what are you guys using for keyword research besides semrush or google?

been using semrush and the usual google stuff for a while

still works, but lately feels like im just cycling through the same keywords over and over

wanted to see what people here are actually using right now that’s not the obvious stuff

tools, scraping, random methods, anything really

especially if you’ve found a way to pull new long tails or low comp terms

trying to test some different approaches

I have been using Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, and forums like Reddit for fresh long tail ideas. Also checking competitor pages manually sometimes brings new keywords. Feels less repetitive than just relying on tools.

man, forget semrush. if it’s in their database, every other seo guy is already camping on it. that’s why you’re seeing the same recycled trash.
honestly the best way to find low comp stuff is scraping autocomplete. just run a parser through the "alphabet soup" method on youtube or google (keyword + a, keyword + b, etc). it pulls what people are actually typing in real-time before the big tools even register the volume.
also, check out what’s popping on reddit or quora in your niche. if you see a question being asked over and over but the top results in google are just some old forum threads from 2019, that's your goldmine right there.
stop paying for tools that just show you the past. scrape the current trends and you'll find the gaps.

Besides Semrush, I often use Google Autocomplete and People Also Ask to dig for long-tail keywords and then crawl Reddit/Quora to see what real user questions are. I combine this with Ahrefs (low KD filtering) and Keyword Surfer for quick checks. This method helps find natural keywords with less competition compared to using only traditional tools. You can try it

AlsoAsked for long tail clustering, and just mining Reddit threads in the niche manually — people phrase things in ways no tool surfaces. Keyword Chef if you want low comp specifically and don't want to dig through it yourself.

Autosuggest scraping on YouTube directly still pulls stuff Semrush misses, especially for emerging terms.

If it's for Youtube forget about using such tools. Keywords don't matter anymore and I'm going to admit that 100%.

Titles, descriptions, tags etc are still important but not as important as it was years ago. If you check some channels you'll understand what I mean.

Besides familiar tools, I often use Google Suggest, People Also Ask and Related Searches to dig for long-tail keywords, which is very effective. I also use AnswerThePublic to get real questions and check Reddit to see what users are asking. This method yields more keywords with less competition than larger tools.