This Niche research guide is intended for beginners in the field. It explains everything in detail from a beginner’s perspective.
Niche research is the first and foremost part of blogging. The more competitive the niche is, the more complex the chances of success.
So, our complete focus will be on finding an easy niche.
Niche research, as the name says, requires consistent hard work and research work.
If you already know your go-to area (your interests) where you want to blog, that’s pretty good. But if you are blank in this phase and don’t know what to research or where to start, don’t worry. We are taking both cases into action.
It is not necessary to have prior interests before doing niche research, but if you have some initial interest, then it is good.
Niche research requires a seed keyword or seed interest keyword, a broad, foundational keyword that is the starting point for keyword research. This keyword is typically a short, general term with high search volume and competition, which can be expanded into more specific long-tail keywords.
There are tools to start finding a topic to start a blog. The most famous and in-practice tools are
Semrush, Ahrefs, Uber Suggest, Google Trends, Google Keyword Planner, Answer the public , MOZ, Keyword Surfer
The further we progress in the niche research guide, the more tools we will explore.
However, it is unnecessary to use all of them for niche research; whichever tool is accessible can be used.
Ahref is quite expensive, but it effectively identifies profitable and low-competitive niches. Semrush, in comparison, is less costly and nearly equal in quality.
Now, to start niche research, there are two cases:
1. Do you have a prior interest in any domain? e.g., medicine, Technology, and lifestyle.
2: You have no idea where to start and no interest.
For the first case:
Let’s say we know our interests. I am interested in gardening.
Now, gardening itself is a broader keyword (seed keyword), but it is relevant to my interests, so I will start digging down further with the help of this seed keyword.
When I said broader keyword, there are classifications
1. Broader keywords
2: Narrow keywords
Broader keywords are parent keywords. These are keywords that generally speak about the whole spectrum. Usually, this cannot be a niche because it is a high-competition keyword.
The word gardening refers to the broad spectrum of fields, such as gardening.
We shall explore their subtopics or subdomains to narrow the keywords or topics, such as kitchen and field gardening. Kitchen gardening is distinct from field, commercial, or advanced gardening.
People do not expect kitchen gardening to address how to plant the eucalyptus or oak tree. So, it lessens the scope of gardening to include kitchen gardening.
There are also more concepts: as we proceed, we will explore the needed concepts at that time.
We may classify the above concepts into three categories:
1- macro niche/topic/keywords
2- micro niche/topic/keywords
3- Nano niche
Macro niche/topic is when we cover broader aspects of the topic. For example, if we cover gardening, it may include all kinds of plants and every level of gardening, including square-foot gardening, commercial gardening, vegan gardening, etc.
Micro niche/topic is when we narrow down the topic compared to a broader level. gardening -> kitchen gardening -> seasonal gardening etc.
Another example of a micro niche is that you may write about the diseases a plant may have and how to cure them.
You may also cover how to grow plants (kitchen gardening or commercial).
A nano niche/topic is when we discuss only a single topic. For example, you may only cover the best time to grow a seed or the best time to harvest a crop.
Until now, it has been assumed that you know what a niche is.
Now, another topic to expand on is niche selection criteria.
In the above section, we learned about a niche. We discussed some topics, but we can not use them straight-up as a niche.
Because algorithms run behind Google searches, we learned algorithm behaviours and search patterns to let us know the exact selection of keywords and niches on which to write a blog.
Instead of using the topic as it came to our minds, we will examine some criteria.
The metrics involved in niche research selection criteria are as follows: We will explain these terms/metrics after another important discussion.
Keyword Volume, Keyword Difficulty, Domain Authority, Backlinks, Pages, Content, Trends/seasonality, Search Intent
Search intent is a fundamental concept when it comes to niche research. There are many types of niches.
1- Informational
2- Tool niches
3- Affiliate/commercial
4- Services
5- Transactional / product based
If the word asks or delivers some information, it is categorized as informational intent.
