How to find low-competition keywords in competitive niches

Executive overview

Most sites fail to break into competitive niches because they use the same seed keywords as everyone else. By the time they search, those low-competition keywords are already mid-to-high competition.

The fix is a four-step keyword research system: start with unique seeds, surface patterns in the results, follow competitor rabbit holes, and repeat to compound authority over time.

Using unique seed keywords — not generic ones — is the only way to find untapped topics your competitors missed.

Build your keyword list with unique seeds

• Generic seeds (e.g. "credit card", "personal finance") produce the same results for everyone — those gaps are already filled.
• Use ChatGPT to generate unusual, niche-specific seed keywords your competitors haven't thought of.
• Run those seeds through a keyword research tool (e.g. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer) with a low keyword difficulty filter.
• Align keyword selection with your own product and business — don't chase topics you can't monetise or help with.
• Result: low-competition topics like "cash advance apps that don't use Plaid" or "how much home loan can I get with a 650 credit score."

Spot patterns to scale keyword discovery

• Once you have initial results, look for structural patterns across the keywords.
• Example: many low-competition credit score keywords end in 0 or 5 (e.g. "650 credit score", "720 credit score").
• Use wildcard filters in Keywords Explorer (e.g. *0, *5) to systematically pull every keyword matching that pattern.
• One pattern can unlock 1,500+ keywords with 200,000+ monthly searches in a single competitive niche.

Follow competitor rabbit holes

• Find competitors who already rank for your low-competition keywords using a Traffic Share by Domains report.
• Export the list and run it through Batch Analysis; sort by domain rating ascending.
• Identify low-authority sites that still pull significant traffic — these are niche sites doing exactly what you want to do.
• Pull their top pages in Site Explorer to uncover more untapped topics they've already validated.
• Repeat for each competitor until you've exhausted their keyword lists.

Compound the strategy over time

• Rinse and repeat: rank for low-competition topics → build authority and revenue → go after harder keywords.
• When you exhaust one pattern, apply the Connect 4 logic again: find new patterns in competitor rankings and build new keyword clusters around them.
• Content created from this process also earns backlinks naturally, accelerating authority growth.