No Inspiration and running into a creative block? Sometimes it’s hard to come up with new topics and/or angles to complete your content marketing plan. These 3 keyword research tools will help you get back on track. Spend 10 minutes with each tool and you will be able to create an extensive list of new content ideas. And when chosen well, ideas that can actually drive traffic to your website.
Aswer The Public | AlsoAsked | Google Trends
Answer The Public
Answer the Public is a great tool to understand what Google thinks people are searching for, and uses Google’s autocomplete data as their source. Just enter your keyword, and the tool will return a big list of content ideas to help you find new topics to write about.
Features:
- Country-based search filter (UAE included)
- Easy sorting of the results
- Appealing graphics
- Export data to CSV format
| Pros: | Cons: |
| Easy to use Free version available, no login / credit card needed Real-life questions from around the web | No search volume data |
How to use Answer The Public
We use Answer The Public to kick-start our brainstorm sessions.
Start with entering your keyword. And if you don’t know where to start, your first keyword can be as broad as your niche or the product(s) that you are selling. Once the ideas start coming you will come up with more keywords you can research later.
*Note: the free version of Answer The Public allows you to do 2 free searches a day, so it might take you a few days to get to a list you want to continue with. (This limit is on a device basis. If you have access to multiple devices you can use the other devices to do additional searches on the same day).
After you entered your keywords and ran a search, we like to switch to the ‘Data’ view. This view sorts the results into very easy to work with lists around type of question (what, when, how, can, with etc.),
When you feel this is a good keyword to include into your content creation process, export the results using the ‘Download CSV’ button on the top right corner. Repeat this process for a few more keywords until you feel you have enough ideas to seed your content plan.
Free Plan Limitations:
The free plan has a daily search limit (2 at the time of writing), so choose your keywords wisely. No login and credit card details are required.
AlsoAsked
AlsoAsked uses Google’s ‘People Also Ask’ data as their source, and makes your keyword and topic research much easier. AlsoAsked is really helpful when you want to understand what related topics users might be interested in when they are searching for your keywords, and offers useful insights on how to group the topics and questions.
Features:
- Country-based search filter (United Arab Emirates included)
- Export data in CSV and PNG format
- Maps the connections between keywords/topics
| Pros: | Cons: |
| Good visual representation Bulk keyword upload possible (paid feature) Saves a lot of time when researching Google’s ‘people also ask’ topics | No search volume data is available |
How to use Also Asked:
We use AlsoAsked to find keywords we might have missed or forgot to include. And we use AlsoAsked to find keywords that allow us to expand the existing topics on the website.
When you feel you covered (most) of the obvious topics and angles around your keywords, AlsoAsked helps you discover new topics that are very similar or closely related to your keywords. These new topics might be still very relevant to your website, and will allow you to expand and broaden your topic coverage.
Start with one of your main keywords and look at the first ‘also asked questions’ the tool returns. Then expand the question tree by clicking the blue crosses under the questions to see more questions.
Unfortunately, the free version of the tool doesn’t allow you to export the results. It does allow you to store an image to use later when working on your content plan. For this use the PNG button at the top right corner.
Free Plan Limitations:
The free plan has a daily search limit (3 searches at the time of writing). There are no login or credit card details required when using the free version of the tool.
What is the difference between Answer The Public and also asked?
Where Answer The Public will only find you ideas that include the keyword you entered, AlsoAsked has a more broader approach and will help you find topics that are either very similar, or closely related to your keyword.
Let’s say the keyword you are researching is ‘green apple’. Where Answer The Public will come up with ideas and questions that include ‘green apple’, it will not find you questions like “What is the crispiest apple?” or “How to make apple juice?”. This is where AlsoAsked comes in. While these questions are not necessarily directly related to your keyword ‘green apple’, they might still be very good topics to include into your content plan.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that allows you to use Google’s data around trends to find upcoming topics and keywords for your content plan. You can research these keywords over a period of time, and by location. Google Trends uses both Google Search and YouTube as data sources.
Features:
- Localized filtering (data allows filtering for Dubai and other Emirates)
- Real-time data, up until the last hour
- Includes trends for image search, news and Google Shopping
| Pros: | Cons: |
| Set custom date ranges as far back as 2004 Includes keywords not yet available in keyword research tools Export data in CSV | It doesn’t provide exact search volume (but instead uses a relative scale) Not all spikes are necessarily trends |
How to use Google Trends:
We use Google Trends to find new (related) keywords and topics. And we use Google Trends to validate existing ideas.
To find new related keywords and topics enter your keyword and scroll down until you see a list of related topics and a list of related queries. Both lists can be exported and added to your overall list of ideas for your content plan. You can click on the list items themselves to further research these.
And we use Google trends to validate the interest and trends around topic ideas; is the search volume we see for certain keywords consistent over time, is it a seasonal trend, or was the spike a one-time thing? This will help us decide if we want to include the topics into our content plan or not. And if traffic is following a seasonal trend – helping us to determine what the best time is to publish around the topic.
Free Plan Limitations:
There are no limitations and Google Trends is 100% free to use, and without the need to create an account.
Get a FREE Consult!
Wondering how content marketing can help you get more business? Or do you want to understand what an email campaign looks like? Contact us and talk to our Content Marketing specialists. A first consult is always free. No strings attached!
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image credits
All screenshots by taken by author, May 2022
