How I Get Endless Engaging Content Ideas By Looking Beyond Keywords

This article was edited by Chima Mmeje, Johnson Ishola, and Temitayo Olofinlua.

I got a brief to research keywords for a new product feature, and like most content marketers, I went straight to the keyword tools, but the more I dug in, the more I felt every angle had already been done to death 

Keyword tools are great for direction, but they can become a trap, pulling you into a cycle of chasing rankings instead of creating content that answers genuine questions and moves the brand forward.

So I started looking into often overlooked content mines, and that search gave birth to my Triple C framework, which I use to keep ideas fresh long after the keyword list runs out.

But first, let me show you the goldmines hiding in plain sight.

Common content goldmines I was overlooking, as most marketers do.

Internal conversations and threads

Great content often starts closer to home than you think. I was scrolling through a Slack channel when an executive dropped a screenshot showing a clever use case for one of our product features.

The post sparked a wave of team conversations, and the product team mentioned that customers had been asking about that exact workflow. The result was a detailed article showing readers how to achieve it using our tool.

Within weeks, repeat-customer questions dropped because the guide was answering them up front.

Source: Internal screenshot of a part of the Slack conversation

Big companies lean on this practice too. Slack’s own design team turned an internal debate about building the Threads feature into a public blog series called “Threads in Slack: A Long Design Journey.“

Internal conversations not only surface content ideas but also save time for everyone; sometimes they start during sales calls.

Sales and support conversations

I once joined a series of sales calls and left with a notepad full of content ideas, real questions, objections, and genuine lightbulb moments.

Those calls reminded me that customers ask specific questions that keyword tools often miss entirely.

Gong demonstrates how powerful this can be. They analysed 67,000 sales meetings to capture the most common objections and turned them into their Objection Handling Techniques PDF.

The content practically wrote itself because the audience had already told them exactly what they needed.

Industry conversations

Industry bigwigs are talking? I am ‘sat’! I love gist (not just for its own sake!), but because it can generate fresh content ideas.

Case in point: Surfer’s CMO Tom Niezgoda published a side-by-side comparison with Clearscope. Clearscope co-founder Bernard Huang publicly called it misinformation.

Tom wrote a follow-up LinkedIn post that calmly broke down what he had gotten wrong, pointed out inaccuracies in Bernard’s reply, and invited clearer competition. Bernard responded with an equally open note and even offered free trials so people could test both platforms themselves.

Beyond the brand comparison, that exchange is a reminder that content does not always have to fit a classic blog format. Sometimes an honest, well-handled disagreement becomes the most magnetic piece to your audience.

My content triple C: How I sneak peek at competitors, communities, and conversations for killer content ideas

Rather than hitting my head on the keyword brick wall, I built a personal framework that ensures I never run dry on content ideas. I use it to uncover ideas hiding in plain sight, so the content keeps growing long after the keyword research is done.

Here is how each “C” breaks down.

Competitors: I spot what other brands miss

Before opening a keyword tool, I like to see what similar brands are publishing and, more importantly, what they are not covering well.

Google SERPs to answer questions

Great content starts with great questions, which is why I start by raiding Google’s People Also Ask sections. I look for patterns in recurring questions and the content gaps that answering them would fill. These prompts are conversation starters and not guaranteed content ideas.

For example, when working on an ISO audit topic guide, PAA insights shaped my article headings, helped me answer real user questions, and the article ranked on page one.

Pro tip: Click open multiple PAA questions. Each one expands the network of queries and reveals the depth of what people are actually searching for.

Explore existing content for coverage and relevance

A content gap is not always about a missing topic; sometimes it’s about a topic that hasn’t been covered well enough. So I ask myself if a competitor’s article still holds value today.

I check for outdated examples or tools, anything older than six to twelve months. Then I look at the depth to see if the piece is a skim-over or provides practical guidance. Finally, I assess the format and ask if visuals, checklists, or a side-by-side comparison would make it far more useful.

An article may still rank because of domain authority, yet be thin (i.e. written to meet SEO criteria without solving a real user need today).

I recently found a “how to write a content outline” guide from 2022 that remains frozen in time, even though AI has completely changed the content landscape since then.

