5 Keyword Search Hacks You Probably Didn’t Know Until Now

While looking for keywords and content ideas, we sometimes draw a blank. Either we know little about the field, or just cannot find relevant content online. Maybe, we aren’t getting enough keywords to get started or just have run out of ideas.

This article is for such times. For times when you would prefer going head first into a brick wall than writing articles because you have no ideas or inspiration.

Part of effective growth hacking is to publish engaging content - on your website and in e-mail newsletters. Content works when you speak directly to readers and answer their questions. The best way to design engaging content is to build it around the right keywords. This doesn’t just help in PPC and SEO but in conversions also. Plus it saves you the time and effort spent in targeting irrelevant keywords and ranking high in them - something which yields no results.

Relevant keywords serve 2 purposes:

1. They drive relevant traffic to your website which also hangs around (and returns)

2. They give you ideas for content that ranks well in searches and is shared more.

There are many underutilized tools lying around on the world wide web for generating relevant keyword and topic suggestions. Some tools we use everyday, some we may or may not have heard of. Here are 5 such tools which you can use (I’m using Aditya’s article on a blogger’s cheat sheet for topic ideas as reference here):

1. Google Keyword Planner

Let’s assume we know nothing about garden furniture. And let’s also assume that we know just 1 competitor - Fabfurnish. And maybe their keywords are cleverly hidden, stopping us dead in our tracks. In such cases, Google’s Keyword Planner Tool lets us insert the competitor’s URL and generates the ideas for us. The keywords thrown up by the planner may not necessarily be the ones that are targeted by Fabfurnish, but they will offer enough suggestions. As usual, sort these keywords by number of searches, competition and suggested bid to choose the ones that will suit your needs. Enough juice to get you started?

2. Wikipedia

We’ve been blind to Wikipedia’s usefulness for content writers. That was until Neil Patel pointed it out. Wikipedia is a great place for generating additional ideas, many of which your competition may not have thought of. Type your search words followed by Wiki in the Google Search box and collect all the suggestions.

You’ve got about 6-8 additional keyword ideas. Add them to your excel sheet. Then click on each search result and browse through the hyperlinked words in the Wiki pages. These serve as good keyword suggestions since your competitors have linked to them.

3. Google SERP suggestions

The search result suggestions are present for a reason. The reason being that people use them frequently while searching about your subject. Leverage them. Copy all Google SERP suggestions into your Excel file. Then check the viability of each keyword using the Keyword Planner tool or Moz bar. If you’re lucky you will find long tail keywords too. Choose the ones which best suit your needs. They will let you build and curate killer content that will serve you well for months.

These are the results which showed up for ‘garden furniture India’ in the Google SERP. Imagine the number of suggestions you will get once you enter each targeted keyword.

4. Ubersuggest

If you can find your way the oft occurring past 502 errors and a cluttered UI, Ubersuggest is quite a nifty tool for keyword ideas. The suggestions are not sorted by popularity, nor do you find details half as elaborate as the Google Keyword Planner. But you get large set of keyword suggestions including long tail ones. As the tagline says, this tool offers keyword suggestions on steroids.

5. Metaglossary

Another tool that featured in one of Neil Patel’s articles, but not spoken about often. Not much is known about this company, but it offers a host of keyword suggestions. Again, these keywords are not sorted by popularity or competition, but they’re useful insights into what your potential customers are looking for.

Suggestions in this post are not for finding keywords solely for the purpose of creating links and trying to improve your website’s SEO score. Rather they’re suggestions for you to get a peek into your potential customers’ minds. These keyword ideas will help you design content which establishes you (or your brand) as an authority. Keep publishing engaging content and no Google algorithm change will affect you.

Further, these steps will help you sharpen your skills as a content writer; even make you a sought after person in the industry because you can work your magic in ways few others can. When the keywords that you target start driving traffic to your (or your client’s) site, you will become a rockstar! Clubbed with tools to monitor social media conversations, they will help you answer questions of potential customers. Questions addressed by no one yet.