To optimize your website's content so that it appears in search results, targeting the right keywords to create our content around is crucial. You can select the best website keywords using keyword research.

You can try to find as many keywords as possible during the research process, but how do you get the most relevant keyword ideas?

Here are five basic methods.

1. Brainstorm

The first thing you can do is to think about it yourself or through discussion with other people. Identify your website niche and try to come up with things people usually want to know about it.

What questions do people usually ask? What useful information can you give to your visitors who want to read your content? Take a note of the ideas that come up and use them as potential keywords later.

If you try to discuss with other people, do so with people who are familiar with your website.

2. Use keyword research tools

Tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, and Google Keyword Planner can provide keyword ideas.

Usually, you'll put in a short-tail keyword and get variants and long-tail versions. You can immediately check those ideas by using the tool to find out info on volume, competition, and value.

If you have keyword ideas from your brainstorming session, you can put each of them into the tool as well.

3. Get suggestions from Google

Google itself can also suggest keyword ideas you can use.

Google suggestions come from its autocomplete, People Also Ask, and Related Searches features. When Google gives suggestions through those features, it means people have searched for them before. Thus, you can be sure they have search traffic you can capitalize on.

To get suggestions from Google, you can start by typing a keyword related to your niche in the Google text box. Google will give some autocomplete suggestions that you can use as keyword ideas. To trigger the suggestions more easily and get more of them, try to type a short-tail keyword instead of a long-tail one.

When you get your search results on a SERP, Google sometimes has People Also Asked and Related Searches on the page. You can take a look at what Google lists there and use them.

4. Research competitor keywords

Competitor websites that often rank for the same keywords as yours can be an excellent source of keyword ideas—especially if they have lower domain authority than you. That suggests you can immediately get results if you publish high-quality content on the keywords they rank for.

To do so, browse the competitor's website blog and look at the posted articles to figure out its main targeted keywords. Ask yourself whether you have targeted those keywords with content at your own website or not.

You can also do a Google search with the "site:" operator to find all the competitor's pages that Google has indexed. From there, you can see what content the company has already published and what keywords it targets.

An easy way to analyze competitor keywords is to use an SEO tool. Such tools usually have a feature to find out keywords that a certain website ranks for.

To use the feature, just input the domain you want to research. The tool will then return the keywords the website ranks for, as well as the top-performing keywords among them. Use the results to prioritize which keyword you should target first and what kind of content you should create.

5. Look at what people discuss in online forums

Forums can also be an excellent source of keyword ideas. Look for things that are generating discussion recently, and create content about them. That approach should result in site traffic if you rank for keywords discussed in forums, as it's more likely that people search for them.

You can also engage in discussions to know more about the potential keywords. See whether you can provide an answer or add interesting points to the discussion. That may bring up other ideas or give you insight on how to create your content.

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Keywords are an important variable in SEO. You should know how to search for keyword ideas so your website can grow its organic traffic better.

Try to implement the five methods in this article if you are short of keywords to target for upcoming content. Who knows—they might produce an idea that could result in your website's pillar page.

More Resources on Website Keyword Ideas

Seven Simple (and Free) Keyword Research Tools Every Marketer Should Try

SEO Keyword Strategy for B2B Content Development

How to Perform a Detailed SERP Analysis to Find Low-Difficulty Keywords