7 Ways To Find Low-Competition Keywords

Here's the truth: most people starting out with SEO make the same mistake. They go after the biggest, most popular keywords in their niche, write an article, and then wonder why it sits on page five of Google forever. It's not a content problem. It's a targeting problem.

Low competition keywords are search terms that real people are typing into Google, Bing, or AI-powered search engines every day, but don't yet have a flood of authoritative sites competing for them. That's your window. That's where smaller sites, newer blogs, and lean teams can actually win.

In 2026, this matters more than ever. AI-generated content has flooded search results for generic, broad topics, but highly specific, lower-competition queries? Those are still wide open, and the sites capturing that traffic right now are building real, compounding authority over time.

The Problem With Chasing High-Volume Keywords

Think about it: if you're a new blog competing for "best project management software," you're up against Capterra, G2, Forbes, and a hundred other sites with massive domain authority and years of backlinks behind them. You won't rank. Not anytime soon.

High-volume keywords sound attractive because the traffic numbers are exciting, but they're misleading. A keyword that gets 50,000 searches a month means nothing if you can't break into the first page. Meanwhile, a keyword getting 400 searches a month with almost no strong competition? That's a page you could rank in weeks, not years.

The math is simple:

• Position 1 on a low-competition keyword with 400 searches = roughly 150+ visitors a month
• Position 12 on a high-competition keyword with 50,000 searches = almost zero

Which would you rather have? Exactly.

What Makes a Keyword 'Low Competition'

There's no single universal definition, but most SEO professionals look at a combination of signals:

• Keyword Difficulty (KD) score below 30 on most tools
• Search results showing mostly thin content, forums, or older posts
• No big-brand domains dominating the first page
• Fewer than 10 strong backlink profiles pointing to page-one results
• Specific, longer phrases rather than short, generic terms

Low competition doesn't mean low quality. Many of these keywords convert extremely well because they represent very specific buyer intent. Someone searching "best CRM for freelance photographers under $50" knows exactly what they want. That's gold.

Ready to actually find them? Good. Here are seven methods that work right now, whether you're a solo blogger, a small business owner, or an SEO professional managing multiple client sites.

1. Start With Google's Own Suggestions

This one's free, instant, and criminally underused.

Open Google, type in your main topic, and pause. Don't hit enter yet. Look at the autocomplete suggestions that drop down. Those are real searches that real people are making. Now try adding different letters or words after your topic. "Best coffee maker for." and then "s," then "t," then "b." Each letter gives you a different set of suggestions.

Also check:

• The "Related searches" section at the bottom of any Google results page
• The "People Also Ask" boxes (more on that shortly)
• Google Trends to see if a phrase is growing or dying in popularity

The beauty here is that Google itself is telling you what people want. These autocomplete phrases are often long-tail and specific, which means they're naturally lower in competition, and you don't need to pay a penny to find them.

Pro tip: Do this in an incognito browser tab so your personal search history doesn't skew the results.

2. Mine Your Competitors' Weak Spots

Your competitors have already done a lot of the hard work. They've published content, gotten it indexed, and you can see exactly where they're vulnerable.

Here's how to find low competition keywords by looking at what your competitors rank for on pages two and three of Google. These are positions 11 through 30. They're getting some impressions but not much traffic. A better, more targeted piece of content could leapfrog them.

You can do this with tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Semly Pro. Run a competitor's domain through a keyword gap analysis. Look for:

• Keywords they rank for between positions 11 and 30
• Keywords where their page has low engagement signals
• Topics they've covered only briefly or without real depth
• Queries where their content is outdated (old stats, old tools, old advice)

When you find a keyword a competitor ranks for weakly, that's your opening. Write something better, more specific, and more current.

3. Use Long-Tail Keyword Variations

Short keywords are a bloodbath. Long-tail keywords are where smart SEOs play.

A long-tail keyword is typically three or more words and represents a very specific search. Instead of "email marketing," you're looking at "email marketing for nonprofits with small lists" or "how to write email subject lines for e-commerce re-engagement." More specific, lower competition, and often much higher conversion rates.

