How I choose the next blog posts: search data, difficulty, and four topics

What did I actually ask for?

I use Claude, an AI assistant, to pull my weekly SEO report together from Google Search Console, GA4, and Semrush. After this week's report, I asked it for four new blog post ideas. The brief was short: the goal is to improve organic search, so pick topics that can bring in people who are not already searching for Double Atari by name.

That goal rules out a lot of tempting ideas. A post can be interesting, well written, and still never earn a click because the site cannot rank for it. So the question was not “what should I write about?” It was “what can this site realistically rank for, that the right people search for, and that I can write about from experience?”

Where does the site stand right now?

The plan has to start from the real numbers, not the ones I wish I had. For the most recent full week, September 28 to October 4, 2026:

Measure	Value	Source	What it means for topic choice
Search impressions	520	Search Console	Google is showing the site; visibility is not the main problem.
Search clicks	1	Search Console	Most impressions come from positions too low to click.
Authority Score	2	Semrush	The hard limit: high-difficulty terms are out of reach for now.

I wrote about this pattern in the 90-day progress report: impressions grew fast because new pages were indexed, but they mostly landed too deep in the results to be clicked. More posts in the same pattern would add impressions and not much else.

What filters did each topic have to pass?

Every candidate went through the same five checks, in this order.

1. Real search demand. Semrush's US monthly volume for the main search term. I wanted at least a few hundred searches a month, so a page-one ranking would actually send visits.
2. Difficulty the site can win. Semrush keyword difficulty runs from 0 to 100. With an Authority Score of 2, I kept the main term at about 35 or lower. Anything higher can still appear inside a post as a secondary phrase, but not as the target.
3. No overlap with existing posts. The blog already has more than 30 posts. A new post that competes with an old one splits the signal between two pages, so every idea was checked against the existing URLs.
4. Experience I can write from. Each topic had to connect to client work or something I have built. That is what makes a post worth reading and worth citing, by people and by AI tools.
5. A service page to support. Each post should link naturally to a page where someone can hire me, so ranking turns into a path to an inquiry.

The AI did the slow part: pulling volume and difficulty for about 40 search terms across two rounds, checking them against the blog, and drafting titles and descriptions. I made the final calls on fit. That split mirrors the process in my post on what to publish, refresh, or leave alone.

Which four posts made the cut?

Volume and keyword difficulty (KD) are Semrush US figures, checked in October 2026.

Post	Target search term	Monthly searches	KD
SEO migration checklist	seo migration checklist	1,900	30
SEO for nonprofits	seo for nonprofits	1,900	22
SEO for therapists and wellness practices	seo for therapists	1,900	25
Webflow vs WordPress for SEO	webflow vs wordpress	1,600	29

1. SEO migration checklist

Target search term: “seo migration checklist” · 1,900 searches a month · KD 30

Planned title: SEO Migration Checklist: How to Move a Website Without Losing Search Traffic

Planned description: A step-by-step SEO migration checklist for redesigns and platform moves: URL inventory, redirect maps, metadata, tracking, and what to check in Search Console after launch.

Secondary term: “website migration seo” (1,300 searches, KD 32). I have done this work, including the Framer to WordPress migration and the Bonefoam Webflow and Shopify consolidation, so the checklist can come from real launches instead of a generic list. It supports website audits and CMS strategy.

2. SEO for nonprofits

Target search term: “seo for nonprofits” · 1,900 searches a month · KD 22

Planned title: SEO for Nonprofits: A Practical Guide for Small Teams

Planned description: How nonprofits can earn more search visibility on a small budget: program and donation pages, local search, volunteer searches, and where Google Ad Grants fit.

This is the lowest difficulty of every term I checked. I have done SEO work for Minneapolis nonprofits, and the same constraints come up every time: small teams, tight budgets, and websites that describe the organization better than they answer what people search for.

