Keyword Research Through Reddit for SEO

In the competitive world of SEO and digital marketing, finding the right keywords to target can make or break your content and search engine optimization strategy. Choosing keywords with low competition that have valuable search volume is crucial for ranking high and driving relevant organic traffic to your site.

Many digital marketers spend hours conducting keyword research using paid tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Google Keyword Planner. But keyword research doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Social media sites like Reddit contain a goldmine of insightful keyword data—and tapping into Reddit for keyword research is completely free.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll show you step-by-step how to leverage Reddit as an excellent keyword research resource. You’ll learn how to:

  • Find relevant subreddits in your niche
  • Extract thousands of low-competition keywords using Ahrefs
  • Sort and filter the keywords for the best opportunities
  • Focus on question-based and “versus” keywords
  • Verify that Reddit ranks on page one for each keyword

By the end of this guide, you’ll be able to uncover thousands of low-competition keywords in minutes using Reddit—drastically cutting your keyword research time and unlocking new content ideas and SEO opportunities. Let’s dive in!

The Power of Reddit for SEO Keyword Research

With over 430 million monthly active users, Reddit is one of the most popular social media platforms and discussion websites worldwide. Subreddits are user-created communities focused on certain topics where people can post, comment, vote and discuss.

There are over 2.8 million subreddits on every conceivable topic—making it a goldmine for keyword research. Here’s why Reddit is so valuable:

  • Reddit attracts people actively searching for information around hobbies, industries, products, and niche interests. This makes subreddits rich sources of informational search queries and buyer keywords.
  • Narrow subreddit themes filter out noise and provide concentrated insight into user search intent for specific topics.
  • The casual conversational tone on Reddit yields many natural long-tail keyword variations that real users search for.
  • Low competition for ranking because Reddit discussion threads aren’t optimized for keywords. Many subreddits will rank on page one for relevant keywords, indicating low difficulty to outrank.

Overall, leveraging Reddit for keyword research gives you direct access to how real people search around your niche topics. You gain data-driven keyword insights without having to pay for expensive tools or make broad guesses about user search intent.

Find Relevant Subreddits in Your Niche

The first step is to identify subreddits relevant to your niche, industry, and target keywords. The goal is to find specific communities related to the topics you want to rank for, rather than broad subreddits.

Here are some tips for finding relevant niche subreddits:

Search Reddit:

Use Reddit’s built-in search bar to search for your primary keywords, topic, product names, etc. You can filter the results to “communities” to see all matching subreddits. The search will reveal both popular and obscure subreddits.

Check “related communities” in sidebars:

When you open a subreddit, look in the right sidebar under “related communities” for link suggestions to other closely related subreddits. For example, the digital marketing subreddit links to affiliated subreddits like SEO, entrepreneur, ecommerce, analytics, and others.

Browse submissions and comments:

Look for mentions of related subreddits within submissions and comments on broader subreddits in your industry. People will often refer to more niche communities in the discussion.

Use Reddit search operators:

Reddit has advanced search operators like “subreddit:” that let you search for terms appearing only in subreddit names. For example, “subreddit:analytics” or “subreddit:freelance”. You can find keyword-rich subreddits this way.

Check out multireddits:

Multireddits aggregate content from different subreddits into one feed. Search for multireddits related to your industry to uncover more niche subreddits all in one place.

Use subreddit directories:

Sites like RedditList and Subreddits aggregate and categorize subreddits by topic. View their lists and categories related to your niche to discover more options.

The goal is to compile a robust list of at least 10-20 relevant, niche subreddits around your targets. The more niche-focused your subreddits, the better quality keywords you’ll find in the next steps.

Extract Keywords Using Ahrefs Site Explorer

Now that you have a solid list of subreddits in your niche, it’s time to extract the keywords using Ahrefs Site Explorer. Ahrefs is a premium SEO tool with robust keyword data.

Here’s how to use it to pull keywords from subreddits:

  • Enter the subreddit URL: Take each subreddit URL from your list and enter it one-by-one into Ahrefs Site Explorer. For example, the URL structure for a subreddit is www.reddit.com/r/SUBREDDITNAME.
  • Set filters: In the Site Explorer, go to “Top Pages” which shows all the most-discussed threads. Filter by “DoFollow” under link type and set a minimum URL rating of 5. This isolates quality discussion threads.
  • Generate keywords: Click the “keywords” report on the right sidebar. Then apply these filters:
    • Volume between 10-1,000
    • Keyword Difficulty under 30
    • Exclude keywords appearing in the URL
    • Click “Add Filter” and select top 5 under “URL Rating”

This will now show you keywords for that subreddit with decent search volume but low competition, where the subreddit ranks on page one.

