Where keyword ideas come from
Four reliable sources: Search Console queries you already get impressions for, autocomplete and 'People also ask' on the live SERP, the language customers use in support tickets and sales calls, and competitor pages that rank for terms you do not.
Judging difficulty honestly
Open the current top five results. If they are all major publishers with deep coverage, the term is out of reach for now. If two or more are thin, outdated, or off-intent, there is an opening. Difficulty scores are a shortcut for this inspection, not a replacement.
Classifying intent before writing
Informational ('what is'), commercial ('best', 'vs', 'alternative'), transactional ('buy', 'pricing') and navigational (brand names). Publishing a guide against a page of product listings loses regardless of quality, because it answers a question nobody asked.
Placement without stuffing
Query in the title tag near the front, in the H1, in the first 100 words, and in one or two subheadings where it reads naturally. Everywhere else, use the vocabulary the topic genuinely requires. Modern ranking systems match meaning, so synonyms and related entities help more than repetition.
Writing for answer engines too
AI assistants quote passages, not pages. For each target query, include a self-contained 40-60 word answer that makes sense with no surrounding context and contains at least one concrete number or name. That single habit does more for AI citation rates than any markup change.