Most of SEO can be boiled down into a two-step process:
(1) Find good keywords.
(2) Write articles about those keywords.
If you can do those two things consistently, you can’t help but build organic traffic to your site over time.
This article will focus on point (1) and share five ways that you can generate keyword ideas for free.
1. Use Keywords Everywhere
One of my favorite ways to come up with keywords ideas is to use Keywords Everywhere, a free browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox.
Once installed, it will display Related Keywords and Keywords People Also Search For each time you search for something in Google.
For example, suppose I search for “dog parks in Cincinnati” in Google. You can see that Keywords Everywhere displays a list of similar keywords in the sidebar of my browser:
I can see a list of specific dog parks in Cincinnati that I may want to write articles about along with the keyword “dog swimming cincinnati” that could serve as another idea for an article about places to take dogs swimming in Cincinnati.
I’ve found plenty of related keyword ideas for several of my sites by simply having this browser add-on installed.
Another nice part about Keywords Everywhere is that it just shows up in the sidebar of my browser, so it doesn’t actually distract from the primary search results.
Note: If you ever want to turn Keywords Everywhere off, you can do so by clicking the “K” icon in the top right hand corner of your browser and moving the slider to “off.”
2. Use * in Google Search
Another way to generate keyword ideas is to use an asterik (*) in Google search to find topics related to your niche.
For example, for Wander Cincinnati I might type in “best * in Cincinnati” in Google. This returns the top results for different titles of articles that contain the words “best”, “in”, and “Cincinnati.”
Immediately I can see four potential keyword ideas:
- Best things to do in Cincinnati
- Best restaurants in Cincinnati
- Best nightlife in Cincinnati
- Best burgers in Cincinnati
I could potentially write an individual article for each of those keywords.
3. Use Keyword Shitter
Don’t be deterred by the weird name. Keyword Shitter is an excellent tool to use to generate keyword ideas.
All you have to do is type in some keyword, then click Start Job. Keyword Shitter will keep producing a list of related keywords until you click Stop Job.
For example, here’s what it looks like if I type in “linear regression.”
4. Use Answer The Public
Another free tool you can use to generate keyword ideas is Answer The Public. Similar to Keyword Shitter, you can type in any keyword into the search bar and click Search to produce a list of related keywords.
For example, I could type in linear regression again:
This tool will produce a list of relayed keywords, sorted alphabetically:
5. Use ?s in Google Analytics
Another free way to generate keyword ideas is to use a search trick in Google Analytics.
Once you have Google Analytics (GA) set up for your site, click the Behavior tab, then click Overview.
In the bottom right corner of the page, click view full report.
In the search bar, type ?s to see each search phrase that people are typing in the search bar on your site (assuming your site has a search bar).
For example, here are some of the phrases that people have been searching for on my site Statology:
- anova
- correlation matrix
- binomial test
- F distribution
- likelihood ratio
- moving average
Each of these phrases could be a potential keyword that I could write about because it’s something that people clearly want to know about.
I should mention that it’s best to use this approach to find keywords once your site has started bringing in some traffic, otherwise using ?s might not return any results if nobody is using the search bar on your site.
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