How to Find Low Competition Keywords for a New Blog ✓

If you’re launching a new blog in 2025, you’re competing against established sites with years of domain authority and thousands of backlinks. The conventional advice to “just write great content” ignores this reality. What you need is a strategy that works with your limitations, not against it — and that starts with targeting keywords your new site can actually rank for. Low competition keywords are the on-ramp for new blogs. They’re how you build traffic, establish authority, and eventually compete for more ambitious terms. Here’s how to find them.

What Actually Makes a Keyword “Low Competition”

Before you search for anything, you need to understand what “low competition” means in practice — and what it doesn’t mean.

Keyword difficulty (often shown as a score from 0 to 100) attempts to predict how hard it would be to rank in the top 10 for a given search term. Most SEO tools calculate this based primarily on the backlink profiles of pages currently ranking. A score below 30 generally indicates a keyword where you might realistically compete. Scores above 60 mean established authority sites are dominating, and a brand-new blog has almost no chance without an extraordinary content piece or significant link-building effort.

But here’s the reality: keyword difficulty scores are imperfect. They measure competition from an algorithmic standpoint, but they don’t account for content quality, topical relevance, or whether the ranking pages actually satisfy search intent. Some “easy” keywords have zero search volume. Others show moderate difficulty but have ranking pages that are thin, outdated, or poorly written — meaning a well-crafted piece of content can outrank them regardless of their domain authority.

For a new blog, target keywords with difficulty scores between 0 and 30, where monthly search volume exists (even if modest — 100 to 1,000 searches per month is plenty to start). These are the keywords where your content has a realistic chance of ranking within three to six months, not three to five years.

Seven Practical Methods to Find Low Competition Keywords

Method 1: Start with Long-Tail Variations

Long-tail keywords — longer, more specific search phrases — are almost always lower competition than their shorter counterparts. Someone searching for “marketing” is flooded with results from massive brands. Someone searching for “email marketing automation for small nonprofit organizations” has far fewer relevant results to compete against.

The process is simple: take a broad topic in your niche, then add specificity. Look for modifiers like location (city, region), target audience (beginners, parents, small business owners), use case (for iPhone, for beginners, for quick meals), or problem-focused language (without experience, without spending money).

For example, “blogging tips” has a keyword difficulty around 55 and massive competition. “blogging tips for photographers starting a side business” drops that difficulty significantly while attracting a more qualified audience. You’re not trying to capture everyone — you’re trying to capture the right people with less competition.

Method 2: Use Google’s Autocomplete and Related Searches

Google itself is a powerful and free keyword research tool. Type your seed keyword into the search bar and pay attention to what autocomplete suggests. Those suggestions come from real search behavior, meaning they represent actual demand.

Take it further: run a search, scroll to the bottom of the results page, and examine “Related Searches.” These are algorithmic suggestions based on what people actually click on. You can also click through a few related searches to see what suggestions appear on subsequent pages — this creates a branching tree of low-competition queries specific enough to target.

The limitation here is that Google’s suggestions don’t come with search volume data or difficulty scores. Use this method for generating ideas, then validate them with a tool that provides metrics.

Method 3: Find Question-Based Keywords

People search differently when they have questions. “What is the best camera for travel photography” performs differently than simply “travel photography camera.” Question-based keywords (who, what, where, when, why, how) often have lower competition because fewer content creators specifically optimize for question-format queries.

Tools like AlsoAsked, AnswerThePublic, and Google’s “People Also Ask” feature are built specifically for this. AlsoAsked pulls data from Google’s PAA boxes and organizes it into visual maps showing follow-up questions. If you can answer a cluster of related questions in a single comprehensive piece of content, you create what’s called a “hub and spoke” opportunity — one pillar page linking to several detailed answers, signaling topical authority to Google.

Method 4: Analyze Competitor Keyword Gaps

Find a few blogs in your niche that are similar in age and authority to where you want to be. Look at what keywords they’re ranking for — specifically, what keywords are they ranking for in positions 4 through 10 (page two)? Those are terms where they’re almost ranking but not quite, often meaning the content could use improvement. If you can create a superior piece addressing the same keyword, you might leapfrog them.

Ahrefs and SEMrush both offer competitor analysis features. If you’re working with a tight budget, Ubersuggest’s free tier shows limited competitor data that can still surface opportunities. The key is finding sites that are only slightly ahead of you — not going after the industry giants.

Method 5: Use “Also Rank For” Data

Once you find one keyword you’re targeting, examine what else pages ranking for that keyword also rank for. This is the “also rank for” or “organic keywords” data that SEO tools provide.

Here’s why this matters: if a page about “meal prep for beginners” also ranks for “healthy lunch ideas for work” and “weekly meal planning template,” those related keywords might be easier to target. You can create content that naturally incorporates these terms, building topical relevance that helps all of them rank.

