Whether you’re launching a new website or have been up and running for years, generating content topics that will draw in traffic can be a frustrating task. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to jump-start your brainstorming and guide you to topics your readers will care about. Using Keyword Research to get content ideas is a great way to deliver the highest-value content to your audience.
Keyword research is a tool that’s often used to optimize websites for SEO. Even if you’re not an SEO expert, it’s a useful method to explore what questions your potential audience is asking and identify places you can fill their needs. This technique is simple and easy to do even if you’re not an SEO expert. The rest of this article will walk you through the process.
Explore Keywords On Your Topic
Start with a broad topic that is relevant to your niche and your readers. For example, let’s pretend I own a travel agency and my website includes a blog with travel tips. I think my customers might be interested in budget summer vacations. So, I type that into Google.
Next, scroll down to the bottom of the first search result page (or SERP), and see what related searches Google is thinking I might be interested in. Aha! Among the suggestions are two narrower topics that might make good blog post ideas: “cheap summer vacations for families” and “summer vacation ideas for couples.”
Note that the second one doesn’t include the word “cheap.” This might indicate that couples without kids have more disposable income, which makes sense. If I were still in the process of honing in on my target customer, I might want to explore that detail further.
Now that we’ve seen what Google has to say, explore further using a keyword research tool. I like the Google Chrome plugin Keywords Everywhere because it’s free and easy to use. Among the ideas it gives me, there’s one that really jumps out at me: “multigenerational family vacations.” I would have never thought of that on my own and it sounds like a really fun topic to write about!
To come up with even more ideas, repeat the process for one of the keywords that you just uncovered. Here’s another keyword I wouldn’t have thought of: “Adventure vacations for couples in USA”. I notice that this keyword doesn’t have a high search volume according to Keywords Everywhere. However, it’s included in the featured snippet Google gives me, so it still might be a winner.
Repeat this process until you have a solid list of ideas. It might be helpful to use a spreadsheet to help keep track of your ideas.
Read Deeper Into the Keywords
Once you’ve collected a nice amount of keyword data, try to read between the lines to find their hidden meaning. Look for patterns of repeated words. Think about what might motivate you to search for a similar topic. What problem are these searchers are trying to solve? How could you solve this problem for them?
For example, two trends I see in the keywords related to “summer vacation ideas for couples” are “romantic” and “adults only”. It sounds like these couples might be looking for a few days with no kids and a chance to unplug and reconnect. Maybe they’re stressed out by their jobs, and trying to keep on top of parenting and work has made them put their romance on the back burner. So a few blog post topics that might help solve their problems are:
- How to Travel Without Kids & Without Guilt
- Unexpected Romantic Remote Summer Getaways
- Ways to Reconnect with Your Spouse on a Weekend Getaway
Using these methods, you’re bound to come up with creative and unique blog topics that are of interest to your reader. If you’re just starting out, it can even help steer you towards a specific niche or audience. Even if your end goal isn’t full SEO optimization, using Keyword Research to get content ideas can go a long way!
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