Keywords are the backbone to getting your website to rank on search engines. If you don’t target the best ones for your business, customers won’t find you, and you won’t make as many sales as you potentially could. But how exactly do you know which search queries to use on your website? We’re going to share how to find low competition keywords with the best tools that are free!
What are keywords?
Keywords are words and phrases users type into search engines to find information. They’re also known as search queries and key phrases. Think of them as the topics and ideas specific web pages are about.
Anyone with a website should use keywords relevant to what people are searching for so they can find your website through the search engine result page (SERP).
Why are they important?
Keywords are essential in connecting what people are searching for and the content you create. As a website owner, your goal is to drive organic traffic to your site from SERPs, and the user’s goal is to find information that answers their questions. In order to bridge these two goals, you need to understand exactly how your target audience is searching for information you want to provide.
How do I find keywords?
There are several ways people try to determine what keywords their target audience is searching.
One suggestion is typing phrases into search engines and seeing what autocomplete provides, since this feature provides suggestions actual users are typing in. You can also search a phrase and scroll to the bottom of the SERP, where you’ll find related search terms. While this is a good place to start, this method doesn’t provide you with data like keyword research tools do.
A keyword research tool is a platform that provides you with exact match and phrase match keywords users are searching for. They typically provide information like monthly search volume, competition status, and other useful data. Many of these tools require a paid subscription, but there are a few free tools that are great resources, including:
How to Find Low Competition Keywords
Just like you, your competition is also trying to target keywords in your niche. With hundreds of websites all targeting the same keywords, you may have a hard time reaching those coveted top spots in SERPs. That’s where in-depth keyword research comes in.
You know that you need to look for keywords with a high search volume. But that’s not enough. While a certain keyword could have thousands of searches per month, it could be a high competition keyword. That means other websites and pages are also trying to rank for that keyword.
To have a better chance of ranking within the top 10 spots for certain phrases, you want to target low competition keywords. That means these queries have decent search volume, but the competition isn’t high (other websites aren’t using these phrases on their website). The ideal combination is high search volume and low competition.
Note: Sometimes using high competition, high volume keywords are necessary. Just be sure to incorporate both in your content.
Where to Incorporate Keywords
You’ve come up with a list of low competition keywords you want to use. Now you just need to incorporate them in the right places.
According to SEO best practices, keywords should be used in the title tag, URLs, meta description, and image alt text. Typically in these areas of a webpage, you would only use the keyword once.
You also want to incorporate keywords in product descriptions, web copy, and blog posts. In these formats, you’d use keywords more than once. However, you want to avoid keyword stuffing (using these phrases too often).
Finding low competition keywords is simple once you know where to look. With this knowledge, you can find the best phrases for your niche, and start working on your website’s SEO. Learn more about SEO and how to optimize your website in our beginner’s guide to SEO!
