To start the keyword research process, I would analyze the website,domain, any existing content, and conduct a competitor analysis to understand the topics, industries, and types of content the business covers. This gives me insight into what keywords may already be ranking for and performed well historically. I would use Alexa, Majestic, and Ahrefs tools to analyze backlinks, keyword rankings, and topics the domain already has authority in.

After analyzing the website and existing coverage, I would then seek to understand the customers, target audience and their intent. I would conduct in-depth interviews with customers, sales teams, marketing teams to understand common queries, questions, and pain points customers experience. This helps uncover new keyword opportunities beyond the site’s existing coverage. I would also run surveys to collect additional keywords and topics of interest directly from the target audience.

With an understanding of existing coverage and customer needs, I would then develop an extensive long-tail keyword list of potentially relevant terms. I would use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Keyword Sh*fter to automatically generate thousands of related keywords. I would filter these lists based on relevance to the business, customer intent uncovered, and competition level.

To further expand the list, I would conduct search query report analysis to see actual search volumes and trends for different semantic variations and related terms. I would also analyze Industry reports, product databases to discover new technical, niche industry-specific keywords that may have been missed. Additionally, I would refer to question/answering sites like Quora, Reddit to see common queries asked to get ideas on informational and conversational keywords opportunities.

With the massive list generated, I would then further filter keywords based on estimated monthly search volumes (aiming for keywords with at least 50 monthly searches or more depending on goals), keyword difficulty/competition level (evaluating CPC, number of global monthly searches, top ranking domain authority), and relevance to business goals. I would discard very low volume keywords and those with extremely high competition that would require years of work to rank highly for.

The next step would be analyzing keyword clusters – groups of related keywords that tend to co-occur together in topics, questions etc. I would identify primary keywords that could be targeted for an entire group/cluster. This helps focus content/link building efforts on the highest potential terms versus dispersing efforts on many individual keywords.

I would then work with SMEs at the business to prioritize the top 250-500 keyword opportunities based on several factors like audience intent, goal alignment, content creation costs, monetization potential. I would build customer personas for each cluster to better understand information needs. This keyword shortlist forms the target list for planning content and technical SEO initiatives.

Periodic keyword research is then conducted on a monthly/quarterly basis to stay updated on search behaviors, find new opportunities and re-evaluate priorities based on algorithm/market changes. Competitors are continuously monitored as well. I would maintain the keyword list as a dynamic document, constantly refined as goals,keywords and competitors evolve over time.

Automated keyword tracking tools would also be setup to monitor target keyword rankings/CPC fluctuations over time. This helps assess progress, re-evaluate strategies and resource allocation as needed based on measurable metrics. Keyword data would be integrated with CMS, link building, technical SEO tools to develop robust content and link plans around highest potential terms. Periodic analysis against business/website analytics helps optimize initiatives further.

Detailed keyword research as described forms the foundation for developing a comprehensive long-term SEO strategy and content roadmap that aligns with audience needs and gives the best chances of achieving visibility and traffic goals in an ethical, technical compliant manner. Proper emphasis is given to understanding intent beyond keywords to create truly useful information. I hope this provides a satisfactory detailed overview of my keyword research process. Please let me know if any part requires further explanation.