Strategy Library / Seed from conversation
Seed from conversation, not a volume report
Every keyword tool starts with a box that says "enter a keyword", and that first word decides everything downstream. Get it from your customers' mouths, not from a tool's suggestions.
What is a seed keyword?
A seed keyword is the starting term you feed a research tool to generate the full set of related queries. Weak seeds (industry jargon) produce weak results. Strong seeds, the words real customers use when they describe their problem, surface keywords your competitors' tools never see.
Why customer conversations beat keyword tools for seed keywords
Tools recycle each other's databases. Your sales calls, support tickets, and podcast interviews contain phrasings that have never been typed into a tool but get typed into Google every day. The searcher who says "my website doesn't show up when I google my own company" is not searching "seo services." Seed from the first phrasing and you own a lane; seed from the second and you're bidding against everyone.
How to build a seed keyword list without a paid tool (5 steps)
- Harvest verbatims. Pull the exact problem-phrases from your last 10 sales calls, support threads, or reviews. Copy the words, not your summary of them.
- Strip to the seed. "We can't tell if our blog is doing anything" → seeds: "is my blog working", "blog roi", "measure blog traffic".
- Add the jargon translation. For every customer phrase, note the industry term too. You'll need both sides of the vocabulary to catch both audiences.
- Validate in OpenSEO. Feed each seed into keyword research. You want any measured volume plus clear intent, not big numbers. Zero-volume seeds with real intent still convert.
- Keep the losers list. Seeds with nothing behind them go in a "watch" list. Customer language often precedes search demand by months.
Run this play with the OpenSEO MCP:
Using the OpenSEO MCP: here are 8 phrases my customers actually said:
[paste verbatims]. Extract seed keywords from each, research them,
and tell me which have measured demand vs. which go on the watch list.Seed keyword FAQ
How do I do keyword research for free?
Conversations for seeds (this page), Google autocomplete + People Also Ask for expansion, Search Console for validation. OpenSEO validates and expands what those surface; you can start for free, and paid plans start at $10/month.
How do I find LSI keywords?
"LSI keywords" is tool-industry vocabulary for related phrasings. The fastest free sources are the People Also Ask box and the "related searches" footer. Better still: your customers' own synonyms, which is exactly what conversation seeding harvests.
How many seed keywords do I need?
5–15 strong seeds per topic. Past that you're expanding, not seeding. Feed them into the long-tail mining play next.
Run every play in this guide
OpenSEO connects your Search Console and expands your seeds. Open source, free to try, no credit card.