Steps to Perform Niche Keyword Research: Techniques & Tools To Use

If you have a website, you must be aware of the importance of good keyword research in SEO. Keywords are like the building blocks of an SEO strategy. The more powerful your keywords are, the better results you can drive. It is true that targeting high-search volume keywords is important. But that doesn’t mean that keywords with low search volumes should be entirely overlooked. There is no harm in targeting keywords that are relevant to your website even if they have low search volume. Such keywords are known as niche keywords and they are also important for a website.

Ranking for these niche keywords is easier as they are less competitive. Also, they drive traffic from more relevant audiences as these keywords are highly specific. Only people who are genuinely interested in a particular topic will search for these keywords and if they find your content on top, they are highly likely to convert. But in order to target the right niche keywords, you first need to conduct proper niche keyword research. This article will guide you on how to perform niche keyword research for best results:

What are Niche Keywords?

Niche keywords are the more specific sets of keywords that are relevant to a particular subset of an industry. For example, ‘digital marketing’ is a broader market, and ‘search engine optimization’ is a subset of it. Even within SEO, there can be subsets and more specific keywords that have lower search volumes but high relevance.

These keywords have high ranking potential, i.e. they are easier to rank for on search engines as they are less competitive. Unlike general keywords, which have large search volumes and which target a broader audience, niche keywords target more specific audiences who are highly likely to convert. 

Also Read: Your Complete Guide To Doing Keyword Research For SEO

How To Perform Niche Keyword Research?

Here are some important steps to follow when performing niche keyword research:

1. Identify Your Target Audience

Your first step in doing niche keyword research should be to identify your target audience. You should have a clear idea of whom you want to target. This includes understanding the demographics of your target audience, their interests, behaviors, motivations, and pain points. You can start with demographic information.

For that, tools like Google Analytics 4 can be used. GA4 gives you detailed information about your website visitors. To get this detailed report, you can go to ‘reports,’ then click on ‘user attributes,’ and finally choose the ‘demographic details’ option. This report includes information like the age, gender, language, and location of your audiences. Based on this information, you can identify who your target audience is and develop content around keywords that are relevant to their interests. 

2. Understand Your Market

The next step is to understand your market and this is closely related to the previous step, i.e. identifying your target audience. Once you know who your target audience is, you can dive deeper into understanding their interests and expectations. Apart from this, market research is about determining what is happening in your industry right now and how it is relevant to your audience. In order to conduct effective niche keyword research, it becomes essential to know what works in the market.

All this information can help you identify more specific niche keywords and attract more relevant audiences. Look for topics that are trending right now, irrespective of their search volumes. This is especially recommended for B2B businesses as B2B customers are highly interested in what’s going on in the industry at a point in time. 

3. Analyze Your Competitors

Analyzing your competitors and their SEO strategies is also an important step in finding relevant niche keywords. Look for competitors who create similar content as yours or whose websites are already ranking for the keywords you want to target. You can conduct competitor analysis to understand what keywords your competitors are targeting and what is their SEO strategy.

You can start with primary competitors that target general keywords similar to yours and then proceed further to identifying competitors that create content around niche keywords that you want to target. Look at what type of content is performing and take inspiration for your strategy. 

4. Look for Common Questions in Your Niche

Understanding what your target audience is looking for is extremely important. You can browse online communities, such as Quora, Reddit, etc, to find out what people are looking for. These are the platforms where people themselves ask questions they want to know. You can see what your target audience is searching for and try to give them answers through your content. This will also help you identify some relevant niche keywords for your website. 

5. Prepare a List of Keywords 

Now that you have researched keywords through multiple platforms, you can prepare a final list of niche keywords that you want to target. Create a compiled list of all the keywords you have found through competitor analysis, market research, and online communities like Quora. 

Now, you can use keyword research tools to identify similar keywords and check the search volumes, keyword difficulties, traffic potential, etc, of these keywords. Before you start creating keywords around the keywords, make sure to create a final list of keywords using the tools that we have listed below.

Tools You Can Use for Niche Keyword Research

The following are some commonly used keyword research tools that you can use to finalize your niche keywords:

1. Google Keyword Planner: Although Google Keyword Planner is made for PPC advertisers to find relevant keywords for their campaigns, this can also be used for organic content. Under the ‘Discover new keywords,’ section, you can find a list of keywords by entering a seed keyword. Sort the keywords with search volumes ‘low to high.’ Maybe the keywords with low search volumes are the niche keywords you are looking for.
2. Keyword Magic: Keyword magic tool is one of the most powerful keyword research tools that draws relevant keywords from a database of over 25 billion keywords. You can enter the seed keyword (the main keyword) and get a long list of keywords relevant to your website. There are also several filters that you can use to identify the niche keywords with high-ranking opportunities.
3. Keyword Gap Tool: The keyword gap tool by Semrush is a great tool to identify keywords that your competitors are ranking for but you are not. You can see such keywords under the ‘Missing’ tab. It is one of the effective ways to find out niche keywords that you might be missing.
4. Google Search Console: You might unknowingly be ranking for keywords that you are not targeting intentionally. This is what you can find on GSC (Google Search Console). Under the ‘Performances’ tab, click on ‘queries’ to identify queries that direct users to your website. This will help you know what actually users want from your website and how you can fulfill their requirements.
5. Google Autocomplete Feature: Google’s autocomplete feature is also a great way to find niche keywords and search terms that your target audience is genuinely interested in. You can type the primary and secondary keywords in the Google search bar and see what all suggestions are listed. All these suggestions are user queries and can help you identify some most relevant niche keywords.
6. Google Keyword Tool: It is a free tool that pulls out queries from Google’s autocomplete features to give you a list of niche keywords. You can start by typing search terms and Google comes up with a long list of keywords related to that search term.

Bottom Line

Now that you have understood the importance of niche keywords, you can start conducting niche keyword research for your website. In order to come up with a comprehensive list of keywords, try to find keywords using all the above-mentioned methods. Don’t solely rely on your assumptions about what your target audience may be interested in. Conduct competitor analysis and use tools like Google autocomplete feature to identify what your audience is actually looking for and what type of content is performing well.

If you need any assistance with your niche keyword research or the overall SEO strategy, you can get in touch with our experts at MadHawks, which is the top SEO agency. 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why is niche keyword research important for SEO?

Ans. Niche keyword research helps you identify keywords that are less competitive. These keywords are easier to rank on search engines and also help you attract more relevant audiences.

2. What tools can I use for niche keyword research?

Ans. Some powerful tools that you can use for niche keyword research are: 

• Google Keyword Planner
• Keyword Magic Tool
• Keyword Gap Tool
• Google Autocomplete Feature
• Google Keyword Tool

3. What are the benefits of targeting niche keywords?

Ans. Some benefits of targeting niche keywords are listed below:

• Rank for less competitive keywords.
• Attract more relevant audiences.
• Increase conversion rates.
• Build authority in your niche.

4. How can niche keyword research help in content creation?

Ans. Niche keyword research helps you identify more sets of relevant keywords that you can create content around.  

5. What are some common mistakes to avoid in niche keyword research?

Ans. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when performing niche keyword research:

• Only relying on a single tool for keyword research
• Not considering the interests of your target audience
• Not performing competitor analysis
• Overlooking low search volume keywords