  • Export: Export the filtered keywords to a CSV or Excel sheet. Rinse and repeat this entire process for each of your subreddit URLs.

The end result is tailored keyword lists from each of your niche subreddits – all with indications of good search volume, low difficulty, and existing page one presence for the subreddit. This data is absolute gold for identifying low-competition keywords to target in your content.

Sort, Filter, and Refine Your Keyword Lists

After extracting keywords from your subreddits, you’ll likely have a robust master list of hundreds or thousands of keywords. Now it’s time to sort, filter and refine these even further to isolate the best gems.

Here are some ways to filter your newly generated keyword lists:

  • A-Z sort: Sort your keyword list from A to Z. Scanning alphabetically helps easily spot keyword patterns.
  • Look for question words: Focus on keywords containing “who”, “what”, “when”, “where”, “why” or “how” – these tend to be high-intent question searches. Question-based keywords also make it easy to create content that directly answers user queries.
  • Find comparison keywords: Look for keywords containing “vs”, “versus”, “or”, etc. These indicate comparison searches and are usually easier to rank for than more complex informational queries.
  • Identify commercial intent: Look for keywords containing “buy”, “rent”, “price”, etc. These have strong purchase intent for your niche. Prioritize these in your content strategy.
  • Group keywords by topic: Review your master list and group keywords into topic clusters or content pillars. This helps surface core themes and organize content ideas.

By spending some time sorting and filtering, you’ll highlight the most valuable keywords and uncover key themes and content opportunities from your lists.

Focus on “Question Keywords” and “Versus Keywords”

When sorting your keyword lists from Reddit, two types in particular provide low-hanging fruit: question keywords and versus keywords. Let’s discuss how to spot and optimize for these:

Question Keywords

Question-based keywords are searches framed as questions, often starting with:

  • Who
  • What
  • When
  • Where
  • Why
  • How

For example:

  • Who leads the search engine market?
  • What is the best laptop for gaming?
  • When should I post on social media?
  • Where can I learn digital marketing?
  • Why is SEO important for startups?
  • How do I increase website traffic?

Question keywords reveal the types of information your audience needs. They demonstrate searcher intent around solving problems, learning something new, or making comparisons.

That’s why question keywords present a major content opportunity – your posts and pages can directly answer the questions people are asking in your niche.

And because questions are natural searcher queries rather than rigid keywords, they have lower competition. Tactically using FAQ schema markup can also help your rankings for question keywords.

Versus Keywords

Versus keywords contain comparative words like:

  • vs
  • versus
  • or
  • v
  • vs.

For example:

  • SEO vs PPC
  • Facebook ads vs Google ads
  • WordPress vs Shopify
  • Canon vs Nikon
  • SUV vs crossover
  • Buying vs leasing

These keywords signal that searchers intend to compare products, services, concepts, or brands.

Versus keywords present a big ranking opportunity because comparative searches generally have lower competition. Comparison articles and posts are evergreen content that attracts search interest.

Tactically optimizing comparison posts with H2s for each versus keyword can help search visibility. For example “WordPress vs Shopify” as the H2 on a comparison article targeting that KW.

Keyword research is a crucial foundation of any content strategy or SEO campaign. But it doesn’t need to be a complex, time-intensive process. This guide showed you how Reddit provides a free, low-effort way to extract thousands of low-competition, high-value keywords in any niche.

By searching related subreddits, extracting keywords using Ahrefs, and filtering for question and versus keywords – you can unlock endless SEO content opportunities and keywords your competitors miss.

The tactics in this guide will save you hours of wasted keyword research. And you’ll gain data-driven insight into the topics and questions on your audience’s minds right now. That invaluable understanding sets you up to rank higher and craft content that truly resonates.

So leverage the power of Reddit’s crowdsourced wisdom for effortless keyword research. Let real people show you exactly what to write about. Build your content around satisfying search intent rather than chasing arbitrary keywords.

Then amplify your content by targeting the perfect low-competition keywords uncovered here to drive targeted organic traffic from Google. That’s the secret recipe for search visibility and SEO success.