Examples include how to grow sweet potatoes, today’s date, and the right time to grow potatoes. These all deliver informational Intent.
If the keyword contains phrases like tool, generator, downloader, tool, converter, maker, calculator, etc., indicate tool intent. If a keyword contains these mentioned phrases, it means, the visitor is searching for some functional tools, not information on these topics.
Like “BMI Calculator” is a tool-based keyword, we must provide a tool to calculate BMI instead of only an informational blog.
At the same time, if the search query is “What is a BMI calculator ?” It is an informational query. The user is in search of some theoretical information. It isn’t necessary to cover tools in this case, but it can also be efficient if you do so to become an Authority.
Authority: If a site covers every aspect of a niche(topic) with accuracy and consistency, the site is considered an authority site. When the Google algorithm thinks a site is an authority site, it rules over the SERP.
However, becoming an authority requires other Factors as well. It is E.E.A.T
E: Experience
E: Expertise
A: Authoritativeness
T: Trustworthiness
Explaining these factors will distract from the actual topic. We were discussing the intent of the niche.
The third intent type we will discuss is Affiliate/Commercial intent. Keywords include “best,” “Review,” and” brand names.”
For example, “best skating shoes” or “best-running shoes” is an affiliate keyword that compares many shoes, helps users compare multiple options and chooses the best brand or product.
Navigation intent keywords often include phrases like “login pages,” “signup,” “register,” etc. These intents involve users navigating directly to a specific webpage, such as login or signup pages.
The fourth intent is transactional or product-based, such as “buy,” “product name”, “discount,” “coupon,” “price,” etc.
The Fifth and last intent is services-based keywords. Service-based keywords include “plumber near me,” “website design Perth,” and “parlour near me.”
Service-based keywords often involve location, near me, and some service (not product) based keywords.
To find an accurate niche, it is essential to determine the intent of the keyword we are searching for. Considering intent is also important because if we mistakenly use a tool-intended keyword as an informational keyword, Google automatically shows websites in the top results that cover the tool according to the keyword’s intent instead of our site.
Our main goal is to rank higher and earn well, so intent is crucial.
Now, we are at the point where we will find our niche.
We will be using Semrush for this keyword research:
Let’s start with our used example. Our seed keyword was “gardening”.
We logged intoSemrush.
Then, the keyword magic feature of the software.
After clicking search, it will show thousands of variations.
Our main goal is to find a narrow keyword, which we will use as our selection criteria.
We can see that the total keyword variations are 115821.
It isn’t easy to check all keywords manually. We will apply filters to narrow this report and choose an efficient niche.
Now is the time to learn essential terms and criteria to understand this niche research/selection process fully
Keyword difficulty: keyword difficulty presents how difficult this keyword can be to rank on the first page of Google.
What factors made a keyword too difficult is another explanation, but the higher the difficulty scores are, the more difficult it will be to rank the keyword.
If this is your first time delving into this field, focus on the only keyword with a difficulty of less than 25.
Keyword volume shows how often people search for a keyword. A higher volume means more chances to attract visitors to your site. But we shouldn’t focus only on volume—we also need to consider other essential factors in niche research.
There are no strict rules for keyword volume, but it should be at least 30-40k. This minimum threshold ensures the keyword has enough search demand to provide good monetary benefits.
It is important to note that this does not apply to every niche. It is only for informational, tool, or commercial niches.
Some niches do not require large volumes. Luxury or premium items don’t need many visitors. Instead, smaller conversion rates can yield massive results compared to other niche types.
The third metric for niche selection is a trend. Trends provide two types of information: seasonality and the niche’s popularity in that particular region.
It is essential to know whether we are selecting evergreen or seasonal niches.
As the name implies, seasonal niches involve short-term perks. Your blog site will get traffic for particular months, such as result sites and cricket schedule announcement sites.
Evergreen niches involve finance, technology, gadgets, parenting, health, etc.
