How to Find Low-Competition Keywords: an Effective Guide

Ranking well on search engine result pages and driving traffic to your website is hard work. Keyword competition is a determining factor in how well your website ranks and how much traffic it gets.

The secret to getting the best results is to pursue low-competition keywords in the short term. This ensures that you make the most of your SEO efforts. Once you’ve established your presence in Google and built reputation and traffic, you can target more competitive keywords to achieve your ultimate SEO goals. How to find low-competition keywords? Read on!

Low-competition keywords are a gold mine for your website, especially if you’re a newbie. With little or no link-building efforts, you can rank for these keywords and drive loads of traffic to your website. Targeting low-competition keywords is a great way to build your domain authority quickly. In this guide, you’ll learn how to find low-competition keywords that will boost your website’s rankings. 

What Are Low-Competition Keywords?

A low-competition keyword is a keyword you can rank for without much effort. With little domain authority and little or no link building, you can rank for these keywords and drive loads of traffic to your website.

As the name implies, low-competition keywords have lesser competition than generic keywords. This means that fewer websites are competing for them. This, in turn, places you in a better position at ranking on the first page of SERPs compared to a highly competitive keyword.

Low-competition keywords are great opportunities for an SEO strategy, especially if your website is new. They help you achieve your organic traffic goals and search engine rankings easily and without much effort. By targeting low-competition keywords, you build a solid foundation for pursuing more competitive keywords in the long run. 

Why Are Low Competition Keywords Important?

Keyword competition measures how difficult it will be to rank in Google’s search results for a particular term. The higher the competition for a keyword, the harder it will be for your website to rank for it. Low-competition keywords are easier to dominate as they typically have fewer websites vying for the top spots of SERPs. With low domain authority and little to no link building, you can drive loads of organic traffic to your website with these keywords.

Low-competition keywords offer a great short-term strategy and are a great way to build a solid foundation. They’re ideal for startups, new websites, websites with little to no domain rating, and businesses in highly-competitive industries. They’re a great way to get results quickly. Once you’ve established a solid search presence on your website, you can move on to moderately-competitive keywords. 

How to Find Low-Competition Keywords

1. Brainstorm Topics

Put yourself in the shoes of someone looking for your product or service. What would you want to know? What would you search for on Google? Jot down your ideas – they can be broad themes, not just exact phrases. Take note of everything that comes to mind when you think about your business offerings. For instance, if you sell auto parts, you might brainstorm the following: 

• Brake Pads 
• Console Wipers 
• Engine
• Steering system
• Transmission system
• Tires and brakes
• Wheels

2. Conduct Google Search

Google’s suggestions can help uncover low-competition keywords quickly. Start typing a keyword in the Google search box, and you’ll see a list of relevant keyword suggestions. You may follow your keyword with letters of the alphabet (from A-Z) to see what Google suggests. 

This is a great way to get low-competition, long-tail keywords you could target in your marketing strategy. Compile a list of all the suggestions relevant to your business.

3. Check Search Engine Result Pages

Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) are a gold mine for finding low-competition keywords. The “People also ask” and “Related searches” sections are your best bets.

Search Google for your seed keyword, and check these sections for high-volume, low-competition keywords. The keyword suggestions in these SERPs areas are mostly long-tail and low-competition keywords. 

4. Check Question and Answer Sites

Long-tail keywords are usually question-based, more specific than general keywords, and have low competition. You can find question keywords on Reddit, Quora, and Yahoo Answers. These forums are great for discovering what people want to know.

Producing valuable content that answers these questions is a great way to drive traffic to your website and achieving high search engine rankings.

5. Check Out Your Competitors

Your competitors’ keywords are a great source of inspiration for profitable keyword ideas. Check out the keywords your high-performing competitors are ranking for, and identify gaps you can fill.

If you produce better content on a low-competition keyword your competitor ranks for, you’ll most likely outrank them. 

6. Use Keyword Tools to Refine and Expand Your Keyword List

Enter the keywords you’ve brainstormed into a keyword research tool to analyze the competition, monthly search volume, and other SEO metrics. You can also generate more keyword ideas with a keyword research tool. 

You can customize your search by budget, marketing goal, and other details to find the best keywords that fit your needs. Tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs are great options.

7. Filter for High-Volume, Low-Competition Keywords

The best keyword research tools display a Keyword Difficulty (SEO) or Competition Level (PPC) and search volume for each keyword. 

Search volume means the number of searches a keyword receives in a search engine within a given timeframe. The search volume for a keyword indicates how much potential traffic you can receive. The higher the search volume for a keyword, the more traffic it can drive to your website.

Keyword difficulty is an SEO metric that estimates how difficult it would be to outrank the high-ranking websites on Google for a keyword. SEO tools represent keyword difficulty as a score or percent (between 0-100). The higher the percentage or score, the more effort you’ll need to outperform your competition for particular keywords. 

Keyword competition evaluates the bidding competition for a particular keyword – it is considered for paid search campaigns. Most keyword research tools assign a rank — Low, Medium, or High — for keyword competition in PPC. 

High search volume keywords are characterized by high competition. However, there’s no point in targeting a keyword no one is searching for. Your goal should be to strike a balance between search volume and competition. Focus on keywords with low competition but moderately high-search volume.

Analyze the competition level or difficulty score of each keyword on your list, and filter those with low competition but relatively high search volume. 

Consider Search Intent

While search volume and competition are important SEO metrics to consider before targeting a keyword, they’re not the only ones. You need to create content that satisfies the intent of your audience as ‘relevance’ is a key Google ranking factor.

When conducting low-competition keyword research, also consider search intent. Everyone begins a search for a specific reason. The purpose for a search, i.e., the “why” behind a search query, is the “search intent.” 

There are typically four main types of search intent.

• Informational. The searcher seeks an answer to a question or wants to learn more about a subject.
• Navigational. The user wants to find a specific website or webpage.
• Transactional. The searcher wants to make a purchase. 
• Commercial. The searcher wants to buy a product but is looking for a list of options to make a choice. 

You can tell what bucket a keyword falls into by looking for keyword modifiers in the query. Words like “cheap,” “buy,” and “shop” indicate a transactional query. Words like “how,” “where,” or “what” shows an informational search.

Conclusion

Low-competition keywords are a great short-term keyword strategy. They offer an excellent opportunity to build your domain authority and establish your presence on Google. You can rank for these keywords with little to no link-building and domain authority. Once you’ve built a solid foundation using these keywords, you can target more competitive keywords.

The first step to building a solid keyword strategy is keyword research. You must identify the low-competition keywords your audience is searching for and the search volume for those keywords.

It makes no sense to target low-competition keywords no one is searching for. Your goal should be to target low-competition keywords with relatively high search volume. Keyword research tools, like SEMrush and Ahrefs, can help you analyze your keyword’s competition level and search volumes.