Edip Kilinc is the founder of Webwavers. Together with his team, he develops websites, brands, and digital presences for ambitious companies – with over 250 completed projects, and honored with awards including the German Design Award 2026.
In B2C, search volume is a useful indicator: many searches, many potential buyers. In B2B, this is not true.
A term like web design has a high volume and attracts students, curious people, and competitors. A term like web design agency for mechanical engineering might have twenty searches a month – and every single one of them can be a five-figure project.
Added to this is the number of clients you actually need. A service provider with an average project value of 15,000 euros doesn't need a thousand visitors a month. They need twenty of the right ones.
This leads to a different evaluation: instead of sorting by volume, sort by purchase intent. A term where someone is comparing, calculating, or choosing is worth more than ten where someone is just gathering information.
As a rule of thumb: everything with an modifier – an industry, a region, a use case, a comparison, a price – is more valuable in B2B than the basic term.
In B2C, search volume is a useful indicator: many searches, many potential buyers. In B2B, this is not true.
A term like web design has a high volume and attracts students, curious people, and competitors. A term like web design agency for mechanical engineering might have twenty searches a month – and every single one of them can be a five-figure project.
Added to this is the number of clients you actually need. A service provider with an average project value of 15,000 euros doesn't need a thousand visitors a month. They need twenty of the right ones.
This leads to a different evaluation: instead of sorting by volume, sort by purchase intent. A term where someone is comparing, calculating, or choosing is worth more than ten where someone is just gathering information.
As a rule of thumb: everything with an modifier – an industry, a region, a use case, a comparison, a price – is more valuable in B2B than the basic term.
1. Google Search Console. The most important one because it shows your real data. Under Performance, you can see which search queries are already generating impressions for you. Particularly interesting: terms with many impressions and few clicks. You are already ranking there, just with the wrong page or the wrong title.
2. Search itself. Enter your main term and look at the suggestions as you type, the "people also ask" box, and the related searches at the bottom of the page. These are real phrases from real people.
3. Your own inquiries. Read the last thirty emails from prospects and note which words they use. This is the most honest source of all, because it contains the language of your customers – not that of your industry.
4. Competitors. Look at the navigations and page titles of the three most relevant ones. Which topics have their own page? This is a map of what is being searched for in your market.
A term alone says very little. The intention behind it decides which page belongs to it.
Information search. What is a Headless CMS. Someone wants to understand. Fitting answer: a blog post. Rarely brings a direct inquiry, but builds trust and is cited in AI responses.
Comparison. Webflow or WordPress. Someone is narrowing down options. Fitting answer: a comparison article. In B2B, one of the most valuable formats because the purchasing decision has already begun.
Provider search. Web design agency B2B. Someone is looking for someone. Fitting answer: a service page, not a blog page.
Brand search. Your company name. Someone already knows you. Fitting answer: the homepage, and it should convince.
The most common mistake is responding to a provider search with a blog post. Anyone looking for an agency does not want to read an explanation, but wants to see a provider. Google notices this from the bounce rate.
A table with five columns is created from the four sources:
Term – how it is searched for, not what you call it.
Intent – information, comparison, provider search, brand.
Target page – which existing page answers this, or which one is missing.
Current position – from the Search Console, if available.
Priority – by purchase proximity, not by volume.
Two rules keep the list useful.
One term, one page. Two pages for the same topic compete against each other, and Google chooses one – usually not the one you want.
No term without a target page. If no page fits, this is not a keyword but a task: a page is missing.
Fifteen to thirty terms are enough to start with. Anyone who starts with two hundred will not work through any of them.
Three evaluations are particularly worthwhile because they are only possible with your own data.
Many impressions, hardly any clicks. You are visible, but no one clicks. The cause is almost always the title or the description – or the wrong page is ranking. This is the fastest lever of all because the ranking is already there.
Position 8 to 20. These terms are within reach. A revised page often brings them to the first page. On the other hand, a term at position 40 is far away.
Terms that surprise you. Almost every website ranks for things that no one planned. Sometimes there is a topic in there that you underestimated – and deserves its own page.
A practical tip on this: filter by country and by search type Web. Otherwise, image search and international impressions will mix in and distort the values.
You don't need one for your first list. Having one starts making sense from three situations onward.
If you want to know what competitors are ranking for that you don't keep track of yourself. This is the strongest reason because it reveals gaps.
If you want to track positions over time. Search Console shows average positions that become blurred by fluctuations. A rank tracker measures defined terms daily.
If the website is large enough that keeping track by hand is no longer possible – starting from about a hundred pages.
What a tool does not provide: the assessment of which terms fit your business. Search volume and difficulty scores are estimates, sometimes with significant deviations. They help with sorting, not with decision-making.
Anyone starting today without a tool loses nothing – as long as they actually use Search Console.
