What you’ll need
- Google Keyword Planner — Free with a Google Ads account; gives volume ranges (not exact, but enough).
- AnswerThePublic Free — 3 free searches per day. Best surface for question-based long-tails.
- Google autocomplete & PAA — Free. Type your seed + space; collect every suggestion. Open the page and screenshot every PAA accordion.
- A spreadsheet — Google Sheets free tier. You’ll log ~40 candidate keywords per session.
The 6-step workflow
Step 1: Pick 3 seed terms tied to a tool (5 minutes)
Pick a tool you already plan to review (Jasper, ChatGPT, Surfer). Generate 3 commercial-intent seeds: “[tool] review”, “[tool] vs”, “[tool] alternatives”. These are the highest-converting seed types.
Step 2: Mine autocomplete and PAA (10 minutes)
For each seed, type into Google with a trailing space. Copy every autocomplete suggestion. Open the SERP. Screenshot the People Also Ask accordion (click each PAA to expand more). Log all suggestions in your sheet under the seed.
Step 3: Pull question variations from AnswerThePublic (5 minutes)
Use 1 of your 3 daily free searches on your strongest seed. Export the questions wheel as CSV. Filter to question types (what/how/why/best/cheapest). Append to your sheet.
Step 4: Get volume + competition from Keyword Planner (10 minutes)
Paste your full keyword list into Keyword Planner’s “Get search volume and forecasts” tool. Export the CSV. Sort by competition (low) and volume (high). Sweet spot: 100–1,000 monthly searches with “Low” competition.
Step 5: Check live SERPs for affiliate intent (10 minutes)
For your top 10 candidates, open the live SERP. Page 1 should contain at least 3 affiliate-style pages (reviews, comparisons, “best of”). If page 1 is dominated by Reddit, official docs, or YouTube only, the keyword has weak buyer intent — skip.
Step 6: Pick your final 5 and assign (5 minutes)
From candidates with good intent + low competition + decent volume, pick the 5 you’ll publish in the next 30 days. Match each to a specific post type: review, comparison, or roundup. Drop the rest into a “backlog” tab for later refreshes.
Pro tip
The hidden gem: “vs” queries with three terms like “Jasper vs Copy.ai vs Writesonic”. Search volume is lower (50–200/mo) but competition is near-zero, intent is sky-high, and the post is easy to write because you’re comparing tools you already know. We rank #1 for several three-way comparisons with under 800 words.
FAQ
Why not just buy Ahrefs?
You should, eventually. But the workflow above gets you to first $1,000/month of affiliate revenue without the $129/mo Ahrefs tax. Once revenue clears $2,000/month, the time savings from paid tools pay back fast. Our paid tools comparison.
How many keywords should I target per month?
For a new site: 4–6 keywords/month, one post per keyword. For an established site (6+ months): 8–15. Quality beats quantity — one ranking post outperforms ten orphaned ones.
What’s a “low competition” keyword in Keyword Planner?
Google labels keywords as Low/Medium/High based on Google Ads bid competition. It’s a proxy for SEO difficulty but not perfect. Cross-check by manually inspecting the SERP — if page 1 is 80% small affiliate sites (not big SaaS or news), you can rank.
Does this work for non-AI niches?
Yes — the workflow is niche-agnostic. Replace “AI tool” with your category (hosting, courses, fitness equipment). The same autocomplete + PAA + KP + SERP-check process works.
How long until I see ranking?
For keywords with 100–500 search volume and proper EEAT signals (named author, original data, methodology page), expect 6–10 weeks to page 1. Faster on tool-specific terms because the SERP is less crowded.
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