I spent 100s of hours writing content for the first website I created. None of the articles ever got traffic from Google. The content was decent, but I never did any keyword research. I just wrote about whatever I felt like writing about.
Today, I work on websites that get 1,000s of visitors every day. Getting traffic from Google starts with finding the right terms and keywords.
Keyword research is the process of finding the terms your website can and should rank for. Some keywords are too competitive — your brand new website won't rank or get traffic. Other keywords are irrelevant, and you shouldn't try to rank for them.
I've shared a few different strategies for finding good keywords.
This article is going to share some lesser-known keyword research strategies, and you can do all of these for free. No $9,999/month SEO tools required!
Let's get right into it.
Use Google to find hidden opportunities
When your goal is to rank in the Google search results, it makes sense to use Google to discover keyword opportunities.
There are three ways to find new keywords in Google:
- Autocomplete
- People also ask
- Related searches
If Google is showing you any of these, it means people are searching the terms. This is especially helpful with lower volume keywords and new keywords.
One example is DALL•E 3 — Open AI announced the new version of their AI image generator a week ago. None of the SEO tools show DALL•E 3, but Google autocomplete does.
Google will always have more up-to-date information than the SEO tools.
Autocomplete
To use the autocomplete feature, type in a topic and add different words and letters before and after the main term.
It's good to know that these suggestions are listed from most to least popular — the top suggestion will be the most searched term.
People also ask
The PAA or Questions related to your search is a list of dropdown questions. These are similar to autocomplete, but you'll only find questions here.
You can click to open the dropdown and more questions will appear.
I clicked to expand the original 4 questions into 300 questions in 2 minutes.
A lot of these questions are nearly identical, so I asked ChatGPT to highlight and group similar keywords.
ChatGPT grouped the keywords into 7 categories, making the list much easier to use.
Related searches
I don't pay much attention to the related searches, but it's good to check here and add any keywords that look interesting to your list of potential keywords. If Google is telling you these keywords are related to your topic, it's always good to give them some attention.
Note: The People also ask and Related searches are influenced by your search history. I always use an Incognito tab to avoid influencing these.
These Google strategies are mainly for idea generation. Unless you have an SEO Chrome plugin installed, you'll want to use an SEO tool to find the search volume and difficulty for your keyword ideas.
But, you already know people are searching these terms (since Google suggested them to you). You can simply search the terms that interest you, look at the search results, and see if there's an opportunity to create better content.
Chrome extension + Forum site search
This next strategy requires a Google Chrome extension, but there are free options. I used to use Keywords Everywhere, but they discontinued their free version, so now I use the Ubersuggest extension.
This shows you some key metrics in the search results, like search volume, traffic, and domain authority.
We're going to find keywords that forums are ranking for. In most cases, a forum ranking on Page 1 is a good sign that your website can also easily rank on Page 1.
The main exception is keywords that include "reddit" or "quora" because people are looking for a forum answer.
To find these keywords, you'll do a sitesearch + topic.
site:http://quora.com [your topic]
(copy and paste that text into your search bar.
Example:
site:http://quora.com midjourney
This will show you every page on Quora.com that includes the word "midjourney".
The most important metric is the estimated visits and position — you're looking for forums that are ranking on Page 1 and getting traffic.
This is what that looks like with the Ubersuggest extension:
I don't care about the terms ranking over 20, but some of these can be good opportunities.
You might need to try a few different forums and topics to find the gold.
Discover long-tail keywords for free
The most popular SEO tools (Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz) are great, but there are some great free alternatives.
The free tools don't have all the same features, but if you just need to do a few simple tasks, you have options.
Lowfruits.io is one of my favorite keyword research tools. With a free account, you can make 7 searchers per week. You enter a topic and find 1,000s of keywords and search volume for each.
You can also add filters based on volume, CPC, or search intent.
Another great free tool is suggestmachine.com. You enter a topic or main keywords and it gives you a huge list of long-tail keywords.
I let it run for 2 minutes and had a list of 1,000+ keywords. It also found clusters, or the common words in the list of keywords.
You can take that list of keywords and paste it into searchvolume.io to get the monthly search volume. This tool filters out the keywords that get 0 searches, and then you'll just need to manually check the keyword difficulty.
Add a content format word
This strategy helped me get 1,000s of new visitors to a blog, and hardly anyone talks about it.
Here's one website page getting ~2,000 visitors every month:
The tactic here is adding a content type to the keyword you're targeting. In this example, I used "PDF" as the content type. I found a good keyword and added PDF to the end of it.
It's a popular topic, but no one else was creating a PDF. Without adding PDF, the topic would be very competitive, but I ranked for this almost overnight.
Here's another example I found:
Look at "Instagram marketing strategy" vs "Instagram marketing strategy PDF". It's very difficult to rank for Instagram marketing strategy, but you could easily create a PDF and rank for "Instagram marketing strategy PDF".
Here are other content format words to explore:
- Slides, Slideshow, Slide deck
- Presentation
- Powerpoint
- Whitepaper
- Infographic
- Interview
- Checklist
- Template
- Tutorial
- eBook
Most of these keywords will get less traffic, but the lower competition makes them much easier for new websites to rank for. Ranking #1 for a keyword that's searched 100/month will get you more traffic than ranking #10 for a 1,000/month keyword.
These can also be the perfect keywords for repurposing content. It's easy to turn a template into a checklist or infographic and double your traffic.
Add an audience qualifier
This next strategy is similar to the content format, but you'll add a type of audience to the main keyword.
You can use audience qualifiers to find 100s of low-competition keywords that your audience will love. When people see a piece of content that's tailored to them, they're much more likely to click on it compared to the generic alternative.
To start, you'll want to think about any specific adjectives you could use to describe your target audience. Consider how the specific will affect how they use your advice or product you're promoting.
There are tons of these you use:
Age:
- Kids
- Teens
- Young adults
- Seniors
Profession:
- For teachers
- For doctors
- For engineers
- For lawyers
Skill Level:
- Beginners
- Intermediate
- Advanced
- Professionals
Activity Level / Physical Condition:
- For athletes
- For heavy runners
- For flat feet
- For pregnant women
Educational Level:
- For students
- For graduates
- For post-graduates
Lifestyle:
- For vegans
- For travelers
- For outdoor enthusiasts
- For minimalists
Relationship Status:
- For singles
- For couples
- For parents
Location:
- For city dwellers
- For rural residents
- For mountain climbers
Health / Medical Condition:
- For diabetics
- For gluten-free individuals
- For those with arthritis
Financial Status:
- For budget-conscious
- For luxury seekers
Size / Measurement:
- For tall individuals
- For petite individuals
- For small/large dogs
Role:
- For team leaders
- For solopreneurs
- For parents
It's important to consider the search intent for these — your goal is to create unique content that matches the keyword intent. Instagram marketing strategies don't change if you're tall or have flat feet.
This strategy only works when you create content that's useful to the specific audience you're targeting.
After you get a solid list of keywords, you can start creating the content. I've got two articles about how to write content that ranks here:
And for even more SEO tips, check out the list of 90+ articles I've published: