Type "best running shoes" into a keyword tool and you'll see roughly 40,000 searches a month, which looks like a jackpot. Then you open page one: big review publishers, major retailers, and a wall of shopping results. A new blog has no business there. I've watched people spend three months on a post like that and get zero clicks.
That gap is the whole problem behind how to find keywords with low competition and high search volume. This guide gives you a workflow that produces real candidates, a way to judge them honestly, and a reality check on what "high volume" means now that AI Overviews eat clicks.
How to find keywords with low competition and high search volume: the honest answer
Keywords with truly tiny competition and huge volume are rare, and the ones that exist get taken fast. What you can find are terms where the volume is decent for your site's size and the page-one results are beatable.
What counts as "high" depends on where you stand. For a new blog, 300 to 1,500 monthly searches is often a great result. For an established site with strong authority, 5,000 might be the floor. Don't borrow someone else's threshold.
My bias, after seeing this play out: ten keywords at 400 searches each, all winnable, beat one 4,000-search keyword you'll never rank for. The cluster also builds topical authority, so the next batch comes easier.
Step 1: Start from your audience, not a tool
Your best seed ideas come from questions your customers already ask. Before you open any software, write down 15 to 20 problems your reader has. Pull them from sales calls, support emails, Reddit threads, and the comment sections under competitors' posts.
Say you run a small shop selling trail running gear. Nobody types "running." They type "how to stop toenails turning black on downhills" or "trail shoes for wide feet." Those are specific, real, and mostly ignored by big publishers.
Lifestyle niches work the same way. A store like Sneakerland wouldn't chase "best sneakers". It'd go after how to clean suede sneakers or how to spot a fake release.
Step 2: Expand seeds into long-tail candidates
Long-tail expansion is where low competition and decent volume actually meet. Take each seed and stretch it in four directions:
- Questions: who, what, why, how, can, does, should.
- Modifiers: best, cheap, for beginners, for small business, vs, alternative.
- Audience: for seniors, for freelancers, for runners with flat feet.
- Problem phrases: not working, keeps happening, how to fix.
Google's autocomplete and the "People Also Ask" box are free and surprisingly good. Type a seed, add each letter of the alphabet, and note what appears. Then use a tool to attach numbers.
A sports-focused site such as Godform could turn "strength training" into dozens of angles: strength training after 40, how many sets for hypertrophy, kettlebell routines for tight hips. Each one has its own searcher and its own intent.
Step 3: Pull volume estimates (free first)
Start with Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends. They cost nothing and come straight from the source. Keyword Planner is free with a Google Ads account, though as Digidop reports, Google may ask for billing information to access the basic features. You don't have to run a campaign.
Google Trends adds what Planner can't: direction. A keyword with 2,000 searches that's been sliding for three years is worse than one with 800 that's climbing. Check seasonality too, so you don't publish a Christmas guide in December.
If you want a paid tool for faster sorting, here's what the 2026 comparisons I checked list. Semrush Pro is $139.95/month, and Rankability's 2026 tool roundup puts Ahrefs Lite at $129/month. SEO.com's keyword tool comparison gives KWFinder, which leans toward long-tail discovery and low difficulty, a starting price of $49/month. Plans and limits change, so treat these as the 2026 baseline.
| Tool | Cost (2026 listings) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Google Keyword Planner | Free with Ads account | Volume ranges, ideas |
| Google Trends | Free | Seasonality, rising or fading interest |
| KWFinder | From $49/month | Long-tail, low difficulty |
| Ahrefs Lite | $129/month | Backlink-aware difficulty |
| Semrush Pro | $139.95/month | All-in-one research |
Treat every volume number as an estimate. Keyword Planner often shows a range like 1K to 10K when you're not spending on ads, while Ahrefs gives a single figure for the same term, so the two can't even be compared cleanly. Use the numbers to rank candidates against each other, not to forecast traffic to the click.
Step 4: Mine Search Console for hidden wins
If your site already has data, Google Search Console is the cheapest source of winnable keywords you have. Open the Performance report, filter to queries with impressions but low clicks, and look at positions 8 through 25.
These are terms Google already associates with you. Digidop makes the same point: find terms where the site gets impressions but could improve rankings or page coverage. A page sitting at position 14 for a 1,000-search query often needs a better title, a tighter section, or a dedicated article. Far quicker than starting cold.
