Niche Keyword Research – Let’s Go!
When it comes to blogging, there are only so many topics that you can write about. If you’re a food blogger, for example, then your niche is likely limited to food. But what if your blog is about something else? That’s where niche keywords come in: they help you find content ideas and topics that are not too competitive but still have a buyer intent behind them. This article will show you how to find underutilized keywords using professional tools and strategies based on my experience as an SEO consultant with more than 10 years’ experience in search engine optimization (SEO).
What are niche keywords?
If you’re unfamiliar with niche keywords, they are simply words or phrases that are highly specific to a topic. For example, if you were writing about basketball and your post was titled “How To Shoot A Free Throw,” the keyword ‘free throw’ would be a niche keyword. Niche keywords are generally easier to rank for because they’re more targeted than general keywords like ‘basketball’ or ‘sports.’
By using niche keywords in your post, you can increase your rankings for those highly specific phrases. This lets you reach a more targeted audience who is looking specifically for content on that topic.
READ: What Google Means By Helpful Content
How to find an in-demand topic
You’ve got to find an in-demand topic.
To do this, you can use any one of the tools listed below:
- Google Trends: This tool is great for discovering topics that are growing in popularity over time. You can search for a keyword and see how much it has grown over time, or compare two different keywords by country.
- Google Keyword Planner: This is going to be your best bet if you know what niche you want to target but need some inspiration on keywords within that niche. With Google Keyword Planner (GKP), you can get exact estimates of how many people are searching for certain phrases in different countries and languages, which allows for more accurate keyword research than simply using Google Search volume alone because GKP takes into account factors like cost per click (CPC) and competition level when determining these numbers.
- Ahrefs: Ahrefs provides not only keyword data but also competitor data so that we can gauge our position relative to competitors as well as discover new opportunities based on what other blogs are ranking well within our target market space.
Research your competition
If you want to be competitive in your niche, it is important that you are aware of what keywords are being used by the competition. This will allow you to see which keywords have not yet been covered by other bloggers and give yourself an edge when attempting to rank for those terms.
There are many different ways to research competitor keyword usage. One method is by visiting their website and analyzing where they place links and how they structure their content. If a competitor has a blog post on “how to fix drywall” or “drywall installation tips” they may also have links leading back in that direction on their homepage or sidebar as well as within other posts.
Examine your competition
Take a look at the number of links to the page, how many shares and social media mentions it has, the number of reviews and ratings it has received, and how many comments it has garnered. If these numbers are high for a page that is not ranking well in Google SERPs (search engine results pages), then there’s likely an opportunity to write content around that keyword phrase without much competition.
To find underutilized keywords in your niche blogging efforts:
- Look at your own site’s internal search metrics. Are they being used frequently? How do they compare with other similar pages on your site?
- Examine competition by analyzing sites ranking higher than yours in Google SERPs for certain keywords in your niche or related niches.
Study their content
The first thing you need to do is study their content. What do they write about? What are the titles of their articles? How does the content read? What images and videos do they use in their posts, and how are these integrated into the post as a whole? Try to get a sense of what this particular niche blog is all about. Can you find any common themes or patterns in how it approaches its topics—and if so, what are they?
Once you have a good idea of what makes this blog tick, it’s time to start creating your own content. The first step is to come up with some ideas for posts and write them down. Don’t worry about whether or not these posts will be good; just get them out of your head and onto paper—or in this case, into a text editor.
Refine your keyword list
Once you have your initial keyword list, review it to remove any that are too competitive or low-volume. These keywords can be useful in a pinch, but they’re unlikely to lead to much traffic in the long run.
After removing any keywords that aren’t related to your niche or don’t fit with your brand, analyze the remaining keywords by asking yourself these questions:
- Is this keyword broad enough? If so, remove some of the words from its definition and see if it stays relevant. For example, “dog food” is too generic; “taste of the west dog food” is more specific and therefore more accurate for our purposes here at Taste of the West Dog Food Co., Inc!
- Is this keyword too broad? If so, try adding some other terms around it that narrow down what you’re talking about—for example “organic dog food” becomes “organic pet products.”
Consider the search intent of your keywords
When you’re researching keywords, it can be easy to get caught up in the numbers. But if we want to optimize our keyword research strategy, then we need to think about how people actually use these search terms.
That’s because when a user searches for a keyword on Google (or another search engine), they are revealing their intent behind that particular action and giving us valuable insight into how they want to interact with whatever content we provide them with.
The four main types of search intent include: informational, navigational, transactional or social media related.
- The first type of search intent is informational. This is when someone is looking for specific information about a particular topic and wants to get the answer right away. For example, if you were to search for “how do I send an email from my computer?” then you are revealing your intent as informational because you want to know exactly how this process works.
- The second type of search intent is navigational. This is when someone wants to perform a specific action on the internet and needs help finding their way to that destination. For example, if you were to search for “how do I find my email address?” then you are revealing your intent as navigational because you want some help finding where your email is located.
- The third type of search intent is transactional. This is when someone wants to buy something, sell something or sign up for a service online and needs help finding the right place to do it. For example, if you were to search for “where can I find cheap flights from San Francisco?” then you are revealing your intent as transactional because you want some help finding the best price for airline tickets.
- The fourth type of search intent is social. This is when someone wants to connect with other people on the internet and needs help finding their profiles. For example, if you were to search for “how do I find my Instagram account?” then you are revealing your intent as social because you want some help locating your profile page on this platform.
Using professional tools is a great way to find niche keywords that aren’t too competitive
There are a number of tools that can be used to help you find niche keywords. The most popular tools include the following:
- Google Keyword Planner
- Ahrefs, Moz Keyword Explorer and Semrush all have keyword research tools. They all require a paid subscription but come with unlimited searches and data access
- SpyFu can also be used for keyword research and has an organic traffic estimator which shows how many people per month search for specific keywords on Google (and other search engines)
Conclusion
Now that you’ve got a handle on how to find underutilized keywords, it’s time to get started! We hope these tips have been helpful for you, and that they will help boost your blog’s search rankings and traffic. If you want more information on how we run our keyword research here at Be the Square Digital Marketing, contact us or email us directly at hello@bethesquare.com .
