What to Blog About: The 23 Smartest Ways to Find Blog Topics

Looking for new ideas for your blog? 

Been working with the same client for an age and struggling to stay fresh?

Figuring out what to blog about next can be tough. But, I’m not just going to give you blog topics like some resources do. That just won’t work. 😜

You need to find the right topics for yourself, i.e. find blog topics that:

• Offer lots of value to the audience in question
• Perform well according to your goals (traffic, shares, downloads, signups, etc.)

So, here you’ll find clever ways to find high-value blog post ideas that work for you. 

CONTENTS

• Use Existing Content to Find New Blog Topics
• Get SEO-Driven Blog Post Ideas
• Learn What to Blog About From Your Audience
• Beat Your Competitors
• Make Use of Your Team
• Gather Intel on Social Media
• Find Trending Blog Topics

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links. So, if you choose to make a purchase using one of the links on this page I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Nevertheless, I will always share my genuine experiences and opinions on any tool I recommend.

Use Existing Content to Find New Blog Topics

Draw on your existing content to give your audience more of what they desire. 

Plus, when you cover all aspects of a topic, you prove that you truly are an expert at the stuff you talk about. 

This is a bonus on so many levels. Google rewards sites that are able to show their expertise and authority.

Also, your audience wants to read blog posts from an expert, i.e. somebody’s opinion and advice they can trust. Like, you wouldn’t take advice on how to manage your finances or how to deal with that terrible rash you’ve got, etc. from a non-expert would you?

1. Do More of What Works

If a blog post has performed well, it stands to reason that your audience is aching for more of that topic. Or more of that blog post format, e.g. a resource list, detailed how-to or whatever it is.

Head to your fave analytics or site monitoring tool to find your top-performing pages. In Google Analytics, go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages:

You may wish to filter your content to find what works for your current goal. For example, find the kinds of posts that get the most traffic or conversions.

2. Delve Deeper into a Topic

Choose a sub-header from one of your top-performing blog posts or pieces of pillar content. Create a new post covering that topic thoroughly.

This is a great way to create topic clusters that prove you’re an expert on a subject, and therefore improve SEO.

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3. Recycle Blog Content in Another Format

You don’t have to create, create, create all the time. Get the most from your content by repurposing it in other ways. 

This is particularly useful if you have your own blog and are strapped for time or resources.

You can take your best content assets and transform them into blog posts. 

For example, take a live social media session, YouTube video, social media graphic or podcast, etc. and turn it into a blog post.

Convince & Convert regularly turn short videos into multiple blog posts and long-form social media posts in this way:

4. Update Old Blog Posts

If a blog post has done well for you in the past but is starting to lose traction, it might just need a little refresh.

Easy ways to do this would be to: 

• Update your sources e.g. you might be linking to old studies or pages
• Add new sections that have become relevant in the time since you published
• Make posts a yearly event, e.g. “Top X for 2021”, “Top X for 2022”

Here’s a nice example:

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Get SEO-Driven Blog Post Ideas

68% of online experiences start with a search engine. So, of course, it’s smart to use SEO to get your blog posts as high up in the search results as possible.

And it all starts with finding relevant keywords, questions or topics that your audience searches for. 

Bloggers that research keywords are 80% more likely to report strong results. So, it’s just a no-brainer.

5. Find Long-Tail Keywords

I’m not gonna lie, SEO is difficult. But, the big players don’t get to monopolize the search engines, no ma’am. There are opportunities for everybody to succeed.

Long-tail keywords have a lower monthly search volume and are less competitive. Thus, you have a greater chance at ranking.

The best way to find them is via your go-to SEO tool.

Semrush shows you how difficult it is to compete for the keyword (KD%) alongside how many monthly searches there are (Volume):

So, all you have to do is pick out the gems that couple a lower monthly search volume with a low difficulty score. If you want access to billions of keyword opportunities like these, you can try Semrush for free.

Build up your traffic overall by going after multiple long-tail keywords with your blog posts.

