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Free Keyword Research: How to Find What People Search

Do keyword research for free with Search Console, Google autocomplete, Google Trends, Keyword Planner and Bing, then turn the phrases into a list of pages.

By freeseobot Editorial · Published · 6 min read

You can do useful keyword research without paying for a tool. Start with Google Search Console, which shows the searches you already appear for. Add Google autocomplete and "People also ask" for real phrases people type, Google Trends for seasonality, and Google Keyword Planner or Bing Webmaster Tools for rough search volumes. Then group the phrases by what the searcher wants and match each group to one page on your site.

The method below takes about two hours for a small business and works in any country and language.

What is keyword research, in plain terms?

Keyword research means finding the words your customers type into search engines, and deciding which of them your pages should answer. A "keyword" is usually a phrase, not a single word: "emergency plumber open sunday" rather than "plumber".

For a small business, the goal is not the biggest numbers. It is a short list of phrases that:

  • describe something you actually sell or know about,
  • show the searcher wants what you offer, and
  • you have a realistic chance of ranking for.

Step 1: Start with the searches you already get

Google Search Console is the best free keyword tool for any site that already has some traffic, because the data is about your site, not an estimate.

  1. Open Performance > Search results and set the date range to the last 3 or 6 months.
  2. Switch on Impressions, Clicks and Average position.
  3. Open the Queries tab and sort by impressions.

Look for three groups:

What you see What it means Action
High impressions, position 5 to 20 Google already links you with this phrase Improve the page that ranks for it
Queries you did not expect Customers describe your service differently than you do Use their words in headings and titles
Queries with no matching page Demand you are not serving Candidate for a new page

Click a query, then the Pages tab, to see which page Google shows for it. If it is the wrong page, that is a sign your best page for the topic is unclear.

Search Console leaves out some rare queries to protect searchers' privacy, so the query list never adds up to your total clicks. It is still the most accurate free source you have.

Step 2: Collect real phrases from Google itself

Google's help page on autocomplete says predictions "reflect real searches that have been done on Google", and that they depend on the searcher's language and location. That makes autocomplete a free list of real phrases in your market.

  • Autocomplete. Type your main service into Google and note the suggestions. Then add each letter of the alphabet after it ("boiler service a", "boiler service b") to see more.
  • People also ask. The expandable questions in many results. Each one is a question real searchers have. Clicking one loads more.
  • Related searches. The phrases at the bottom of the results page.

Do this in a private browser window, and if you serve another country, remember results and suggestions are local. Search the way your customers would, in their language.

Google Trends shows how interest in a search changes over time and by region. It does not show search volume. Google's help page explains that values are scaled from 0 to 100 "based on a topic's proportion to all searches on all topics", so 100 means the peak for that phrase in the place and time you chose.

Use it to:

  • compare two ways of saying the same thing ("sofa" against "couch" in your country),
  • spot seasons, so you publish or update pages a month before demand rises, and
  • check whether a topic is growing or fading over five years.

Step 4: Get rough search volumes for free

Two free tools give volume estimates.

Google Keyword Planner. Part of Google Ads. You can enter words or a website and get keyword ideas with search volume estimates. It requires a Google Ads account, and Google's help page says you need to finish account set-up, including billing details, to use it. You do not need to run an ad to look up keywords. Treat the numbers as estimates designed for advertisers.

Bing Webmaster Tools. Free with a Bing Webmaster account. Its Keyword Research tool gives keyword ideas and impression counts from Bing's own search data, filtered by country and language. Bing's audience is smaller than Google's in most countries, so use it for relative comparisons rather than absolute numbers.

Our free rank checker shows where your site currently ranks for a phrase in your country, which helps you decide whether a keyword is realistic.

Step 5: Judge the intent behind each phrase

The same words can mean different things. Search intent is what the person wants to do:

Intent Example Best page type
Find information "how often should a boiler be serviced" Guide or FAQ
Compare options "combi vs system boiler" Comparison page
Buy or book "boiler service near me" Service or product page
Find a specific site "british gas login" Not worth targeting

The fastest way to check intent is to search the phrase and look at what already ranks. If the top results are all product pages, a blog post will struggle. If they are all guides, a sales page will struggle.

Step 6: Judge how hard it is to rank

Free tools do not give a reliable "difficulty" score, so check the results page by eye:

  • Who ranks? Big national brands and marketplaces in every spot means a long road for a new site.
  • Are smaller sites there? If local businesses or small blogs appear in the top 10, you can compete.
  • How good are the top pages? Thin, outdated or off-topic pages are an opening.

For a small business, longer and more specific phrases ("wedding cake delivery north side") are usually easier and convert better than short, broad ones ("cakes").

Step 7: Group keywords and map them to pages

Put every phrase into a spreadsheet with: the phrase, its intent, a rough volume, and the page it belongs to. Then group phrases that mean the same thing. "Boiler service cost", "boiler servicing price" and "how much is a boiler service" belong on one page, not three.

Rules of thumb:

  • One main topic per page. Two pages chasing the same phrase compete with each other.
  • Use the customer's words in the title, the main heading and the first paragraph.
  • Prioritise phrases where you already rank on page two, then gaps that match money pages, then new informational content.

Our guide to title tags and meta descriptions shows how to work the main phrase into the parts searchers see first.

AI assistants answer whole questions, not short phrases. The "People also ask" questions and the longer queries in Search Console are a good guide to the questions people ask AI tools too. Answer each one directly near the top of the relevant page, in a sentence or two, before adding detail. Our AI visibility checker shows whether AI crawlers can read your site at all.

Questions

Is free keyword data accurate enough?

For a small business, yes. Search Console is real data about your site. Volume estimates from any tool, free or paid, are approximations. What matters is the relative size of phrases and whether you can rank for them.

Can I use Keyword Planner without paying for ads?

Google's help page says you need a Google Ads account with set-up completed, including billing details, to use Keyword Planner. Looking up keywords does not require you to run a campaign.

How many keywords should a small business target?

Start with one main phrase per important page, plus the close variations that share the same intent. Ten well-matched pages beat a hundred thin ones.

How often should I redo keyword research?

Look at Search Console queries monthly and do a full round once or twice a year, or before launching a new product or service.

Sources

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