Finding the right topics for your blogs can be challenging, especially when the internet is flooded with countless articles and blogs on almost every topic imaginable.
At the end of the day, the key to creating and maintaining a steady flow of content boils down to one essential element – research! Anyone has the potential to create high quality and engaging content when they adopt a systematic approach to topic research.
So how do you research the right topics in an oversaturated system? To help you unlock a wealth of ideas, here are some tips on how you should research blog topics for your content plan.
STEP 1: STUDY YOUR AUDIENCE
First and foremost, it’s important to know what audience you’re writing for. By identifying your readers, you get an idea of what topics you should be researching about, helping you tailor content to their interests, needs and preferences.
Maybe it’s for flower lovers, computer enthusiasts or motorheads. You should also consider factors such as age, gender and location.
Ultimately, conducting research on your target audience will give you a clear picture who you should write for and what you should be writing about.
STEP 2: ANALYSE COMPETITORS BLOGS
The internet can be a competitive place and it can be hard to compete with ranked content on search engines like Google. Nonetheless, existing content can give you a good idea of what you should be writing about.
It’ll provide you with the inspiration for your own topics, allowing you to tweak that information according to your style. You can also create valuable blogs with a unique perspective by leveraging the strengths of your competitors’ content.
This might even get your content ranked! Just don’t plagiarise or you’ll end up with a copyright strike.
STEP 3: FIND TRENDING TOPICS
Once you’ve got an idea of who you’re writing for and who you’re writing against, it’s important to stay up to date by exploring trending topics. These are subjects that are currently popular and being widely discussed within your industry or niche.
You can potentially generate higher engagement and attract more readers by incorporating trending topics into your content plan. There are multiple ways to find trending topics; media outlets, social media platforms, forums and Google Trends.
By exploring trending topics, you can create timely and relevant blogs that’ll resonate with your audience and attract more traffic.
STEP 4: CONDUCT KEYWORD RESEARCH
Keywords play a major role in SEO as they greatly impact the visibility and outreach of your blog posts. To your advantage, there are many different tools you can use such as Google Keyword Planner and Semrush.
These tools will help you find the right keywords in accordance with your niche. They’ll also help you understand what people are searching for and what keywords they use. Start by searching for keywords you normally use and list down other possible keywords.
Try and focus on keywords that have high search volumes but low competitors. When done right, keyword research is a great way to optimise your blog’s overall SEO.
STEP 5: BRAINSTORM BLOG POST IDEAS
You should have an idea of what your blogs are going to be about after step 1 to 4. Now it’s time to put your ideas onto paper and make them official. Start by making a list of potential blog topics based on the information you’ve gathered.
List anything that comes to mind and don’t worry about listing bad topic ideas. After listing everything, filter out the bad ones and expand on the ones you’ve decided to keep.
Explore different angles, subtopics and variations of those ideas to make the most out of them. The goal is to create a diverse range of topics that are fresh, engaging and most importantly, evergreen.
SUMMARY
Research is a critical part of developing a content plan. It may be tedious but it’s necessary as it lays the foundation for what you should post and who it should be directed to.
From studying your audience to brainstorming ideas, these steps should help you effectively research blog topics and develop a plan that engages your audience. On a side note, don’t forget to get those blogs written once you’ve planned them out!
