How to find low-competition keyword ideas using Content Explorer

Executive overview

Most published content gets almost no search traffic. A tiny fraction of pages rank well — and many of those do so with zero backlinks.

Ahrefs' Content Explorer lets you filter ~846 million indexed pages by traffic and backlink count simultaneously, surfacing content gaps your competitors haven't spotted.

Ranking with zero backlinks is possible, but domain rating sets the ceiling.

Finding zero-backlink, high-traffic content opportunities

• Open Content Explorer and search a niche keyword (e.g. "cats")
• Filter for pages with 1,000+ monthly visits from Google
• Add a referring domains filter of 0
• Sort results by search traffic — top results are your targets
• Click "Details" on any result to see the exact ranking keywords
• Loosen filters (fewer backlinks, less traffic) to surface more ideas

Adjusting filters for broader exploration

• Try related keywords (e.g. "kittens") to expand the idea pool
• Allow a small number of referring domains to uncover near-zero-competition pages
• Each keyword search takes under a minute and yields multiple actionable ideas

Accounting for domain rating

• Domain rating (DR) measures the overall backlink strength of a site
• A page with 0 backlinks on a high-DR domain (e.g. Huffington Post, DR 80) can still outrank you
• If the target domain's DR significantly exceeds yours, deprioritise that topic
• Building quality backlinks to your own article can overcome a DR disadvantage
• Traffic and backlink numbers in Content Explorer are cached and may differ slightly from Site Explorer