Content is the currency of the online world.
We consume content every single day of ourlives. And with out attention span becoming smaller and smaller each year, businesses need to learn how to effectively publish content that is captivating, engaging and useful.
Easier said than done. That’s why we have come up with a document listing 15 free tools that you can use to create useful and actionable content.
Let’s get started.
#1 - Wikipedia
Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites in the world. According to alexa, Wikipedia is the 13th most visited website on the planet. This is because it is a huge resource to use when performing research. Let’s take a look at how we can use it for research.
We will use two examples, a service example as well as a product example. For the service industry, we will take the insurance industry.
We will enter the search term, motor insurance. As you can already see from the drop-down, you get suggestions similar to Google suggest. Click on the search icon.
Once you hit the search icon, you will be presented with the page below.
The first thing we need to note is that wikipedia has provided us with some extra keywords. They have listed the synonyms of the term ‘motor insurance’.
These are terms that you can use in your blog post, meta description, or wherever you are publishing your content.
Using keywords similar to your main keyword helps search engines better understand your content and increases the chances of your article/content being shown when users search for your main keyword.
Another section where you can get some more information is on the ‘See Also’ part. Scroll down until you the title as shown in the image below.
This part has links to topics similar to or related to the search term you entered. You can click on the topic that you think would add more value to the content you are creating.
The images below showcase what we have just done but this time, we searched for a product.
You geta list of similar keywords once again.
Under the content section, there are some useful links that you can use to get more information on your article.
#2 - Quora
Quora is also one of the most popular websites in the world. Quora helps us identify what questions people are asking a lot. And by knowing which question is most asked, we have an opportunity to create content to answer these questions.
You will search www.quora.com.
Once Quora opens, header over to the top bar and enter your search term. You will get a drop-down with different options. IN this case, click on the first option, ‘Search: sneakers’
You will then be presented with a screen as shown below.
Let’s focus on the left-hand menu as highlighted. Here, there are different options we can choose from.
For this article, we will focus on the tab, Questions. We want to find out what questions people are asking when it comes to sneakers.
By answering the questions, you will be creating content that is useful.
We can now see the questions people have been asking on the topic of sneakers.
The best content is one that answers a user’s question.
You can enter a different search term and follow the same process.
We entered the term ‘Motor Insurance’ to see the questions on this topic.
You can go through the different items on the left-hand side menu to filter questions that have been asked recently on check-out posts or profiles for your specific search term.
#3 -Think With Google
Think with Google is a data hub where Google shares insights on understanding industry trends, consumer behavior, marketing and so much more. It is a must read platform for entrepreneurs and marketing professionals as a lot of industry trends are discussed and one is able to grasp a lot of what’s going on in the world and see how they can implement some of the things shared on this platform.
You’ll search the term ‘Think With Google’ and click on the link that has the ‘en-ssa’ permalink because we are in the Sub-saharan Africa region.
Once you get into the TWG platform, you will see an array of featured posts that are quite interesting.
Since we are using TWG for research, we shall input our search term at the top bar of the platform. In this example, we shall use the term ‘content creation’.
You will then get a list of results related to your search term. Peruse through them to see which one would be of help to you.
#4 -Google Alerts
As the name suggests, Google Alerts is a tool that gives you updates or alerts on topics that you are interested in.
To set an alert, go to Google Alerts page and enter the topic on which you would want an alert.
Once you hit the create alert button, you should see your topic added on your list as shown below.
From now on, you will be getting alerts on the email address you used.
Reading a number of articles helps you understand your topic better and get perspectives from different creators.
#5 -Google Trends
According to Google, Google Trends provides access to a largely unfiltered sample of actual search requests made to Google. This means that Google provides you with data of search requests
#6 - Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a tool under Google Ads that enables you to do two things, one, discover new keywords and secondly, get a forecast and search volumes of specific keywords. So, how do we use the leyword planner?
