AnswerThePublic Research

What is AnswerThePublic research?

AnswerThePublic research means feeding a seed word into AnswerThePublic, a search listening tool, and collecting the questions, prepositions, comparisons and related searches people type around it. One seed like “toddler sleep” comes back as a long list of real phrasings: why does my toddler wake at 5am, toddler sleep without crying, toddler sleep consultant vs book.

The raw list is the easy part. The value comes when you sort those phrases into problem clusters, groups of searches that describe the same frustration, and count how heavy each cluster is. A cluster with 15 anxious questions tells you far more about demand than one big keyword ever will.

When should you use it?

It fits when:

• Your customers google their problems in full sentences: parents, patients, pet owners, freelancers, small shop owners, hobbyists.
• You have a broad space (“toddler sleep”, “VAT for freelancers”) and need to find the sharpest problem inside it.
• You want interview questions and landing page headlines in the customer’s own words.

It adds little when:

• You sell to a handful of large companies. Their buyers ask colleagues and vendors, and those questions never reach a search box.
• Your seed word is a brand name or a product category nobody knows yet.

How do you do it, step by step?

1. Pick 3 seed words before you open the site. The free version caps how many searches you get per day, so don’t waste them on test runs. Use the problem, never your solution: “toddler sleep” beats “sleep coaching app”. Keep seeds to one or two words, since long seeds return thin lists.

2. Set the country and language. Choose the market you will sell in. Results for “toddler sleep” in the UK and the US differ in spelling, products and worries.

3. Run the first seed and copy everything. Results come grouped into questions (how, why, what, can, is, will), prepositions (for, with, without, near, to), comparisons (vs, or, and, like) and related searches. Paste every phrase into a Google Sheet, one per row, with a column for the group it came from.

4. Delete the noise. Remove jokes, celebrity names, duplicates and anything outside your space. Expect to cut a third.

5. Cluster by frustration. Read each phrase and ask what problem sits behind it. Give each cluster a short name (“early waking”, “bedtime battles”, “nap transitions”) and tag every row. Aim for 5 to 8 clusters. If a phrase fits two, pick the stronger one and move on.

6. Score each cluster. Add three columns. Count: how many phrases. Heat: how many contain urgent or emotional words such as “help”, “every night”, “normal”, “worried”, “fix”, “stop”. Money: how many mention “cost”, “price”, “best”, “worth it”, “hire”, “consultant” or a product. Sort by Heat first, then Money.

7. Sanity check the winner. Take 5 phrases from your top cluster to Google Keyword Planner for volume ranges, and type 2 of them into Google to see who already answers them. Weak, generic answers mean an open gap.

8. Write one problem statement. Format: [Who] struggles with [cluster], and today they [current workaround]. That sentence goes into your interview guide and your first test page.

What does a worked example look like?

Say Priya is a former nursery nurse in Bristol who wants to sell sleep help to parents of children aged 1 to 3. This is a made-up case to show the process.

Her seeds are “toddler sleep”, “toddler waking” and “sleep regression”, all set to the UK. After cleaning she has 118 phrases. Her clusters:

• Early waking: 22 phrases, Heat 14, Money 3 (toddler waking at 5am every day help)
• Bedtime battles: 19 phrases, Heat 11, Money 5 (toddler screaming at bedtime what to do)
• Cot to bed move: 15 phrases, Heat 4, Money 6 (best toddler bed rail)
• Nap drop: 12 phrases, Heat 5, Money 1
• Sleep at nursery: 8 phrases, Heat 2, Money 0

“Cot to bed move” has money words, but most point to buying a bed rail, a product she doesn’t sell. Early waking and bedtime battles carry the emotion. Comparisons add one more clue: sleep consultant vs book and sleep consultant worth it both appear, so some parents already weigh paying for help.

Her problem statement: Parents of 1 to 3 year olds dread the 5am start, and today they try blackout blinds and later bedtimes, then give up. She takes it into 10 interviews before she builds anything.

Which free tools help?

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Burning free searches on spelling tests. Decide your seeds on paper first.
• Treating the list as a volume chart. Use AnswerThePublic for phrasings and clusters, and get the volume for your top phrases from Keyword Planner before you count heads.
• Clustering by keyword instead of frustration. “Toddler sleep training” and “how to stop toddler crying at night” share few words and the same problem. Group by the problem.
• Falling for the biggest cluster. A big cluster with no Heat is curiosity. A smaller one full of “help” and “every night” is a buyer.
• Writing content before talking to anyone. The questions are a map. People still need to tell you what they’ve tried and what it cost them.

How do you know it worked?

You finish with a sheet of 5 to 8 named clusters, a score for each, and one problem statement for the winner. Our rule of thumb for a go: the top cluster holds at least 15 phrases, a third of them carry Heat words, and at least a couple mention paying or hiring. If every cluster is small, calm and full of “what is” questions, the space has curious people and few frustrated ones, so try a different seed or a different customer.

What should you do next?

Fill the gaps with Google autocomplete research, which catches newer phrasings, and check real volume with Google keyword validation. Then test your problem statement live in problem interviews, and later turn each cluster into problem-focused blog posts. The startup game for women by Fe/male Switch gives you an AI co-founder to review your clusters and interview plan.

FAQ

Is AnswerThePublic free?

There is a free version with a daily cap on searches, and paid plans for more searches and extra features. For validating one idea, a few days of free searches with well-chosen seeds is enough.

Where does AnswerThePublic get its data?

It surfaces the questions and phrases real people type into search engines and groups them around your seed. Treat it as a map of how people word a problem, and pair it with Google Keyword Planner when you need monthly volume.

What is the difference between AnswerThePublic and Google autocomplete?

AnswerThePublic runs many question and preposition patterns at once and lays them out in groups, which saves hours. Typing into Google yourself is slower, though it shows current suggestions for your exact location.

Updated 26 October 2026 · Written by the Fe/male Switch team

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