How To Find Rankable Keywords For a Low DR Site (Step-By-Step Guide)

Last Updated on May 17, 2023 by Jordan Alexo

Are you struggling to find rankable keywords for your low Domain Rating (DR) website?

Searching for keyword ideas that have enough search volume and offer the potential of high rankings can be a challenge, especially when starting from scratch.

This guide will provide step-by-step instructions on uncovering keyword opportunities with ample search volume and low competition that are perfect for sites with low DR scores.

By the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to identify profitable keyword opportunities so that you can start ranking in Google’s search results.

What Does Domain Rating (DR) Mean?

Domain Rating (DR) is a metric used to measure the strength of a website’s backlink profile. In other words, the number of links pointing to a website from other websites.

The higher the DR, the more powerful and authoritative that site is in Google’s eyes and other search engines. A high domain rating means that your site is seen as more trustworthy and powerful.

As a result, your website will be able to rank higher for keyword phrases and have increased organic search traffic.

But if your site has a low DR, it will be much harder to rank for competitive keyword phrases. That’s why it’s essential to find keyword opportunities that are low competition and have enough search volume to give your site a chance to rank.

This website ranking is based on a logarithmic scale. The score goes from 1 to 100. New websites start at one and move up from there.

Is Domain Rating Important For SEO?

There are five reasons domain rating is vital for your SEO success:

1) Link Building Opportunities

A high DR website is more likely to attract backlinks from other sites. That’s because when other sites see your domain rating, they feel confident that your content is high quality.

2) Increased Rankings

A high DR score means more trust and authority, which can help boost your keyword rankings. Search engines know that a website with a higher DR is more likely to have quality content and will reward you with higher keyword rankings.

3) More Visibility In Search Results

A higher DR means that your content will be more visible on search engine results pages (SERPs). Search engines see sites with higher domain ratings as more authoritative and trustworthy.

4) Increased Credibility

Search engine algorithms use domain ratings to determine the credibility of a website. A higher domain rating tells search engines that your site is more reliable and trustworthy.

5) More Organic Traffic

Having a high DR can lead to more organic search traffic. That’s because search engines will reward your website with higher keyword rankings and increased visibility on SERPs, which can lead to more people visiting your site.

As a low DR site owner, keyword research is the key to success. You must find keywords with enough search volume and low competition to give your site a chance to rank.

As your site grows in authority, you can start targeting more challenging keyword phrases. 

How To Find Your Domain Rating?

You can easily find your site’s DR score with Ahrefs, one of the most popular SEO tools.

You must enter your website URL in the search bar and click “Search.” The tool will then show you a range of metrics, including Domain Rating. You may also use this SEO tool to check other websites’ DR scores.

Once you know your current DR score, you have an idea of what your website’s keyword-targeting potential is.

5 Key Elements To Consider When Doing Keyword Research

Before starting SEO keyword research, you must understand the five elements you should consider in keyword selection.

1) Search Volume

It shows how many people search for a keyword phrase monthly. This metric is crucial because it helps you identify keyword phrases with enough search demand to make SEO efforts worthwhile.

2) Competition Level

The competition level is how hard it is to rank for a keyword phrase. The more competitive the keyword, the harder it will be to rank for and vice versa.

To see if a keyword is too hard to rank for, look at the search results on Google. If you see a lot of websites with high DR scores and keyword-rich titles, it might be too challenging to rank for that keyword.

3) Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are keyword phrases with three or more words. For instance:

• Organic gardening supplies
• Best organic fertilizer for vegetables
• Free Keyword Research Tools

These keyword phrases have lower search volume and competition, but they can still be profitable. Long tail keyword phrases convert better and can help you rank for related phrases with higher search volume.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is going after short-tail keywords. These keyword phrases have higher search volume but are more competitive and harder to rank for.

4) Search Intent

The search intent of keyword phrases is the goal of a user’s search. A user’s search intent could be informational, navigational, or commercial.