No site yet? Skip this and lean harder on the SERP check below. And if you're brand new, this breakdown of what search queries a new website can rank for will calibrate your expectations.
Step 5: Judge competition by reading the results, not the score
A keyword difficulty score is a starting hint, never a verdict. Different tools calculate it differently, and a low number doesn't prove a query is winnable. Open the actual search results and run this check:
- Intent match: do the top pages answer the same question you plan to answer, in the same format (guide, list, tool, product page)?
- Site strength: are the ranking domains giants, or are there small blogs, forums, and newer sites mixed in?
- Content quality: are the top pages thin, outdated, or vague? A 2021 article ranking first is an invitation.
- Page-level links: does the top result have dozens of referring domains, or almost none?
- SERP features: is the page crowded with videos, shopping carousels, and an AI Overview pushing organic results below the fold?
Two or three small or weak sites in the top ten is the signal I look for most. It says Google is willing to rank someone like you. Forum threads (Reddit, Quora) ranking in the top five tell you the same thing: nobody has written a good answer yet.
If a small site you've never heard of ranks on page one, you can too. If page one is all household names, move on.
For a deeper look at this mindset, see our walkthrough on how to find winnable keywords on Google.
Step 6: Adjust volume for AI Overviews
High volume doesn't guarantee clicks anymore, especially for informational queries. An Ahrefs analysis using December 2025 data found that informational keywords with AI Overviews had about 58% lower position-one organic click-through rate than its comparison baseline.
That changes the math. A 5,000-search question that triggers an AI Overview may deliver fewer visits than a 1,200-search query with a clean results page. When you shortlist, check whether an Overview appears, and favor terms where the answer needs depth, opinion, comparison, or a product decision. Those still send people to pages. It's also why commercial and "best for X" queries have held up better than plain definitions.
Step 7: Score and prioritize your shortlist
Rank candidates by expected value, not by volume. A simple scoring pass in a spreadsheet works fine. Give each keyword a 1 to 5 on four things:
- Winnability: how weak is the competition after your SERP read?
- Volume: relative to your site's size, not the internet's.
- Business value: would this reader plausibly become a customer, subscriber, or repeat visitor?
- Angle: can you say something the current results don't?
Multiply or add, sort, and take the top ten. Group close variants under one page by intent. "Low competition keywords" and "easy keywords to rank for" are the same searcher, so don't write two articles. If you're unsure how many terms a single page should target, this guide on how many keywords to use gives a straight answer.
| Keyword | Est. volume | Winnability (1-5) | Value (1-5) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| trail shoes for wide feet | 900 | 4 | 5 | Write now |
| best running shoes | 40,000 | 1 | 3 | Skip |
| stop black toenails running | 700 | 4 | 3 | Write soon |
| running shoe drop explained | 1,300 | 3 | 4 | Queue |
Step 8: Check competitors' keywords for free
You can see roughly what your competitors rank for without paying. Search their brand name with "site:" plus a topic, scan their blog categories, and look at their title tags. Free tiers of several research tools show a handful of top keywords per domain, and Keyword Planner can take a competitor URL as a seed.
The point isn't copying. You're after the subtopics they skipped. If three rivals all cover "how to choose a kettlebell" and none cover "kettlebell sizes for women starting out," you've found your gap.
What about the 80/20 rule in SEO?
In SEO, the 80/20 rule says a small share of your pages usually drives most of your traffic. It's a pattern, not a law. Practically, it means you should find and double down on the 20% of topics that work, rather than spreading thin across hundreds of weak ones. Track what ranks, then build more around those clusters. If you need a way to do that, our guide on how to check ranking for keywords covers it.
Common mistakes that waste weeks
Chasing volume alone is the big one. Close behind: trusting a difficulty score without opening the SERP, targeting a keyword whose intent you don't actually satisfy, and publishing one lonely article instead of a connected set.
Another quiet killer is patience. A winnable keyword can still take 3 to 6 months to climb. Judge the batch, not the single post. For more on speed, this piece on finding low competition keywords to rank fast is a useful companion.
Your next step
Pick one topic this week and generate 30 long-tail ideas. Pull volumes from Keyword Planner, read the top ten results for your best eight, and write the one whose page one looks weakest. Then check Search Console in four weeks to see which impressions it picked up.
Doing this by hand eats hours. Spook finds winnable Google and ChatGPT queries for you, writes the articles in your brand's voice, and publishes them straight to your website, so the research-to-post loop above doesn't depend on your calendar.