Here's a simple process to generate long-tail variations:

1. Take your core topic or seed keyword
2. Add a qualifier (best, cheap, free, for beginners, with examples)
3. Add an audience (for freelancers, for small businesses, for beginners)
4. Add a context (in 2026, without experience, on a budget)
5. Add a question format (how to, why does, what is the best)

Tools like AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, and Semly Pro can help you generate hundreds of these variations at once, but honestly? You can build a solid list just by thinking about your audience and what specific problems they face.

4. Check Reddit, Quora, and Niche Forums

This is one of the most underrated methods for finding low competition keywords, and almost nobody talks about it enough.

Real people on Reddit and Quora ask real questions in real language. They don't optimize for search engines. They just ask exactly what they want to know. That's exactly what you need.

Go to Reddit and search for your niche. Browse the top subreddits and look at what questions come up repeatedly. What confuses people? What do beginners always ask? What debates keep happening? Each of those is a potential keyword cluster.

On Quora, search for your topic and look at questions with a high number of views but not many good answers. That gap is your opportunity.

You can also search for niche-specific forums. If you're in the photography space, check photography forums. in finance? Personal finance communities. The language your audience uses naturally is often far less competitive than the sanitized "SEO language" that most content uses.

Take those phrases back to your keyword tool and check the competition. You'll often find them sitting with a KD below 20. Exactly what you're after.

5. Look at 'People Also Ask' Boxes

Google's "People Also Ask" boxes are a goldmine that most people scroll past without a second glance. Don't do that.

Every time you search for something and see that expandable question box, those are real queries that Google has identified as closely related to your search, and here's the interesting part: when you click on one, more questions appear below it. You can keep clicking and keep uncovering an almost infinite tree of related questions.

Each of those questions is a potential article, a potential FAQ section, or a potential H2 inside a larger post, and because they're often very specific, they tend to have lower competition than broader queries.

Quick example: search "how to start a blog." In the PAA box you might find:

• "How do I start a blog with no experience?"
• "Is blogging still profitable in 2026?"
• "What kind of blog makes the most money?"

Each of those is a separate, rankable keyword opportunity. Run them through a keyword difficulty checker and you'll often find them well under the 30 KD threshold.

6. Filter by Keyword Difficulty in SEO Tools

Most professional SEO tools give you a keyword difficulty score. This is your most direct way to filter out the hard stuff and focus on what's actually winnable.

Here's how to find low competition keywords using the filter method:

1. Open your keyword research tool (Semrush, Ahrefs, SE Ranking, or Semly Pro)
2. Enter a seed keyword or topic
3. Set the keyword difficulty filter to a maximum of 20 to 30
4. Set a minimum monthly search volume of 100 to 200 (to filter out dead keywords)
5. Sort by search volume from high to low
6. Look for keywords where the top-ranking pages have low domain authority

This method is fast. You can go from a blank page to a list of 50 viable low competition keywords in under 20 minutes when you know how to use the filters properly.

One important thing to remember: keyword difficulty scores aren't identical across tools. A KD of 25 in Ahrefs might show up as 35 in another tool. Always look at the actual search results page manually for any keyword you're seriously considering targeting. The score is a guide, not a guarantee.

7. Track What AI Search Tools Are Surfacing

This one's very specific to 2026 and it's the approach that forward-thinking SEOs are only just starting to build into their workflows.

AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT search, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews are surfacing answers to questions that traditional search never prioritized. When you track what queries AI tools are responding to, you can identify brand-new keyword opportunities before they become competitive in traditional search.

Here's why this works: if an AI search tool is surfacing answers for a topic but the traditional organic search results for that query are still weak, you have a window to publish strong content, rank organically, and get cited by AI tools at the same time.

Semly Pro's AI visibility tracking is built specifically for this. It monitors what AI tools are saying about topics in your niche, detects gaps where strong content is missing, and flags those as keyword opportunities before your competitors notice them. It's one of the most powerful ways to find low competition keywords that are about to get more search volume as user habits shift toward AI search.