If I were rewriting it today, I would show how outline building accounts for AI search optimisation, include prompts I use to structure content that feeds AI-generated search answers, and add checkpoints for aligning headings with the way generative search summarises answers.

Content gap tools

Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush are great for showing what competitors rank for that I do not, but I always go beyond the keyword list to understand what those gaps actually mean for my specific audience.

With Ahrefs’ Competitive Analysis tool, I enter the brand’s website alongside a few competitors, and it surfaces keywords they rank for that the brand does not. The key is pressure-testing each idea before jumping in.

I do this in two steps. First, the relevance check, where I compare the keyword gap against actual customer conversations and sales questions. If it does not match a real pain point, I mostly drop it, though sometimes I keep it in a Google Sheet for later. Second, the format fit, where once an idea passes the relevance check, I decide whether it deserves a deep guide, a case study, or a tutorial based on how the audience will best digest it.

Source: Ahrefs- How to do content gap analysis (with template)

Communities: I listen when the audience spills the tea

This is where I go for the freshest angles. People talk freely in communities because a marketer is not in the room, and that makes them such a rich source of content ideas.

Reddit and open forums

Reddit threads are filled with unfiltered user problems. People vent and ask questions that many SEO tools have not caught yet. I use tools like Keyworddit to focus on relevant communities like r/SaaS, r/marketing, or product-specific forums. SparkToro also gives me an overview of what is buzzing across different audiences.

YouTube and webinar Q&As

While researching a blog post on my own content process, I came across a comment in a Content Studio webinar on YouTube that stopped me mid-scroll. The speaker explained how automation can help researchers cut hours of manual digging, and that comment gave my article a heading I would never have found in a keyword tool.

Source: The Content Studio YouTube

I use AI tools like Snipd, ListenNotes, or ChatGPT to summarise transcripts and highlight actionable moments. Checking comment sections manually or with vidIQ helps me track viewer reactions and streamline the process.

Pro tip: When vetting what to listen to, start with episode titles that are directly relevant to your niche or recent product challenges.

Newsletters

I am a newsletter junkie, and yes, I am absolutely mining them for content ideas. Reading Tracey Wallace’s Contentment in 2023, her take on owning SEO as a distribution channel was enough to nudge me into writing Content Marketing for Beginners on Medium.

If someone consistently writes about friction points or overlooked trends in your space, that is a signal worth following.

My top five content marketing newsletters worth adding to your list:

• Contentment by Tracey Wallace
• The Reeder by Devin Reed
• The Future of SEO by Eli Schwartz
• The Marketing Millennials by Daniel Murray
• Superpath Newsletter

Community listening can spark countless ideas, but those ideas still need to be checked for brand alignment before they become content. Listen first, then pressure-test each spark against the brand and audience before committing to a piece.

Conversations: I join and learn from ideas

Some of my best content ideas have come from simply paying attention. A client once reached out after seeing a LinkedIn post where I was mentioned, and instead of letting that moment pass, I turned it into a brand review that still ranks on Google today.

That is the thing about public conversations, they are happening whether you are watching or not. LinkedIn posts and comments, X replies, and collaborative articles are where I spend most of my time for this, mostly because I write for B2B clients, and that is where they congregate.

TikTok is also worth paying attention to, even though I haven’t used it for a client project yet. A HerCampus study found that 75% of Gen Z internet users use TikTok for search, with 51% favouring it over Google because of its short-form video format. 

For brands targeting Gen Z, it is worth tracking what goes viral, what questions people are asking, and whether building content for video search fits within the budget.

My 4-point gut check for deciding if an idea deserves an article

Before committing to any topic, I run it through a simple four-question gut check. After a lot of trial and error, this is what keeps me from chasing ideas that sound good but go nowhere.

Sometimes a content idea does not have to follow the traditional format, and the best teams actively encourage that. As long as the content moves the brand or product forward, it is worth taking the risk.

Taking content beyond keywords

Keywords and keyword tools are useful, but they are not the whole game. The most memorable, high-impact content does not always come from what is trending in Semrush or sitting in a content gap report.

AI can cover surface-level search terms in seconds. What it cannot replicate is your context, voice, and firsthand experience, and that’s the edge no tool can hand you.

So yes, use the keyword list. But also trust your curiosity, follow your frustrations, and pay attention to your audience’s concerns.

Inioluwa Ademuwagun