Keyword research without paid tools

Paid keyword tools are useful, but they are not the only way to understand what people search for. For a small site, a new topic or a tight budget, free sources often give you everything you need to decide what to write and how to phrase it.

Start with the data you already have

If the site is live, Google Search Console is the best keyword tool you will ever use, because it shows real searches that already found you.

1. Open Performance → Search results and look at the Queries tab for the last few months.
2. Sort by impressions. Queries with many impressions but a low average position are topics Google already associates with you, where a better page could rank higher.
3. Click a query, then the Pages tab, to see which page ranks for it. If the wrong page ranks, that is a sign to improve or create the right one.

Bing Webmaster Tools has its own keyword research tool with search volume estimates from Bing, plus the same kind of query report for your site.

Learn how people phrase things

• Autocomplete. Type the start of a topic into Google or Bing and note the suggestions. They reflect common searches.
• "People also ask" and related searches. The questions and related searches on the results page show what else people want to know about the topic.
• The results themselves. Look at what ranks: guides, product pages, tools, videos? The type of page tells you what searchers expect, which matters as much as the words.
• Communities and support questions. The questions customers ask you, and the questions people ask in forums and communities, are keywords in their own words.

Compare and time topics

Google Trends shows how interest in a term changes over time and between regions, on a relative scale from 0 to 100. Use it to:

• compare two phrasings and see which people use more;
• spot seasonality, so seasonal content is published before the peak;
• check whether a topic is growing or fading.

Remember that Trends shows relative interest, not search volume.

Turn findings into pages

1. Group queries that mean the same thing; they belong on one page.
2. Match the intent you saw in the results: someone searching "how to" wants a guide, someone searching a product name wants to buy or compare.
3. Prioritise topics that connect to what you sell or offer, and where you have something genuinely useful to say.
4. Measure in Search Console after publishing: impressions usually come before clicks.

For the tools mentioned here and more, see The best free SEO tools, and what each is actually good for.