Blog Keyword Research for Non-SEOs: A Step-by-Step Shortcut

SEO shouldn’t feel like a second job—yet that’s exactly how it ends up for most beginners. The moment you start Googling how to find blog keywords, you're hit with a wall of jargon, dashboards, and tools that assume you already know what you're doing. It’s no wonder so many people give up before they even begin.

But here’s the truth: finding the right blog keywords is the single most important step to getting your content seen. You don’t need to be an expert, and you definitely don’t need to hire one. When your keywords are aligned with your blog’s purpose and your audience’s search intent, traffic follows.

This step-by-step shortcut is designed to make blog keyword research actually doable—even if you’ve never touched an SEO tool in your life. No spreadsheets. No guesswork. Just five clear steps that help you understand your blog’s purpose, get purpose-fit keyword suggestions, and use them naturally to boost visibility.

Simple, stress-free, and actually built for you.

Understand What Your Blog Is Actually For

Your keyword strategy won’t make sense if you don’t know what your blog is really meant to do. Before you even think about keywords, get clear on your blog’s role—because how you define its purpose will completely shape the types of terms worth targeting.

1. Define your blog’s real goal

Are you trying to educate readers, rank higher on Google, drive product sales, or build brand awareness? Maybe it’s a mix. Whatever the case, every blog post should have one core goal, and that goal should guide your keyword choices. If your aim is education, you’ll want to target informational keywords like “how to,” “guide,” or “best ways to.” If you're selling something, your keywords need to support conversions, not just clicks. This early clarity keeps you from chasing keywords that won’t actually serve your business or content goals.

2. Match goal to keyword intent

Now that you’ve clarified your blog’s goal, it’s time to align that with keyword intent. This is what separates a random list of search terms from a real strategy. There are three main types:

• Informational – searchers want to learn (e.g., “how to start a blog”)
• Transactional – searchers want to act or buy (e.g., “best blog platforms for ecommerce”)
• Navigational – searchers want a specific site or page (e.g., “WordPress login”)

If your blog is meant to drive sales, you need keywords that reflect buyer intent. If it’s educational, lean toward questions and how-to phrases. This alignment is what makes your keywords not just visible—but valuable. Backlinko’s guide on search intent does a great job breaking this down with examples.

3. Think like your reader

It’s not about what you call your product or idea—it’s about what your reader would actually search to find it. Put yourself in their shoes. What are they Googling when they feel stuck, curious, or ready to solve a problem? Start from their pain points, not your product description. This mindset shift changes everything. You’ll move from guessing to connecting. For more context, Moz’s beginner’s guide to keyword research explains how to bridge that gap between your message and their search.

Once you lock in your blog’s purpose, matching it with the right keyword intent becomes almost second nature. And from here on, your research won’t feel like guesswork—it’ll feel like strategy.

Use a Keyword Tool That Doesn’t Make You Cry

Finding keywords shouldn’t feel like solving a puzzle blindfolded. This is where most people give up—somewhere between confusing dashboards and endless CSV exports. Good news: you don’t need any of that. The tools built for pros aren’t built for you. But the tools built for you can still get pro-level results. Here’s how.

4. Skip the spreadsheets and logins

You don’t need a degree in SEO to get relevant keywords—you just need a tool that cuts out the noise. Stevie AI does exactly that. No complicated UI. No login wall. Just drop in a blog idea or website link, and you’re instantly given keywords that actually make sense for your content. It’s like a cheat sheet, minus the stress.

Forget switching between tabs or exporting lists. The results are clean, curated, and ready to use—no spreadsheet wrangling required. This isn’t SEO theory. It’s results you can work with today.

5. Start with your blog idea or site URL

Have a topic in mind? Great. Just enter that. No topic yet? Just paste your homepage URL. Stevie AI scans the content, understands what you’re about, and delivers keywords that match your goals—whether that’s driving traffic, educating readers, or selling products.

The tool tailors its keyword output based on what you actually care about, so you’re not guessing what to search or which filters to apply. It does the sorting for you.

6. Prioritize long-tail over broad

Trying to rank for “marketing” or “SEO” as a beginner is like showing up to a marathon in flip-flops. Instead, go after long-tail keywords—specific phrases with less competition and higher conversion potential.

That’s Stevie AI’s sweet spot. It leans into niche, intent-driven terms that give smaller blogs and newer sites a fighting chance. You can learn more about why long-tail keywords work from industry experts, but here’s the short version: they help you rank faster and reach people who are actually looking for what you offer.

When the keyword suggestions are this purpose-fit, you skip the overwhelm—and get straight to action.

Filter, Finalize, and Use Your Keywords

Now that you’ve got a solid list of potential keywords, it’s time to make them work. This part is where your choices become strategy—and where good content planning starts to take shape.

7. Pick Based on Traffic and Difficulty

It’s tempting to go after the keywords with the highest search volume, but that’s usually a rookie mistake—especially for new blogs. What you actually want is a balance: decent traffic potential and a difficulty score that doesn’t put you up against enterprise-level content teams.

Stevie AI already pre-sorts keywords by both traffic and difficulty. Look for the ones in the “sweet spot”—terms that aren’t too competitive but still get searched often enough to matter. These are your low-hanging SEO wins.

8. Group Keywords by Post Sections

Once you’ve narrowed down your keyword list, organize them based on where they’ll live in your post. Your strongest, most relevant keyword should go in the headline and intro. Supporting keywords can be used in subheaders or FAQ-style sections further down.

This method not only helps Google understand the structure of your content—it makes your post easier to write. Stevie AI’s suggestions are already broken down this way, so you can drag-and-drop them into your outline without second-guessing where they belong.

9. Use Keywords Naturally (and Avoid Keyword Stuffing)

Keyword usage should never feel forced. If your writing sounds robotic or repetitive, both readers and search engines will bounce. The goal is to support your content with keywords, not stuff them in like filler.

Use your primary keyword once in the opening paragraph and sprinkle supporting terms where they fit naturally. Read your draft out loud—if something sounds off, it probably is. Stevie’s suggestions focus on long-tail, conversational phrases that blend in smoothly, so most of the hard work is already done.

Finding the right keywords is just the beginning. Knowing how to apply them is what turns blog posts into traffic magnets.

You don’t need a decade of SEO experience—or a subscription to another bloated tool—to find blog keywords that actually move the needle. The secret is getting clear on your blog’s purpose, using tools built for non-experts, and focusing on keywords that match both your content and your readers' intent. When you stop chasing generic SEO advice and start using purpose-fit keyword suggestions, blog content becomes less about guesswork and more about results.

Ready to stop overthinking and start ranking? Try Stevie AI free and get personalized blog keyword suggestions in seconds—no logins, no jargon, just the keywords you actually need.