Keyword Research for Low Competition Opportunities

Meet Ben Adler, the founder of Keyword Chef, a tool in the realm of SEO and keyword research. In our interview, Ben shares the features that set Keyword Chef apart, such as its approach to identifying low-competition, long-tail keywords and its advanced automatic keyword filtering. He discusses the challenges and triumphs in developing this tool, providing insights into common keyword research mistakes and offering invaluable advice for small business owners and bloggers. With his deep understanding of SEO trends and passion for helping others succeed in the digital world, Ben’s perspective is not just enlightening but essential for anyone looking to excel in online marketing.

Inspiration Behind Keyword Chef

SBS – What inspired you to create Keyword Chef, and how does it differ from other keyword research tools?

Ben – While I was building niche websites, I discovered an easy way to rank for keywords in Google without backlinks. In some cases, I could even rank and earn commissions within 24 hours of publishing. While this was a manual process, I thought I could use my programming background to build a tool to automate the process.

What makes Keyword Chef unique is that it does two things really well: finding long-tail keywords and analyzing those keywords in bulk. This is done by scraping real-time search results for thousands of keywords at once, which not many other tools can do. This allows users to find low-competition keywords as quickly and easily as possible, saving hours of work.

Developing the Automatic Keyword Filter

SBS – Can you describe the process of developing the automatic keyword filtering feature?

Ben – The automatic keyword filtering feature solves a common problem found in other tools, which is “junk keywords.” Junk keywords are keywords that bloggers would never want to target, such as “pizza near me.” This particular keyword is a poor choice because the search intent is about finding local pizza shops to order pizza, not to read a blog post. Instead of showing these keywords to the user, Keyword Chef automatically hides them.

While “near me” keywords are just one example, there are hundreds of other types of keywords that are also removed. By removing these keywords, bloggers can focus on the keywords that matter. Developing this feature required a lot of work by analyzing thousands of keywords manually across various niches.

Ensuring Keyword Accuracy and Relevance

SBS – How does Keyword Chef ensure the accuracy and relevance of the keywords it suggests?

Ben – In terms of accuracy, we use an API provider to retrieve monthly volume from Google Keyword Planner and other sources. For search result data, all the data is gathered in real time from Google.

Challenges in Real-time SERP Analysis

SBS – What challenges did you face in integrating real-time SERP analysis into your tool, and how did you overcome them?

Ben – Since users were analyzing thousands of keywords at once, this presented some challenges. Not only did the data need to be fast and affordable, but we also needed to process huge amounts of data from our servers. To overcome this, we ended up working with multiple providers and scaled our servers.

Benefits of Smart Wildcard Search

SBS – Can you explain how the smart wildcard search works and its benefits for users?

Ben – The smart wildcard search is a powerful way of searching for keywords. Often, users might find a particular keyword that works well, such as “how to clean wine out of carpet.” Instead of just focusing on wine, other keywords might be “how to clean coffee out of carpet” or “how to clean gum out of carpet.” With the wildcard search, you’re able to find all these different variations.

Identifying Low-Competition Keywords

SBS – What strategies does Keyword Chef use to identify low-competition keywords?

Ben – Instead of a Keyword Difficulty (KD) score that other tools have that can be misleading, we have a SERP Score. The SERP Score counts the number of easy-to-outrank websites showing on the first-page search results for a keyword. The higher the number, the better.

The SERP Score can be customized to only consider certain types of websites such as forums, social platforms, Pinterest, e-commerce, free blogging sites, and files. You can also add your competitors as well.

Keeping the Keyword Database Updated

SBS – How do you keep the keyword database in Keyword Chef updated and relevant?

Ben – We have an existing database of keywords that is constantly being updated. We find keywords in real-time based on the user’s search, which we then add to the database. 

User Feedback and Tool Evolution

SBS – What feedback have you received from users, and how has it influenced the evolution of the tool?

Ben – A lot of people really love Keyword Chef, some praising it as the best keyword tool they’ve ever used. A big advantage I had in creating the tool is that I am my own customer. What I mean by that is that since I use the tool myself, I know what features should be included.

Still, a lot of bloggers have their own processes and methods that should be considered. I like to think about the user’s complete workflow from start to finish and how Keyword Chef can streamline every process along the way.

Oftentimes, users will give feature suggestions that I’ll incorporate. As one example, a customer was creating topical maps for their clients and wanted an easier way to group keywords. While Keyword Chef does have a keyword grouping tool, some of the keywords were duplicated in multiple groups. Based on this user’s feedback, I created a feature to make keywords distinct to one group.

Common Keyword Research Mistakes

SBS – What are some common mistakes you see people make in keyword research, and how does Keyword Chef help avoid them?

Ben – One of the most common mistakes I see beginners make is targetting super competitive keywords. They spend months or even years creating content and wonder why they aren’t getting traffic. Users can easily target low-competition keywords inside Keyword Chef by looking at the SERP Score.

Another common mistake I see is that some people think Google only ranks pages based on exact keyword matches. They think if they don’t have the exact keyword in their blog, Google won’t rank them. Google hasn’t used this method for a long time and is very good at figuring out search intent. To help solve this problem, we incorporate keyword clustering. This groups keywords together based on their search intent. This way, users don’t waste time writing multiple articles on the same topic.

Success Stories Using Keyword Chef

SBS – Can you share a success story of a business that significantly improved its SEO using Keyword Chef?

Ben – There are several case studies on our site from real customers. One of my favorites is from a customer who grew their blog to over 250k visits per month in one year with Keyword Chef. Others have told me the tool helped them get accepted into premium ad networks.

Future of Keyword Research

SBS – How do you see the future of keyword research evolving, and how is Keyword Chef preparing for these changes?

Ben – Over the past several years, there has been an increasing trend for Google to provide answers to user’s queries directly inside the search results. This comes in various forms, such as featured snippets, knowledge panels, and People Also Asked answers. Google is also experimenting with generating AI answers using Search Generative Experience (SGE).

With all these changes, publishers should focus on keywords where they can provide original research and share unique experiences rather than just generic information. This is why I advise bloggers to choose a niche they are passionate about and can grow in. Inside Keyword Chef, there’s a Niche Insights tool that helps bloggers find and analyze niches.

SEO Advice for Small Businesses and Bloggers

SBS – What advice would you give to small business owners or bloggers who are just starting with SEO and keyword research?

Ben – With so many changes happening with Google updates and AI content, don’t focus on keywords just for SEO’s sake. Consider how content can help grow your business in other ways. This could mean finding keywords for videos or sharing blog posts on social media and in newsletters. Building a long-term brand and not just relying on SEO traffic is so important now.

Upcoming Developments in Keyword Chef

SBS – Are there any upcoming features or developments for Keyword Chef that you’re particularly excited about?

Ben – For the past year or so, I’ve been developing the Niche Insights tool inside Keyword Chef. This new tool helps bloggers discover and analyze thousands of niche ideas. This is extremely handy for analyzing trends, finding brands and products, building category maps, and gauging competition. Users can even browse these niches for free.