“No Obvious Keywords”: How to Approach SEO Content Without a Target Query (Self-Assessment Questions)

By Ethan Lazuk

We’re living in a post-helpful content system era. Not only is content quality at a premium, but we’re also dealing with the implications of generative AI, social media, and spam swirling around the Search ecosystem.

As a result, we’ve often got to think more critically or even differently about certain aspects of SEO content, from the topics we select to the sources or processes we use.

This can mean embracing ideas like originality and firsthand experience, but it can also lead us to confront new or challenging questions more often.

One of these questions could be how to create SEO content with “no obvious keywords” to target.

It’s a great question. It’s an interesting question.

It’s also a real question.

I saw it just recently in GSC data for another post.

Now, since that other post didn’t address the answer, that’s what I’ll attempt here.

Except, I don’t think there’s an obvious answer.

But that’s also what makes it a great question!

In this article, I’ll summarize how I’d go about the process, but if you’re in a rush, here are some of the takeaways:

• Do you have a target audience? If not, it might be your approach that needs changing.
• If you do, determine if you’re using the same language as them. Your topic may just be too niche or new to appear in keyword data, yet still worth targeting. Or maybe your vocabulary is jargon rather than the language of your users.
• If you’re using new terminology, look for keywords about related problems or solutions that you can cover, building awareness over time.

When I was an agency-side SEO strategist, this was the type of question — “We have no obvious keywords. What should we do?” — that I loved getting from clients or other marketers.

If I were answering it in the moment, I’d start by talking it out, specifically by asking myself questions.

Now that I’m an independent consultant, I talk to myself more often — 😉 — but I also have the liberty to take questions, like what I used to get asked in Zoom calls, emails, or meetings, and answer them here in my personal blog.

If I were strategizing for content with “no obvious keywords,” here are questions that come to mind:

1. Do you have an existing or intended audience?
2. Would your audience describe the problem or solution the way you would?

Now, both questions have several yes or no answers with their own implications.

So let’s dive into them as hypotheticals!

1. Do you have an existing or intended audience that would find the content useful?

If your content lacks an intended audience, that might be the reason it has no obvious keywords — no one is looking for it.

This question comes from the “people-first content” section of Google’s helpful, reliable, and people-first content documentation.

It’s a foundational concept for creating user-first content vs. SEO-first content.

There are also multiple ways to answer this question:

a) Yes, I have an intended audience, but they’re not aware of the solution yet, hence no keywords.

b) Yes, I have an intended audience, and they’re aware of the solution, but I don’t see it mentioned in the keyword data.

c) No, I don’t have an intended audience, but I’m hoping to create one.

Now let’s review the answers:

1a) and b). Yes, I have an intended audience …

If you answered a) or b), we can move on to the next question.

1c). No, I don’t have an intended audience …

If you answered c), it might be time to rethink the premise of your approach.

This quote from Steve Jobs comes to mind:

“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t start with the technology then try to figure out where to sell it.”

– Steve Jobs, 1997 Worldwide Developer Conference

In other words, a keyword represents a problem or a solution for an audience.

That means our goal with SEO is to get your brand’s content in front of people who have a problem for which you offer a solution.

However, if you’re introducing a solution in search of a problem, and by extension, an audience, you might be approaching it from the wrong end.

2. Would your audience describe their problem or solution the same way you would?

If you have an intended audience, the next question to find out why there are no obvious keywords is to determine if your audience is searching the same keywords that you’re looking for.

Let’s run through a few possible answers to this question:

a) Yes, our audience describes their problem or solution the same way we do.

b) No, we use different terminology than our audience.

c) No, our terminology isn’t common knowledge for our audience, yet.

Now let’s review the answers:

2a). Yes, our audience describes their problem or solution the same way we do

If you are looking for but not finding keywords you suspect your audience is using, there might be a couple of reasons.

First, maybe the search volume for the topic is too low to register in keyword research tools.

