How to Find Low Hanging Fruit Keywords: Blue Ocean SEO Strategy 2026

Trying to rank for highly competitive keywords like "weight loss" or "credit cards" is like shouting into a hurricane. You pour enormous resources into content and links. Yet billion-dollar brands still drown you out. There's a smarter approach.

This isn't another generic tip list. It's a step-by-step framework for implementing a Blue Ocean Strategy in your SEO efforts.

We'll show you how to find and dominate low-competition keywords. You'll create your own uncontested market space where you can win traffic and build authority.

What Are Blue Ocean Keywords?

A low-competition keyword isn't just a term with low search volume. It's a search query where the current top-ranking pages are weak, flawed, or missing entirely.

These weaknesses become your entry points. They show that Google is actively seeking a better answer. An answer you can provide.

More Than Low Volume

True low-competition keywords are defined by the quality of competition, not just numbers in a tool. Here are the clear signs of a "Blue Ocean" opportunity on a search results page:

• Low Domain Authority/Rating (DR) sites rank on page one.
• Content from forums like Reddit, Quora, or other user-generated content (UGC) sites holds top positions.
• Top results feature outdated content, such as a "Best of 2021" guide in 2024.
• The content is thin, poorly written, or doesn't fully answer the searcher's question.
• Search results seem irrelevant or miss the specific intent of the query.

Blue Ocean vs. Red Ocean

In SEO, Red Oceans are the mainstream, high-volume keywords. Competitors saturate them, all fighting for the same piece of the pie. This turns the water red with battle.

Blue Oceans are the untapped keywords. They represent new, uncontested market space. When you target these, you aren't fighting the competition. You're making them irrelevant.

According to an Ahrefs study, over 90% of all pages in their index get zero monthly traffic from Google. This often happens because they target "Red Ocean" keywords they can't rank for. Our strategy focuses on getting you into the 10% that succeeds.

A 3-Step Discovery Framework

We'll now walk you through our proprietary 3-step method for finding these Blue Ocean keywords. This is the process we use to build traffic for new sites and clients.

The process breaks down into three distinct phases: Ideation, Expansion, and Qualification. Following these steps systematically will move you from a blank slate to a validated list of keywords you can actually rank for.

Step 1: Ideation

The goal of ideation is to find initial "seed" keywords. We do this by thinking like a customer with a specific problem. Not like a competitor chasing high volume.

Here are four methods to generate powerful seed keyword ideas.

1. Solve Niche Problems Brainstorm the highly specific problems and questions your audience has. Go beyond broad topics. Use question-framing like "who, what, where, when, why, how." For example, instead of "best running shoes," a better seed idea is how to choose running shoes for flat feet and bad knees.

2. Find "VS" and "Alternative" Keywords These keywords capture users at a critical decision-making point. They're often informational and have high commercial intent. Think of comparisons like Ahrefs vs. SEMrush or searches for replacements like Google Analytics alternative.

3. Mine Online Communities Your audience is already asking questions in places like Reddit, Quora, and niche forums. Go there and listen. Use advanced search operators in Google to find relevant threads. Try site:reddit.com "your keyword" + "help". The exact language people use is your keyword gold.

4. Analyze Your Customer Questions The most valuable source of keywords is your own audience. Look through your emails, support tickets, and sales call notes. What questions do people ask repeatedly? In our own content strategy, we've found that a single question from a customer email can often unlock a cluster of low-competition topics that our competitors have completely ignored.

Step 2: Expansion With Tools

Once you have a list of seed keywords from the ideation phase, it's time to expand that list. The goal here is to generate hundreds of potential long-tail variations. We'll filter these later.

We'll use a mix of free tools and simple techniques to build out our master list.

Google Autocomplete & "People Also Ask" This is the most direct way to see what real users are searching for. Start typing your seed keyword into the Google search bar. See what suggestions appear. Don't hit enter. Note these down. Then perform the search and scroll to the "People Also Ask" (PAA) box. This is a goldmine of question-based keywords.

Free Keyword Tool Magic Free tools can be powerful for this expansion step. Use a tool like AnswerThePublic to visualize questions around your topic. Or use the Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator to get a list of keyword ideas and questions related to your seed term. The goal is volume. We're collecting raw material for the next step.

