Most keyword research advice online assumes you’ve got a Semrush subscription and a content budget to match. But if you’re just starting out, or your company isn’t ready to drop hundreds of dollars a month on SEO tools, you don’t need to panic.
There are genuinely good ways to find keywords that will bring traffic to your site, and they won’t cost you anything.
Start With Google Itself
This sounds almost too obvious, but Google is actually one of the most powerful keyword research tools available, and it’s completely free.
Use The Autocomplete Feature
Start typing a topic into the Google search bar and just… stop. Watch what it suggests. Those autocomplete suggestions aren’t random, they’re pulled from real searches that real people are typing in right now. You will end up with angles that you hadn’t even thought of.
Check “People Also Ask” And Related Searches
The “People Also Ask” box gives you questions real users are searching, which are perfect for FAQ sections or blog subheadings.
At the very bottom of the page, the “Related Searches” section gives you eight more keyword variations you can swipe and build content around. Do this across a handful of seed topics and you’ll have more keyword ideas than you know what to do with.
Use Google Search Console If You Already Have A Site
If your site is live and connected to Google Search Console, you’re sitting on a pile of keyword data you might not even be looking at.
Go to the Performance report and look at what queries are already bringing people to your site, specifically the keywords where you’re getting impressions but low clicks. That means Google is showing your page for that term, but people aren’t choosing it. With a bit of content tweaking, those are your easiest wins.
Try Other Tools That Can Deliver
You don’t need paid tools to get solid data. A few free options are genuinely worth your time.
Google Keyword Planner
Yes, it’s technically built for advertisers, but you can use it for SEO too. Create a free Google Ads account (you don’t have to run any ads), and you’ll get access to search volume ranges and related keyword ideas. The data isn’t as granular as a paid tool, but it’s real and it’s reliable.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest gives you a handful of free searches per day. It shows search volume, keyword difficulty, and some competitor data. It’s enough to validate ideas without committing to a subscription.
AnswerThePublic
This tool visualises all the questions, comparisons and prepositions people search around a topic. The free version limits your daily searches, but even one or two searches will give you a huge list of long-tail keyword ideas presented in a format that makes content planning really intuitive.
Spy On Your Competitors – Legally
You don’t need a paid tool to figure out what your competitors are ranking for. Just go to their website, pick a page that looks like it’s performing well, and paste the URL into Ubersuggest’s free tier or Google’s own search bar.
Look at their blog, their categories, their headings – these tell you a lot about the keywords they’re deliberately targeting. It gives you a good idea of what topics are worth covering.
Don’t Overlook Reddit, Quora And Forums
Reddit and Quora are essentially databases of the exact questions and phrases your audience uses when they’re looking for help. Search your topic on either platform and read through the threads. The language people use in those posts – the actual words, not the polished marketing version – is often exactly what they’re typing into Google.
This is particularly useful for finding long-tail keywords with lower competition, which are often far easier to rank for than broad terms.
Build A Simple Keyword Spreadsheet
Once you’ve gathered ideas from all these sources, pull them into a basic Google Sheet. Track the keyword, where you found it, a rough sense of how competitive it seems, and what piece of content it could fit into. You don’t need a fancy dashboard, a simple spreadsheet does the job.
The goal isn’t to collect hundreds of keywords and feel productive. It’s to find a focused list of terms you can actually create content around. Ten well-chosen keywords beat a hundred vague ones every time.
