There is a cool new keyword tool I have started using that I thought you might like to know about. It is called Answer the Public, and it is found at https://answerthepublic.com. You supply it with a keyword and it generates keyword lists based on Google and Bing auto suggest results. This will help you find long-tail keywords for SEO or paid search.

It creates these interesting visualizations of the keywords, stemming from the root keyword.

But the thing I am most interested in is just the straight list of the keywords. To see that data, click the Data button next to the Visualization button, near the top of the screen. Click the Download CSV link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to download a spreadsheet of the keyword results.

The application also offers a Pro version that allows you to specify search data from particular geographic regions.

One problem with the Answer the Public tool is that it does not provide any kind of data related to traffic. I much prefer to work with keywords with a documented history of traffic. So I suggest you take one additional step, which is to load the keywords into the Google Ads Keyword Planner.

Caveat: the Keyword Planner tool may not work with an account that is not generating click costs.

Assuming you have an active Google Ads account, log into Google Ads, go to the Keyword Planner tool, and then click the Get search volume and forecasts link. Then copy and paste your keyword list from Answer the Public into the textbox.

Now we’ve REALLY got something to work with! By combining the auto suggest keyword lists with search traffic data, we can pinpoint keywords that let us tap into little pockets of traffic. And it will be effective traffic because the content you will create to pick up that search traffic will answer the very question they are seeking to answer (or at least it should!)

If you wanna be a serious search master, you’ve got to be willing to try different things. So give this strategy a try and see what it does for you.