Competitor Keyword Gaps (The Smart Way) Most people look at a competitor's top keywords. That's a Red Ocean tactic. Instead, use a tool to find the keywords your competitors rank for on pages 2-3 of Google. These are often keywords they're targeting but aren't fully optimized for. This creates a perfect opportunity for you to create better content and steal the ranking.

Step 3: The SERP Checklist

This is the most important step. Keyword tools are great for suggestions, but their "Keyword Difficulty" scores can be misleading. Here's the exact 7-point checklist we use to manually qualify every potential keyword before we write a single word.

A keyword might have a high "difficulty" score but fail several checks on this list. This makes it a prime Blue Ocean target.

1. Check SERP Features Look at the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Is it filled with ads, a large shopping pack, or a massive video carousel? These features push organic results down the page and can "steal" clicks, even if you rank number one. If the page is clean, that's a good sign.

2. Analyze Top 3-5 URLs Who is ranking? Are the top spots occupied by massive authority sites like Forbes, Wikipedia, or Healthline? Or are they held by smaller, niche-specific blogs like yours? If you see other small blogs ranking, you can too.

3. Look for "Weak" Content This is a huge green light. Scan the top 10 results for any pages from forums like Reddit or Quora. Look for blog posts with very thin content (under 1000 words) or pages that are clearly user-generated. Their presence means Google is struggling to find high-quality, expert content for that query.

4. Examine Page Titles Do the page titles of the top-ranking results perfectly match the keyword you searched? If you search for "how to bake sourdough without a dutch oven" and the top result is titled "My Sourdough Baking Journey," that's a massive opportunity. It shows you can rank simply by creating a more focused and relevant page.

5. Review Content Quality & Recency Is the information on the top-ranking pages outdated? Is it poorly written, hard to read, or does it fail to actually solve the user's problem completely? Outdated and low-quality content is easy to beat with a superior, comprehensive article.

6. Assess Search Intent Alignment Does Google seem confused about what the user wants? A SERP with a mix of blog posts, product pages, forum threads, and videos can indicate that Google hasn't found a definitive resource yet. This ambiguity is your chance to create the definitive resource that perfectly matches the search intent.

7. Ignore Domain Authority (DA/DR) When... If you identify multiple weak spots from this checklist—like forum results, poorly matched titles, and outdated content—you can often ignore high DA/DR metrics. A superior, highly targeted piece of content can and will outrank a high-authority site that isn't directly addressing the search query.

Our Recommended Toolkit

Using the right tools makes executing this framework faster and more effective. Here's our curated list, categorized by their function in our process.

For Ideation

• Reddit: Use advanced search (site:reddit.com/r/yourniche) to find the raw, unfiltered questions and problems your audience is discussing.
• Quora: A structured Q&A platform perfect for uncovering user pain points. Search for your topics and see what questions have a lot of followers but weak answers.
• AnswerThePublic: Excellent for visualizing the questions people ask around a seed keyword. It gives you a web of potential content ideas.

For Keyword Expansion

• Google's SERP: Autocomplete, "People Also Ask," and "Related Searches" are your best free tools for finding long-tail keyword variations directly from the source.
• Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator: A simple tool to take a seed idea and generate a list of phrase match and question-based keywords.
• Ubersuggest: Offers keyword suggestions and content ideas, but be mindful of the daily search limits on the free plan.

For Paid Analysis

• Ahrefs: The Keywords Explorer is essential for scaling keyword expansion. The Content Gap feature is perfect for finding the "smart way" to analyze competitor keywords.
• Semrush: The Keyword Magic Tool is another industry-standard powerhouse for generating massive lists of keywords and filtering them by various metrics.
• LowFruits: A specialized tool designed specifically to find low-competition keywords (what they call "weak spots" in the SERPs). This aligns perfectly with our Blue Ocean strategy.

Your First Step

Finding low-competition keywords is a repeatable strategy, not a one-time hack. It's about shifting your focus from fighting impossible battles to claiming uncontested ground.

The framework is simple. Ideate to find problems. Expand to find variations. Qualify to find the true weaknesses.

Stop fighting in the bloody red oceans of SEO. Your journey to claim your own profitable blue ocean starts now. Pick one niche problem, open Google, and take the first step today.