Semly Pro was built for exactly this kind of work. It's not just another keyword research tool. It's a platform that combines traditional SEO research with AI search visibility tracking, giving you a view of keyword opportunities that most tools simply can't show you.

How Semly Pro Helps You Find Winnable Keywords

Semly Pro's keyword research features give you:

• Keyword difficulty scores with manual SERP analysis built in
• AI-powered content briefs based on low-competition angles
• Long-form SEO article generation (40 articles per month on the Pro plan)
• Competitor keyword gap analysis across up to 5 competitors on Pro
• 100 tracked keywords on the Pro plan, 500 on Business Pro

The Pro plan starts at €139/mo and gives solo marketers and small business owners everything they need to build a consistent pipeline of low-competition content. If you're running an agency or managing multiple sites, the Business Pro plan at €229/mo bumps that up to 100 long-form articles per month, 3 projects, and 3 team seats.

There's also a 7-day free trial so you can test the platform before committing to anything. No credit card stress, no long contracts.

AI Visibility Tracking and Keyword Opportunity Detection

This is where Semly Pro genuinely stands apart from older tools.

In 2026, search isn't just Google anymore. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews are answering millions of queries every day. Semly Pro's AI visibility score tracks how visible your content is across these platforms and flags competitor gaps. When a competitor isn't being cited by AI tools for a query you could own, that's a low competition keyword opportunity hiding in plain sight.

The Business Pro plan includes advanced AI metrics, LLMs. txt generation, and data export in CSV or JSON format so your team can build reporting workflows around these insights, and if you'd rather have Semly Pro's team run all of this for you, the Managed SEO plan at €469/mo puts a dedicated strategist on your account with weekly AI visibility tracking, citation monitoring, and monthly strategy calls.

Finding low competition keywords is only half the battle. The other half is choosing which ones to actually target. Not every low-competition keyword is worth your time.

Match Keywords to Search Intent

Search intent is the "why" behind a keyword. Google is extremely good at understanding intent now, and if your content doesn't match what the searcher actually wants, you won't rank regardless of how low the competition is.

There are four main types of search intent:

• Informational: The person wants to learn something ("what is keyword difficulty")
• Navigational: The person wants to find a specific site ("Semly Pro login")
• Commercial: The person is comparing options ("best keyword research tools 2026")
• Transactional: The person is ready to buy ("buy Ahrefs subscription")

Before you commit to any keyword, look at the top-ranking results for it. Are they blog posts? Product pages? Comparison articles? YouTube videos? That tells you exactly what type of content Google thinks satisfies the intent for that query. Match your content format to what's already winning.

Check Monthly Search Volume vs. Difficulty Ratio

Here's a simple framework for evaluating whether a keyword is worth pursuing:

This isn't a rigid rule. Some keywords with 50 searches a month convert so well that they're worth more than a keyword with 5,000 searches and no commercial value. Context always matters.

Prioritize Keywords With Commercial or Informational Value

Not all traffic is equal. Someone searching "what is a keyword" is probably a beginner who won't buy anything today. Someone searching "Semrush vs Semly Pro for small business" is actively comparing options and close to a decision.

Prioritize low competition keywords that either:

• Bring in readers who are close to making a purchase decision
• Build topical authority in your niche so future content ranks more easily
• Answer a question your specific audience asks regularly
• Connect directly to a product or service you offer

A balanced content strategy targets both informational keywords to build trust and commercial keywords to drive revenue. Don't just chase low competition. Chase low competition that matters to your business goals.

Let's be real, there are a lot of tools claiming to help you find low competition keywords. Here's how the main players stack up on the features that actually matter for this specific task.

What this table shows pretty clearly: most tools handle traditional keyword research well enough, but very few combine keyword discovery with AI search visibility tracking in the same platform. That combination is increasingly important in 2026 as search behavior shifts toward AI-powered tools.

Semly Pro is the only tool in this list that gives you keyword difficulty scoring, long-tail discovery, AI visibility tracking, and content generation all under one roof. That's a meaningful time saver if you're managing SEO across multiple projects.

