I made a mini keyword research course, and it's 100% free

Find the full thing inside!

January 16, 2023

You read that right.

I just spent the last few hours writing a mini keyword research course as a Twitter thread.

I decided to send it to my email list as well (you actually get it just before it’ll go live on Twitter).

And I’m not sending you to another link.

The mini course is all in this email!

Here's a completely FREE mini keyword research course.

You don't need ANY paid keyword research tools for this.

And yet, you'll be able to find some gem keywords and compete with the big guys after going through this.

Let's jump right in!

Outline:

  • First method: Google

  • Second method: Competitors

  • Next steps

Ready? Here goes!

1. Use Google to find a popular topic in your niche

The niche I'll use as an example in this mini course is washing machines.

In Google, search "washing machine brands".

I see "Electrolux" on some lists, so let's run with that.

Now we'll type "electrolux washing machine" into Google and see what it suggests.

Each suggestion is a potential keyword you could target.

But I'd strongly suggest going more granular.

You want to find keywords you can actually rank for.

These are too broad.

To go more granular, you could add another word at the end such as "not".

This will bring up a bunch of troubleshooting keywords (which are oftentimes uncompetitive).

I'd guess some of these would be fairly easy to rank for:

But rather than assume you can rank for a keyword, why not make sure you definitely can?

Follow the steps in this article for each keyword you find to make sure it's worth targeting:

Back to the "electrolux washing machine" example.

Adding "not" brought up a bunch of new keyword ideas.

But that's only a tiny slice of all the electrolux washer keywords.

Here's how to find the rest (using Google):

At the end of "electrolux washing machine", add the letter "a" and see what it suggests.

Then switch it to "b".

And so on, through the whole alphabet.

But that's not all...

At the BEGINNING of "electrolux washing machine", add a question word like "can" and see what it suggests.

Now switch that out for "will".

Or try any of these:

  • who

  • what

  • when

  • where

  • why

  • how

  • are

  • do

  • is

  • which

  • have

  • was

  • does

  • how can

  • how do

  • how to

  • how long

And that's still not all...

In this example, you can find many more keywords by being more specific.

Instead of "electrolux", find a specific MODEL of Electrolux washers.

Like "electrolux elfw7537at"

Since it's more specific, you might not find as many keywords - but you can find new ones for sure.

Add the asterisk * sign at the end of "electrolux elfw7537at".

I see "review", "vs [another model]", "specs", "how to use", and more.

Just the "vs" keywords alone could provide an endless source of article topics.

You could compare that washer to every other washer on the market, for example. 🤯

2. Use your competitors to find great keywords.

After looking at the results for a few keywords in your niche, you should have a good idea of who competes in the niche.

Make a list of these sites.

Now, you'll want to determine the size of each site.

One way is to check traffic.

Here's a few ways to do that for free:

  1. Keywords Everywhere chrome extension

  2. SimilarWeb chrome extension

  3. Ubersuggest chrome extension

  4. SEMrush (free account)

For this example, I'll go with Keywords Everywhere.

Go add it to Chrome if you haven't already (it's free).

Now, visit each site on your list, click the Keywords Everywhere extension icon, and click "Organic Ranking Keywords (Domain)".

This will bring up a page that shows the site's top keywords (we'll get to this...) and the estimated monthly traffic.

See the circled number in the screenshot below.

Another thing you can use to determine the size of a site besides traffic is the Domain Authority.

DA ranges from 0-100, so the higher it is, the bigger the site (in general - not true across the board).

To check DA for free, install the MozBar chrome extension.

Once installed, you'll need to create a free Moz account for the extension to work.

The extension will display a number for each site you visit.

That number is the Domain Authority of the website.

Check the size of the sites on your list based on traffic and DA.

The easiest ones to compete with will be the smallest in terms of DA (and likely traffic).

So, starting with the smallest in terms of DA, go back to the Keywords Everywhere organic ranking keywords report.

The keywords shown are some of that site's best keywords.

Since the site is small, it shouldn't be too difficult to compete with - as long as your site has better, more helpful content.

There are more ways to check the keywords a site ranks for though...

All of the tools I listed above for checking traffic show top keywords as well.

Check the site in each of those tools and scroll or click to the section that shows the keywords it ranks for (it's different in each tool).

Repeat for the other sites on your list.

The neat thing about this particular method is that you KNOW these keywords can generate traffic, since they work for your competitors.

The downside of course is that you will be competing against more established sites.

The key is always to produce better content.

Before targeting a keyword, always remember to analyze Google to make sure you can rank for it.

I'll link to this article again that shows you how:

Congratulations!

You've made it to the end of the mini course.

You now know how to find tons of good keywords in any niche, for free.

As this was just a mini course, I obviously have much more to share that’s not included here.

I use lots more methods, and also have a way to score each keyword I find.

The higher it scores, the better.

When I compare how well a keyword scores to how well the article targeting it does, it actually correlates fairly well.

So it's a great way to prioritize keywords.

If you want ALL my keyword research methods and the keyword scorecard I just mentioned, check out my full course at smartkeywordresearch.com.

Use code TWITTER for 30% off.

Wishing you well on your keyword research journey!

Feel free to ask any questions :)