I‘ve long been a big fan of Answerthepublic.com for keyword research.
For years I‘ve used my 3 free daily searches avoiding ponying up $99 per month for unlimited searches.
Late last week, I caved.
I ponied up the $99 per month.
I‘m simply getting too many good article ideas from the software.
I find at least one good article topic (often more) with every search.
It’s so fast.
Insert keyword.
Wait a few seconds.
Scan list.
Copy and paste the winners to my spreadsheet.
Rinse and repeat.
Now that I have more niche sites than I can recall off the top of my head, my need for content is insatiable.
I‘m hardly picking and choosing anymore.
I‘m blasting it out as fast as I can find it.
I don’t recommend this if starting out. Be more judicious than this given time and money restrictions.
If you’re neck-deep in cash with more sites than you know what to do with, then load up on the software and compile lists of topics as fast as you humanly can.
That’s what I‘m doing these days.
It’s astonishing what people search for.
Maybe it’s the fact 7-year-olds are on iPads in droves punching in their questions.
And questions galore they have.
Should you get the paid version of Answerthepublic.com?
It depends on how much content you’re publishing each month.
If you’re publishing hundreds of articles per month, it’s worth every penny.
If you’re publishing 30 articles per month, the 3 free daily searches will do it along with all the other KW research tools out there.
IMO, you’re better off investing in Ahrefs before Answerthepublic.com. Ahrefs offers far more value for the money.
Eventually, you get to the stage where you need more content ideas faster. Answerthepublic.com spoon feeds ideas in seconds. No thinking or filtering needed.
Here’s an example of results:
When I input the keyword “Keywords” into Answerthepublic.com, I get the following reasonable topics:
- Are keywords important for SEO?
- Are keywords case sensitive? Are keywords capitalized?
- Are keywords the same as tags? (I like this one)
- Are keywords still relevant?
- Can keywords be two words? Can keywords be phrases?
- What keywords should I use for SEO?
Not bad, right? I could bang out some good articles on those topics on Fatstacks.
That’s 6 topics found in 20 seconds.
Next search: Basketball shoes
- Are basketball shoes good for walking? Running? Gym? Tennis? Jumping Rope? Badminton? Boxing? Hiking? Volleyball?
- How to clean basketball sneakers?
- Why are basketball shoes high tops?
- Are basketball shoes ugly?
- Is it okay to wear basketball shoes without socks?
- Is it okay to wear basketball shoes without laces?
- Is it okay to wear basketball shoes with jeans?
- Basketball shoes vs. running shoes / tennis shoes / badminton shoes / volleyball shoes / normal shoes
That’s 20 articles in seconds. In fact, that’s a tight cluster. I‘d probably double up some of those topics into one article such as “… good for tennis” and “vs. tennis”.
Again, not bad.
I smell a nice chart there as well.
If you do nothing else, take advantage of the free daily searches on Answerthepublic.com.
As you can see you can get quite a few article ideas with a couple searches. Your freebies renew daily. Use them.
Should you check Answerthepublic.com keywords in other tools?
In other words, do I take the promising keywords generated by AnswerThePublic.com and run it through Ahrefs for further data?
My answer: Nope.
I probably should if I wanted to be thorough. My formal stance if you want to be thorough is to run it through Ahrefs or similar to learn more about it.
However, due to my increased KW needs, I don’t bother.
Please don’t always take the shortcuts I do. Some of my sites have a lot of authority so I can afford to be sloppier.
It’s easier for me to rank for keywords due to established authority (aka inbound links and age). If you’re starting out with limited capacity for producing content, further KW due diligence is worth it.
I’m not suggesting spending 25 minutes analyzing each keyword, but it’s certainly worth a couple of minutes checking it out in Google and Ahrefs. Any more than that is probably overkill. After all, at some point you can write the entire article in the time you spend doing due diligence.
How much due diligence you do on keywords depends on your site authority, keyword volume needed and how much of a “gambler” you are.
I tend to err on the side of sloppy, but that works for me. I prefer moving fast.
If you prefer to err toward the careful and thorough end of the spectrum, that’s great too.
Just don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. At some point, KW due diligence is not productive because you could actually write the article in the same amount of time.
Once again, I can tell you this stuff because I do it day-in and day-out and have for years.
Jon Dykstra is a six figure niche site creator with 10+ years of experience. His willingness to openly share his wins and losses in the email newsletter he publishes has made him a go-to source of guidance and motivation for many. His popular “Niche site profits” course has helped thousands follow his footsteps in creating simple niche sites that earn big.
Hi Jon,
I have a question about answer the public. How different is it to keyword shitter? $99 per month is a lot. And the amount of content I produce won’t justify that yet. But was just curious how it differs to keyword shitter.
Thanks,
Cam
Answerthepublic.com focuses on full questions while Keywordshitter.com lists all Google autosuggest. Both are free (ATP gives you a couple free searches daily). Test the differences and you’ll see what I mean.
Thanks Jon! I appreciate your content. I’m also from Vancouver. Been building a site in my spare time for the past two years. Slow grind with a full time job and 3 young kids. Starting to get decent traction with 7500 monthly visits. $130 from Amazon and $50 from Ezoic ads. 38 Articles total. Now I can invest in writers to help me scale. I plan to grow this site really big.
Your content has helped me a lot!
Thanks again
Cam
Wow Jon, well said. I’ve been on the fence about getting the $99/ month for ATP. I already have ahrefs, but love the cool unique kw ideas from ATP. I’m just a one man show with 2 sites… so I think i’ll just stick to ahrefs paid, and then ATP 3 free searches/ day. Thanks for saving me the extra $99…although when I grow my website portfolio I may add it. Now… the days where I enter in the wrong kw and max out my 3 free searches for the day!!! 24 hour wait time… patience skillset will have to be mastered for this.
Great article and long time reader.I completely agree, answer the public is very helpful.I found that also asked is very helpful as well.
Hi Jon, do you find that ATP provides keywords missing from ahrefs? Or is ATP more organized to find such question keywords because that’s all it provides?
Great question Ben. Yes, ATP generates KWs Ahrefs doesn’t. Not always but sometimes.