Search ‘Google Ads’ on Google and click the link to open the website. If you already have an account, you can click on sign in. If you do mot have, one, click on start now to create an account.
Once you are signed in, click settings on the icon settings as shown in the image below.
Once you click, choose the option expert mode. For other users, you will not see the expert option but rather see the Keyword Planner menu item.
For this example, we will choose ‘Discover new keywords’
And use the same search term, ‘Sneakers’
Once you enter your search term, you will see a list with keyword ideas.
This list will be an indication of some of the most popular keywords related to your search term.
You can also broaden your search by adding keywords at the top of the dashboard.
Other options that you can filter include the region where the search covers, the time period and language.
#7 - Medium
Medium, as their website suggests, is a place to read write and connect.
It is also a great place to get content ideas.
For you to search for articles, you need to be signed in. Once you do so, you will see a search field on the right-hand side where you can enter your keyword.
The results page will present you with a list of articles that you can go through. On the right-hand side, you can also see the number of stories for that keyword as well as the number of writers.
You can also see a section with related topics that you can include within your content.
#8 - Answer the public
Our next tool is Answer the public. It is a social listening tool. And this is what they say they do on their website,
“AnswerThePublic listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google then quickly cranks out every useful phrase and question people are asking around your keyword.
It’s a goldmine of consumer insight you can use to create fresh, ultra-useful content, products and services. The kind your customers really want”.
As usual, we start by entering our search term, sneakers.
We’ll then see a visualization of some of the popular questions around this phrase.
You can also change the format in which you see the questions by changing from ‘Visualisation’ to ‘Data’.
#9 - Question DB
Question DB also lists questions but the results they provide are a bit different from Answer the public as seen in the previous tool.
You can see the results are quite different and it provides a more detailed question database.
Go through the questions listed and filter the questions that would be a match to the content you are writing.
#10 - All Top
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#11 - Social Blade
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#10 - Exploding topics
Exploding topics is a tool provided by Backlinko and provides data on trending topics.
It also provides data on the different topics in its database.
The first drawback is that they do not have data for all topics. For example, I had to settle for the topic, ‘Content Marketing’. The topic I wanted data for was content creation.
Anyway, let’s use content marketing for this example.
The volume metric represents the number of monthly searches for the topic in the United States.
This is the second drawback. The data is only for U.S searches.
The other important section is the related topics table.
#11 - Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is a chrome extension that provides information based on the search you have done.
It has both a free and paid version with free version coming with a lot of features. One is able to view keywords related to your search phrase.
In fact, at Jeder Agency, it is one of the tools we use for keyword research.
When you input your search term, on the right-hand side, you will get different sections providing information such as related keywords, SEO difficulty, trending keywords and more as you can see in the images below.
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#12 - Canva
Canva is one of the most popular sites at the moment. It provides a user-friendly way to design graphics to use on a blog post, or thumbnail for your video.
They have a free and paid version with the paid version having more features such as premium photos, the ability to remove photo backgrounds and so much more.
You can also edit videos on Canva. It is definitely a must-have for every content creator.
#13 - Google
The last but definitely not least tool is the number 1 search engine, Google.
It seems obvious but Google is one of the best tools you can use for your research.
If you want to talk or write about sneakers, check out the existing top articles and videos on this topic and see what other blogs or people have to say.
We shall use the same keyword, sneakers. When you input your search term, you will notice a drop down. This drop-down is known as Google-Suggest. It’s Google’s way of letting you know of other search terms related to the one you input.
With this we get other keywords we can use on a blog post, video or tags.
Once you hit enter, scroll down until you see the ‘Peop;e also ask’ section. This part provides you with popular phrases or keywords similar to your search term.
The other section you can get related keywords is at the bottom of the results page.
Conclusion
Creating content is not easy, but it’s possible to develop engaging and relevant content.
Therefore, now you know how to conduct research before hitting publish on your content piece.
