3 Advanced Ways of Discovering Keywords for Free

Whether you are an advanced SEO or a noob at the search game, there is one thing you will always do before starting to write.

Let me guess. It’s the brainstorm session, right?

You probably try to come up with ideas that you can convert into a blog post.

So, the first part always starts with researching for ideas which we relate to as the first phase of keyword research.

If you are savvy enough, you will break down the ideas to match user intent and make competitor analysis.

However, what most SEOs do is knock up few words on Google Keyword Planner or any of favorite tools like Long Tail Pro. And, wait for the miracle keyword to pop out.

Now, this may be the go to plan for many; I try to work on various spectrums looking for different angles on finding the best keywords.

And, I’m going to break down a few untapped free tools that can hook you up with great keywords.

Bing Auto Suggest

It’s strange that most people overlook Bing as a search engine more often than not. In a report of 2016, Bing’s share of search market rose by 0.2% whereas Google’s dropped by 0.2% now the decimal doesn’t do justice to the numbers but trust me that’s huge.

So, Bing is putting a lot of effort into its algorithm. And, just by using its autosuggest tool will hook you up with great untapped keywords. Most guys out there use Google’s auto-suggest and related queries formula to rank low competitive keywords. This is where you can go an extra mile and run a search on Bing to drag keywords that your competitors might not be using at all.

Pro Tip: Just like you would check related searches for any keyword in Google, scan through related searches of Bing as well.

Bully Yahoo ads for Gold Mines

Yahoo is another untapped source for finding great keywords. Most marketers don’t consider Yahoo as a search engine. It doesn’t get the love Google gets, but its Ads can provide some valuable insights on finding niche specific keywords.

Whether its ads from Google or ads from Yahoo, they all serve one common purpose. Matching users intent and serve them quality ads. What’s great about the Yahoo ads is it’s not as competitive as Google ads. And, people target keywords that match user intent. So, if you are searching for keywords that have commercial intent, scan through ads driven by Yahoo ads.

Stalk through user-generated sites

User-generated sites are the sites where content are created by users who use that site. It can be anything from niche forums to social bookmarking sites like scoop it. If you just stalk through forums, you will generate a ton of keywords as well as blog topic ideas. Only use strings like “niche” + Forums. And start searching through the search box.

Pro tip: This is one of the best tips I can give to you to reveal a treasure trove of potential low competition keywords. Copy the forum URL, and search on SEMrush. This is one of my favorite tools to find your competitors keywords. See the keywords in which the forums are ranking. If they can rank, I’m pretty sure you can classify as well.

If you don’t have enough budgets, you can use Google’s Landing page tool in keyword planner. It won’t give you the keywords like SEMrush but is cost-efficient and fruitful as well.

Wrapping Up

Whether you are a digital marketer or an agency focused on WordPress development, you will certainly come to the position where you need to do keyword research. And, this is how you can find some good chunk of valuable keywords.