My last article was about the different types of blog posts I tend to do. The listicle, or list post, is just about my favorite for a number of reasons. You may be used to finding question and answer posts by simply going to the “people also ask” section of the SERP, and that’s fine. Finding topics for listicles is a bit different, so in this article we’re going to talk about finding keywords for listicles.
How to find keywords for listicles – 12 tips
1. Use plural keywords
Plural keywords, and plural helper keywords which we’ll learn about in the next tip, are a surefire way to get the results you want. Remember, you’re trying to mimic a searcher looking for a list. It’s that simple. You will get other traffic in other ways with a listicle, but focus on that search intent.
Say we’re in the pets niche. While we are doing are keyword research around pets or pet-related things or pets, we want to make our seed keywords plural. If someone types a plural keyword in Google, it’s likely they want a plural answer. A list to review and look at.
Let’s say a person living in an apartment is interested in becoming a cat owner, but don’t know what breed to get. That person might search something like “cats that do well in apartments” where the seed keyword of “cats” is plural. This insinuates that the searcher is looking for ideas and wants a plural answer, not just a single type of cat returned.
It can be applied to any niche, here are some examples of plural seed keywords that call for a list.
- Surfing – surfboards for apartments
- Cycling – bicycles with motors
- Gardening – perennials that do well in shade
I could literally go all day, there are endless list opportunities. People that want to look at lists are looking for options to choose from, sometimes they just want to look at pictures or learn about different things. If it’s a plural keyword then the results should probably be plural.
2. Know the right helper keywords
Sometimes you’ll also add in what I call a helper keyword, or helper phrase. They are just other ways that a searcher might type their query into Google. Here are some of those helper keywords:
- Types of [plural seed keyword]
- Examples of [plural seed keyword]
- [Plural seed keyword] with [*]
- [Plural seed keyword] that can [*]
- [Plural seed keyword] that are [*]
That’s just to name a few, you can discover your own. Going off of that original example of “cats that do well in apartments” let’s look at some different variations and other related list ideas based on that.
- Cats that do well in apartments
- Examples of cats for apartments
- Types of small cats
- Cats with short hair
Basically you just want to learn all of the helper keywords that work well in your niche, and then use them on all of the things in your niche to come up with ideas.
3. Learn about search intent
In my opinion this is the single most important part of keyword research. You have to understand the audience and what they are searching for, their search intent. This is something that many people never really get a grasp on, putting themselves in the shoes of the searcher. That’s why I will never outsource keyword research. It’s one of the few parts of the business that I can only trust myself to do correctly.
Remember, we want the results to be plural as in a list. So imagine you’re the searcher, what types of lists might a searcher be looking for in your niche? If you’re in the surfing niche then maybe:
- Surfboards for beginners
- Surfing locations
- Beaches with the biggest waves
- Longest surfboards
I know literally nothing about surfing so that’s just a few I could think of. You could turn each of those keywords into a listicles or product roundups, which are also going to give the reader plural results.
4. Practice Google auto-complete
I do 99% of my keyword research in the search field on the search engine results page of Google. I’m sure you’re at least familiar with Google auto-complete where you type something in a Google tries to guess what comes next based on popular searches by other people.
This is a great and simple tool to come up with ideas for listicle topics and other types blog content. You can simply do the alphabet soup method where you type in your seed keyword and then type “a” after it and see what is suggested. Then do “b”, then “c”, you get the idea.
You can also use a wildcard operator to get some results. Like this: “cats that do well in *”, so you’ll have a * in place of a letter. Google will often show you the highest volume searches if you do this. It takes practice.
I don’t use SEMRush or AHREFs because I don’t need them and don’t have time for them right now. I know their value and I might start slowly integrating them into my workflow and keyword research, who knows. For now though my keyword research is super simple, and I’m quite certain I’ll never run out of topic ideas the way I do it.
5. Install Keywords Everywhere
This is really the one external piece of software I use other than what Google provides me with. Keywords Everywhere is a Chrome extension that gives you a little bit of helpful data just under the search bar on the search engine results page.
That little bit of info, the search volume estimate, the CPC, the competition, and the trend are all I use. Mainly just the volume and trend. Don’t rely on any of these metrics, but use them as a guide to help you make an informed decision on whether or not to move forward with a topic.