Second, maybe the topic is too new to show up in third-party tool data yet.

In such cases, if you already have content on your website related to the topic, you could check GSC for query data to see if any relevant terms are in there.

If you find some keywords, great! But if you don’t, maybe they’re not being searched often, not relevant, or being filtered by GSC’s anonymization.

However, if you’re confident your audience will use the same terms as you think, despite not seeing them in keyword data, you can probably go ahead and create the content.

In that case, they’d likely be what we call “zero-volume keywords,” or queries where there is likely some demand but there’s either a niche audience or the terms’ search volume hasn’t been picked up yet by keyword tools.

That said, zero-volume keywords are typically longer-tail queries, so if your main keyword is a general term, that could signify it’s not the type of topic your audience would use a search engine to find out about.

Even still, publishing content on the topic is probably a reasonable move, as it will allow you to test the waters and accumulate first-party search data, which you can later use to re-optimize the page, if needed.

At the same time, if you learn about alternative ways to reach your audience better, like paid search, email, or social media, then you already have a content foundation to repurpose or build from.

Of course, all content decisions also come down to time, money, and resources, and whether it meets your audience where they are.

2b). No, we use different terminology than our audience

Sometimes businesses will use technical jargon to describe their products or services while their audiences use colloquial language.

This can happen knowingly or unknowingly for both sides.

For example, I’d never describe myself as a “search engine consultant,” yet that’s a keyword I see often in my GSC data.

Similarly, an ophthalmologist may never call themselves an “eye doctor,” but some patients might call them as such.

This discrepancy over vocabulary can be both a literal SEO issue and a general marketing or brand voice question (also relevant to SEO).

On the literal side, beginner SEO guides will often suggest site owners include the “words your audience uses” in content, but that’s not always necessary.

Google Search doesn’t just match keywords in content. It can use hybrid search engine technology to retrieve and rank content based on it matching a keyword (token-based or lexical search) or addressing the meaning of the keyword (semantic search). (The same is true for Bing, especially in the era of generative engine optimization or GEO.)

In other words, when you identify a target keyword, what you’re really solving for in SEO is your audience’s search intent — the meaning behind their query.

Even if your audience doesn’t use the same language you do, your content can still rank well for the query if it is semantically relevant to the user’s end goal.

We know that Google Search speaks about “expertise” in the context of E-E-A-T, a conceptualization for what its ranking systems aim to reward in content.

Using expert language in your content can provide more semantic clues (related entities, etc.) about your expertise in a topic. In that sense, it may be better to call yourself an “ophthalmologist” than an “eye doctor.”

On the flip side, we have the marketing and brand voice questions, which also relate to SEO in the sense of user engagement and awareness.

If your audience lands on your page only to find jargon they don’t understand — even if it’s relevant — they may bounce and choose another result. Similarly, if your content is generic, that may dampen its cumulative benefits for brand awareness in later stages of the sales funnel.

That’s a trade-off in optimization, where SEO content should balance your expertise while ultimately satisfying your audience’s search intent.

If the keywords you’re not seeing are jargon, but you do see more general terms, that may be a hint as to what your audience is looking for.

That’s also why, when possible, I like to have content creation be a collaboration among subject matter experts, content specialists, and SEO strategists, each lending their perspective on how to benefit the end user.

Of course, if you see neither jargon nor general terms mentioned in keyword data, that leads to considering either the zero-volume keyword argument from the previous answer or the possibility your audience doesn’t know the terminology, which is our next answer.

2c). No, our terminology isn’t common knowledge for our audience, yet

If you’re introducing a new product or service that your audience doesn’t really know about, that can make finding keywords challenging, initially.

Instead, you can focus on related keywords that are on your audience’s buyer’s journey.

There are several ways to approach this:

1. Speak to the problem your audience is trying to solve, and introduce your solution in that context (build awareness).

This approach works when you have a new solution to a common problem.

