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Finding a niche for your online business is a critical step in starting your business, but entrepreneurs often struggle especially if you’re new.
One way to find the right business niche is to use keyword research. Keywords are terms people are entering into search engines to find the information they need which helps them solve their problems.
Search engines like Google track this information and make it public. You can use this data to refine your niche ideas and discover which niches people are actively searching for solutions within.
Finding a Niche by Starting with Your Passions and Interests
Start with a little brainstorming. What topics are you passionate about? What areas do you have experience in? Once you have some ideas, you can use keyword research to narrow down and refine your ideas.
For example, you might want to do something in self-improvement. This is a huge niche with a great deal of competition. Through keywords, you can take the broad idea of “self-improvement” and narrow it down to something more feasible, while also getting an idea of trends within self-improvement to help you further refine your niche.
How to Find Keywords
There are many premium SEO software programs available, but I like to use the free level of platforms like Ubersuggest, Keysearch, Keyword Tool Dominator and Google’s free Keyword Planner.
The purpose of these tools is to help you assess keywords for and using them for basic keyword research. There are also other free alternatives available like WordStream.
Enter into the tool some keyword related to what you do. You could use any simple phrase like “online business” or “how to fight clutter.” You’ll get a list of similar keywords that are related. Skim this list and look for other areas that might be interesting.
For example, under “how to fight clutter,” you might find keywords like “office clutter” or “organizing clutter.” These are more specific ideas you could use for your niche.
How to Assess Keywords
Look for a high volume of monthly searches. A good guideline is over 1,000 searches. This tells you that people are actively looking for this information.
The next step is to check out the competition. You’re looking for keywords that have high search volume and some competition. When looking for a niche for your business you want a niche that has some competition.
Why?
Because it means people are willing to pay for products and services and businesses are able to make a profit in these niches.
So repeat after me: “Competition is Good.”
If you find a goldmine where you have high search volume and low competition then as to whether people actually pay for products and services within that niche or is it an area that people expect to get everything for free.
To assess competition, go off the tool and perform a simple Google search. Put the keyword in quotation marks so you can get the exact phrases. You’ll then see how many sites are targeting the same keyword.
Since you’re not doing actual SEO planning, you don’t need an exact assessment of these keywords. Look at the sites that come up on the first few pages of the search results, and you can see whether other businesses are covering these niches.
Your niche shouldn’t be completely uncharted territory. You’re looking to create a profitable business after all. This will at least give you an idea of the competition. By looking at competition, you will get ideas on how to set yourself apart.
When choosing the right niche for your business, you should consider objective data as much as possible to assess whether your ideas are popular and profitable.
Keyword research is just one effective way to do this.
If you’re looking to get started with any of these steps, check out the Build Your Business Vault – where you’ll find templates, worksheets and checklists that will help you with discovering your niche!
