AI-powered keyword research: using ChatGPT and Perplexity to find untapped terms

AI chat tools have become legitimate keyword research assistants. ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude can surface long-tail terms, map semantic keyword clusters, and identify questions your audience is asking — often faster than traditional tools. The key is knowing how to prompt them effectively and how to validate their outputs before targeting them on your Wix site.

Using ChatGPT for Keyword Ideation

ChatGPT is strongest at brainstorming and semantic expansion. It can generate hundreds of related terms, question variants and content angles for any topic in seconds. Its limitation is that it cannot provide search volume data, so it should always be used alongside a free volume tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest.

Effective ChatGPT prompts for keyword research

• Seed prompt: "Generate 30 long-tail keyword variations for [your main keyword] including informational, commercial and transactional intent types"
• Question prompt: "List 20 questions someone planning to [customer goal] would search on Google"
• Semantic prompt: "Create a semantic keyword cluster around [main topic] for a Wix website in the [industry] niche"
• Competitor angle: "What questions are people asking before buying [product/service] that competitors are probably not answering?"
• Always ask for keywords in batches of 20-30 and sort them by intent after generation

Using Perplexity for Real Question Research

Perplexity is better than ChatGPT for keyword research because it searches the live web and provides citations. Ask Perplexity about your target topic and observe the questions it generates, the subtopics it covers and the sources it cites. The questions Perplexity answers are questions your audience is actively asking in search right now.

Validating AI-Suggested Keywords

• Run AI-suggested keywords through Google Keyword Planner to check real search volume
• Check Google Autocomplete for the term — if it appears, it is a real query
• Search the term in Google and examine the actual SERP for intent signals
• Use Ahrefs or SEMrush free features to check keyword difficulty
• Discard any AI-suggested term with no Google Autocomplete appearance and no search results page

How to Build and Validate a Keyword List Using AI and Search Data Together

How to use ChatGPT and Perplexity to research keywords for your Wix site

• Open ChatGPT and enter the seed prompt: "Generate 30 long-tail keyword variations for [your main topic] including informational, commercial and transactional intent types. Format them as a numbered list."
• Copy the AI output to a spreadsheet with columns for: Keyword, Intent, Search Volume, Difficulty, and Priority.
• Run the same topic through Perplexity by typing your topic as a natural question. Note the sub-questions Perplexity auto-generates and the sources it cites — these reveal real search patterns.
• Add any new keyword ideas from Perplexity to your spreadsheet.
• Open Google Keyword Planner (requires a Google Ads account) and paste your keyword list into the keyword ideas tool to retrieve monthly search volume ranges.
• For keywords without Keyword Planner data, type each one into Google Search and check whether Google Autocomplete suggests it — autocomplete appearance confirms the query is real.
• Filter out any AI-suggested keywords with zero Autocomplete appearance and no Keyword Planner results, as these are likely hallucinated or extremely low volume.
• Sort remaining keywords by intent: group informational keywords for blog content and transactional or commercial keywords for service and product pages on your Wix site.
• For each keyword group, identify the single best page or blog post on your Wix site to target it, or flag it as requiring new content if no suitable page exists.
• Prioritise the top 10 keywords from the validated list and assign them as content targets for your next 10 Wix blog posts or page updates.