Here are a few examples of keyword phrases for each search intent:

• Informational keyword phrases: “How To Find Low Competition Keywords,” “5 SEO Tips To Help You Reach First Page of Google.”
• Transactional keyword phrases: “Best SEO Tools For Beginners,” “Top 10 Keyword Research Tools.”
• Navigational keyword phrases: “Ahrefs,” “Jordan Alexo“

Understanding keyword phrases’ search intent helps you create more relevant and valuable content for your target audience.

5) Relevancy

Start researching keywords related to your niche. Make sure you focus on relevant keyword phrases to your website and have enough search volume to rank for them. Relevant keyword phrases will help you attract the right audience and rank higher in search engines.

By now, you should have a good idea of what keyword phrases to target for your website.

3 Strategies To Help You Find Easy To Rank Keywords

Let’s look at three to help you find new keyword ideas for a low DR site.

Strategy 1) Semrush 

If you don’t know, Semrush is a keyword research and competitive analysis tool that provides insights into keyword search volume, keyword difficulty, and competition.

It also helps you identify long-tail keywords with low competition that can help you rank your content on search engines easily.

Read this article if you want to learn more about Semrush.

So let’s see how you can find low-keyword difficulty keywords for your website.

Step 1) Get an account with Semrush

It’s easy to sign up for an account with Semrush. Just go to the website and click on “Sign Up.” [you could probably add your affiliate link here]

Step 2) Enter Your Seed Keywords in The Search Box

Now, enter your main keyword in the search box of Semrush, and click on “Search.” This should be a keyword related to your website. For instance, if you have a website about digital marketing, enter “digital marketing” as the seed keyword in Semrush.

Step 3) Analyze The Keyword Difficulty Score

Once you get the results, look at the keyword difficulty score. This score lets you know how hard it will be to rank for that particular keyword phrase. If the keyword difficulty is low, you can rank high in Google search results.

I recommend sticking between (Easy 0-14% to Very Easy 15-29%) keyword difficulty for low DR websites. Anything more than that may be too competitive.

Now you don’t want to stick with your main keyword because they are often too competitive. Instead, you can use Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to find relevant keyword phrases with low difficulty scores.

You want to use the following filter parameters

• Related: Choose similar keywords as your main one.
• Keyword Difficulty Percentage: You may start with “Very Easy” and later check “Easy” keywords.
• Search Intent: You can also pick between the information or transactional search intent.

Once you get the list of keywords, click on the monthly search volume metric to see the keywords with the highest search traffic. These are the keywords that you should target for your website.

As you can see in my example below, I easily have a nice list of relevant keywords to target with low competition.

Step 4) Deeper Analyzes

Before I use a keyword phrase, I analyze it individually. Just select a keyword that looks good to get more details in Semrush.

You should check the blog posts that show up in Google search results. Do you see multiple low-domain ranking pages? If so, it may be an excellent keyword for your website.

Step 5) Select Your Winners

Choose keywords with at least 200 to 300 users searching per month and between 0 to 29% difficulty. Often these keywords won’t take long for a new website to rank.

Strategy 2) Inverse Competition

Another fantastic way of finding low-competition keywords is to inverse your competition. In other words, see what your competitors’ websites rank for. And use their keywords.

Step 1) Find a Relevant Website

Install the Ahrefs free toolbar on Google Chrome. This bar will show you quickly the domain rating for each website.

Go to Google and search your seed keyword. You can also add keyword+blog to get better results. For example:

This way, Google will show blogs related to this keyword. Often the first page of results will be highly authoritative websites. 

You don’t want to see the content of these big players as these websites target keywords with high competition and won’t be a good option for you.

Look at the second page of Google search results or later. You will find more relevant bloggers and small websites.

Open several web pages on a new tab and check the Ahrefs SEO toolbar to see their domain authority.

Choose the ones that have a DR between 20 to 60. I recommend sticking with websites that This way, you will know the websites that are more likely to rank in Google search results.

