How to Do Niche Keyword Research for Bloggers (5 Steps)

Most publishers guess at topics. Operators who compound organic traffic start with search demand. Niche keyword research is how you learn whether people are actually looking for what you plan to write, and which queries carry clear intent you can rank for and monetize.

I’ve been running affiliate sites for over nine years. The pattern is consistent: broad head terms look attractive in a keyword tool until you see the backlink math. Niche down, match intent, and the same content budget starts producing traffic that converts.

Updated 2026.

1What Is Niche Keyword Research?

Niche keyword research means learning the language your audience uses to search for content about a narrow, singular topic (versus a broad category).

Once you understand the terms your readers enter into search engines like Google, it becomes easier to create content they want.

What Are Niche Keywords?

Niche keywords are a specific subset of terms within a broad category.

Cameras are a niche in the electronics industry. Dogs are a niche in the pet industry. Both are smaller pieces of a larger pie.

However, “cameras” and “dogs” are still broad search terms.

It is difficult to know what someone wants when they enter “dogs” into Google. Are they looking for dog breeds? Dog food? Dog accessories?

Why Niche Keywords Matter

Niche keywords matter because the user’s search intent is clear, they are easier to rank for, and they carry lower competition.

Broad topics like “dogs” typically carry a higher difficulty level, and you do not understand what problem the searcher needs help solving.

There are always exceptions. No hard rule says every niche keyword will be easy to rank for. On average, I have found this to be true.

Take a look at the difficulty level if you are trying to rank for the term “dogs.”

Using Ahrefs, you would need backlinks from over 300 websites to rank on page one. Plus, it is a competitive keyword with a difficulty level of “Super hard.”

Now look at what happens when you niche down using a term like “dog carrier.”

This term has a lower difficulty than the broader keyword “dogs.”

You can see what I mean when previewing the keyword difficulty scores for “pets,” “dogs,” and “dog carrier.”

Both monthly search volume and keyword difficulty scores decrease the more niche my queries get.

“Pets” has a difficulty score of 95, while “dog carrier” scores 26.

If you are optimizing for search engine optimization (SEO) versus relying on Google Ads, this is an eye-opening metric for your content creation.

For operators picking a market, our guide to 11 profitable niches that earn money shows what monetizable demand looks like in practice.

2How to Do Niche Keyword Research (5 Steps)

You can find keyword ideas by observing your audience, leveraging the ASP Method, focusing on high-converting content types, using a keyword research tool, and studying who ranks on page one.

Step 1: Focus on High-Converting Content Types

The two content types that should provide you with an abundance of keyword ideas (and where you will find the most success) are Informational and Commercial Investigation.

Informational content helps you build trust and authority with your target audience. Typically, this type will have a modifier in the title, such as:

• Tips
• How
• What
• Guide
• Resource

For example, this “how-to” article about bleeding a radiator includes affiliate links for the required tools (note the Amazon affiliate disclosure below):

Or this men’s fashion site about what an Oxford shirt is:

You see affiliate links placed in four different locations near the end of the post after you get a detailed explanation of an Oxford shirt.

Writing “what is” definition-style posts fall in line with how old-school direct response copywriters would take you from unaware to solution-aware in a single page. You take your reader from top-of-funnel to bottom-of-funnel in a single blog post.

Start by asking what terms your readers want (or what they would like to learn) and create content based on that. Then, weed out terms with low search volume using a keyword research tool (more on that in a minute).

Create a Resource page of your favorite tools or products to increase commissions. Using Lasso, you can organize your affiliate links into groups and create an entire page dedicated to that category.

Our Resource page generates 10% of our affiliate income. And that is only one page. Read how to create a profitable resources page if you want a fast template.

Commercial investigation is when someone is close to making a purchase and is researching the potential product(s) they want to buy.

This person is typically searching for:

• Best lists
• Product reviews
• Product comparisons

So, whatever your niche, consider the popular products your audience uses. Then, brainstorm for keyword ideas using one of the below modifiers:

• Best
• Review(s)
• Comparison/vs.

Try these search terms:

• Best + [product]
• [product] + reviews
• [product] vs. [product]

For example, if you are in the electronics niche, you could search “best internal hard drives,” “seagate internal hard drive reviews,” or “seagate vs. western digital.”

We have tripled our affiliate revenue using product displays in our content.

Below is an example of a Lasso single product display you could create for your site if you had an affiliate relationship with WP Rocket:👇

Start with a simple search including the modifiers previously mentioned, and it should provide you with a good list of keywords for potential articles to create.

Brainstorm all of the popular brands in your niche, then determine which of those are worth creating reviews, comparisons, or best lists around.

Before you publish, run an Opportunities Scan on pages that already rank. Most operators find product mentions sitting unmonetized in URLs that already get traffic.

