Short answer: You can do solid keyword research for free by combining Google’s own tools (Autocomplete, Keyword Planner, Trends and Search Console) with the free daily searches that Ahrefs, Semrush, Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic give you. Then you check the search results page by hand to confirm what people actually want. A paid subscription makes the work faster. It does not change the method.
Most beginners think keyword research starts with buying a tool. It does not. The job is simple: find the words real people type into Google, decide which ones you can realistically rank for, and match each one to a page that answers it properly. Every part of that can be done at no cost if you plan your searches and keep your notes organized.
This guide covers a nine-step process. Step 1 is writing seed keywords and Step 9 is organizing everything in a spreadsheet. You will also get a worked example, a comparison table, the mistakes that waste the most time, and answers to common questions. Tool limits in this article are as of November 2026. They change often, so check each tool’s own page before you plan around them.
SEO for Beginners: How to Rank on Google
What Keyword Research Is and What Free Tools Can Do
Keyword research is the process of finding the search terms your audience uses, then judging which ones are worth building a page around. For every term you are answering three questions: how many people search it, what do they want when they search it, and how hard is it to rank for.
A free setup answers the second question very well, because you can read the search results yourself. It answers the first reasonably well, with some caveats. It answers the third least well, because the difficulty scores most people rely on come from paid databases. You can still judge difficulty by hand, and Step 8 shows you how.
Here is the honest trade-off. Free tools limit how many searches you can run per day, how many results they show, and whether you can export data. They rarely limit what you can learn if you plan ahead. Think of a library with a borrowing limit. You cannot take every book home in one day, but you can read all of them over a few weeks.
One more point before the steps. Search volume numbers from any tool are estimates. Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush and the others calculate them differently, so the same keyword can show different numbers in each. Use volume to compare keywords against each other, not as a promise of how much traffic you will get.
Step 1: Write Your Seed Keywords
A seed keyword is a broad starting phrase that describes your topic. Everything else grows from these. Aim for five to ten.
Start with what you already know. Write down the products, services, problems and questions your readers deal with. Use the words your readers use, not the words an industry insider would use. A beginner searches “how to make my website faster,” not “front-end performance optimization.”
If you run out of ideas, look at where real people talk. Read forum threads, comment sections, YouTube comments and the questions customers send you by email or message. Each repeated question is a keyword candidate in its natural wording.
Keep seeds short. “WordPress hosting” is a good seed. “Best WordPress hosting for a small blog with low traffic” is a long-tail keyword you will find later in the process.
Step 2: Mine Google Autocomplete, People Also Ask and Related Searches
This is the most underrated free method, and it needs no account. Google shows you what people actually type, in the order people type it most.
Open a private or incognito window so your own search history does not bend the suggestions. Type a seed keyword and read the dropdown. Then add a space and each letter of the alphabet, one at a time. “wordpress hosting a” gives different suggestions than “wordpress hosting b.” It takes a few minutes and often produces dozens of ideas.
Next, add modifiers. Question words (how, what, why, can, is, does), prepositions (for, with, without, near) and comparison words (vs, or, versus) each pull out a different batch of long-tail phrases.
Then run the search and scroll the results page. The People Also Ask box lists questions Google links to your topic, and each one opens more questions when you click it. The Related searches list at the bottom gives you a final set of variations. Copy everything into a notes file as you go.
If you want suggestions from more than one search engine at once, Soovle pulls autocomplete suggestions from several sources on one screen. It does not show search volume, so treat it as an idea generator only.
Keep in mind that suggestions vary by country and language. If your audience is in a specific country, set your search location accordingly or use a country-specific Google domain.
Step 3: Check Volume in Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is Google’s own tool, so its data comes straight from the source. It lives inside Google Ads, which means you need a Google Ads account to open it.
You do not have to run an ad or pay for one. When you sign up, Google pushes you toward creating a campaign. Look for a small link that says something like “Switch to Expert Mode,” then another that says “Create an account without a campaign.” The wording and screens change from time to time, and I cannot confirm what Google asks for in every country today. If it demands billing details before showing you anything, stop there and lean on the other tools in this guide. You do not need to buy ads to do keyword research.
Once you are inside, choose “Discover new keywords,” enter your seeds, and set the location and language to match your audience. You will see a list of ideas with these columns:
Average monthly searches. Without active ad spend, Google often shows this as a range (such as 1K to 10K) instead of a precise number. Use it to sort keywords into rough groups: tiny, small, medium, large.
