tl;dr – How to find low competiton YouTube keywords
- YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, making keyword strategy one of the most powerful growth levers any creator has.
- Low competition keywords are specific, long-tail search phrases with real demand but limited high-authority competition in the results.
- Channels with under 10,000 subscribers grow fastest by targeting niche keywords first, then building toward more competitive terms over time.
- YouTube’s autocomplete, Google Trends (YouTube filter), and YouTube Studio analytics are all free and effective starting points for keyword discovery.
- TubeBuddy’s Keyword Explorer scores keywords by combining search volume and competition, so you can prioritize the best opportunities without guessing.
- Your keyword needs to appear in your title, description (especially the first two sentences), and tags in that order of impact.
- A 15-minute keyword research habit before every video compounds into measurable, sustained channel growth.
If you’re not finding low competition YouTube keywords in your niche and creating content to address the best YouTube keywords, you’re missing out on one of the best tactics to grow your channel.
More than 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every single minute (Teleprompter.com, 2025). That’s 1,250 days worth of content or nearly three and a half years worth of content. Every. Single. Minute. If you’re building a channel with a few hundred or a few thousand subscribers, those numbers can feel discouraging. How would anyone find your video when more than 80 years’ worth of content gets uploaded to YouTube every day?
So yes, if you’re relying on luck, the odds are insurmountable.
But if you’re relying on solid keyword strategy, finding low competition YouTube keywords and positioning your content to rank, you can and will succeed.
For small and growing channels, the goal isn’t to rank for “cooking,” or “fitness,” or “gaming,” or other top-level (high competition) YouTube keywords. It’s to find specific, underserved search terms where you can realistically reach the top of the results page. That’s what this guide covers: how to find those low competition, high volume YouTube keywords, how to evaluate them, and how to put them to work for your channel.
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What makes a YouTube keyword “low competition”?
When looking for the best YouTube keywords for growing channels, you’re looking for two key things:
- Enough people searching the phrase to make it worth targeting (high search volume)
- Not enough great content that speaks to the search (low competition)
According to YouTube’s own documentation, search results are ranked first on how well a video’s title, tags, description, and content match the query and second on how well videos have historically engaged viewers searching for it (click-through rate, watch time…). That second factor is what creates opportunity for smaller channels. A creator with 1,500 subscribers can outrank one with 150,000 if their video is better optimized and more relevant and engaging for viewers searching the term.
Low competition keywords tend to share a few consistent traits:
- They’re specific. “Home workout for new moms with no equipment” is low competition. “Home workout” is not.
- They reflect clear intent. The more specific the query, the closer that viewer is to wanting exactly what you’re offering. If content matches the search intent, the viewer is much more likely to watch your video to the end.
- They’re underserved. The top results come from smaller channels, are several years old, or weren’t optimized well for that term.
The sweet spot is a keyword with enough monthly searches to drive real views—even a few hundred per month matters early on—paired with a competitive landscape you can realistically break into.
Worth noting: Competition on YouTube isn’t just about subscriber counts. A poorly optimized video from a massive channel can be beaten by a tightly focused, well-optimized video from a smaller one. YouTube is actively levelling the playing field for smaller creators, and its algorithm rewards relevance, not reputation.
Why keyword strategy matters more than most creators realize
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine, receiving more searches per month than Bing, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask.com combined (Global Media Insight, 2026). That scale creates enormous opportunity, even as it amps up competition.
Of the more than 115 million YouTube channels that exist today, only 618,955 have crossed the 100,000-subscriber mark. Just 69,182 have reached 1 million (Awesome Creator Academy, 2025). That means 99.5% of all YouTube channels are still in the growth phase, and they’re all competing for discoverability in the same search results.
Channels that apply consistent YouTube SEO practices see two to three times more organic view growth than those that post without a keyword strategy (Backlinko, 2026). For a channel between 500 and 10,000 subscribers, that multiplier is the difference between months of stagnation and real, compounding momentum.
With more than 115 million YouTube channels competing for attention and just around 0.5% having crossed 100,000 subscribers, targeting low competition keywords isn’t optional for growing creators. It’s the strategy. Channels applying consistent YouTube SEO see two or three times more organic view growth than those that publish without a keyword plan (Backlinko, 2026), making keyword research one of the highest-leverage habits a small channel can build.
For a broader look at how YouTube’s discovery system works—and why the platform has been actively pushing smaller, newer channels in its recent updates—see how to get discovered on YouTube in 2026.
You don’t need a paid tool to start finding keyword opportunities. Here are four free methods to find low competition YouTube keywords, and they work at any channel size.
YouTube autocomplete
Type your seed topic into YouTube’s search bar and pay close attention to what appears. Every autocomplete suggestion is a real query that real viewers are running right now. The more specific you type, the more useful the suggestions become.
Try the alphabet trick: type your keyword followed by “a,” note the suggestions, then “b,” and so on. You’ll surface keyword variations you might not think of independently. Many of them will have far less competition than your original search.