Step 2: Leverage the ASP Method

ASP is an acronym I use to remind me to “Assess Skills & Processes” whenever I am struggling with idea generation.

Ask yourself what skills you have (or systems you have created to make your life easier) and how they translate to serving your audience.

Our personal finance site writes a lot of product reviews, with the bulk of its revenue coming from affiliate marketing.

When we first started writing them, it was messy. They lacked uniformity. There was no consistency from one review to the next.

With time and experience, we settled on a framework that worked.

Next, we documented it so anyone writing a product review going forward would have a clear path.

Both writers and readers would know what to expect. And since this applies to anyone writing a product review, other affiliate marketers could use it.

So, we plugged a few terms into Ahrefs Keyword Explorer and saw some potential keyword ideas.

Both terms had low to medium difficulty scores:

So, we decided to turn our product review-writing Google doc template into an article. That post brings in nearly 1,000 monthly page views to our blog.

How you can model this:

• Brainstorm keyword ideas
• Think about skills you already have or SOPs you have created
• Refine your process into useful content that helps solve your reader’s problem

Step 3: Use a Keyword Research Tool or Search Engine Hack

You can use plenty of tools to help generate keywords (including search engines). Here is what has worked for us.

Ahrefs is our go-to all-in-one tool. It is fantastic for helping us with keyword research and provides other useful metrics, including:

• A keyword’s buying intent
• Its traffic potential and search volume
• Whether we have a chance at ranking for a keyword

One trick with Ahrefs is using its Phrase Match and Having Same Terms reports.

Try Phrase Match like this:

• Start with a broad keyword
• Click “Phrase Match”
• Set the KD filter to “0-10”
• Set the “volume” filter to (1,000 – max)

Using the filters is optional. It depends on the kind of keywords you are targeting and your niche. For example, a low KD filter means you will have an easier chance to rank, while the volume filter gives you an idea about how many monthly searches the word gets.

Let’s use the “cameras” example from before.

When you type “cameras” into the search field and click Phrase Match, Ahrefs generates all of the specific keywords with that exact phrase.

You can see results, including:

• Disposable cameras
• Lorex security cameras
• Night owl security cameras

To mix things up, try using the Having Same Terms report for the query “best cameras.”

You will see terms such as:

• Best cameras for youtube
• Best cameras for beginners
• Best outdoor security cameras

Then, set the filters to levels that make sense for you and scroll through the findings.

Use the modifiers previously mentioned (e.g., reviews, how, what, best) in the “Include” filter and set to “Any Word” to find specific queries.

To find long-tail keywords, try applying the word count filter to four or more and see what you get.

Another useful feature is the CPC metric.

It measures the average price advertisers pay per ad click. The higher the number, the higher the potential buyer intent for the keyword.

This metric should not be the only factor when deciding. For example, if you notice your word gets more paid clicks versus organic clicks, it might make sense to use it for a PPC campaign (if you are using that strategy).

Ideally, when optimizing for SEO, you would want a term with the following:

• High organic clicks
• Low paid clicks (if this number is high, it means Google Ads will steal clicks from you in the SERPs)
• Low searches without clicks (if this number is high, it typically means Google presented the searcher with the answer in the SERP that did not require a click. For example, “what’s the current time?”)

These queries require no further action by the searcher because Google displays the answer in the SERP.

Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. It returns keywords for both your search term and all related keywords (e.g., it pulls the People Also Search For and Related searches from Google and Bing).

For example, here is what you get when entering the query “snowboarding gear.”

There is a paid version of this tool that lets you see volume data in multiple properties, including:

• Google Trends
• Search Console
• Google Analytics
• Keyword Planner

You can also see data from eCommerce websites Amazon, Etsy, and eBay that you might find useful. In my experience, the free option should suffice if you are looking for keyword ideas.

Depending on your need, you can always leverage the power of a search engine’s autosuggest function. This works with Google and YouTube (same owners) but not so much with Amazon.

Amazon’s autosuggest does work, but nothing happened when I tested using the wild card ( * ) operator. Most likely because Amazon’s search engine is not like Google’s.

The wild card search operator (asterisk [*]) functions as a “fill in the blank” in Google’s eyes and will generate contextual keywords related to your query.

Head to your search engine of choice and type in a broad keyword. For example, if you are in the home improvement niche, you might enter “cordless drill.”

Now experiment with the “how,” “what,” and “best” modifiers to see what autosuggestions you get.

Using Google Search

Auto Suggestions from the search term “how * cordless drill”:

• How to use a cordless drill
• How to remove cordless drill chuck
• How to convert cordless drill to corded
• How long do cordless drill batteries last

Using YouTube

You get other keyword suggestions using the same search query, such as:

• How to choose a cordless drill
• How to repair cordless drill motor
• How to repair cordless drill batteries

These ideas can all be used when designing your content marketing strategy.

