Doing keyword research for niche markets can be a challenge. Learn how to research keywords for niche markets with this short guide.

Google Ads has made it super hard for people trying to figure out how to research keywords for a niche market. Google Ads, as well as most affiliate programs, want you to fight over the same words as your competitors. That is why the most expensive, simple, and popular keywords are pushed as the best and most clickable. When you enter your niche keywords, Google Ads and other affiliate programs will say something like, “Those words have a low search count” or will say “Your ads are not running due to a low search score.”

In short, they have set a keyword tool trend where niche keywords are dismissed as useless and/or unprofitable when that is simply not the case. In reality, niche keywords send low traffic numbers to your website, but the traffic you receive is highly targeted. The people who actually find your website based on your niche keywords are usually the most ideally suited for your website and in many cases, they are considered to be warm leads.

Start with the Words That Are Skipping Around Your Mind

There are already hundreds of keywords kicking around in your mind because you are already an expert in your chosen industry. After you have finished writing a page, and prior to checking keyword tools and/or doing any research, you need to note down all the keywords that are floating around your mind already.

Let us start with the idea of Plumber SEO. People who work in the plumbing industry know every esoteric word there is within their trade, and they also know what customers request, what they say, and what they want.

For example, you know what happens if certain pipes have an airlock. You know the symptoms of this problem, so if you were writing a page about airlocks and airlock solutions, you may enter some of the symptoms as your keywords, such as “Noisy pipes” or “Knocking pipes” or “Radiator not heating” and so forth.

Search Out Your Competitors and See What Offers the Best Results

Before we discuss how to steal SEO keywords from your competitors, you need simply run a few searches on Google to see what pops up. Enter a few of your own keywords and see if your competitors pop up on the searches; if they do, then you have found yourself some suitable keywords.

Now, run searches where you enter your keywords, but then take some of the suggestions that Google makes. Are your competitors popping up again? If so, then take some of the keywords that appear in the Google suggestions and add them to your list of applicable niche keywords.

Steal from Your Competitors

You can do a keyword search within your competitor’s websites to see what keywords they are using. If you are using Windows and Microsoft Edge, you can go to a website and press F12 to bring up the debugger. There is a small search bar that says, “Find (Ctrl+F)”

Inside that search bar, you need to write something such as:

keyword

Or:

meta name=”keywords”

If you find those words, have a look nearby and you may find a list of keywords (if the website even bothered to add any), and these are the search-friendly keywords you can steal from your competitors.

You can even steal keywords from YouTube videos. For example, let’s say you are writing something ultra-specific, such as how to complete a certain level of a game using an unorthodox method, such as trying to complete an S-rank attempt on MGSV using just the Walker Gear. Simply view the YouTube video using Edge, press F12, and type the word “Keywords” into the search bar.

In this example, a number of keywords will pop up that look like this:

\”MGSV Episode twenty seven\”,\”MGSV Episode 27\”,\”MGSV root cause\”,\”quick s rank\”,\”speed run\”,\”episode 27 speed run\”

The commas separate the keywords, as do the quotation marks and forward slashes. For example, in this case:

\”MGSV Episode twenty seven\”,\”MGSV Episode 27\”

The keywords are actually:

MGSV Episode twenty seven

MGSV Episode 27

Look for YouTube videos that describe or sell the same things that your web pages describe or sell and steal a few of their keywords. It is actually easier with YouTube because the location and format of their keywords is the same throughout, whereas with other websites you have to dig through different types of code to find their keywords.

Note the Odd Things That Other People Write

If you take a close look at the previous example, you may have noticed “Speed Run” nestled in the list of keywords. This is odd since the YouTube video isn’t a speed run. The video poster added this keyword because S-Rank runs are done very quickly, and hardcore gamers know this, ergo they go looking for speedrunners to help them complete the levels with an S-Rank.

All of this may sound esoteric, but that is because you are probably not a part of the Metal Gear Solid gaming franchise or industry. Yet, your industry and market sector will have its own esoteric words and mini-hacks like the speed-run trick used by the gamer.

Do not dismiss the mistaken keywords that your competitors use because they may not be mistakes. For example, some blogs on lending have keyword sections that include both the word “Principle” and “Principal.” The word “Principal” has no place on a finance/lending blog, but the blogger knows that many people spell principle incorrectly, and so is targeting the mis-spellers who type the misspelled word into their own search bar or into search and finance apps.

Conclusion – How to Research Better Niche Keywords

As with most things in life, the best method involves trial and error. For some reason, the keywords that work for your competitors may not work for you, and undoubtedly, you will come across words that seem to generate a small-but-consistent result for what appears to be no reason. Testing plus time will yield the best results. Sometimes, learning how to research the best niche keywords needs to include raw experience.

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