Step 2) Use Google Search Operators

Now, you want to see what keyword phrases these websites rank for. You can use Google search operators like:

This way, Google will show you the exact keyword phrases this website ranks.

Best search operators to get informational keywords:

• Site: domain intitle: how to (will show you how to keyword phrases)
• Site: domain intitle: why (will show you why keyword phrases)
• Site: domain intitle: tips (will show you tips posts)

Best search operators to get transactional keywords:

• Site: domain intitle: best (best of products blog posts)
• Site: domain intitle: review (review keyword phrases)
• Site: domain intitle: vs (product comparison web pages)

Step 3) Analyze Your Keywords

Open some of these web pages on Google and see their URL extension. Often the URL will include the keyword phrase.

If you are happy with the keyword, it’s time to analyze it in Semrush. Check the keyword difficulty score and monthly search volume.

If you find a good keyword phrase, add it to your list of target keywords for your website. This strategy allows you to find relevant keyword phrases with low competition quickly.

Strategy 3) Lowfruits.io

Lowfruits.io is an innovative keyword research tool that allows people to quickly analyze keyword difficulty and find relevant keywords with low competition. It has an easy-to-use interface that makes it simple to find low-hanging fruit keywords (long tail keywords).

Besides, this tool is one of the most affordable ones in the market. You pay for the credits you want to use.

So, grab your 10 free credits today and follow the rest of the guide to find relevant keywords with low competition for your website. (your affiliate link)

Now let me show you how to use Lowfruits.io in 5 easy steps:

Step 1) Select KW Finder

Go to Lowfruits.io and select the KW Finder tool.

Step 2) Enter Your Seed Keywords

Now type your seed keyword in the search bar and hit enter. I include a * sign after my keyword to find related keyword phrases.

I also like to exclude (Reddit, Quora, and Amazon) from the advanced options. This way, you can remove keyword ideas that are irrelevant to SEO.

Step 3) Fetch Monthly Search Volumes

You can check the search volumes of each keyword for free. This way, you will know which ones have more demand and potential to rank in Google search results.

Step 4) Use Filters

You want to apply a few filters to reduce the number of keyword ideas. By doing this, you can save your credits for those keywords that are highly relevant to your website.

Here are a few suggested filters:

• Search Volume: Minimum 100 (guarantees you the keywords have enough searches to target)
• Words: Minimum 3 words (this removes short tail keywords)

You may also use “intent” to easily find keywords with commercial intent.

Step 5) Find Low Competition Keywords

Now look at the list of keyword ideas and extract the SERP from the interesting keywords. This option requires one credit.

Once you have analyzed a few keywords, you want to check the “Weak Spots” metric. This will tell you if there is any way that you can rank higher than your competition.

In my situation, I found one weakness with my search term. In the second position of SERP, it says there is a Quora post. Often it is easy to outrank Quora posts if you can create better content.

Anyway, the idea is to use “Weak Spots” to find keywords with as many opportunities as possible.

How To Build a Keyword List? (200 words)

Lastly, I keep a Google Doc sheet with all my best keywords. Here is what it looks like:

You quickly create a similar Google Doc sheet where you can add keyword ideas and relevant information. This helps you keep track of keyword difficulty and search volume and more quickly decide which keywords you should prioritize and write content about.

If you’re starting a new website, I recommend having a list of at least 30 keyword ideas. You can easily do that with the keyword strategy methods mentioned above.

Last Thoughts About Finding Low Competition Keywords

Keyword research is an essential part of SEO and digital marketing. Knowing how to find relevant keywords with low competition quickly can help drive organic traffic to your website, increase visibility in Google search results, and boost sales.

By leveraging the power of Google Search Operators, Semrush keyword analysis tool, and Lowfruits.io keyword research tool, you can easily create a list of rankable keywords for any DR site in just a few steps.

With this guide as your reference, you have all the tools to start building your target keyword list today!

If you have any general questions about keyword research or SEO, leave me a comment below. I would love to help you out!