Competition. This measures how many advertisers bid on the keyword, not how hard it is to rank in regular results. Many beginners misread it as SEO difficulty. It is not.
Top of page bid. This shows what advertisers pay for clicks. A high bid hints that the keyword has commercial value, which is useful if you plan to earn from the page.
You can also choose “Get search volume and forecasts” and paste in a list you collected in Step 2 to get numbers for all of it at once. That is the fastest way to add volume data to your list.
Step 4: Compare Phrases and Seasons with Google Trends
Google Trends does not give you search volume. It gives you relative interest on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 is the peak popularity for the term in the period and place you selected. That sounds limiting, but it answers questions Keyword Planner cannot.
First, it settles wording. If you cannot decide between two phrases, such as “free keyword tool” and “free keyword research tool,” enter both and see which one people search more. You can compare up to five terms at once.
Second, it shows seasonality. A topic that peaks every year in the same month needs to be published a few weeks before that month, not during it.
Third, it shows direction. Set the range to five years. A flat or growing line is a safer bet than a falling one. The Related queries section also lists “Rising” queries, which can point you to new topics early.
Finally, it shows where interest comes from. The regional breakdown helps if you target a particular country or city.
Step 5: Use Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for Your Own Site
If your site already has some traffic, your best keyword data is free and already waiting for you. Google Search Console lists the actual search queries that showed your pages in Google, with impressions, clicks, click-through rate and average position. It keeps the last 16 months of data.
Open the Performance report and switch to the Queries tab. Then sort by impressions and look for queries where your average position sits roughly between 8 and 30. Those are keywords where Google already considers your page relevant but does not rank it high. Improving the page (a clearer answer, better headings, more depth, an internal link or two) is often faster than writing a brand new article.
Search Console only shows queries your site already appears for, so it cannot find new topics. Use it to improve what you have and to confirm which of your earlier guesses were right.
Bing Webmaster Tools is free too and includes its own keyword research feature. The numbers describe Bing searches, not Google’s, so treat them as a second opinion. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is another free option for sites you own and verify. It covers backlinks, organic keywords and site audits for your own domain.
Step 6: Spend Your Free Daily Searches on Keyword Tools
Several paid platforms give away a small daily allowance. The trick is to spend it on keywords that survived Steps 2 to 4, not on random guesses.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is a free tool that returns a list of ideas for a seed keyword, with difficulty scores shown for the top results. It does not ask you to pay, though it limits how much of the list you can see, so expect roughly 100 ideas per search rather than the full set.
Semrush gives free accounts 10 queries per day across its research tools, one project, and tracking for up to 10 keywords. The limit is shared. A search in Keyword Magic Tool and a click through to Keyword Overview each count. The free Keyword Overview shows volume, difficulty and intent, which makes it good for checking your final shortlist.
Ubersuggest allows three searches per day on its free account. That is enough to look up one topic if you plan the query first. Its Chrome extension is reported to allow more lookups, but check the current limit yourself.
AnswerThePublic turns autocomplete data into groups of questions, prepositions and comparisons. Free accounts get three searches per day. It is a strong source of blog post ideas written in the exact wording people use.
AlsoAsked maps how People Also Ask questions connect to each other. Visitors get three free search credits per day, and they refresh daily. Deep searches cost more credits than the free allowance covers.
A practical routine: use one tool per day instead of spreading your searches thin everywhere. On Monday run your top two seeds through Semrush. On Tuesday run the same seeds through AnswerThePublic for question ideas. By the end of the week you have a large, varied list without paying anything.
Step 7: Check Search Intent on the Results Page
This step costs nothing and matters more than any other. Search intent is the reason behind a search. Google ranks pages that satisfy that reason, so a keyword with great volume is useless if your page type does not match what Google shows.
Search each keyword on your shortlist and study the first page. Ask four questions.
What kind of pages rank? If you see mostly product pages, people want to buy, and a blog post will struggle. If you see step-by-step guides, people want to learn. If you see forum threads, people want opinions from other users.
What format do they use? Look for lists, tutorials, comparison tables, videos or tools. Match the dominant format unless you have a clear reason to do otherwise.
What does the page one include beyond the blue links? Video carousels, shopping results, local packs, featured snippets and People Also Ask boxes all tell you something about what Google thinks the searcher needs.
How fresh are the top results? If the leading pages are from 2022 and the topic has changed since, you may beat them with a current, accurate page.