3. SEO for therapists and wellness practices

Target search term: “seo for therapists” · 1,900 searches a month · KD 25

Planned title: SEO for Therapists: How Wellness Practices Get Found Locally

Planned description: Local SEO for therapists and wellness practices: Google Business Profile, specialty pages, directories, reviews, and privacy-safe tracking.

Secondary term: “seo for healthcare” (2,900 searches, KD 31). This builds on my work with The Meditation Center. It is also a test of industry pages: if it works, law firms are next (“seo for law firms” has 6,600 searches at KD 40). It supports Minneapolis SEO.

4. Webflow vs WordPress for SEO

Target search term: “webflow vs wordpress” · 1,600 searches a month · KD 29

Planned title: Webflow vs WordPress for SEO: Which Platform Fits Your Business?

Planned description: An SEO consultant's comparison of Webflow and WordPress: technical control, speed, editing, plugins, cost, and when migrating is worth it.

Secondary term: “wordpress to webflow migration” (210 searches, KD 20). My Squarespace vs WordPress post already earns impressions, so a second platform comparison builds on a format Google is already showing. It supports CMS strategy.

What did I leave out, and why?

Some of the biggest numbers did not make it. Each one failed a filter.

Search term	Monthly searches	KD	Why it was left out
generative engine optimization	9,900	72	Too difficult, and the blog already explains GEO.
core web vitals	6,600	82	Far too difficult for an Authority Score of 2.
seo for law firms	6,600	40	A little high for now; next in the industry series if the therapists post works.
google business profile optimization	4,400	66	Too difficult as a standalone post; covered inside the local posts instead.
llms.txt	3,600	60	Timely, but too difficult today.
seo vs ppc	3,600	50	Difficult, and not close to the work I do.

The overlap I almost missed

The first round of ideas included a post on how to rank in ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. The numbers looked good: 590 searches a month for “how to rank in chatgpt” at a KD of 36. But the blog already has a post on how to rank in ChatGPT and Perplexity. The first check was made against search data, not against the site itself, so the overlap slipped through until the second round.

The fix is better than a new post: refresh the existing one with an AI Overviews section. That is the third filter doing its job, and a reminder to check the site before trusting a keyword list. I have the same note in my post on page-two SEO opportunities: improving what already ranks is often the fastest win.

How will I know if this worked?

Each post has one target search term, so the test is simple. After publishing, the weekly report tracks that term's impressions, average position, and clicks in Search Console, alongside clicks from Google to the post itself. I will give each post eight to twelve weeks before judging it, and report back here either way.

Update: all four posts are now published, linked from the headings above. The four posts also go through the same reporting template I use for clients, so the result will be visible in visibility, visits, and outcomes, not only in impressions.

Blog topic research FAQ

What is keyword difficulty?

Keyword difficulty is Semrush's 0 to 100 estimate of how hard it is to reach the top 10 for a search term, based mostly on the authority of the pages already ranking. It is an estimate, not a guarantee, but it is the best quick filter for whether a new post has a realistic chance.

What keyword difficulty should a small site target?

With an Authority Score of 2, I keep new posts at a keyword difficulty of about 35 or lower. Higher-difficulty terms are still useful as secondary phrases inside a post, but they should not be the main target until the site earns more quality links.

Why not just write about the highest-volume topics?

Because a post that ranks on page five gets impressions and no clicks. Double Atari already has that problem: impressions grew much faster than clicks. A smaller search term the site can actually rank for is worth more than a large one it cannot.

Why use AI to research blog topics?

AI is useful for the repetitive part: pulling volume and difficulty for dozens of terms, comparing them against the posts that already exist, and drafting titles and descriptions. The judgment about which topics fit the business, and the experience that goes into each post, still has to come from me.

How will you know if the new posts worked?

Each post has one target search term. After publishing, I track that term's impressions, average position, and clicks in Search Console in the weekly report, and give it eight to twelve weeks before judging it.