What is Search Engine Optimization?
Keyword Rearch
Keyword research is where every solid SEO strategy begins. Before any content, you need to understand how your audience searches for the specific words and phrases they type when looking for what you offer. Getting this right means your content lines up with real user intent, making it far easier for search engines to connect your pages with the right queries.
For this example, we will analyze the keyword "software company in ireland". Go to Keyword Research in the menu bar, type in your keyword, set the country to Ireland, and press the blue Analyze button.
Search Volume
Search volume tells you how many times a keyword is searched per month, giving you a clear sense of demand around a topic. Here is a general guide to interpreting the numbers:
- 0-100 - Very low traffic
- 100-1,000 - Low, but good for niche keywords
- 1,000-10,000 - Medium traffic
- 10,000+ - High traffic
"Software company in ireland" has a search volume of 140, which is low but useful for niche targeting. For steady, efficient growth, targeting keywords in the 100-1,000 range is a reliable approach, especially for a site still building authority like CloudTree.
The temptation is always to chase high-volume terms, but these attract fierce competition. Lower-volume, more specific keywords often bring in users who know exactly what they are looking for, and those visitors are more likely to convert.
Competitive Research
A lot of people skip competitive research and jump straight into creating content and that is a mistake. Before chasing keywords, it is worth looking at what is already working for the sites ranking above you.
Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and SEranking can show you which keywords your competitors rank for and how much traffic they are pulling in. To find your competitors in SEranking, click on Projects, find My Competitors, and click on SERP Competitors. You will see the top companies competing in your market.
Once you know who your competitors are, go to Competitive Research and enter their website address. The real opportunity is not replicating what they do well, it is finding the gaps they have ignored. Maybe there is a keyword with decent search volume that nobody in your niche has properly addressed. That is where competitive research earns its place in your strategy.
Traffic Types - Organic vs Paid
When it comes to getting people to your website, you essentially have two options: earn your traffic or pay for it. Neither is inherently better. The smartest approach is usually a combination of both.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is what you get when someone finds your website through a search engine without you spending anything on ads. For CloudTree, this means appearing in search results for terms like "SEO services Ireland" or "web development company Ireland" through content and optimization alone.
The appeal is straightforward, put in the work upfront, get your keywords right, write content worth reading, earn some backlinks, and that content keeps pulling in visitors long after you have moved on to other things. Unlike paid ads, it does not switch off the moment your budget runs dry. For any website serious about growing its presence online, organic traffic is less of a niche-to-have and more of a necessity.
Paid Traffic
Paid traffic through Google ads, social media campaigns, or other digital channels offers speed that organic simply cannot match. A campaign can have visitors landing on your site within hours of going live, which makes it particularly useful when launching a new service or running a time-sensitive promotion.
The trade-off is clear though. It costs money, and it never stops costing money. Knowing your numbers, what you are paying per click, what is converting, what is not, is the difference between paid traffic being a worthwhile investment and an expensive lesson.
Conclusion
Good SEO rarely comes down to just one thing. The websites that do it well combine organic and paid traffic rather than treating them as an either/or choice. Organic growth takes time, but it builds something lasting in a presence that keeps working even when you are not actively pushing it. Paid traffic fills in the gaps and gets you in front of people quickly during launches or time-sensitive campaigns.
Underpinning all of it is solid keyword research: knowing your search volumes, understanding what competitors are targeting, and finding terms genuinely worth going after. When these pieces come together, your strategy stops feeling like a series of disconnected tasks and starts moving the needle for your website.