\nFind out what terms related to your business are driving the most searches, using one of many free or paid keyword tools. Not only are you likely to uncover tons of topical ideas, but also you\u2019ll improve your post\u2019s chances of being found through search.<\/p>\n
Start exploring the most popular relevant search terms (post topics!) for free with:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Wordtracker<\/a><\/li>\n
- Good Keywords<\/a> apps for Windows<\/li>\n
- Google AdWords Keyword Planner<\/a><\/li>\n
- Bing Ads Intelligence<\/a><\/li>\n
- Wordpot<\/a> \u2013 free for 25 searches per day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"With](\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Google-Trends-Explore.jpg\")
<\/a>With Google Trends Explore<\/a>, you can get post ideas by seeing what relevant search terms are taking off in popularity.<\/p><\/div>\n
2) Reader Recon<\/strong>
\nReally listen to your customers to find out what they like to see, read and share. Interact with them on your blog, and investigate what they\u2019re up to when they navigate away from it. Find and follow some of your best customers on social media to see what they post and what interests them most.<\/p>\nHere are a few ways to become more in touch with your audience:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Reply to comments<\/em> \u2013 Respond to questions and comments left on your blog, indirectly vetting visitors\u2019 interests or directly asking what they\u2019d like you to write.<\/li>\n
- Check out your readers\u2019 blogs<\/em> \u2013 See what they write about. Contribute to conversations there, winning over new audiences.<\/li>\n
- Cruise your readers\u2019 social media profiles<\/em> \u2013 As with their blogs, checkout their social presence if public. Friend, follow and interact with them if you can. See who they like, follow, etc., then check out those people and companies too.<\/li>\n
- Tune in to your site\u2019s search<\/em> \u2013 Track which visitors are typing into your blog\u2019s search function. If you don\u2019t already have search, add Google Custom Search Engine<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"Adding](\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Google-Custom-Search-Engine.png\")
Adding Google Custom Search<\/a> to your website makes it easy to find out what visitors want from you and give it to them.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
3) Competition Monitoring<\/strong>
\nCheck in on your competition to see what they\u2019re up to. It may give you ideas for topics to pursue. See what they\u2019re posting on their blog, as well as on social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Sign up for their newsletters.<\/p>\nAnalytics tools like Alexa<\/a> and SpyFu<\/a> can tell you what search keywords are sending the most visitors to competitor sites, keywords to use for blog inspiration.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t already know what businesses you\u2019re up against, start by conducting a simple search for your type of business and see who pops up. It\u2019s important to review your competitors. Also check out the social profiles of people in your audience to see what companies they\u2019re \u201cliking\u201d or \u201cfollowing\u201d. Visit their blogs to see what companies are in their posts or on their blog rolls.<\/p>\n
![\"Do](\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Alexa-Site-Info.jpg\")
Do an Alexa Site Info<\/a> search to see top-ranked competitors and their most effective keywords.<\/p><\/div>\n
4) Your People<\/strong>
\nAsk your employees for insights about your customers and what might interest them. Talk to your people in sales, customer service or any other public-facing role. They\u2019re on the front line, so will know a thing or two about customer pain points, frequently asked questions, common topics of conversation and such.<\/p>\nAlso ask them and others in your business about what they personally would like to read in the blog. Your business is their specialty, so they\u2019re likely to have valuable ideas and opinions on related blog subjects to cover.<\/p>\n
5) News & Trend Research<\/strong>
\nGenerate endless, timely and popular post ideas by tracking your industry\u2019s latest in relevant media and social venues. Subscribe to or follow paper periodicals, e-zines, blogs, forums and businesses\u2019 social accounts. Take note of social shares and likes to help you identify what\u2019s hot.<\/p>\nHere are some good tools to help you with blog ideas:<\/p>\n
- \n
- News aggregators<\/em> \u2013 LinkedIn Today<\/a>\u00a0is great for finding news related to your industry.<\/li>\n
- Google Trends<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Explore what\u2019s getting attention on the Internet. Also search industry-related terms to see what people are searching for.<\/li>\n
- Social network-specific search<\/em> \u2013 Conduct targeted searches in Pinterest<\/a>, Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>. Note activity, such as repins, comments and retweets. Check out Twitter Trends.<\/li>\n
- Social meta-search<\/em> \u2013 Search a variety of social media at once with Topsy<\/a>, SocialMention<\/a>, Talkerwalker Alerts<\/a> or Who\u2019s Talkin?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Group and forum search<\/em> \u2013 Look for mentions of your specialties and competitors in forums and other groups, using Google blog search<\/a> and Omgili<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Get](\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Topsy.jpg\")
Get a feel for topics related to your industry that are currently popular in online media, using Topsy<\/a>. For instance, search for \u201csolar panels\u201d if you\u2019re a contractor specializing in green construction.<\/p><\/div>\n
TIP \u2013 Stay on top of seasonal subjects and special events!<\/p>\n
6) Mind Mapping<\/strong>
\nMind mapping is great for brainstorming up new blog topics or extending on existing posts. Use it to unearth ideas you didn\u2019t know you had, further develop ideas and organize thoughts in a useful way. Not familiar with mind mapping? See how to do it here<\/a>.<\/p>\nA number of good online mind mapping tools are out there, like:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Coggle<\/a>, Mindmaps<\/a> and FreeMind<\/a> \u2013 Free<\/li>\n
- XMind<\/a> and MindMeister \u2013 Low Cost<\/li>\n
- MindNode<\/a> \u2013 Low cost, Mac\/iOS<\/li>\n
- Mindjet<\/a> \u2013 Higher cost, good looking<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Or you can just use paper and pencil (even colors and pictures) go ahead and get creative.<\/p>\n
Having trouble starting your mind map?<\/em>
\nPlace the name of your business at the center, then work outward on various thought tangents. Don\u2019t edit yourself, overthink, over analyze or critique. Let your thoughts go on an unbridled free-for-all. You can go back and develop the best ideas later.<\/p>\nAre there any other methods you\u2019ve used to come up with post topics that really resonated with your audience? We\u2019d love to hear about them. In the meantime, we hope these ideas help you create the kinds of posts that turn blog visitors into fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s easy to be stumped about what to post next, not to mention what to blog about on a regular basis. More than simply coming up with a topic, any topic, you need to figure out what will interest, engage and even compel your potential customers. Here are six methods for figuring out what will… Read More »6 Ways to Find Blog Topics Your Audience Will Love<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false},"categories":[84],"tags":[392,362,456,1113],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6186"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6206,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6186\/revisions\/6206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- XMind<\/a> and MindMeister \u2013 Low Cost<\/li>\n
- Google Trends<\/em><\/a> \u2013 Explore what\u2019s getting attention on the Internet. Also search industry-related terms to see what people are searching for.<\/li>\n
- Check out your readers\u2019 blogs<\/em> \u2013 See what they write about. Contribute to conversations there, winning over new audiences.<\/li>\n
- Good Keywords<\/a> apps for Windows<\/li>\n