6. Look for low competition
Obviously it almost goes without saying, the lower the competition the better. So look for low competition topics, but first and foremost make sure you can recognize these topics. While something like a keyword difficulty score can be a helpful indicator, don’t rely on a made up number by a keyword tool.
On Keywords Everywhere a competition rating of 1 indicates strong competition. Instead of just dismissing a potential topic though, I inspect the SERP for myself. I click on a few of the sites and scan the actual articles, maybe they’re outdated and can be knocked down a few pegs. If it’s a query getting 40k searches/month, I don’t care if it takes 6 months or a year to work my up to the top 3. It’ll be worth it when I do.
Most keywords/topics I put into one of the following 9 categories. Each one of these can be lucrative for different reasons, in most cases though I’m looking for #3. I want the easiest path to the most traffic because I monetize mostly with display ads.
- Low competition/low volume
- Low competition/medium volume
- Low competition/high volume
- Medium competition/low volume
- Medium competition/medium volume
- Medium competition/high volume
- High competition/low volume
- High competition/medium volume
- High competition/high volume
7. Don’t be scared of volume
Sometimes people see a high volume keyword and go running for the hills because they instantly assume it’s extremely competitive. That is often the case, but not always. It’s a good idea to get some high volume keywords pulling in traffic on your site. If you just go for all tiny keywords (low search volume) on your site and that’s it, then you’ll regret it later.
Low competition can mean low search volume, and that’s ok when you’re starting or if you have a lot of them. But don’t be scared to go for some of the biggest topics in your niche, just create great content. You may surprise yourself and end up with the featured snippet.
8. Look for clusters
When I’m doing keyword research I’m always looking for clusters. A keyword cluster is one topic, or one seed keyword, that can be altered with a modifier keyword to create a bunch of new keywords. All are topic ideas and can create a silo or just interlink to each other where relevant.
Here’s an example of a keyword cluster:
- Cats with short hair
- Cats with long hair
- Cats with no hair
- Cats with curly hair
- Cats with ear hair
- Cats with toe hair
- Cats with short hair
- Cats with short hair
Each one of the above could be a nice listicle. Then what if we did the following listicle afterwards and linked them all together? We could list the same ones and give examples of each.
- Types of hair on cats
This could be done with camping tents, surfboards, garden plants, whatever. You just have to be creative and shift everything to make it fit for the new topic.
9. Publish as many as you can
Publish tests of as many different clusters as you possibly can. Think of each one as a fishing line that you’ve cast into the water. You’re waiting for bites, hopefully from something big. You could see some results in as few as a couple of months, but it’s often more like 6-12 before I get a strong indication to move forward.
When I say move forward I mean exploit the cluster completely, and that can be a big decision so we want to do as much testing as possible.
10. Watch your analytics & rankings
This is the learning phase. With all of the test articles out there I watch my Google Analytics and rank tracker for posts that move in the rankings and start getting a lot of traffic. It’ll tell me what did well and where to focus my attention.
11. Exploit weaknesses in the SERP
If I see one of the sample cluster keywords suddenly getting 300 views/day, I might publish 5 more like it and watch them. If they all do well and are earning money, then by that point it’s usually a green light. Sometime’s I’ll divert all resources to this cluster and completely exploit it.
If you’ve found a weakness in the SERP and you have competitors, they’ll soon discover what you’re doing. I built my business to what it is today from one keyword cluster. That one cluster led to another, then another and another. You get the point. But all the clusters were similar and related to each other in a way. My competitors were on to me before I knew it, and suddenly I had 20 people do the exact same articles and even copying my titles.
I didn’t completely exhaust the cluster, so while I did miss out on some traffic and earnings I did get a nice piece of the pie. And I learned a lesson.
If you find gold, take it all before someone else does.
That may sound a little dramatic but it’s really not. That same keyword cluster I mentioned above that got me started was making about $3000/month from display ads for most of last year. I absolutely know I could have at least doubled that last year.
There were originally about 100 articles that are in that cluster and still earning me good money every month to this day. Since then though I have covered all of the topics.
12. Repeat
That’s really about it. To find topics for listicles you want to make sure that the search intent required a list. When using the alphabet soup method in Google Autosuggest, make sure the seed keyword or helper keyword is plural. Remember, that can indicate the searcher wants a list for their result.
Choose the right keywords, publish as many listicles as you can, watch the analytics, and repeat what’s successful.