YouTube Studio search analytics
If your channel already has some views, your own Studio data is a goldmine. Go to Analytics → Reach → Traffic source: YouTube search. This shows the actual search terms that sent viewers to your videos.
Look for two things: terms where you’re already ranking but haven’t fully optimized your metadata, and related queries you haven’t targeted yet but that clearly have demand. These are the easiest wins on the platform: proven interest with zero extra research required.
Google Trends (YouTube filter)
Most creators know Google Trends to uncover web search trends. Fewer use its YouTube Search filter, which is more useful for our purposes. Switch the data source to “YouTube Search” and you can see how interest in any topic has shifted over time, specifically on YouTube.
Use it to identify rising topics before they peak, confirm that a keyword has stable year-round demand, or spot seasonal spikes you can plan content around months in advance.
Related searches at the bottom of results
After you search any term on YouTube, scroll past the video results to the bottom of the page. YouTube frequently surfaces related search queries there. It’s a free, zero-effort keyword idea list but buried at the bottom of the page, it’s easy to ignore. Don’t ignore it.
Using TubeBuddy to validate and score your keywords
Free tools tell you what people search for. TubeBuddy tells you whether it’s actually worth targeting. That distinction saves you from publishing videos that will never rank.
TubeBuddy’s YouTube Keyword Explorer combines search volume and competition data into a single Keyword Score. The free version provides basic keyword results; paid plans unlock the full score breakdown, estimated monthly search volume, and a Related keywords panel that surfaces lower-competition variations of your search.
When evaluating a keyword in Keyword Explorer, watch for three things:
- Keyword Score of 40 or higher — This signals a reasonable balance between volume and competition. The higher, the better.
- “Good” or “Fair” competition rating — Avoid “Poor” (high competition) ratings until your channel has built more authority. These keywords are typically dominated by large, established channels with deep watch-time histories.
- Related keywords tab — Often the most valuable part of the tool. The related suggestions frequently surface lower-competition variations of your original search that you might otherwise have missed.
For a deeper walkthrough of TubeBuddy’s full keyword research toolkit—including how to use it at each stage of channel growth—read the advanced YouTube keyword research techniques guide.
Advanced strategies for uncovering hidden keyword gems
Once the basics are in place, these tactics help you find the opportunities other creators miss. And that is the key to having your videos stand out from the more than 82 years worth of content that gets uploaded to YouTube every day.
Add niche modifiers to seed keywords
Attaching qualifiers to your seed topic creates a new, more specific search term with a fraction of the competition. Useful modifiers include:
- Audience: “for beginners,” “for people over 50,” “for kids,” “for apartment renters”
- Constraint: “without equipment,” “on a budget,” “in a small space,” “without a car”
- Format: “in 10 minutes,” “step by step,” “quick,” “beginner friendly”
- Specificity: “complete beginner,” “intermediate players,” “advanced technique”
“Sourdough bread” has enormous competition. “Sourdough bread recipe for beginners without a Dutch oven” targets a viewer with a very specific need and has a fraction of the competitive field. It’s also high intent. Someone without a Dutch oven but with a hankering for sourdough bread is far more likely to watch your full video on the topic.
Find poorly served existing content
Search your target keyword and look critically at what’s already there. Are the top videos several years old? Do they come from large channels but have relatively low views on that specific video? Does the content actually answer the question?
A pattern worth exploiting: Large channels often publish a video on a niche topic once and never revisit it. A fresh, tightly focused, well-optimized video can outrank it. Not because your channel is more authoritative, but because YouTube consistently rewards recency and relevance over age and subscriber count. Stale content from big channels is one of the most reliable keyword opportunities on the platform.
Competitor gap analysis with TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy lets you examine what keywords other channels in your niche are ranking for. Look at channels slightly ahead of yours; channels you’d like to be compared to in 12 months. Find keywords where they’ve published content but haven’t invested heavily in optimization. Those gaps are often your fastest path to your first few thousand views on a new topic.
Move early on trending topics
We’re not talking about jumping on viral dance trends here; relevance is key. When a search trend breaks out, YouTube probably has very few videos to surface for it at first. That gap is an opportunity. Even a small channel can appear near the top of search results in the first 24 to 48 hours of a trend’s life. Watch the YouTube Search filter in Google Trends and monitor your niche actively.
The 15-minute keyword research workflow
Solid keyword research doesn’t require hours of work. Here’s a repeatable process you can run before every video you publish.
Minutes 0–3: Define your seed keyword. Write down the core topic of your video in one to three words. Don’t filter yourself yet. “Meal prep,” “watercolor painting,” “apartment plants”—whatever the video is fundamentally about.
Minutes 3–6: Run autocomplete variations. Open YouTube and type your seed keyword into the search bar. Note the autocomplete suggestions. Try the alphabet trick on your best two ideas and write down five to eight specific long-tail variations that feel like natural viewer queries.
Minutes 6–9: Check Google Trends. Open Google Trends, switch to YouTube Search, and look at the 12-month trend line for your top two or three candidates. Prioritize stable or rising keywords. Avoid anything in steady decline where you’d be publishing for a shrinking audience.
