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If there is one part of digital marketing that causes businesses the most problems, it is the research, planning and implementation of keywords.
Keywords are the genesis of all of your marketing efforts. Some companies even incorporate keywords directly into their name and branding.
Think of your entire digital marketing strategy as a tree; keywords are the roots and trunk that hold the rest up.
If any part of this foundation is weak, it affects your entire marketing ecosystem.
Most marketers understand this significance and work tirelessly to perfect their keywords. However, even a small miscue can cause significant harm to the rest of your marketing strategy.
With Google frequently updating and improving its algorithm, the role of keywords is constantly shifting. Sometimes these changes radically alter the best approach on how to find profitable keywords with low competition.
This discussion will look at the state of keyword research in 2024 and how to keep your marketing strategies healthy and stable with an all-star selection of keyword targets.
Selecting keywords is easy. The hard part is choosing the right ones with the most value. The most significant factor in determining this value is competition.
For example, pretend that you run a law firm in Chicago. You can brainstorm a lot of extremely useful, relevant and conversion-focused keywords right off the top of your head:
You can even take just one of those keywords, enter it into the Google search bar and multiply your results by a factor of 10.
However, competition stands in your way of ranking for all of these options. There are around 30,000 attorneys in the greater Chicago area. These lawyers are also trying to be found through search engines.
That’s a lot of competition for only a handful of spots on the SERPs.
There are keywords that are just too competitive and too expensive to rank for, whether organically or through paid search ads.
In some cases, you could spend thousands for just a handful of clicks on a high-competition keyword. If you don’t have a big budget, this isn’t a feasible, long-term strategy.
Wait, I thought Google Ads was affordable?
It can be, but you need to target low competition keywords.
Most marketers are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to keywords.
Not only are you contending with businesses that have larger budgets, but you’re also trying to outrank accounts with established Quality Scores and reputations.
You don’t stand a chance to beat these larger, established competitors on high-value keywords right away.
The better strategy is to look for keywords that aren’t so popular or competitive. These terms may have lower search volumes. However, you’ll have a much easier (and more affordable) time ranking for these keywords.
The real dream is to find keywords that are:
These are digital marketing gold, but equally as rare and sought after. So, don’t count on finding one of these ultra-valuable keywords. You might be able to find some if you’re operating in a new or non-competitive industry.
The more likely outcome is that you’ll find keywords with some of these traits at varying amounts. You may find keywords that are relevant and low in competition, but not high in search volume.
That said, this list gives you a good idea of the types of keywords you should be after.
Low competition keywords give you the initial growth needed to start building a stronger strategy in the future.
Once you are winning in the low competition keyword arena, you can slowly begin scaling your keyword targeting to include more competitive terms.
You can think about it like this:
You shouldn’t think of low competition keywords as invaluable or unimportant. You may be able to find niche keywords that are very relevant to your business. These types of searches can produce valuable, relevant traffic to your website!
In one report, businesses generated 57% of sales while using long-tail keywords. This is because these longer phrases are more specifically targeted and have less competition.
To find low competition keywords with decent search volume, you need to get in the heads of your customers.
A basic strategy is to think about what audiences might be currently searching for. Then, make a list of these brainstormed keywords.
When you’re ready to step it up, there are more sophisticated strategies to find low competition keywords.
As touched on earlier, you can use the Google search box to find new keywords.
If you remember the example from earlier, entering “best lawyer in Chicago” returned all of these results:
“Best lawyer in Chicago” is undoubtedly one of the most expensive and difficult keywords to rank for in this industry. The suggestions, on the other hand, are more specific and therefore have less competition.
You can take one of these more niche keywords, such as “best custody lawyer in Chicago,” and run the same test.
As you repeat this, you can discover more and lower competition keywords.
After mining the search suggestions box for ideas, enter one of the searches and check out the resulting SERP.
Most of the page will be dominated by content about that topic. However, you may be able to grab a few other keyword ideas from the page.
Scroll through the page and read through the titles and descriptions for each result. Remember, these meta titles and descriptions are carefully written to be rich with keywords.
