What Are Prospecting Articles?

An Approach to SEO Keyword Research and Discovery in Sensitive Industries

At SilverServers, we specialize in helping businesses of all sizes navigate the ever-changing landscape of SEO. For industries that Google considers sensitive, like healthcare, finance, and legal services, keyword data is unavailable in tools like Trends and the Ads Keyword Planner. Because of this, finding the right keywords and creating effective content can be particularly challenging. That’s why we use and recommend a unique type of content we call “prospecting articles.”

If you haven’t heard the term before, don’t worry—we made it up to describe a critical part of what we do. Prospecting articles are an essential tool in what we call an “iterative content strategy”—a data-driven approach to discovering new keyword opportunities, and fine-tuning your SEO efforts. Let’s dive into what prospecting articles are, how they work, and why they’re invaluable for sensitive industries.

What Is a Prospecting Article?

A prospecting article is a piece of content intentionally designed to explore uncharted keyword territory. In industries where tools like Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends offer limited or unreliable data, it can feel like you’re flying blind. That’s where prospecting articles come in. Instead of relying solely on keyword research tools, we write articles based on educated guesses about what your audience might be searching for, or articles that cover an incredibly broad range of potential topics. Then, we let Google Search Console provide real-world feedback on how the article performs.

This process creates a feedback loop. Over time, Search Console reveals which keywords the article ranks for, how often it’s shown in search results, and whether users are clicking through. Armed with this data, we can begin a typical iterative content process to refine your content strategy, uncover new keyword opportunities, and continuously improve your website’s performance.

Additionally, prospecting articles are not necessarily designed to rank first for competitive keywords. Instead, they are structured to rank broadly—just high enough to gain visibility in search results and generate valuable data. The goal isn’t immediate top-ranking success, but rather to discover which search terms show potential so we can strategically optimize and expand upon them in future content.

Why Are Prospecting Articles Useful in Sensitive Industries?

In sensitive industries, SEO strategies face unique challenges:

• Limited Data: Google’s tools often restrict data for topics related to health, finance, legal matters, and some other industries.
• High Scrutiny: Content must align with Google’s E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) guidelines to perform well, but with no data, we don’t know what’s valuable.
• Dynamic Keywords: Search behaviour can vary widely based on location, trends, and even current events.

Prospecting articles tackle these challenges by enabling businesses to gather firsthand insights from Google’s search results. While they start with an educated guess about potential keywords, their performance reveals how real users engage with the content, offering valuable data to refine and define strategic next steps.

How to Create a Prospecting Article

Creating a prospecting article is straightforward but requires a thoughtful approach:

1. Identify a Broad Topic: Choose a subject relevant to your industry that you suspect your audience is interested in.
2. Write with Value in Mind: Create a helpful, informative article that answers potential questions or provides solutions. It doesn’t need to target specific keywords at this stage—focus on serving your audience.
3. Publish and Monitor: Add the article to your website and let it gain traction. Use Google Search Console to track impressions, clicks, and the keywords the article ranks for.
4. Refine and Expand: Based on the Google Search Console data, adjust the article to target promising keywords more effectively. You can also use the insights to plan your next article—or next prospecting article.

Real-World Applications: How Prospecting Articles Uncover SEO Opportunities

We've seen firsthand how prospecting articles can provide valuable keyword insights, uncover new search opportunities, and refine SEO strategies. Below, we’ll explore how this approach has played out in different industries.

1. Expanding Keyword Reach in Retail

A client in the eCommerce space, Purple Kitten Store, needed a way to increase visibility for its product categories but didn’t have enough data about what search terms potential customers were using.

• The Strategy: We created an article that broadly covered product terminology—"Differences Between Baby Rompers, Onesies, Pyjamas, and Playsuits."
• The Results: Within the first year, the page became the most visible on the site, earning over 25,000 impressions and 500+ additional clicks. It also revealed dozens of new search terms that traditional keyword research tools had overlooked.
• The Takeaway: Even in non-sensitive industries, prospecting articles help uncover valuable keyword trends that businesses can leverage to optimize their SEO strategy.

2. Identifying Keyword Saturation in Industrial SEO

Industrial supplier West Coast Spill Supply is in an industry that Google considers "sensitive". They wanted to improve rankings for spill containment solutions, so we created an exploratory article—"Real-World Applications of Spill Containment Berms and Trays in Industrial Settings."

• The Results: Surprisingly, this article generated very few new keyword opportunities.
• The Takeaway: Instead of being a failure, this revealed that most common search terms in this niche had already been targeted—meaning future SEO efforts for these products should focus on refining content rather than chasing new keywords.

3. Unlocking Hidden Keywords in a Sensitive Industry

Another article for West Coast Spill Supply—"Top Five Key Industries That Need Spill Response Kits."—did uncover new, valuable keyword insights.

• The Results: The article steadily increased traffic and revealed search terms that traditional tools couldn’t access.
• The Takeaway: This reinforced the value of prospecting articles, especially in sensitive industries where Google limits keyword data.

4. Local SEO Experimentation

For Hardaker Concrete, we recently published an article—"The Many Uses of a Concrete Slab in Kamloops."

• The Hypothesis: Since local search behaviour varies, we used a broad topic to see how users might search for concrete-related services.
• The Ongoing Experiment: As this is a newly published article, we are still awaiting search data, but this example highlights how prospecting articles can be applied at the local SEO level.

5. Long-Term SEO Impact

For Ace High Storage, we published "Storage Units vs. Storage Lockers – Explaining Some Terminology."

• The Results: Since its publication, the article has remained among the client’s top 10 pages for impressions and clicks, continuously driving traffic.
• The Takeaway: Even in non-sensitive industries, prospecting articles help refine content strategies by exposing variations in search behaviour.

Why These Examples Matter

Each of these cases demonstrates a different outcome:

• Some prospecting articles uncovered entirely new keywords.
• Others confirmed that existing content had already captured the main search terms.
• Some became the most visible pages on their sites.
• Others helped local businesses refine their approach to regional search trends.

How Does This Fit Into an Iterative Content Strategy?

An iterative content strategy is all about continuous improvement using data to inform decisions. With each prospecting article, you gather new keyword insights that refine future content.

Why SilverServers Uses Prospecting Articles

At SilverServers, we believe in building SEO strategies that grow with your business. By combining the power of prospecting articles with an iterative content strategy, we help clients uncover SEO opportunities—especially in sensitive industries where reliable data is scarce.

If you’re ready to take your content strategy to the next level, let’s talk!

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