Method 6: Check Forums and Community Discussions

Reddit, Quora, niche forums, and Facebook groups in your industry are goldmines for low-competition keyword ideas. People ask questions in these spaces that they’d never type into Google directly. These queries often have zero search volume according to keyword tools — but they represent real questions your content could answer.

The approach is straightforward: spend 30 minutes browsing relevant communities. Note repeated questions, common problems, and language people use to describe their challenges. These become content topics. While the exact search volume might not register in tools, the traffic from community members who find your content through internal search or social sharing can be substantial for a new blog.

Method 7: Target Seasonal and Trending Angles

Sometimes the lowest competition opportunity isn’t a permanent keyword — it’s a timely one. A new blog covering personal finance might struggle to compete for “best savings accounts” permanently. But during tax season, “how to maximize tax refund savings” creates a temporary window where competition is lower and search interest spikes.

This requires ongoing monitoring of industry news and seasonal trends. Google Trends lets you compare search interest over time and identify when specific queries spike. You can’t build a long-term content strategy around this alone, but it creates quick-win opportunities to build traffic while you work on evergreen content.

Best Free Tools for Finding Low Competition Keywords

You don’t need to spend money to find viable keywords. Several free tools provide enough data for a new blog to build an effective strategy.

For most new bloggers, Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner together provide the core data you need: search volume, difficulty score, and related terms. AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked then help you find question variations that become content angles.

One thing to keep in mind: free tools give you direction but not precision. Volume numbers are estimates, difficulty scores vary between tools, and what shows as “zero volume” might still drive traffic. Use free tools to generate a shortlist, then validate manually by searching for the term and examining who currently ranks.

How to Verify a Keyword’s Competition Level

Finding a keyword with a low difficulty score is just the starting point. You need to verify that the opportunity is real before you invest hours creating content.

Examine the top 10 results. What is the actual quality of content currently ranking? If positions one through five are all from major publications with strong domain authority and comprehensive content, moving up will be nearly impossible regardless of difficulty scores. But if you see thin blog posts, outdated articles, or sites that clearly didn’t satisfy search intent, you’ve found a gap.

Check if ranking pages actually match search intent. If someone searches for “how to start a blog for beginners” and the top results are listicles when they actually want a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial, that’s a mismatch you can exploit with better content. Intent mismatch is often a bigger ranking factor than raw backlink numbers.

Look for recent content updates. Google tends to favor fresh content in many niches. If the top results for your target keyword were all published two or more years ago and haven’t been updated since, a new, comprehensive guide has a strong chance of ranking — regardless of domain age.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Targeting keywords with no search volume. Beginners sometimes hear that “zero competition” is the goal and find keywords with zero monthly searches. This accomplishes nothing. You need actual search demand — even 200 searches a month is meaningful when you’re building from nothing.

Ignoring search intent entirely. If you write a product review but searchers want a comparison guide, your content won’t rank regardless of how well-written it is. Always examine what format and angle the current top results use before creating your own version.

Going too broad too soon. A new blog cannot realistically compete for “digital marketing” or “fitness.” Trying to target broad terms wastes months of effort that could go toward building traffic from achievable terms. Build your way up from specific to general over time.

Not tracking results. You need to know which keywords are actually driving traffic within 90 days of publishing. Set up basic tracking in Google Search Console. If something isn’t working, adjust rather than continuing to publish into a void.

Frequently Asked Questions

What keyword difficulty score should a new blog target?
For a blog less than six months old with minimal backlinks, aim for difficulty scores between 0 and 20. As you build domain authority and earn backlinks, you can gradually target harder keywords. Sites with domain authority above 30 can realistically compete for keywords in the 30 to 50 range.

How many keywords should I target per blog post?
Focus on one primary keyword as your main target, but naturally incorporate three to five related terms throughout your content. Stuffing dozens of keywords hurts readability and doesn’t help rankings. Write for humans first; search engines have gotten sophisticated enough to understand topical relevance without keyword stuffing.

Should I avoid competitive keywords entirely as a new blogger?
Not permanently — but don’t start there. The smart strategy is to build traffic and authority through low-competition terms, then expand into more competitive spaces once you have a track record. Some new blogs do eventually rank for competitive terms, but it typically takes 18 to 24 months of consistent publishing and link-building to get there.

Moving Forward

The bloggers who succeed aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most expertise — they’re the ones who are strategic about where they compete. By targeting low competition keywords, you’re building an audience, demonstrating topical authority, and creating the foundation to eventually rank for the terms that drive significant traffic.

Most new bloggers abandon their sites before they see results because they target keywords that are too competitive from day one. If you commit to the long game — publishing consistently, targeting achievable keywords, and measuring what actually works — you’ll be surprised how quickly your small, specific topics become the gateway to larger ones.