Plus, more volume doesn’t necessarily mean more conversions. Choose the most relevant long-tail keywords to attract targeted traffic.

6. Get Suggestions from Google

Google essentially shows you what it thinks is a relevant topic for a given keyword in the search results. Thanks, sis.

You can use this information, therefore, to cover your bases and improve SEO.

Type your keyword in the search bar and see what Google suggests:

Find frequently searched for questions about your topic in the People Also Ask box:

Or scroll to the bottom of the page to find related search queries:

Learn What to Blog About From Your Audience

It’s time to have a little Who Wants to Be a Millionaire moment and use your “Ask the Audience” lifeline.

At the end of the day, your audience should be at the center of everything you create. 

Content marketers say the number one factor that contributes to their success is their ability to connect with their audience’s values, interests and pain points.

7. Find Audience Pain Points on Forums and Q&A Sites

If you don’t already know of forums in your niche, simply type the name of your industry or a relevant term + forum into Google:

You can also find relevant subreddits for your niche. Or peruse Quora topics.

For all of the above, find questions and issues that come up repeatedly. Use a blog post to answer the query or solve the problem.

8. Look at Your On-Site Searches

You can set up a site search report in Google Analytics.

Do visitors search for content that doesn’t yet exist on your site? Well, you better get a blog post up on that topic rapido.

Or use the frequently searched-for terms to learn what topics to blog about more often.

9. Address Blog Comments

It’s likely your audience will ask questions in the comment section of your blog. For example, this question from the most polite commenter in history:

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You can use those questions to add to the existing blog post. Or if you feel something demands a longer explanation, as the above example probably does, then you can create a whole new blog post on the topic.

If your audience doesn’t pose questions this way, then simply add a line to the end of your blog posts that says, “What else would you like to know about [XYZ]? Let us know in the comments.”

10. Survey Your Email List

Ask your most loyal followers what they want to read about or learn next. 

Here’s a sweet example from Campaign Monitor:

To encourage more responses, make sure you explain how you’ll use their answers to make your blog posts better and more relevant.

If your email marketing tool doesn’t have a survey function, create your survey using a free tool, such as Google Forms.

Beat Your Competitors

You can use your competitors’ successes and failures to give you boss-ass blog post ideas. There’s so much to learn from what has worked in the past and what hasn’t.

Competitor analysis sounds complex but is actually pretty easy. And it gives you the opportunity to leave your foes in the dust.

11. Analyze Competitors’ Top Blog Posts

Look at your competitors’ top posts list to find which topics resonate most with your audience. 

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This gives you an idea of what direction to go in. Come up with a new angle or headline for the topic. We don’t condone stealing.

Take it a step further with Semrush’s competitor analysis tool. Filter the competitor’s content according to what you want to achieve, e.g. find the kinds of blog posts that get the most links:

12. Fill the Competitive Gap

Through competitor analysis, you can also see what topics you’re missing out on.

Use your chosen SEO tool to find what keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t. That way you can begin to fill in the gaps in your content library.

Semrush, for example, offers a Keyword Gap tool where you can add up to five competitors. If you don’t know your competitors, the tool will make suggestions for you.

You then get to see the top missed opportunities for you:

13. One-Up Your Competitors

I know it’s difficult to find topics that are completely unique and have never been done before.

So, if you do end up covering a topic similar to a competitor’s, just make sure yours is way better. 

Yours is the Beyonce, theirs is the Michelle.

For example, make your blog post more in-depth, add useful mixed media to your blog post, make your post more up-to-date and so on.

14. Find What’s Missing from Popular Content

Go to a competitor’s blog and take a look at their comments. Does their audience ask questions that they’ve failed to answer?

You can take blog post inspiration from those questions. This gives you yet another opportunity to one-up your competitors. 

Make Use of Your Team

If you have a gorgeous team of experts at your disposal, why not make use of their insights?

They know their shit. And they’re able to draw on real-life experiences to come up with topics that’ll resonate with your audience in a big way.

15. Address Potential Roadblocks

Perhaps you blog for commercial purposes, i.e. either for your business or a client’s business. 

