Where You Should Really Look for SEO Content Ideas

At Masthead, we’ve been defining the SEO environment as “turbulent” for three years now—and somehow, the search waters are still growing choppier. Halfway through 2025, AI Overviews are dominating search results and decimating click-through rates. Only 1% of searchers click links in the AI Overviews box, and only 8% click on another organic result. As Google’s AI Mode expands, capturing organic customers will become more and more difficult.

But difficult doesn’t mean impossible. 

Traditionally, keyword research involved deep dives into tools like Semrush and Ahrefs, which provide keyword volume and difficulty for any query you can think of. But with Google siphoning a high percentage of clicks, that generalized data is less useful. Five years ago, we could calculate a rough traffic estimate based only on a keyword’s monthly search volume. Now we can’t.

Enter Google Search Console: your secret weapon for content ideation. Its data is based on real user behavior, not estimated metrics. It tells you which content is actually winning, organically, and where you should focus your efforts.

Why is Google Search Console so great?

Google Search Console provides something (almost) no other tool can: A real-time view into the exact queries people use to find your content. (Bing Webmaster Tools works similarly for Bing queries, and is worth using if you have a significant portion of traffic from Bing!) 

Unlike Ahrefs and Semrush, Search Console doesn’t give you a theoretical search volume or an estimated keyword difficulty. It provides the raw data about how real users interact with your site when it appears in search results. That matters more than ever. 

Using traditional tools, you might dig up a fantastic, topical keyword with 1,000 monthly searches. Great, right? But if only 8% of searchers actually click on an organic result, those 1,000 monthly searches create, at most, 80 clicks. Not so great. 

Search Console cuts through the noise by showing not just where you rank, but how many people click through your site. No, it doesn’t have volume or difficulty, but those metrics are estimates anyway. Here we have the pure gold click data. What articles have the highest click-through rate? Which pages rank in the top five, but hardly bring in any clicks? 

Here, you can separate the actual user interest from the noise.

How do you find striking distance keywords?

One of Search Console’s most powerful features is the ability to identify queries where you’re in “striking distance”—ranking in positions #7 through #20. These pages often need only a small push to improve ranking and earn organic clicks. 

Start by filtering your Search Console data to show queries where you rank between positions #7 through #20. (For detailed Search Console analysis, it’s best to export data to a spreadsheet. We love Search Analytics for Sheets, which can extract up to 25,000 rows of data on its free plan.) 

Prioritize queries with decent impressions. This indicates actual search demand that you may be missing out on. 

Now, stop and take a look at the search landscape. Evaluate the SERP by opening an incognito window and searching these queries yourself. What do you see? 

If the SERP is dominated by an AI Overview that comprehensively answers the query, you need to think strategically. Targeting purely informational queries with net-new content may not be worth the investment, especially if there’s no evidence that searchers are clicking through. But sprucing up existing content to target the AI Overview may be beneficial. 

Here are quick updates you can make to target AI Overviews:

• Structure content with clear, concise answers in the first 1–2 paragraphs of every section. 

• Turn your H2s and H3s into questions whenever it makes sense. Skip the preamble and cut to the chase with your first sentence.

• Add bulleted or numbered lists to improve extraction.

• Integrate unique-to-you data, statistics, or expert insights that add value beyond the basics.

• Use schema markup so search and LLM bots understand your content structure.

Keywords where you’re ranking in striking distance and searchers may want to explore beyond the basics are great opportunities for complete SEO optimizations or net-new content.

Making decisions based on click-through rate

There are two ways to use CTR data to find great opportunities. Filter your results to identify pages with:

1. Strong rankings but poor CTRs

2. Strong CTRs but a low number of total clicks.

Pages where you rank in the top five positions but have a low CTR represent immediate optimization opportunities. Look at the results: What do you think the searcher wants? How can this page better meet their needs? Small tweaks and adjusted metadata can help you better align with search intent. 

If your CTRs are great but you’re not getting a ton of clicks, there are a few paths to consider:

• If you’re ranking below position #3, on average, look for opportunities to optimize the page to better meet search intent.

• Gather all of the pages with high CTRs. Use these winners to ideate net-new content, looking for similarities in theme and approach. For instance, a series of bottom-of-funnel articles with high click-through rates and excellent calls to action can significantly improve site-wide conversions, even if the clicks per article aren’t super high. 

“Testing is essential. SEO today is less about finding the perfect formula than it is about continuous experimentation. ”

Try new meta titles. Test different angles in your descriptions. Monitor your CTR over the next few months. If it doesn’t work, try again. 

How to use low-volume, high-intent keywords

Perhaps the most overlooked opportunity in Search Console is question-based queries with relatively low search volume. (Reminder that Search Console doesn’t show volume; you’d have to look that up using another keyword tool.) In the past, we might have ignored queries with fewer than 50 monthly searches. Now, they’re golden.

Today, volume is so much less important than intent and relevance. A query with 10 monthly searches from your exact target audience is worth far more than a broad, top-of-funnel query with 1,000 monthly searches that rarely converts. 

Filter Search Console for question-based queries that lead to your pages. Typically, they’ll be geared toward your unique expertise or focus on a specific angle highly relevant to your audience. Then, ignore the search volume, and create comprehensive content infused with genuine expertise. Extrapolate themes from your findings to develop a net-new content calendar centered around similar questions. 

Your next steps

Stop relying on traditional keyword tools for content ideas. Go straight to the source by mining your own data from Search Console. Where are you performing well? What content themes bring in high CTRs? How can you tweak striking-distance articles to meet search intent? 

Today’s SEO winners don’t chase every high-volume keyword. They understand their audience’s search behavior and use that knowledge to create genuinely helpful content that serves real needs. Search Console is the best tool to do exactly that—you just need to know where to look.