Other than the seasonality check, trends give you an idea of the country where this niche is most in demand.
Selecting the niche with a stable trend in Google Trends is advised.
Based on these three factors, let’s play with 115821 keywords and find a good niche that meets our criteria.
We applied a volume filter with a minimum of 30,000 and a second filter for kd, which is straightforward.
In Semrush, easy KD can be between 15% and 25%.
You can see that out of 115821 keywords, it summarises one keyword, which is
“Gilroy Gardens”
Gilroy Garden has a 50k volume and kd: 20%
For further information, we will check this keyword in the keyword explorer feature of Semrush.
Now it is time to check 3rd metric, which is a trend.
Once it passes all 3 initial assessments, we will check further criteria for niche research/selection.
It can be seen there are 2 filters applied
1- country
2- duration
If you recall, the United States was the country that came up top when exploring the keyword on Semrush’s keyword explorer.
This is why we will check the keyword’s trend in that country to see if it is being searched there.
The trend we saw is not alarming but also not good. Hundreds and thousands of niches used to have straight horizontal lines on the y-axis at the point of 100.
But as it isn’t bad, we will explore further aspects of our niche criteria.
I will place this keyword on Google, and we will check SERP to explore other metrics.
SERP stands for search engine result pages. When you write a query, thousands of pages come up in search results, called SERP. The other metrics will be revealed in our niche research selection area.
After putting the keyword on Google, enable the location of the targeted country in your browser settings to see that country’s result pages.
I used Ahref’s extensions and changed the SERP location using that extension. Now, the Pages we are seeing are location-personalized.
I checked the SERP; unfortunately, it did not finalize this niche. SERP is over-dominated.
It involves all the SERP features, including the knowledge panel, site link, people also ask, and images.
The Google knowledge panel is enough to outrank the SERP. However, the first site after this is authoritative, so we cannot easily rank it here.
I checked the SERP site’s DA, and it is very high. DA ( Domain Authority) is a Moz metric that calculates domain authority based on Quality, number of backlinks, Website age, trustworthiness, and Overall SEO performance.
For newcomers, we advise starting a SERP battle with some low-authority sites.
So, the fourth metric we check while selecting a niche is Domain Authority. Having at least 3-4 sites with DA less than 30 in SERP is advised.
It is 4rth but essential criteria for niche selection.
Once your niche selection process fulfils these four steps, check to see if it has fewer pages so you can easily outrank him by replicating him.
Now repeat this process to find a good niche selection process by the same method and find a good niche for you.
There are hundreds of methods to search for niche research. We will now explore the niche-finding process using Ahrefs :
Let’s Explore a new method.
We will log into Ahrefs:
Open the content explorer feature of Ahrefs. Now, we have chosen a different seed keyword. At this level, we haven’t applied any filter.
This results in a new screen with 102,842,992 pages. We will apply some filters to summarise the results.
You can play with filters here, like applying a KD filter or increasing the volume. But I will reverse engineer the following domain/site to find a niche.
We will open another feature – site explorer. In this article, I tried to explore the very first domain.
It has 8.8M keywords. We clicked on keywords, and Ahrefs showed 5,255,048 keywords, with pages ranking for those keywords. For every keyword, Intent, volume, and KD are also mentioned.
We will apply some filters to meet our needs, such as the tool’s volume, KD, or other filters. For now, I only applied keyword difficulty volume, which reduced the result to 3,762,077. Although it is a massive list of keywords to look into details manually, it gives a huge opportunity to extract a good niche.
Now, play around with the filters and find a good niche. Repeat the process shared above.
1- pick keyword
2- check volume
3- check difficulty – KD
4- check trend
5- check SERP & Domain Authority
6- Check the pages and backlinks of the site’s ranking already on the SERP.
This article is written by Apex Digital Agency, a leading digital marketing and web development agency specializing in SEO and website design & development. For queries, Email us or fill out the contact form with the query.