In this case, you can take blog post inspiration from the things that prevent potential customers from coming on board. Talk to sales about what these issues are.

You can address any questions potential customers might have in the early stages. Or bust any misconceptions about the business or industry.

The folks behind the Calm app do this wonderfully:

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16. Answer Common Customer Queries

Remember, your content should serve every stage of the customer journey. It pays to help existing customers with your content, too.

Speak to your (or your client’s) customer service peeps to get an insight into customer problems.

These queries might be directly related to the product or service. Or perhaps more generally related to helping customers reach their goals.

Here, for example, clothing reseller app Depop explains how tax works on their platform, which is no doubt a frequently asked question:

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17. Have Your Team Write About Their Expertise

Nowadays, both the search engines and your audience want to read blog posts written by experts.

Each person in the business no doubt has a blog post inside of them waiting to get out. What’s great is that they can also incorporate real experiences. 

And if the person isn’t a writer, that’s okay. Ghostwrite it for them or give their posts a polish once they’re done.

Gather Intel on Social Media

Wouldn’t it be great to know what your audience is thinking?

Social media, essentially, hands that to you on a platter. You get to be a fly on the wall and find out what your audience is really interested in.

Plus, you have a platform on which you can easily interact with your followers and learn from them directly.

Gosh, it must’ve been hard for those old fogies who had to actually go out there and speak to people IRL.

18. Check Out Your Social Media Analytics

All social media platforms give you the option to see your data. In some cases, you may need a certain kind of account to do so, e.g. a business account.

But, that’s fine, it doesn’t cost anything extra to set one up.

Go to your Analytics, Insights or whatever the platform in question calls it. Find your top-performing social media posts to discover topics your audience loves.

For example, on Twitter, you can see the number of impressions and engagement rates for your tweets:

19. Use Pinterest’s Suggested Keywords

This is another great way to find what your audience searches for in relation to your main topics. Plus, if you use Pinterest as one of your main promo channels then your blog posts will be super relevant to your audience.

Type your main keywords/topics into the Pinterest search bar and see what delightful terms pop up underneath:

20. Take Inspo from What Your Audience is Talking About on Social Media

If you want to get real fancy, you can use a social listening tool to track what your audience is interested in. Or you can find out yourself:

• Look through relevant social media groups or pages

• Find frequently-used hashtags

You can do these kinds of things to find hot topics, questions people are asking and what your audience truly cares about.

21. Ask Your Audience on Social Media

My nana always said, “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.” So, why not go straight to the source?

Go to the social media platform your audience hangs out on the most. Pose a question, such as:

• “What’s the one thing you still don’t understand about [topic]?”
• “What’s one thing every new [jogger/marketer/craft enthusiast etc.] needs to know?

Find Trending Blog Topics

We talk about creating evergreen content all the time. In other words, the type of content that stays relevant.

But, the truth is, things often change in all niches. For example, certain global events have turned the world upside down and had a knock-on effect all over the place. I’m looking at you coronavirus. 😳

So, it pays to stay on top of what’s going on.

22. Find Out What’s Trending in Your Niche

To prove that you’re an expert in your niche, you need to stay on top of the latest trends.

There are tons of tools that can help you do this. Some free ones are:

• Google Trends – Find out what people are searching for atm. Type in one of your main categories, then scroll down for related topics and queries:

• Exploding Topics – Discover what topics are about to trend so you can be on the cutting edge.

23. Take Inspo from Events

If people are willing to splash the cash to attend an event or conference, then you know they are deeply invested in the topics that are being discussed there.

Find upcoming events in your industry, and check out the main workshops or speeches, etc. for current topic ideas.

Here’s an example from a design conference:

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Final Word

When it comes to what to blog about, there isn’t a one size fits all answer. 

You need to use smart tactics and research methods to find topics that the audience will appreciate and that are likely to perform well.

Next time you’re ready to create a new blog post, pick one of these methods and give it a bash. And feel free to come back here whenever you’re struggling to find fresh ideas.