Also, don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page for Google’s “Related Searches” feature. This is similar to the search suggestions, but may yield some different results.
SERPs can be a goldmine of keyword ideas!
Another strategy is to look at the keywords that your pages currently rank for on Google. You can find this information in the Google Search Console. This is a free tool that helps you measure your site’s presence on Google SERPs.
All you need is a website and an existing Search Console account. If you’re new to using Google Search Console, you should wait a few months.
This brief waiting period will give the data enough time to mature. After all, you want to work with accurate data! Two to three months of data will provide a large enough sample to ensure this accuracy.
Here are some quick instructions for using Search Console to find profitable keywords with low competition.
3. Choose to filter results for the last 28 days to view a month of search data.
4. Check that you’ve selected to look at clicks and conversions. Then, press Pages at the top.
5. Scroll through your pages until you find one with particularly high impressions and low clicks.
6. Next, click on Queries at the top and repeat the same practice.
With this data, you can identify long-tail queries with high impressions that you are already ranking for. Unfortunately, you’re not getting a lot of clicks for these keywords.
It’s likely a problem that the page doesn’t match the intent of the search. This is an easy fix.
If you improve your page with content relevant to the search terms, you’ll stand a better chance of acquiring clicks.
Want to know what your audience is actively talking about and interested in? Check your social media accounts.
Social media channels are often the first places that new topics start to trend.
Take a look at comments, questions and other interactions on your social media pages. Pay close attention to any words or phrases that reappear frequently.
These can provide great inspiration for long-tail keywords that you can use in your search marketing strategies.
A lot of long-tail keywords are question-based.
You can find lots of these question keywords on sites like Quora, Yahoo Answers or Answer.com.
If you search for your industry on one of these sites, you’ll quickly find tons of popular questions asked by real people. You can use all of these questions in your keyword targeting.
Questions are great for your content strategy as well. Offering content that answers these problems is a proven way to drive qualified traffic to your website.
Third-party tools are arguably the best way to find profitable keywords with low competition.
These tools use high-powered algorithms and sophisticated AI designed to analyze keyword data. This data includes search volume, competitiveness, CPC values, relevance and more.
You can enter your budget, goal and other details to filter keywords to fit your needs.
Some third-party tools, like PPCexpo Keyword Planner, also allow you to chart keyword data. This helps you find profitable keywords with low competition at first glance.
Simply put, third-party tools are by far the best option for keyword research.
Some marketers use an arsenal of tools to research keywords, such as Google Keyword Planner and others.
Google Keyword Planner is by far the most popular, mainly because it is free to use.
There are a few drawbacks to this approach to keyword research:
Ideally, you want to invest in just one keyword research tool. That tool should be PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner is the last keyword research tool you’ll need to learn. It is the perfect tool for uncovering profitable, low-competition keywords that your customers are searching for right now.
You can achieve all of the following objectives with PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
The first noteworthy trait of PPCexpo Keyword Planner is how fast and easy it is to use. The tool integrates right into Google Chrome as an extension. You don’t need to open the tool separately and continuously flip between tabs.
As soon as you enter a search, PPCexpo Keyword Planner springs into action. With just one initial search, you can find a hundred similar keywords.
For instance, if you were an online clothing retailer, you may start with the search “blue jeans for me.” Here’s what PPCexpo Keyword Planner would display:
With these instant results right alongside the Google search page, you won’t waste any time getting to the profitable, low competition keywords.
You can easily export all of this data to Excel or another analysis program.
When you use Google’s autofill suggestions for keyword research, you’ll receive about 10 extra keyword opportunities to explore.
It’s a good start, but 10 new keywords aren’t enough to build the sturdy foundation that your marketing strategies need.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner, on the other hand, returns hundreds of related results from a single search. This makes planning keywords extremely efficient.
Some keyword tools stop after showing you related terms to your initial query. This requires you to invest in a separate tool to analyze search volumes, CPC and other metrics.