Minutes 9–12: Validate in TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer. Run each candidate through Keyword Explorer. Note the Keyword Score and competition rating. Check the Related tab for better variations you might have missed. You’re looking for a score above 40 with a “Good” or “Fair” competition rating.
Minutes 12–15: Choose your keyword and plan placement. Pick the strongest candidate and write it down alongside where you’ll use it: your working title draft, your description opening, your first tag. That’s your keyword brief for the video.
In practice: Creators who run this workflow consistently (as a habit, not just an experiment) find their videos getting meaningfully more impressions in the first 48 hours after publishing. YouTube’s algorithm works faster when it immediately understands what a video is about. That early clarity compounds over time.
How to apply your keywords for maximum impact
Finding a great keyword is half the job. YouTube’s Help Center notes that videos that don’t appear in search results often lack alignment between their title, description, and tags. Here’s where to place your keyword, in order of impact:
- Title — Lead with the keyword or place it as early in the title as naturally possible. The title carries the most ranking weight of any metadata field.
- Description — Use your exact keyword phrase in the first one or two sentences. Then use natural variations throughout the rest. Don’t repeat it mechanically. YouTube’s algorithm is sophisticated enough to recognize and penalize keyword stuffing.
- Tags — Your primary keyword should be your very first tag. Follow it with three to five closely related variations. Tags support rankings and help YouTube identify your video for the “related” sidebar.
- Chapter titles — If your video uses timestamps and chapters, include your keyword in at least one chapter title. YouTube indexes these.
- Spoken content — YouTube transcribes your audio. Saying your target keyword naturally in the video reinforces relevance signals across metadata and content simultaneously.
YouTube’s ranking signals follow a clear metadata hierarchy: title keywords carry the most weight, followed by description keywords in the first two sentences, then tags. The platform also transcribes video audio, meaning creators who use their target keyword naturally in both metadata and spoken content send the strongest combined relevance signal to the algorithm (YouTube Help, 2025).
For a full optimization checklist covering every upload field that affects discoverability, see the step-by-step guide to optimizing YouTube uploads. For a deep dive into descriptions specifically—one of the most underused ranking levers on the platform—see the guide on optimizing YouTube descriptions for discoverability and check out how to write better YouTube descriptions (with examples).
Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly is a low competition YouTube keyword?
A low competition YouTube keyword has meaningful search volume (enough viewers searching it to make ranking worthwhile) but lacks dominant, well-optimized videos from large channels in the top results. The top results are often from smaller creators, or from channels that published once and never optimized the video. TubeBuddy’s Keyword Score combines volume and competition into a single rating, so you don’t have to assess both factors separately.
Can a small channel actually rank for any YouTube keyword?
Yes. With the right approach. Small channels aren’t competing on authority or watch-time history. They’re competing on relevance and specificity. A 500-subscriber channel that publishes a tightly focused, well-optimized video on a niche search term can and will absolutely outrank a 500,000-subscriber channel that published a broad, under-optimized video on the general topic years ago.
How do I know how many people are actually searching for a YouTube keyword?
YouTube’s search bar shows autocomplete suggestions but not raw search volumes. TubeBuddy’s YouTube Keyword Explorer provides estimated monthly search volume alongside a competition score, giving you a practical way to compare and prioritize keywords without guessing. Google Trends’ YouTube filter shows relative interest over time, which helps you evaluate trends and seasonality even when you don’t have exact numbers.
Do I need to use my keyword in every part of my video?
Yes, as much as you can without it being forced or unnatural. Your title, the opening of your description, your first tag, your chapter titles, and your spoken content should all align around the same keyword or close variations of it. Consistency tells YouTube that your entire video is about that specific topic, which strengthens your relevance signal for that search. For a complete pre-upload checklist, see what to do before posting a YouTube video.
How often should I do keyword research?
Before every single video. The 15-minute workflow above is sustainable at any publishing cadence. A channel that keyword-optimizes every upload builds a search-friendly library that keeps generating views long after each video is published. Channels that treat keyword research as an occasional task rather than a habit leave discoverability on the table.
Conclusion – How to find low competition YouTube keywords so your channel ranks in 2026
Low competition keywords aren’t a shortcut. They’re how small channels build a foundation that holds. With more than 115 million channels competing and 500+ hours of video uploaded every minute, the creators who grow consistently aren’t necessarily the most talented but they are always the most deliberate.
Start with the free tools: YouTube autocomplete, Google Trends, and your YouTube Studio search analytics. Validate your best candidates in TubeBuddy’s Keyword Explorer. Apply your chosen keyword across your title, description, and tags before every upload. Run the 15-minute workflow until it’s second nature.
For more on building a channel that grows predictably over time, see our guide to growing fast on YouTube and put TubeBuddy’s full keyword toolkit to work for you.
Your best content deserves to be seen
TubeBuddy’s SEO tools help you rank higher, stand out faster, and turn your great content into real channel growth.
Get started