Creating content for the right keywords, hashtags and topics is critical if you want to get in front of more people, build awareness and drive sales.

Half the battle when creating content is figuring out what to write about. Here are four quick tips on how you can find the best keywords, hashtags and topic ideas for your brand and content marketing strategy:

#1. Use Google autofill to find the best keyword phrases

Google autofill is a great tool for identifying awesome keywords for your brand. Here’s an example of what comes up in Google autofill when I search “kitchen remodeling ideas.”

As you can see, this gives you lots of different phrases that people search when they start typing in “kitchen remodel.” These are highly searched keywords and phrases that you should be building content around.

Keep track of all of your keyword and phrase ideas in a spreadsheet to refer back to when you’re creating content.

#2. Use Google’s “People also ask” section to identify popular topics

If you scroll a little further down on the Google search results page, you’ll find the people also asked section. Here’s an example:

These are popularly searched topics that are related to the keyword you searched, and they are great topic ideas for you to build content around, whether it’s a blog post, an email campaign or a YouTube video.

Plus, if you open one, more common questions will be added to the list, giving you even more topic inspiration for your content.

Save these common questions in a spreadsheet. And, when you need an idea for a blog post, a social media post, a marketing email or a YouTube video, pick one to answer in-depth.

#3. Use YouTube autofill

The YouTube autofill feature works very much like Google autofill in that you can start typing in a keyword, like “fall lawn care,” for example, and it will give you a bunch of additional topic ideas and phrase ideas.

YouTube is a great place to find alternative phrases and keywords because people searching for video content tend to search in a different way.

Once you’ve found a good topic to cover, create a video with the exact same title. This increases the chances of your video ranking high on YouTube and Google, especially when you use longer phrases, like “fall lawn care tips.”

This is a great way for you to start creating content that’s super-targeted, that’s going to rank high and get eyeballs on your brand faster.

#4. Use the Instagram hashtag search on your phone

Pull up the Instagram app on your phone, go to the search icon at the bottom, click on the search bar and then Tags. Once you click on Tags, start typing in keywords.

Here’s an example using “kitchen.”

As you can see, this is showing me all the hashtags related to “kitchen.” These are great hashtags for you to use in your content marketing as you’re posting to social media.

Best of all, you can see how much competition you’ll have for each hashtag because the number of posts that use the hashtag is listed under each one.

You don’t want to use a hashtag if it’s so competitive that you’ll never break through the noise, but you also don’t want to use a hashtag no one is searching for. For the best results, look for hashtags that have between 10k and 300k posts.

And, once again, keep a spreadsheet of relevant hashtags for your brand. This way, you’ll know exactly which hashtags to use when you create social media content.

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