You have one tool providing suggestions and another tool measuring the value of those suggestions. That’s not the way keyword research should work.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner supplements its keyword suggestions with actionable keyword data. Each suggestion is listed next to its estimated search volume, CPC and similarity.
You can find profitable keywords with low competition directly from the Google SERP, thanks to this tool!
You’ll notice 3 sliders for Volume, CPC and Similarity at the top of the PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
With these controls, you can filter your keyword results by these 3 metrics. This is an extremely efficient method of weeding out keywords that are too expensive, irrelevant or too low in search volume.
For instance, let’s say that you want to keep your average CPC around $2.33. You can use the CPC slider and set it to $0.01 to $3.00. This will protect you from including pricey keywords in your targeting.
Seeing is believing, right?
When you look at this table of keyword data, it’s not immediately apparent which terms offer the most value.
If you want to find profitable keywords with low competition, you have to scan line-by-line and compare CPC amounts to search volumes.
It’s a tedious process, which is why PPCexpo Keyword Planner has a chart view mode at the top.
This allows you to see the value of the keyword suggestions.
With this visualization, the best keyword opportunities jump right off the page.
The best targets are in the upper-left quadrant. These keywords are low in CPC, but high in search volume.
Before wrapping up, here are some answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding keyword research and planning.
It’s important to realize that competition is just one measure of a keyword’s value.
Yes, lower competition keywords are easier to rank for and can help you build a more robust SEO and PPC strategy. However, you also need to consider if it is the right keyword for your needs.
Is there enough search volume to justify the work and investment?
Is the keyword relevant enough to your business?
If you rank for the keyword, will it lead to clicks?
Will those clicks turn into conversions?
Answering these questions will require the help of a keyword research tool, like PPCexpo Keyword Planner. It will also take a bit of testing.
Expert search marketers are always running tests on keywords. These tests help you definitively determine whether a low competition keyword is profitable or not.
Once you identify a winning opportunity, you can add it to your strategies.
There are several tactics you can utilize to find competitor keywords.
Start by visiting their website. Browse through their site’s pages and read some of their blogs and content. You should be able to recognize some of the initial keywords they are targeting.
If you want to step it up, there are many competitive analysis solutions on the market that you can use.
These tools will show you detailed keyword data about your competitors that you can use to counter strategize.
Some keyword research tools offer a “Keyword Difficulty” measure. This aims to express how easy or hard it is to rank for the given term.
This seems like a great way to measure low versus high competition keywords. After all, more competition means more difficulty.
The problem is that there are several variables at play. There’s no easy way to calculate keyword difficulty.
Essentially, these tools give you a general difficulty rating. The quality of your website, your reputation with Google and other factors will sway this rating.
You may have an easy time ranking for a keyword that is reported as difficult. Or, a hard time with a keyword that should be very easy to rank for.
It just isn’t a perfect measure. So, don’t get hung up on what’s a “good” keyword difficulty.
Instead, focus on actionable metrics, like search volume and CPC amounts.
The process of finding low competition keywords with high traffic takes time. You need a great deal of patience if you want to scale your keywords to more competitive terms.
Luckily, you’re already making progress by reading this guide on how to find profitable keywords with low competition. Learning how to find these valuable keywords is the first step!
Next, apply what you’ve learned to your own keyword research. There is a level of trial or error in keyword targeting.
This is why testing and experimenting with new keywords is so crucial to achieving better results!
If you want to speed up the process of finding valuable keywords, try a third-party tool like PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
Don’t let costs stand in your way. PPCexpo Keyword Planner offers 500 free keywords a day, with extras costing only pennies.
No matter what type of business or website you operate, keywords are inescapable.
They are the most critical factor in the success of your digital marketing strategies.
The right keywords can increase your website traffic, boost your revenue and be the building blocks you need to grow your business.
You shouldn’t leave your keyword research in the hands of tools that only show bits and pieces of the data you need to find profitable keywords with low competition.
PPCexpo Keyword Planner gives you a complete view of hundreds of related keywords on every Google search you make.
Build the strongest keyword foundation possible!
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