Most people know they should target low competition keywords. Fewer know the mistakes that make the whole effort worthless. Let's fix that.

Targeting Keywords With Zero Search Volume

Low competition doesn't mean no competition, and zero search volume keywords aren't low competition, they're just. pointless.

Some keywords look attractive because they have a KD of 0 and no competing content, but if nobody's searching for them, ranking first doesn't help you at all. Always confirm there's at least some search activity, even if it's 50 to 100 searches a month, before investing time in content creation.

Also keep in mind that some keyword tools undercount search volume, especially for very new or very niche phrases. Cross-reference suspicious results across two or three tools before writing them off completely.

Ignoring Search Intent Entirely

This is where a lot of content fails silently. You find a keyword with low competition and decent volume, you write a solid post, and it just doesn't rank. Often the culprit is mismatched intent.

If the top three results for a keyword are all "listicle" style posts and you've written a deep single-product review, you're fighting Google's understanding of what that query deserves. You don't have to copy the format exactly, but you need to satisfy the same underlying need.

Check the SERP before you write. Always. It takes two minutes and can save you hours of wasted effort.

Publishing Thin Content for Easy Keywords

Here's a temptation you'll face often: you find a keyword so easy that a 400-word article could probably rank for it. So you publish something thin and move on quickly. Don't.

Thin content works in the very short term and then collapses. Google's helpful content updates have specifically targeted low-effort, low-value content, and when your thin posts get penalized, they drag down the authority of everything else on your site.

Even for genuinely easy keywords, write content that actually serves the reader well. Answer the question fully. Add context, examples, and relevant links. 800 words of genuinely useful content beats 400 words of filler every single time, and it holds its rankings far longer.

Finding keywords is one thing. Turning them into a repeatable strategy is another. Here's how to do it properly so you're building momentum month after month, not just publishing random posts.

Group Keywords Into Topic Clusters

Don't think about keywords as individual posts. Think about them as clusters of related content that reinforce each other.

A topic cluster has one broad "pillar" piece that covers a main topic at a high level, and then several "cluster" pieces that go deep on specific subtopics. Each cluster piece links back to the pillar, and the pillar links out to all the clusters. This internal linking structure signals to Google that your site is genuinely authoritative on the topic.

Quick example of a topic cluster for keyword research:

• Pillar: "The Complete Guide to Keyword Research for Small Businesses"
• Cluster 1: "How to Find Low Competition Keywords" (that's this article)
• Cluster 2: "What Is Keyword Difficulty and How Is It Calculated"
• Cluster 3: "Long-Tail Keywords: How to Find and Use Them"
• Cluster 4: "How to Do Keyword Research With No Budget"
• Cluster 5: "Keyword Research for Blogs vs. E-Commerce Sites"

Each piece in that cluster can target low competition keywords individually, but together they build topical authority that helps all of them rank better. This is how newer sites can compete against much bigger domains.

Plan a Publishing Schedule You Can Stick To

Consistency beats intensity every time in SEO. Publishing 10 articles in one week and then going silent for two months won't build the kind of momentum that compounds over time.

Set a publishing pace based on what you can realistically sustain:

• Solo blogger or small business: 2 to 4 articles per month
• Small team: 6 to 10 articles per month
• Agency or content-focused brand: 15 to 40+ articles per month

Semly Pro's Pro plan at €139/mo gives you 40 long-form SEO articles per month. That's enough to run a serious content operation for a solo marketer, publishing one or more pieces every single day if you want to. The Business Pro plan at €229/mo brings that up to 100 articles per month across 3 projects, which is solid territory for agencies managing multiple client accounts.

The key is building a pipeline. Always have 4 to 6 articles in production at any given time. That way, if something takes longer than expected, you're never left with a gap in your schedule.

Pair that with Semly Pro's CMS publishing to all 12 supported platforms and you've got a content engine that doesn't require you to manually copy-paste everything into WordPress, Webflow, or whatever CMS you're using. It all connects.

What exactly counts as a low competition keyword?

