)
2. Content format that currently ranks (check Google)
3. Revenue potential for my business model (1-5)
4. What the searcher does AFTER reading (buy, compare, leave, etc.)
5. Recommended: TARGET / DEPRIORITIZE / SKIP

Separate the list into:
- MONEY KEYWORDS: Target immediately, high conversion potential
- AUTHORITY BUILDERS: Lower conversion but builds topical trust
- SKIP: Wrong intent for my business or too competitive

Prioritize for Revenue, Not Traffic

You have hundreds of keywords. You can publish maybe 4-8 pieces of content per month. Choose wrong and you waste months building traffic that doesn’t convert.

The New Site Priority Framework

Forget high-volume keywords for now. Your framework:

                    REVENUE POTENTIAL

HIGH    |  [WIN FIRST]         [BUILD TOWARD]
        |  Low difficulty      High difficulty
        |  High revenue        High revenue
        |
--------+----------------------------------------
        |
LOW     |  [AUTHORITY]         [IGNORE]
        |  Low difficulty      High difficulty
        |  Low revenue         Low revenue
        |
                    RANKING DIFFICULTY

Win First: Low difficulty, high revenue. These are long-tail buyer-intent keywords established sites ignore. Target these immediately.

Authority Builders: Easy to rank, builds topical trust. Supports your money keywords. Publish these between your priority pieces.

Build Toward: High revenue but competitive. You’ll rank for these after building authority. Don’t waste time on them yet.

Ignore: Hard and low-value. This is where most new site owners waste their effort.

Prioritization Prompt

Prioritize these keywords for my NEW [NICHE] business.

KEYWORDS:
[Paste your list with any available data]

MY SITUATION:
- Site age: [new / X months old]
- Current authority: [no rankings / ranking for X terms]
- Monetization: [how you make money]
- Content capacity: [X posts per month]
- Revenue goal: [$ per month target]

For each keyword, score:
- Revenue potential (1-5): How directly does this lead to money?
- Ranking feasibility for MY site (1-5): Can I actually win this?
- Content effort (1-5): How much work to create something better than competitors?

Categorize into:
- PUBLISH NOW: High revenue potential, winnable for a new site
- NEXT 90 DAYS: Good opportunities, builds toward money keywords
- LATER: Worth targeting once I have more authority
- SKIP: Not worth my limited resources

For PUBLISH NOW keywords, give me the exact content angle that beats what's currently ranking.

Quick Wins: Get to Page One Fast

Once you have content ranking, here’s how to get fast improvements.

Quick wins are keywords where:

• You’re already positions 11-30 (page 2-3)
• Small tweaks could push you to page 1
• The search volume is worth the effort

This is the highest-ROI SEO work you can do. You already have pages Google thinks are relevant. You just need to make them better.

Pull your Search Console data (Search results → Performance → Export). Find queries with high impressions but low clicks. Those are your quick wins.

Quick Win Audit Prompt:

Analyze my Search Console data for quick win opportunities.

DATA:
[Paste: keyword, position, impressions, clicks, URL]

Find keywords where:
- Position 11-30 (almost page 1)
- Impressions > 100/month (worth optimizing)
- CTR below 3% (room to improve)

For each quick win, give me:
1. Current position and the gap to page 1
2. Why it's probably stuck (thin content, missing intent, weak title)
3. EXACT action to fix it (rewrite title to X, add section on Y, etc.)
4. Estimated effort (30 min / 1 hour / half day)

Rank by effort-to-impact. I want the biggest wins with the least work first.

This audit takes 30 minutes and typically surfaces 5-10 pages where small edits can double your traffic.

On-Page Keyword Implementation

Research means nothing if you implement wrong. Here’s exactly where keywords go and what to avoid.

The Keyword Placement Checklist

How Keyword Density Actually Works

Forget percentages. Here’s what matters:

• Primary keyword in title, H1, URL, and first paragraph. Required.
• Related terms throughout the body (Google knows “SEO” relates to “search engine optimization,” “rankings,” “organic traffic”)
• Comprehensive coverage of the topic naturally includes keyword variations
• If it sounds robotic, you’ve over-optimized

Google understands synonyms. Write like a human. Cover the topic thoroughly. The keywords take care of themselves.

On-Page Optimization Prompt

Run this on every page before publishing:

Optimize this content for: "[TARGET KEYWORD]"
My business monetizes through: [affiliate/lead gen/products]

CONTENT:
[Paste your draft]

CHECKLIST AUDIT:
- Title tag: Does it include the keyword and compel clicks?
- H1: Clear keyword inclusion?
- First 100 words: Keyword present naturally?
- H2s: Do they cover the topic comprehensively?
- Meta description: Would you click this in search results?

SEMANTIC ANALYSIS:
List 15-20 related terms this content should include for topical completeness.

CONTENT GAPS:
What do top-ranking pages cover that I'm missing?

CONVERSION AUDIT:
- Is there a clear next step for the reader?
- Does the content guide toward my monetization (without being pushy)?
- Are there natural places for CTAs?

SPECIFIC FIXES:
- Rewrite title if needed
- Rewrite H1 if needed
- Suggest first paragraph edit
- List H2s to add
- Flag any over-optimization

Give me the optimized versions I can copy/paste.