For example, I once worked with a company that made a new product to prevent clogged drains.

Their target customers typically had no idea this type of solution was available, and so we had no keyword data.

Instead, we created content related to problems the product solved, like, “what to do when your bathtub drain is clogged” or “how to prevent a clogged bathtub drain.”

That allowed us to then introduce a new solution.

2. Speak to a related problem your audience is trying to solve.

Sometimes you can find keywords related to other problems that would still be relevant to your target audience.

For example, for the drain clog product mentioned above, we also wrote content about, “how to lower my plumbing bills” or “alternatives to toxic cleaning products.”

This product helped maintain pipes, which lowered plumbing bills. It also eliminated the need for drain cleaners, thus being an alternative to chemicals.

Though a little further off the main user journey, finding keywords for related problems can be another way to introduce your solution.

3. Mention a known solution and explain why yours is better.

If you know people are searching for keywords about other solutions, but your new solution is better, create content to explain why.

For example, with the clog prevention product, we created content comparing it to drain cleaners and other tools. In such cases, the audience was researching or even looking to purchase another solution, but we could try to change their minds.

The cumulative effect of these three approaches is also to increase awareness of the new product category itself.

After a while, for example, we started to see new keywords describing our product appearing in keyword data, starting with GSC. We could then use those terms to optimize product pages or create additional content.

Key takeaways and final thoughts

If you’re creating SEO content with no obvious keywords to target, asking the above questions should help you find the next best course of action.

To recap the steps:

• Determine if you have a target audience. If not, your approach might need changing.
• Next, learn if you’re using the same language as your audience. If so, your topic may just be niche or new but still worth targeting. If not but your vocabulary is semantically related, you’ll have to decide how to balance expertise with user-friendly language.
• Lastly, if you’re using new terminology, find keywords for related problems or solutions that you can cover, building category awareness over time.

As a word of caution, one mistake I’ve seen businesses make over the years is fixating on keyword volume or individual keyword rankings.

Not only are today’s SERPs more dynamic, but the goal isn’t just to rank your content in front of the most people; it’s to get in front of the right people.

There’s been a fair amount of concern and even studies done lately about how much organic traffic will decline given the advent of generative AI, whether it’s in search results (like Google’s AI Overviews, Copilot with Bing, or Perplexity AI) or as an alternative (like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude).

What’s important to keep in mind, though, is the relative value of a “qualified click“ compared to average search traffic.

To illustrate this point, we can use the drain product example again.

We knew we’d earn a lot more traffic by targeting the keyword “how to unclog a drain” than “how to prevent a clogged drain.”

More people are interested in solving a problem they have:

Than preventing one they don’t have:

That said, the latter keyword’s search intent was lower funnel for us, i.e., searchers who were closer to making a purchase.

Both keywords brought relevant traffic, but the direct value of a click to the second keyword compared to the first was higher.

On the flip side, traffic to the first keyword helped raise more product category awareness, which could influence decisions later in the funnel. That also had value.

To quote Lester Freamon from The Wire (as I’m apt to do), “all the pieces matter.”

“It all works out”

Whether or not you have an obvious keyword in mind, focus on the larger questions of whether you have an audience to serve and if you’re able to meet them where they are.

As long as your content is high quality and helpful to readers, it’ll have value, even if it doesn’t pay off for keyword rankings and organic traffic right away.

That content can accumulate helpful search data — just like my other blog post that led to me discovering this keyword — or it can apply in other marketing channels, such as getting repurposed for social posts or videos or shared via email.

If I missed anything in this discussion, please let me know in the comments or reach me at ethan.lazuk@gmail.com or on X.

Want a hand with your SEO content strategy? I’m an independent consultant accepting new clients. I’d be happy to help you work through questions like these!

As for this article, I’ll keep an eye out for additional tips to add, as well as update its writing for clarity over time.

Until next time, enjoy the vibes:

Thanks for reading. Happy optimizing! 🙂

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