Most search intent falls into four types. Informational searches look for knowledge (“how does keyword research work”). Commercial searches compare options before a purchase (“best free keyword tools”). Transactional searches are ready to act (“buy,” “sign up,” “download”). Navigational searches look for a specific site (“Ahrefs login”). Label each keyword on your list with one of these.
Step 8: Judge Ranking Difficulty Without Paid Scores
Keyword difficulty scores from paid tools estimate how hard it is to reach page one, mostly by looking at backlinks to the current top results. The free Ahrefs generator gives you some of these scores, but you can also judge difficulty by hand with a few checks.
Look at who ranks. If page one is full of major brands, government sites, big publishers and Wikipedia, a new site will struggle. If you see small blogs, forum threads, Reddit or Quora answers, the field is weaker and you have a real chance.
Look at how well each result matches the keyword. Does every top page target the exact phrase in its title and headings? Or do some rank by accident, covering the topic loosely? Loose matches signal an opening.
Look at depth. If the top pages are thin, outdated or missing obvious sub-questions (the ones you found in People Also Ask), you can win by being more complete.
Try the search operator intitle:"your keyword" in Google. It shows pages that use your exact phrase in their title. This is a rough heuristic, not a measurement, but a keyword with very few exact-title matches often faces less direct competition.
Finally, be honest about your own site. A brand new site with no backlinks should target long-tail keywords, which are longer, more specific phrases with lower volume and lower competition. “Free keyword research tools for new bloggers” is far easier to rank for than “keyword research.” Win a few of the small ones first and work upward.
Step 9: Organize Everything in a Spreadsheet
A pile of notes does not make a plan. Open Google Sheets and build one table with a row for each keyword. A layout that works:
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Keyword | The exact phrase |
| Source | Where you found it (Autocomplete, Keyword Planner, Search Console) |
| Intent | Informational, commercial, transactional or navigational |
| Volume | The number or range, plus the tool and the date you checked |
| Difficulty note | Your own judgment after Step 8, in a few words |
| Page one format | Guide, list, product page, video, forum |
| Target page | The article or page this keyword belongs to |
| Priority | High, medium or low |
| Status | Idea, drafting, published, needs update |
Then group keywords by topic. Two keywords belong on the same page if the same results rank for both. A quick test is to search each one and compare the top five links. If most are the same, write one page. If they differ, write two.
Prioritize in this order: relevance to your audience first, then intent match, then achievable difficulty, then volume. Volume comes last because a smaller keyword you can actually win beats a big one you will never rank for.
A Worked Example
This is a made-up scenario to show the process. The numbers are left out on purpose, since they would be invented.
Imagine a new blogger who wants to write about WordPress hosting. The seeds are “WordPress hosting,” “shared hosting” and “website speed.”
In Step 2 the blogger types each seed into Autocomplete and adds letters, question words and “vs.” That produces ideas such as “WordPress hosting for beginners,” “shared hosting vs WordPress hosting” and “how to move a WordPress site to a new host.” People Also Ask adds questions about migration and downtime.
In Step 3 Keyword Planner shows that “best WordPress hosting” is much larger than the migration phrase. Step 4 shows interest in hosting topics holds steady through the year with no sharp seasonal drop.
In Step 7 the blogger reads page one for both phrases. “Best WordPress hosting” is packed with big review sites and comparison pages from established publishers. The migration phrase shows hosting company help pages, a few mid-sized blogs and a forum thread, with several results that are old or incomplete.
In Step 8 the verdict is clear. The big keyword is a poor first target for a new site. The migration keyword has weak, outdated competition and a clear informational intent. The blogger writes that article first, adds the People Also Ask questions as sections, and logs the bigger keyword in the spreadsheet as a later goal.
That is the whole logic in one example. The volume number alone would have pointed to the wrong keyword.
