After more than 10 years in digital marketing, I’ve noticed there’s one part of SEO that rarely gets the attention it deserves: where do seed keywords actually come from?

Almost every keyword research guide starts with the same advice: “Start with a seed keyword”. Then it moves on to showing you how to plug that keyword into an SEO tool.

But there’s a huge problem here.

How do you come up with the seed keyword in the first place?!

That’s something I’ve had to figure out repeatedly while doing SEO for WordPress products. Before you can build a keyword list, analyze search demand, or find content opportunities, you need that initial idea to work from.

And in my experience, finding that starting point is often more difficult than the keyword research that follows.

In the previous article, we explored why SEO is an important long-term acquisition channel for WordPress product businesses. This time, I want to go one step further and answer a more fundamental question:

What should you create content about in the first place?

In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how I find seed keywords for WordPress products, step by step.

Why Most Keyword Research Starts in the Wrong Place

Many businesses begin keyword research by looking at metrics like search volume, keyword difficulty, competitor exports, or asking: “What keywords should we rank for?” While these metrics have their place, they don’t provide the context needed to make good strategic decisions.

SEO tools are excellent at showing what people search for. What they can’t tell you is who those people are, why they’re searching, where they are in their buying journey, or whether they’re likely to become customers.

For example, someone searching for “WordPress” could be looking for almost anything, from downloading the CMS to reading the latest news. Compare that with someone searching for “best membership plugin for WordPress”. Their search intent is far clearer, and they’re much closer to evaluating solutions.

That’s why I don’t start with keywords. I start by understanding the customer, then use keyword research to validate and expand those ideas.

The STDP Framework Gives You a Better Starting Point

The STDP framework was originally developed by Philip Kotler to help businesses build stronger marketing strategies. It stands for Segmentation, Targeting, Differentiation, and Positioning. In simple terms, it asks four practical questions:

  1. Who are your potential customers?
  2. Which groups are you trying to serve?
  3. What makes your product different?
  4. How do you want people to think about it?

Most businesses use STDP as a branding or positioning exercise. I use it earlier in the process, as a way to uncover seed keywords.

Instead of jumping straight into an SEO tool, I work through these four questions first. They help me understand the audience, the problems they’re trying to solve, and the language they’re naturally likely to use when searching online.

The result is a keyword list rooted in customer search intent (rather than speculation). Once that foundation is in place, keyword research becomes much easier and far more relevant to the business.

How to Find Seed Keywords for WordPress Products Using the STDP Framework

Before opening Ahrefs or Semrush, I work through the four stages of the STDP framework to find seed keyword opportunities.

Step #1: Start With Segmentation

The first step is to stop thinking about your product and start thinking about the people who might use it. Every WordPress plugin or theme serves multiple types of customers, and each group has different goals, challenges, and search behavior.

Imagine you sell a WordPress booking plugin. Your potential customers could include hotels, vacation rentals, tour operators, consultants, coaches, photographers, fitness studios, and medical clinics. Although they all need online booking functionality, they describe their problems differently and search using different terms.

A fitness studio owner might search for “class booking plugin for WordPress”, while a consultant is more likely to look for “appointment scheduling for WordPress”. Both keywords reflect different customer segments with different needs.

By identifying your key audience segments first, you create multiple starting points for keyword research. Each segment opens the door to dozens of relevant seed keywords and content ideas that are closely aligned with potential customers.

Step #2: Understand What Each Segment Is Trying to Achieve

Once you’ve identified your customer segments, shift your attention from who they are to what they’re trying to accomplish. Ask yourself: “What job is this customer trying to get done?”

Let’s continue the fitness studio example. The owner probably wants to accept online bookings, manage class schedules, sell memberships, process payments, and spend less time on administrative work. Those goals naturally lead to keyword ideas such as “class booking plugin for WordPress”, “yoga booking plugin”, “fitness membership website”, or “appointment plugin for gyms”.

At this stage, don’t worry about search volume or keyword difficulty. You’re collecting seed keywords based on real customer objectives. Later, you’ll validate and expand them with keyword research tools. Starting with customer goals ensures your content is built around genuine problems.

Step #3: Identify What Makes Your Product Different

The next step is to connect your product’s positioning with the way people search. Every WordPress product has strengths that set it apart, whether that’s faster performance, simpler setup, deeper WooCommerce integration, developer-friendly customization, or a one-time purchase instead of a subscription.

These differentiators often become valuable keyword opportunities because they reflect what specific buyers care about. Instead of targeting a broad phrase like “WordPress booking plugin”, you can explore more focused searches such as “booking plugin with WooCommerce”, “lightweight booking plugin”, “booking plugin without monthly fees”, or “developer-friendly booking plugin”.

