How do I choose which keywords to target?

How do I choose which keywords to target?Choose keywords by mapping search intent to your business model: prioritize queries with commercial or transactional intent that your business can credibly satisfy, where competition is achievable given your domain authority, and where search volume justifies the production effort.AnswerKeyword selection is one of the highest-leverage decisions in SEO — choosing the wrong targets can waste 12+ months of work. The four-filter framework we use: (1) Search intent — prioritize commercial-intent (researching to buy) and transactional-intent (ready to buy) queries over informational queries. Informational content is necessary for topical authority but rarely converts directly; (2) Business credibility — only target queries you can credibly answer better than the current top-ranking pages. If you cannot honestly outperform the page currently ranking #3, you are unlikely to displace it; (3) Achievable competition — measure the average referring-domain count of the top 10 ranking pages. If your domain has 30 referring domains and the top 10 average 200, the gap is bridgeable in 12–18 months. If they average 1,500, plan for 24+ months or pick a less competitive entry point; (4) Search volume justifies effort — a keyword with 50 monthly searches that takes 8 hours of content production has different economics than one with 5,000 monthly searches that takes 16 hours. Map by ROI per hour of work, not raw search volume.