The Free Tools Compared
| Tool | Best for | Free limit (as of November 2026) | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Autocomplete and People Also Ask | Finding real phrasing and questions | No limit | No volume data |
| Google Keyword Planner | Volume ranges and bid estimates | Free with a Google Ads account, no ad needed | Volume often shown as ranges; built for advertisers |
| Google Trends | Comparing phrases, seasonality | Free | Relative scores only, no search volume |
| Google Search Console | Improving pages you already have | Free, 16 months of data | Shows only queries your site already gets |
| Bing Webmaster Tools | A second opinion from another engine | Free | Describes Bing searches, not Google |
| Ahrefs Keyword Generator | Quick ideas with difficulty scores | Free, roughly 100 ideas per search | Limited view, filters and exports |
| Semrush free account | Volume, difficulty and intent checks | 10 queries per day, shared across tools | Truncated results, one project |
| Ubersuggest free | Quick single-keyword lookups | 3 searches per day | Very tight daily cap |
| AnswerThePublic | Question-style content ideas | 3 searches per day | Limited metrics on the free plan |
| AlsoAsked | Mapping related questions | 3 credits per day | Deep searches cost more credits |
Pros and Limits of Doing It for Free
The biggest advantage is that you learn to read search results, which is a skill no tool replaces. Free research also costs nothing while you test whether a topic or blog is worth your time. And Google’s own data, such as Autocomplete, Trends and Search Console, is often more trustworthy than a third-party estimate.
The limits are real, though. You work more slowly. Daily caps force you to spread research over several days. Difficulty scores are harder to get, so you rely on manual judgment. Exports are restricted, so you will copy more data by hand. And you will not get full competitor keyword lists, which paid tools provide in seconds.
If you publish several articles a week or work for clients, a paid plan will probably pay for itself in saved time. If you publish a few articles a month, the free method in this guide is enough.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Choosing keywords by volume alone is the most common one. A large keyword with the wrong intent or an impossible competitor list brings you nothing.
Another is misreading the Competition column in Keyword Planner. It describes advertiser competition. It tells you nothing about how hard it is to rank organically.
People also skip the results page. A tool can tell you that a keyword has volume. Only the search results tell you what Google believes the searcher wants.
Others stuff the same keyword into a page many times. Google understands related wording, so write for the reader and cover the topic completely instead of repeating an exact phrase.
Some people target one keyword per page when several close variations belong together. Check whether the same pages rank for both, and if they do, answer them in one article.
Finally, many people research once and never return. Search habits shift. Check Search Console every month or two, update pages that slip, and add new ideas to your sheet.
How to Choose Your Free Toolset
You do not need every tool in this article. Pick a set that fits your situation.
If your site is brand new and has no data, build your list from Autocomplete, People Also Ask and Google Trends, check volume ranges in Keyword Planner, and use your daily searches in Ahrefs Keyword Generator or Semrush.
If your site already gets traffic, start with Search Console. Your own queries are better evidence than any estimate, and improving existing pages is the cheapest growth available.
If you are short on time, use AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked for topic ideas and Semrush for a final check on your top ten keywords.
If your audience searches in a language or country with thin tool coverage, expect volume data to be sparse or missing. Lean harder on Autocomplete, Trends and your own Search Console data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I do keyword research without paying for any tool?
Yes. Google Autocomplete, People Also Ask, Keyword Planner, Trends and Search Console are free, and several paid platforms offer limited free daily searches. The main cost is time, since you will plan searches carefully and check results by hand.
Is Google Keyword Planner really free?
Yes, the tool is free to use, but you need a Google Ads account to open it. You do not have to run a campaign. Without active ad spend, Google often shows search volume as ranges instead of exact numbers.
What is a good search volume for a new blog?
There is no single right number. For a new site, a smaller keyword you can rank for is usually better than a large one you cannot. Judge intent match and competition first, then volume.
How do I find long-tail keywords for free?
Use Autocomplete with the alphabet trick, add question words and prepositions, and read People Also Ask. AnswerThePublic and AlsoAsked give you more of the same in organized form. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases with lower competition.
How accurate is the volume data in free tools?
Treat it as an estimate. Every tool calculates volume differently, and Keyword Planner often shows ranges. Use the numbers to compare keywords with each other, not to predict exact traffic.
How many keywords should one article target?
One main keyword, plus the close variations and questions that the same search results cover. If two keywords bring up mostly different pages, they need separate articles.
How often should I repeat keyword research?
Check Search Console every month or two for new queries and slipping pages. Run a fuller round of research when you plan a new topic area or when your traffic changes sharply.
Do I need to check search results manually even if I use a tool?
Yes. No tool can tell you what format Google prefers or whether the top pages are weak. Reading page one takes a few minutes per keyword and prevents the most expensive mistakes.
Note: Tool limits and prices in this article come from publicly available information and the tools’ own pages as of November 2026. Minciter has not independently tested every limit, and free plans change often. Confirm the current limits on each tool’s website before you rely on them.
