🤔 Why This Happens and What to Do
Starting keyword research without any seed keywords is more common than you might think — especially for new brands, niche businesses, or companies entering a market for the first time. The good news is that Search Atlas gives you several ways to uncover the right keywords even when you are starting from zero.
🧭 Step 1: Describe What Your Brand Does
Before opening any tool, take two minutes to write down plain-language answers to these questions:
- What problem does your product or service solve?
- Who is your ideal customer and what would they type into Google?
- What words do your competitors use on their homepages?
These plain-language phrases — even rough ones — are your first seed keywords. They do not need to be perfect. You will refine them in the next steps.
🔑 Step 2: Use the Keyword Researcher Tool
Open the Keyword Researcher tool inside Search Atlas. This is your primary tool for expanding any seed idea into a full keyword list.
- Type one of your plain-language phrases into the search bar. For example, if you sell handmade candles, try "scented candles" or "natural home fragrance".
- Review the keyword suggestions, search volume, keyword difficulty (KD), and cost-per-click (CPC) data that appear.
- Look for keywords with moderate search volume and lower difficulty scores — these are your best early opportunities to rank.
- Use any available filters to narrow results by intent (informational, commercial, transactional) depending on the page you plan to optimise.
- Save your best candidates to a keyword list for easy access later.
Repeat this process with each plain-language phrase you wrote down. Each search will surface new variations and related terms you had not considered.
🏆 Step 3: Research Competitor Keywords
If you still feel stuck, your competitors have already done part of the work for you. Search Atlas provides tools to analyse competitor domains and see which keywords are driving traffic to their sites. This reveals real search terms that real customers are already using to find businesses like yours.
- Identify keywords your competitors rank for that you do not yet target — these are keyword gaps you can close.
- Prioritise terms where competitor pages have weak content or low authority scores, as these are easier to outrank.
📊 Step 4: Group and Prioritise Your Keywords
Once you have a list of candidates, organise them by topic cluster. Grouping related keywords together helps you plan content that covers a subject thoroughly, which search engines reward.
- High priority: Keywords with clear commercial or transactional intent and achievable difficulty scores.
- Medium priority: Informational keywords that build topical authority and attract early-funnel visitors.
- Lower priority: Broad or highly competitive terms to revisit once your site gains authority.
This structured approach ensures you are working toward rankings methodically rather than guessing.
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.