This approach helps you move beyond generic product-category keywords and create content that speaks directly to your ideal customers. It also uncovers opportunities that competitors may overlook because they’re focused on high-volume terms instead of the specific reasons someone would choose one product over another.

Step #4: Expand Into Customer Journey Topics

The final step is to think beyond the moment someone is ready to buy. As we discussed in the earlier article on the 6 types of content every WordPress product business should publish, customers move through a journey before they ever compare products or visit your pricing page.

Someone looking for a booking plugin might first search “how to accept bookings online”. Later, they may search “how to build a booking website”, then “best WordPress booking plugins”, and only after that begin evaluating specific products.

If you only create content around commercial keywords, you miss the opportunity to help potential customers at the beginning of that journey. By covering educational, problem-focused, comparison, and product-specific topics, you build trust long before a purchase decision is made.

This approach also creates a stronger content ecosystem. Each article supports the next, guiding readers naturally from discovering a problem to choosing a solution, while strengthening your site’s topical authority over time.

A Real Example: Applying STDP to a WordPress Theme Business

Let’s see how this works in practice with a WordPress theme business.

Imagine you sell a WooCommerce theme designed specifically for fashion brands. Rather than starting with broad keywords like “WooCommerce theme”, begin by applying the STDP framework.

  1. Identify your segment. Instead of targeting every online store, focus on small and growing clothing brands that want to sell apparel online. This immediately narrows your audience and helps you think more like your ideal customer.
  2. Define your target. These business owners are looking for a professional storefront that’s easy to manage, performs well on mobile devices, and can grow with their business.
  3. Consider your differentiation. Perhaps your theme is fast, minimalist, mobile-first, and built specifically for eCommerce. Those characteristics influence the language potential customers might use when searching.
  4. Think about your positioning. You want your theme to be known as the ideal choice for growing fashion brands using WooCommerce.

Now you can generate keyword clusters that align with different stages of the customer journey. 

  • Awareness topics might include “how to start an online clothing store”, “Shopify vs WooCommerce for clothing stores”, or “ecommerce website examples”.
  • Consideration-stage content could target “best WooCommerce themes”, “fast WooCommerce themes”, or “fashion WooCommerce themes”.
  • Decision-stage articles might compare your theme with alternatives, review its features, or explain how to migrate from another WooCommerce theme.

Now, instead of relying on a handful of product keywords, you’ve created a structured content strategy built around a clearly defined audience and their decision-making process.

Only Now Do I Open a Keyword Tool

This is the point where I finally open Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner (for affiliate-free keyword research), or another keyword research tool, but only after I’ve worked through the STDP framework.

By this stage, I already have a list of customer segments, their goals, my product’s differentiators, and the topics that matter throughout the buying journey. So, the SEO tool isn’t there to generate strategy but to validate and improve the ideas I’ve already developed.

I’ll use it to discover keyword variations, estimate search demand, assess competition, identify related questions, and prioritize which topics to tackle first. Occasionally, it uncovers opportunities I hadn’t considered, but those insights build on the strategy instead of replacing it.

This is the opposite of how I’ve seen many businesses approach keyword research. They expect the SEO tool to tell them what to write whereas I use it to refine customer-driven ideas, ensuring the content strategy stays aligned with real business goals instead of being dictated by search metrics alone.

Why I Think This Approach Produces Better Content

Starting with the STDP framework produces content that’s rooted in customer needs rather than isolated keywords. As a result, instead of publishing disconnected articles, you build a collection of resources that reflects how your audience discovers, evaluates, and ultimately chooses a WordPress product.

This approach also makes content planning much easier. Once you understand your customer segments, goals, and positioning, new topic ideas emerge naturally. Over time, this helps establish topical authority while supporting every stage of the buying journey.

Perhaps most importantly, the same customer understanding benefits more than just SEO. It informs just about everything you publish including your email campaigns, social media content, documentation, landing pages, product comparisons, and sales messaging.

Every marketing channel starts from the same foundation, creating a more consistent and effective end-to-end marketing system that compounds over time.

Conclusion

Effective keyword research begins with understanding the people you’re trying to reach. When you know who your customers are, what they’re trying to achieve, and why they would choose your product, the right keyword opportunities become much easier to identify.

That’s why I use the STDP framework before opening Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Keyword Planner, or any other SEO platform. It provides a structured way to think about customer segments, positioning, and search intent, resulting in content that’s more relevant to both search engines and potential buyers.