As someone who regularly writes content for clients, as well as our own site, I feel well within my right to admit that thinking up new content ideas is often much harder than actually writing the content.
Maintaining a steady flow of content creation comes hand in hand with generating a lot of topic ideas. But not just any topics – topics the intended audience will find valuable. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find new content ideas, and I’m going to share 10 of them with you right now.
For the purpose of producing cohesive examples, my fictional company of choice sells shoes.
“Why shoes?” you may ask.
“Why not shoes?” I respond.
1. Google Search
I think most digital marketers will agree that Google is both your best friend and worst enemy at the same time, but when it comes to generating content ideas, Google is, in fact, your friend. So much so, that the first half of this list is very Google-centric, but for good reason!
There are a few ways to utilise Google Search to generate content ideas:
Start a relevant search
Begin typing a relevant term into the search bar and see what Google suggests to complete the query:
Topic ideas:
- Are women’s trainers different from men’s?
- What are the best women’s trainers for walking and running?
People also search for
Inputting the query Are women’s trainers different to men’s, then scrolling to the bottom of the results page reveals the People also search for section:
These results can create new topic ideas, or add depth to existing ideas:
- Are women’s trainers different from men’s?
- What are the size differences between men’s and women’s shoes?
- Are there any differences in the features of men’s vs women’s shoes?
- What are the best women’s trainers for walking and running?
- What features should you look for in a running shoe?
- Is there a difference between men’s and women’s running shoes?
People also ask
The People also ask feature is a great way to expand your original query, often taking it in directions you may not have considered before:
Topic ideas:
- What’s the difference between walking and running trainers?
- Can you wear running trainers for walking?
- Interview a chiropodist (foot doctor) to discuss the most important shoe features to maintain foot and ankle health
2. Site search
A handy tool for generating content ideas is Google’s site search feature. Head to the search bar and type site:[URL] “[query]”, replacing [URL] with the URL of a relevant publication or site, and “[query]” with… well, a query.
This will search the provided URL for any mentions of your query, displaying all relevant results.
For my fictional shoe seller, I might search site:https://footwearmagazine.com/ “women’s trainers”
Topic ideas:
- Shoe trends throughout history
- How women’s trainers shaped the fashion landscape of today
You can repeat similar searches across a range of relevant publications with a variety of queries to spark inspiration. You can even steer away from specific industry sites and opt for UGC sites like Reddit, as suggested by Kunjal Chawhan, SEO Manager at Botpresso.
These results reinforce the clear interest in whether men’s and women’s shoes have any real differences – indicating this a good topic to tackle!
3. Google Trends
Completely free to use, Google Trends is a great way to check how popular a topic is. Once you’ve identified some topic ideas through other means, check whether there’s a demand for content within this niche.
A search for ‘shoe trends’ shows that the term seems to spike in popularity, before dropping again. It looks to be on the up right now, so it could be prime time to jump in with some relevant content using the above-mentioned topic Shoe trends throughout history.
4. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is another free tool that you should definitely be leveraging to identify new content opportunities by highlighting what content is working best on your site.
Looking at the best-performing blog posts over the past three months (ordered by number of clicks), you can tweak these topics into new, but similar ideas:
- The best shoes for flared jeans
- The best shoes for wide-legged jeans
- The best sandals for summer
- X ways to clean dirty trainers
You can extend the time frame and order the results by different metrics to find other pieces of content that are also performing well.
5. Google News
Switch to the ‘news’ tab in the SERPs and check out which articles are trending within your niche. Can you adapt any of these topics to suit your brand?
Since I’m writing this blog post in December 2024, it’s no surprise that ‘2025 trends’ style content is booming. The best thing is that this topic can be split into multiple pieces of content, focusing on different types of shoes and different occasions:
- 2025 business footwear trends
- The trendiest types of heels for 2025
- What will be the biggest footwear trend in 2025?
Topics such as this have the benefit of being evergreen, meaning they won’t become irrelevant or outdated over time. Evergreen topics are a great way to continuously drive traffic to your site, unlike the ‘2025 trends’ topics above which will eventually reduce in traffic. Stemming from the topic of replacing running shoes, you could produce content like:
- Which running shoes last the longest?
- How to repair running shoes
- How often should you replace rain boots?
- How long should snow boots last?
Don’t be afraid to venture into the world of user-generated content. The above search result immediately makes me think of an influencer / celebrity partnership – by sending them a few pairs of shoes and asking them to review and compare them all, you gain a fresh piece of content with credible opinions, and you may well gain some conversions too!
6. Keyword research
This staple SEO practice should never be neglected when creating content ideas. Take a relevant term and run it through your preferred keyword research tool. Look at related terms and long-tail queries to identify new angles to take the topic.
Once again, we’re seeing an interest in the difference between men’s and women’s trainers, as well as searches for trend-related topics. The top result is something we’re yet to see via other methods, so that’s another topic idea added to the list!
7. Research, data, and analytics
A great way to provide value within your content is through credible statistics and research findings that will be interesting and / or useful to your audience. You may find existing research online, or perhaps conduct your own to generate unique statistics and insights.
Footwear data from Statista found that by 2024, 90% of sales in the footwear market will be attributable to non-luxury. Using this stat as a jumping-off point, you could create some content looking into the way consumers are moving away from ‘luxury’ and leaning more into comfort.
Another way to leverage data is by looking at trends. The same Statista data reported that the largest segment in the market is boots, which is expected to reach a volume of US$7.8bn in 2024. Given this, it would be worth creating some content around boots to capture this large portion of the market.
8. ChatGPT
Let’s make one thing clear from the offset – I am not suggesting you let ChatGPT write your content for you. In fact, if you value your audience and their perception of you, I strongly advise against it. However, AI models, like ChatGPT, can be a great way to generate content ideas.
You can make your prompt as tailored to your brand as you’d like, but even something broad will bring back some great results. My prompt was: I own a shoe brand that sells various types of shoes, including trainers, running shoes, winter boots, sandals, business shoes, and high heels. Suggest some content topics for use on the company blog.
And just like that, over 20 ideas were generated within a few seconds. Have a browse through its suggestions and select some that resonate best with your brand. Using these suggestions, in conjunction with some of the other research methods on this list, can help you identify which AI-generated topics are most relevant and in demand, to ensure you’re still creating content of value.
9. Competitor analysis
You should always keep an eye on what content your competitors are producing, but when taking their content for inspiration, remember to keep yours unique.
Looking at Schuh’s blog, there are plenty of gift-guide-style content pieces (again, because I’m writing this in December!). You can’t just replicate the blog posts that the competitor is creating, but you may be able to tweak some topic ideas to suit your brand and its offerings. For example, you may pick topics like:
- Men’s gift guide: shoes for every occasion
- A gift guide for boot lovers: a style for every wearer
- Gifting children’s shoes: things to keep in mind
10. Customer service
Another way to capitalise on the topics your customers want to see the most is to get inspiration from your customer service team.
When customers complain, what are they having issues with? Perhaps a certain style of shoe has been degrading quicker than other styles due to customer error. In this instance, create some content that aims to solve this issue:
- How to properly care for our SportsX shoes
- X steps for increasing the longevity of your running shoes
When customers reach out to your team with questions, what do they ask the most? If your customer service team often gets questions about how to lace a certain style of boot, you may produce a piece like:
- X ways to lace up a knee-high boot
- X ways to lace up running shoes
These informational pieces can help your customers answer their own questions and concerns, but will also form unique pieces of content that help you stand out from the crowd.
There are plenty of ways to generate content ideas, so you should never be stuck without a topic! If you’re still struggling, why not get the help of a friendly agency?
