How to Find Profitable Keywords in Today’s Digital Marketing World

Keyword research isn’t dead.

Many people and “experts” argue that after the Google Hummingbird update, keyword research and keyword optimisation is no longer applicable. However, it is just not true.

Keyword research and keyword optimisation will always be there. Search engines can’t do without them … at least, not yet.

However, having said that, the dynamics and applications of keyword research have certainly changed a bit.

If you want to find profitable keywords in today’s tough digital marketing world, you will have to look beyond the traditional keyword research techniques. There are plenty of ways to find hidden gems and profitable keywords, but you will have to dig them with some different techniques.

In this post, I’m going to teach you a few of them.

The Problem With Traditional Keyword Research

Let’s start with the problem.

How do you research keywords for your blog posts? Let me guess.

• You go to Google Keyword Planner
• Insert your main keyword
• Browse around to find keywords with high-volume search and low-competition.
• You take a few ideas and use keywords — and a few related ones that you find there — in your content.
• You hope for the best.

There is nothing much wrong with it. But the problem is that everybody else is also doing exactly the same.

In other words, your competitors are also doing the same. They are using the same tools and targeting the same keywords.

So, how do you stand out?

Method#1: Use Online Courses

There are many websites which provide free and paid online courses. For instance, Lynda and Udemy are two names that come to mind.

The trick is to browse these websites and find courses from your own niches.

Create free accounts for these websites and log in to them. Insert your main keyword — the niche that you work in — and browse the categories to find the specific topics that you are most interested in.

For example, if your niche is online marketing, you will have to insert that as your main keyword and browse categories until you find the courses that resonate with your audience and blog the most.

Then, once you have found the right category, browse the courses they have. Filter the results with the most popular courses. This is important because you want to use the courses that a lot of people have enrolled in. Suppose if 5,000 people have purchased a course, it means that the topics that are in the course is worth the amount those students spent.

There lie the truly profitable keywords.

After you have found the most popular course, browse its outline.

All the websites that offer professional online courses have their outlines mentioned on their product’s pages. Read those outlines and you will find plenty of amazing topics to write on. All those keywords are profitable keywords that people have spent cold hard cash to get access to.

For an example, here is a screenshot.

You can copy these keywords, use your own inspirations and ideas, and come up with several different angles to create engaging content.

Method #2: Look at the Suggestions

Have you ever noticed how certain search queries start giving you suggestions right away when you type in a keyword? It is often very annoying, isn’t it?

However, in this scenario, it is one of the more useful things for you to find good keywords.

These suggestions are based on what people mostly search for. When you visit a website with a huge database, you can find plenty of great keywords with high-search volume and popularity, just by looking at these suggestions.

My recommendation would be to list all these keywords in a spreadsheet.

These are the exact keywords that your target audience have searched for. Why would you not use them?

Furthermore, once you have noted down all these keywords, you can then search them separately with Google Keyword Planner or Google search to find great ideas and related topics to write on.

Method #3: Use Faq Fox

Not many keyword researchers or content marketers use this, but Faq Fox is a great little tool to help you find what your target audience is searching for.

In a nutshell, Faq Fox generates keywords and content ideas based on what people are asking.

Here is how it works.

In the first field, you enter your main keyword.

In the second field, you insert the URLs of popular websites where your target audience hangs out. Reddit, Quora, Yahoo Answers are great options to add here.

Then select a category and start searching.

Faq Fox will come up with an entire list of topics, keywords, and content ideas that you can use. All the keywords would be exactly what your target audience, blog readers, and prospective buyers are using. And you have found them with a different angle and tool than most of your competitors.

Have fun with these unique keyword researching techniques!