How to Find Keywords Your Audience Is Actually Searching For

Stop guessing. In this deep dive, we show free, fast ways to uncover what your audience types into YouTube: Auto-suggest, the Alphabet method, a wildcard underscore trick, and the Two-More-Clicks method. Then we turn those findings into keyword-first titles, description tops that convert, spoken keywords YouTube can transcribe, and chapters that rank—plus a long-tail strategy built for smaller channels.What You’ll LearnFree keyword discovery with YouTube itself (auto-suggest, alphabet, wildcard)The Two-More-Clicks method to mine related queries from results pagesHow to think like a beginner and target long-tail questionsTools to check volume/competition/trends (vidIQ, TubeBuddy, Keywords Everywhere)Where to place keywords: title, first two description lines, spoken words, chaptersWhy tags are minimal now (use for misspellings/homonyms)Chapters00:00– Why keyword research matters00:27– Where to start00:43– YouTube Auto-Suggest01:06– Alphabet Method01:25– Wildcard Underscore01:37– Two-More-Clicks01:57– Read the page02:49– Think like a beginner03:12– Long-tail wins03:35– Low-volume strategy04:07– Tools04:50– Deploying keywords05:23– Inside the video05:52– Chapters05:57– Tags todayKey TakeawaysYouTube itself is your best free keyword tool.Long-tail > broad for smaller channels—win specific searches first.Place keywords where they matter: title, description top, voice, chapters.Tags are optional helpers, not a growth lever.Create with the beginner’s language, not expert jargon.Resources & Tools MentionedYouTube Auto-Suggest (search bar), Related/People also watchedvidIQ, TubeBuddy (volume/competition ideas)Keywords Everywhere (volume, trendlines, top-video age/averages)SponsorBrought to you by Pop by Tuulie—psychology-driven thumbnails and title testing. Create with Pixel, improve with Re-pop, model styles with Inspo Pop, then test in Pop Ground to see what actually pops. Start your free trial at tuulie.com/pop.