Most SEO professionals consider a keyword "low competition" when its difficulty score is below 30 on tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Semly Pro, but the score alone isn't enough. You should also look at the actual search results page. If the top-ranking pages have low domain authority, few backlinks, and thin content, that's a strong signal the keyword is genuinely winnable regardless of what the score says.

How do I find low competition keywords for free?

You can find plenty of low competition keywords without spending a cent. Start with Google's autocomplete and related searches. Check the "People Also Ask" boxes on any results page. Browse Reddit, Quora, and niche forums for real questions your audience asks. Google Trends is also free and shows you whether a keyword is gaining or losing interest. Free tools like Google Search Console can also show you keywords you're already getting impressions for but not fully ranking on yet.

What's the difference between keyword difficulty and search volume?

Keyword difficulty measures how hard it would be to rank on the first page for a given term, typically based on the strength of the pages currently ranking there. Search volume tells you how many times that keyword is searched each month. You want to find keywords where search volume is reasonable but difficulty is low. A keyword with 500 searches per month and a KD of 10 is far more valuable for a newer site than one with 10,000 monthly searches and a KD of 70.

How many low competition keywords should I target per month?

There's no perfect number, but a realistic goal for a small team or solo blogger is 4 to 8 well-researched, low-competition keywords per month. Quality consistently beats quantity here. Publishing 4 strong, well-matched articles will outperform 20 thin posts targeting any keyword that has a low difficulty score. As your domain authority grows, you can expand your targets and start going after slightly more competitive phrases.

Can I rank for low competition keywords without backlinks?

Yes, and this is one of the main reasons low competition keywords are so powerful for newer sites. When the competing pages have few or weak backlinks themselves, you can often rank with a well-structured, high-quality article and solid on-page SEO, even without building external links. That said, over time, building even a modest number of quality backlinks will make a big difference to how quickly you rank and how well your content holds position.

How long does it take to rank for a low competition keyword?

For genuinely low-competition keywords, many sites see movement within 4 to 12 weeks. Some rank within weeks if the competition is minimal and the content is strong. That's significantly faster than chasing high-competition terms, where you might wait 12 to 18 months for meaningful results. The timeline also depends on how often Google crawls your site, how well your content matches search intent, and how strong your site's overall authority is.

Does Semly Pro help with keyword research specifically?

Yes. Semly Pro combines keyword difficulty analysis, competitor gap detection, and AI-powered content brief generation to help you identify and act on low competition keyword opportunities. The platform also tracks how your content performs across AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity, which is increasingly important in 2026 as more search traffic flows through AI-powered platforms. You can try it free for 7 days on the Pro plan at €139/mo.

Are low competition keywords worth targeting if search volume is very low?

It depends on the keyword's relevance and commercial value. A keyword with 80 monthly searches that brings in readers who are ready to buy is often worth more than a keyword with 2,000 monthly searches from people who are nowhere near a purchase. Don't dismiss keywords with lower volume automatically. Look at the intent behind them and whether ranking for them aligns with your actual business goals. Sometimes a cluster of ten 80-search keywords, all targeted with focused content, drives more meaningful traffic than one 500-search keyword you're battling for.

What tools are best for finding low competition keywords in 2026?

Semly Pro is the strongest option for teams that want keyword research, AI visibility tracking, and content generation in one place. For pure keyword research depth, Ahrefs and Semrush are also solid. SE Ranking is a good budget-friendly alternative. Surfer SEO and Frase are better suited to content optimization than pure keyword discovery. The right tool depends on your budget, team size, and whether AI search visibility matters to your workflow, and in 2026, it really should.

How do I know if a low competition keyword is actually worth writing about?

Ask yourself four questions before committing. First, does this keyword match the actual intent of my target audience? Second, can I write something genuinely better than what's currently ranking? Third, does this keyword connect to my products, services, or the topics I want to be known for? Fourth, is there at least some search volume, even if it's modest? If you get four "yes" answers, it's worth your time. If any answer is "no," either skip the keyword or rethink your angle before writing.