What is Topic Suggestions?

Topic Suggestions performs automated research to identify publication topics that add value and relevance specific to your domain. The suggested topics are content that will provide consistent value, not what is viral or emerging which usually has short-lived significance. The suggestions take into account variable metrics to calculate what topics are worth the effort and are evergreen in being the content readers want at any given time. Every week, our AI constantly reevaluates the topics based on where your site and its competitors stand.

Note: this is currently only available for U.S. region (English language) websites due to dataset and language processing, but we are working on expanding this feature internationally.

Why should I use Topic Suggestions?

Being able to discover new topics to write about is priceless when continuing to build quality, original articles people want to know about. Topic Suggestions lets you skip past the time-consuming process of topic selection to get to the fun art of writing content!

By using Topic Suggestions, you stand to gain more traffic and have sought-after content. We know you have a lot to do, and don’t always have the bandwidth to deep-dive into researching Search Suggestions, Related Searches, Also Asked for content, etc. when trying to have your content compete with other publisher's content. To keep up with the vast market and rapid shifts, this tool automates that analysis and research and gives relevant suggestions that allow you to start creating content that will have successful results in both organic traffic and search ranking. 

How do I use Topic Suggestions?

From the dashboard, click on NicheIQ from the top navigation bar.

Then make sure Topic Suggestions has been enabled. You can enable Topics from either the NicheIQ Overview page, or from the Topics page directly in the header.

Topic Suggestions will work best when you have authorized your Google Search Console so that we have the best information available to optimize the suggested topics specifically for your domain. From the settings menu, there will be a prompt to authorize Google Search Console. If you have already done this, you will see a confirmation that authorization is complete.

What information will Topic Suggestions provide?

The Topic Suggestions table includes:

1. Bookmark - saves that topic to quickly filter down the suggestions
   
   Click on the bookmark icon to identify which topic you want to consider, which will bring those topics to the top of the list and help in sorting.
   
   Benefits of bookmarking:
   • Our AI will be able to find similar topics to suggest in the weekly updates, keeping valuable topics in the refreshed suggestions
   • Helps you identify a content strategy
   • Accumulates topics separately from the weekly refreshed topics
2. Topic - provides a relevant and valuable publication topic to write about. These topics are refreshed on a weekly basis so that you always have fresh topic ideas.
   
3. Potential - reflects the perceived value of the topic to perform well for the website
   • The value is calculated in a range from 0–10 and takes into account estimated traffic, relevancy to the domain, and keyword difficulty
   • The closer to 10, the greater the potential and more likelihood that the article on the topic will bring traffic back to the website
     
     
4. Search Volume - estimated monthly organic traffic seeking that topic
   
5. Keyword Difficulty - reflects how the domain will perform in search results for that topic and is calculated based on the search volume, domain authority, and relevancy of the topic to the website
   • A topic that has low difficulty (1-3) will likely drive low traffic to the site in relation to current organic monthly traffic and may not be worth the effort
   • An optimal difficulty level is between 4-6, which means there is a balance between how much traffic a topic can bring and how difficult it may be to rank well for it
   • A topic that has high difficulty (7-10) will likely be competitive and hard to rank well
     
6. Covered - mark off the topic(s) that are already driving traffic to the site
   
7. Actions:
   
   • Layered pages icon - copies the topic suggestion to the clipboard to begin writing
     
   • Magnifying glass icon - search topic on Google or Bing
     
   • Three Dots icon - gives three options:
     
     • Hide topic - moves the suggested topic from the main list to a hidden list
       Click “Show Hidden Topics” to see them again. Click “Unhide topic” to return the selected topic back to the main list
       
     • Mark as covered - updates to “Yes” meaning you consider the topic is already covered by one or more of your articles. See what topics have been marked as covered in the column.
       
     • Report as offensive - removes the suggested topic entirely and helps our AI to understand how to filter undesirable topics in the future

Initially, the topics with the most potential are on top. Click the funnel icon to filter and then click “Ok” to apply. Click “Reset” to return the table back to default. You can also sort by using the up/down arrows which will organize the list in a top to bottom order based on the column you've selected.

The additional tabs within Topics, provide specific details on competitors so that you can respond to rivals with your own content strategies.

• The “Competitors Overview” tab provides a snapshot of the top three competing domains with the most topic overlap and also the domains that are consistently ranking better.
  
• The “Competitors List” tab provides a table of competitor domains, their keyword volume, rank, and overlap ratio.
  

How does Advanced Search Options work?

Sometimes you want to see a subset of the topics with specific words. Within the search bar, use advanced searching techniques to conduct more specific searches by using modifiers (comma, plus, minus) before a keyword to produce more relevant results.

• Using a comma (,) between keywords will separate those keywords to return search results for each individual topic.
• Using the subtract/minus (-) modifier will filter out that keyword from the query and will be excluded in the search results.
• Using the add/plus (+) modifier will include that keyword in the query to appear in the search results
  

Click "Clear Filters" or "Clear Seach" to reset.

Is the “Potential” score specific to my site?

Yes. We use your current domain statistics to find keywords that have the best potential for your site. The main point is not finding keywords that are out of range.

For example, if you are a smaller site and want to target a keyword that your competition might be, you’re not going to be able to acquire that keyword reasonably. So we're basing your current stats to provide topic suggestions that are going to be within range for your site.

Oftentimes, keyword research requires an expert-level understanding of SEO, but by using Topic Suggestions we take that research process out so that you can focus on creating content with the assurance that the topic is based on data that will support your content to rank well.

Why can’t I manually refresh the list of topics suggested?

We generate topics every week (currently each Monday) for a couple of reasons:

• The tool does not look for viral topics but ones that drive traffic in the long run (evergreen) so topics will actually change more slowly (at the rate the publisher - and their competitors - write new articles)
• The tool assists you in content planning so that each week you have a current list that continues to learn each week what topics will help your site
  

If I bookmark a topic and come back to it a month later, will the data (potential & keyword difficulty) update, or does the data remain the same for those bookmarked suggestions?

At this time the data for Potential and Keyword Difficulty will remain the same.

We suggest as a best practice to pick topics that you can write about within a couple of weeks. It would not be ideal to hoard topics for months because our technology continues to learn as your site grows so pulling topic suggestions from the refreshed weekly list will be the most valuable topics.

Why am I getting an error message: “Unable to generate suggestions”?

First, make sure you have authorized your Google Seach Console on your publisher dashboard.

This means we do not have enough data to curate topic suggestions for your site. Causes could be related to: low traffic, low site authority, region and/or language. We are actively working to improve and expand upon how suggestions are provided, so check back later.