Building Topical Authority (How New Sites Compete)

Single pages don’t win anymore. Topic clusters do. This is your advantage as a new site builder.

Established competitors have scattered content across years of publishing. You can build a tightly organized topic cluster from day one.

The structure:

• Pillar page: Comprehensive guide targeting your main keyword
• Supporting pages: Individual articles targeting long-tail variations
• Internal links: Connect everything strategically so Google sees a cohesive resource

When Google recognizes comprehensive topic coverage, it trusts your site as an authority. This trust compounds. Your new content in that topic area ranks faster.

This is covered in depth in the AI silo structure guide. If you’re planning your site architecture, read AI site architecture first. The structure you build determines whether your keyword strategy works.

Track What Matters (Ignore Vanity Metrics)

As a new business builder, you need to track metrics that correlate with revenue, not just traffic.

Weekly Check (15 Minutes)

Ignore total traffic until you have revenue. Traffic without conversions is a vanity metric.

Monthly Performance Review Prompt

Run this on the first of each month:

Analyze my keyword and revenue performance for [MONTH].

RANKING DATA:
[Keyword | Last month position | This month position | URL]

REVENUE DATA:
[Page | Sessions | Conversions | Revenue]

MY BUSINESS CONTEXT:
Monetization: [how you make money]
Primary goal this quarter: [traffic/revenue/authority]

ANALYZE:

1. REVENUE DRIVERS
   Which keywords/pages actually made money? Why?

2. TRAFFIC WITHOUT CONVERSION
   High-traffic pages with low conversion. What's wrong?

3. RANKING CHANGES
   What improved? What dropped? What likely caused it?

4. QUICK WINS
   Pages in positions 5-15 that could reach top 3 with small improvements.

5. NEXT MONTH PRIORITIES
   Top 5 actions ranked by revenue impact (not traffic impact).

Be specific. "Update content" isn't actionable. "Add comparison section to [URL] targeting [keyword]" is.

Tools Worth Paying For (And What’s Free)

AI handles the strategic work. But you need real data to feed it.

Free and Essential:

• Google Search Console - Your actual ranking data. Non-negotiable.
• Claude/ChatGPT - The prompts in this guide. Start here.

When You Have Revenue to Reinvest:

• LowFruits - Finds “weak spots” in SERPs where new sites can win. This is where I’d spend money first.
• Semrush or Ahrefs - Pick one. Both do keyword research, competitor analysis, and backlink tracking. Expensive but comprehensive.

Once You’re Scaling:

• Surfer SEO - Real-time content scoring. Worth it when you’re publishing 8+ posts/month.
• Superlines - Tracks how AI engines cite content. Useful for AI search optimization.

Don’t Skip This: Brands using schema markup see a 25% boost in AI-driven visibility. Implement structured data from day one. Check the Schema and JSON-LD guide.

Mistakes That Kill New Sites

I’ve made every one of these. Skip my learning curve.

Targeting keywords you can’t win. New site going after “best CRM software”? You’ll rank page 7 forever. Know your authority level. Target long-tail variations where established sites are lazy.

Chasing traffic instead of revenue. A 50-volume keyword with 10% conversion beats a 5,000-volume keyword with 0.1% conversion. Math doesn’t lie. Prioritize buyer-intent keywords.

Ignoring search intent. Google knows what searchers want. If top results are listicles, write a listicle. Fighting intent is fighting Google.

Keyword cannibalization. Multiple pages targeting the same keyword means none rank well. One comprehensive page beats five thin ones. The clustering prompt above catches this.

Publishing and forgetting. Rankings decay. Content gets stale. Competitors improve. Build monthly reviews into your process.

Writing for Google instead of humans. If it reads robotic, you’ve over-optimized. Google knows. Users know. Write naturally, place keywords strategically, and trust the process.

The Bottom Line

Keyword research for a new business is different than keyword research for an established site. You’re not playing the same game.

Your advantages:

• You can be strategic where competitors are bloated
• You can target buyer-intent long-tail terms they ignore
• You can build organized topic clusters from day one
• You can publish fresh content that AI search engines prefer

The process:

1. Generate keywords focused on buyer intent, not volume
2. Cluster into a content plan with clear monetization paths
3. Find gaps where competitors are weak or outdated
4. Prioritize by revenue potential, not traffic potential
5. Implement on-page optimization for every piece
6. Review monthly and iterate based on what converts

The prompts in this guide replace 6 hours of manual research with 45 minutes of strategic work. Copy them. Use them. Adjust based on your results.

Your Next Action

Pick one thing to do today:

If you haven’t started keyword research: Copy the Step 1 prompt above. Run it with your 3-5 seed keywords. You’ll have 100+ keyword ideas in 10 minutes.

If you have a keyword list: Run the clustering prompt. Turn that list into a 90-day content calendar with clear monetization angles.

If you have content published: Pull your Search Console data and run the quick win audit. You probably have pages sitting on page 2 that could reach page 1 with small improvements.

What to Read Next

Structure your content for rankings:

• AI Content Structure - How to format content that ranks

Build your site architecture:

• AI Site Architecture - Plan before you build
• AI Silo Structure - Organize content for topical authority

Get found in AI search:

• AI Overview Optimization - Get cited by ChatGPT and Perplexity

Still choosing your niche?

• Niche Research with AI - Validate before you build