Even though Google owns YouTube, you will not get identical results when using its search engine, which is good news.

Use Google autosuggest by testing every letter of the alphabet after your keyword.

It might take some time, but your findings might surprise you.

For operators building at scale, our post on the types of SEO affiliate marketers need covers where keyword research fits in the broader traffic stack.

Step 4: See Who Ranks on Page One

If you know your niche well, put a few keywords into Google and see what your competition ranks for. Google puts only the most relevant content on page one.

The ranking pages will provide clues regarding the type of content you should create and keywords to consider.

For example, if you ran a beauty blog and wanted to write a post about popular beauty products, enter that term into Google to spy on the competition.

Try using the wild card (*) search operator here. You will get results you may not have considered.

You can see that the wild card yields more results, like:

• Popular 90s beauty products
• Popular TikTok beauty products
• Popular Korean beauty products
• Popular Japanese beauty products

These are terms you may never have thought of. Plug any of those keywords into Google and see what you get.

When I enter the search term “popular TikTok beauty products” into Google, the types of content are list posts. Ideal for writing this if you are a beauty blogger.

Then, analyze the top performers to get an idea of what your article should include (so your post is relevant).

Not every search query displays blog posts in the search results. For example, if you enter “pet supplies” into Google, you get eCommerce shops.

Step 5: Ask Your Audience

If you have an engaged audience, try asking them questions about what they want or what they struggle with.

We do this at Lasso.

Ask your readers to complete a short questionnaire or take a quick survey. You can create yours using a simple Google Form.

Case studies and testimonials are an excellent way to learn more about their needs.

For example, we created a Google Analytics best practices article when we learned many of our users have questions about the tool.

Based on your audience’s feedback, you may gain fresh insights into the kinds of content (and keywords) you should target.

Some of the results you will get will be eye-opening. Here is an example from one of our customers who completed our questionnaire:

Reading comments like this informs you whether you are on the right track with your customers.

3Best Keyword Research and SEO Tools

Below are some of the best keyword research tools marketers use to gain the upper hand over the competition.

Google Keyword Planner

You can use Google Keyword Planner to find target keywords, but you will need to set up an ads account.

However, it is free to use and does provide useful terms you may not find elsewhere (though it is more relevant if you are running an ad campaign).

Ubersuggest

Neil Patel’s free keyword research tool. Just type in a domain or keyword to start. It lets you gain insights into what is working in digital marketing.

You will see your competitor’s domain overview, top SEO pages and get keyword suggestions.

Ahrefs

If you have got a budget, I highly recommend Ahrefs Keyword Explorer. Their CMO, Tim Soulo, even created a comprehensive educational resource for those wanting to expand their knowledge on the topic.

In addition, you can find relevant keywords by searching for terms appearing in other search results pages (e.g., find new keywords ranking in YouTube or Amazon search engines) instead of going to YouTube or Amazon’s site.

And its Backlink Checker lets you spot link-building opportunities.

Google Trends

You can enter a search term into the field, and Google spits back both “Rising Data” and “Top Data.”

“Top” is the most popular search query in a given category while Rising includes terms with the biggest increase in search frequency.

You will find interest by region and related terms when you scroll down. You can also set up Trend alerts by clicking subscriptions in the left sidebar.

You can choose to get alerts by either topic or trending searches.

To find additional info on what is trending, try Brian Dean’s tool Exploding Topics. It sources rapidly growing subjects before they take off.

SearchResponse.io

SearchResponse.io lets you plug in a seed keyword, and the tool scrapes Google’s People Also Ask and presents you with an aggregated data set of questions.

Google’s People Also Ask and Searches Related To appearing in the SERP (scroll to the bottom of the search results page) are also excellent places to source keyword ideas.

It presents you with questions related to your search query.

4Niche Keyword Research Fills Your Blog with What People Want

If you have been creating content for a while but are not pleased with your results, consider whether people are actually searching for your topics. It may be a simple case of unmet search demand.

With a little fine-tuning of your niche keyword research approach, you should start reaping the benefits in due time.

The implication is clear: finding the right keywords is only half the job. Pages that already rank often hide monetization gaps you can fix today. Run an Opportunities Scan on content that gets traffic now, then expand into niche targets with the five steps above.

At Lasso, we built the link infrastructure layer so you can focus on content instead of manual audits and missed monetization. See how Lasso fits your stack. Get started with Lasso and run an Opportunities Scan on the pages you already have live.

Sean Brison

Lasso Team

Sean Brison is a dad, writer, business owner, and Content Lead at Lasso. He's spent the past several years in cahoots with Lasso's founder, Andrew, creating awesome things for people. He's also addicted to perfectly-balanced cocktails, the outdoors, and John…