Let’s compare two Google search terms: “furniture” and “walnut art deco furniture.” The Google search engine results page for the broad search term “furniture” turns up major brands like Ikea, West Elm, and World Market—strong competitors that make it hard for smaller furniture companies to rank high for the search term.

Meanwhile, although not as many people are typing the niche keyword “walnut art deco furniture” into Google, it’s very closely aligned to that small group of people’s search intent. Plus, the top-ranking organic results are from smaller brands than those ranking for the broad keyword. It would be much easier for a small furniture company to rank for this niche search term than for the “furniture” keyword.

Businesses can get substantial value from prioritizing niche keyword research. Niche keywords connect you with shoppers who already know what they’re looking for—and they’re more likely to buy when they land on your site. Here’s how niche keyword research works and how you can use it to drive qualified traffic to your ecommerce site.

What are niche keywords?

Niche keywords are highly specific search phrases that focus on a distinct audience segment, product, or service. Unlike broad keywords like “shoes,” niche keywords target precise customer needs like “vegan leather shoes for women.” These keywords typically have lower search volume but higher search intent. Most are long-tail keywords—phrases containing about three to five words.

Businesses building their online presence often prioritize niche keywords to drive traffic to their sites. This is possible because it’s easier to show up on the first page of Google’s search results if it contains content specifically designed to rank for niche keyword queries. In other words, it’s a lot easier to rank for “vegan leather shoes for women” than to compete for “shoes.”

Why niche keyword research is important

Any business owner looking to improve their website’s SEO performance can research keywords their target customers are typing into Google and other search engines. When you populate your website with relevant keywords, you drive targeted traffic to it.

Niche keyword research goes a bit further. This specialized approach helps you refine your keyword list to identify search terms unique to your business. These low-competition keywords give you an edge—they’re less likely to appear on your competitors’ websites.

Niche keywords can also produce higher conversion rates compared to a standard keyword list. They align more precisely with a user’s search intent. For example, a search for “glass single-cup pour-over coffee maker” (a niche keyword phrase) demonstrates a more specific purchase intent than a search for “coffee maker.”

Niche vs. rising keywords

Niche keywords and rising keywords both attract smaller slices of search traffic than broad keywords like “shoes,” “coffee,” and “perfume.” But they work in slightly different ways.

Niche keywords maintain consistently low search volume and typically consist of long-tail keywords. Their value lies in high user intent and minimal competition, which makes them perfect for targeting highly specific audiences. Ranking well for niche keywords can be a stable, long-term SEO strategy that delivers steady traffic over time.

Rising keywords are search terms that experience a sudden and rapid increase in search volume. They are typically tied to a current trend, news event, or seasonal spike in interest. Examples include searches like “Halloween candy ranking” and “best location to see lunar eclipse.” Rising keywords’ value centers around their timeliness and potential for a quick burst of traffic. They are short-lived opportunities that can bring a significant number of visitors to a website in a short period.

As a website owner, you can leverage both of these content strategies simultaneously. You can populate your site with niche keywords for consistent conversions and separately create pages that contain rising keywords to capture traffic spikes.

How to conduct niche keyword research

1. Determine your audience
2. Brainstorm seed keywords
3. Use niche keyword research tools
4. Refine your keyword list
5. Analyze SERPs and search intent

Niche keyword research can be an integral part of an overall SEO strategy. Some of the best keyword research tools on the market can offer keyword suggestions that relate to your website’s niche, helping you connect with the users who are most likely to convert to customers. Here’s a five-step process for niche keyword research:

1. Determine your audience

Before you can find niche keywords, you have to first deeply understand your target audience and your site’s niche. What problems are your potential customers trying to solve? What topics are they interested in? This initial analysis will help you characterize your niche site and guide all subsequent steps.

2. Brainstorm seed keywords

Once you have a good sense of your site’s niche and its unique selling point to customers, it’s time to brainstorm a list of broad, general terms related to your topic. These seed keywords will be the starting point for your research. For example, if your site’s niche is vegan cooking, your seed keywords might include terms like “vegan recipes,” “plant-based eating,” and “vegan desserts.”

Need more seed keywords? Type some of your initial keyword ideas into Google. When a search engine results page (SERP) appears, scroll down to find related keywords from Google features with headings like “People also ask,” “Related products,” “Search for next,” and “Discussions and forums.” These can help you find niche keywords in addition to the ones you’ve already brainstormed.

3. Use niche keyword research tools

Next, leverage keyword research tools to find niche terms related to your seed keywords. For example, Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free keyword tool that can analyze a given keyword to generate a list of related keywords that may help your site turn up in niche search results.

In addition to generating related keywords, plenty of other SEO tools (both free and paid) can help you perform a competitor analysis, assess keyword difficulty, and start optimizing your content for niche search. These tools include Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest by Neil Patel, and SE Ranking.

Some paid tools have even more advanced features, like keyword tracking, where you monitor specific tracked keywords to see their search volume trends, and rank tracking, where you monitor where your website (including a specific page or URL) ranks in search results for your tracked keywords.

4. Refine your keyword list

Having done your initial brainstorm and keyword analysis, you can further refine your list to find long-tail keywords. This is where keyword difficulty scores really help. A difficulty score is an SEO tool’s measure of how challenging it is to rank for a specific keyword—the higher the score, the harder it will be. Ideally, you want to choose keywords that have a low difficulty score but significant monthly search volume.

Other things to consider are your website’s current domain authority (DA). Knowing your DA helps you choose keywords that your site has a reasonable chance of competing for; a website with a higher DA is more likely to rank for a competitive keyword than a website with a lower DA.

5. Analyze SERPs and search intent

At this point in the process, you have a refined list of keywords to help optimize your site and become more competitive for niche search terms. Type these keywords, one by one, into Google and analyze the SERPs they generate. For each given keyword, look at the top-ranking websites to understand the user’s intent. Is the searcher looking to buy something, or are they looking for information?

You’ll use these insights to optimize your content, whether it’s a blog post or ecommerce product pages. For example, a search for “best suit cuts for body type” indicates an informational search, while “tailored suits order online” indicates a transactional search. To satisfy the first search, you would prepare content that’s more educational in nature, whereas for the second search, you would design a webpage geared toward facilitating a sale of that product.