How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: UK Keyword Strategy Guide

How Keyword Research Changes for AI Overviews and LLM Search

Traditional keyword research remains important, but modern content needs to communicate concepts clearly enough for both people and machine systems to understand.

Google’s current guidance is particularly important here: SEO remains relevant to its generative AI experiences because AI Overviews and AI Mode are grounded in Google’s existing Search systems and index. Google specifically advises publishers to prioritise unique, useful content and established SEO fundamentals rather than chasing separate AEO or GEO tricks.

For this reason, AI-aware keyword research should increasingly focus on topics, questions, entities and relationships, rather than repeating exact-match keywords.

Use answer-first passages

Immediately after an important question, provide a concise answer.

For example:

What is search intent?

Search intent is the underlying objective behind a search query, such as learning something, comparing options, visiting a specific website or completing a purchase.

Then expand on the answer.

This structure is easy for readers to scan and clearly establishes the subject being discussed.

Define important entities

Avoid vague references.

Instead of repeatedly saying:

“this tool”

say:

“Google Keyword Planner”

when clarity matters.

Likewise, establish relationships clearly:

Google Search Console provides first-party performance data from Google Search.

Clear entity relationships improve comprehension for readers and automated systems.

Provide original value

AI systems can summarise generic definitions easily.

Your competitive advantage increasingly comes from information that is difficult to commoditise:

• personal experience
• professional expertise
• original data
• experiments
• examples
• processes
• comparisons
• screenshots
• case studies
• expert judgement

Google’s 2026 generative-AI guidance specifically recommends creating non-commodity content that adds unique value beyond widely available information.

Do not create content merely for an LLM

There is no requirement to rewrite every paragraph into artificial “AI chunks”.

Google specifically states that publishers do not need special AI markup or llms.txt files to appear in Google Search’s generative AI experiences. In June 2026, Google further clarified that llms.txt has neither a positive nor negative effect on Google Search visibility or rankings.

Build an excellent page first.

Make it structured, explicit and easy to understand second.

Do not sacrifice natural writing for imagined LLM optimisation rules.