FREE PREVIEW · MODULE 1 · LESSON 1 · 20 MIN
Keyword research with free tools
Build a long list of real search phrases from free sources, starting with the searches your site already appears for.
Keyword research means collecting the phrases real people type when they need what you offer, then deciding which ones deserve a page. Start with a seed list before opening any tool. Write down your services or products, the problems customers describe on the phone, the words they use in emails and reviews, and the places you serve. Aim for 15 to 30 seeds. Customer language matters more than industry jargon: a dentist may say “dental prophylaxis” while patients search for “teeth cleaning near me”, and only the second phrase brings bookings.
Next, expand each seed with free sources. Type it into Google and note the autocomplete suggestions, the “People also ask” questions and the related searches at the bottom of the page. Google Trends shows seasonality and lets you compare two phrasings, such as “boiler service” and “boiler check”. Bing Webmaster Tools includes a free keyword research tool once your site is verified, and Google Keyword Planner is free inside a Google Ads account, although it often shows only broad volume ranges unless you run ads. Free tiers and limits change, so check each tool’s current documentation.
Your best single source is usually Google Search Console, because it shows the exact queries your site already appears for. Open the Performance report, set the date range to the last three months, and sort the Queries tab by impressions. Look for phrases with many impressions but few clicks: Google already associates your site with them, so a better page can win traffic quickly. Export the list and add it to your spreadsheet. If the site is brand new and has no data yet, rely on the other sources and come back to Search Console after four to six weeks.
Record everything in one sheet with columns for the keyword, the source, a rough volume range, the intent and notes about the current results page. Do not obsess over exact volumes; free tools give estimates, and even paid tools disagree with each other by wide margins. A phrase with 50 searches a month from people ready to book is worth more to a small business than a 5,000-search phrase typed by students doing homework. A common mistake at this stage is stopping at 20 keywords; as a rough guide, a useful list for a small site often has 100 to 300 rows before you trim it.
Example: a dog grooming salon in Leeds finds its real keywords
Brindle Lane Grooming, a two-person salon in Leeds, had built its homepage around “professional canine grooming services”. Its seed list from phone calls used different words: “dog groomers leeds”, “puppy first groom”, “cockapoo grooming” and “nail clipping for dogs”. Autocomplete added more breed variations, and Search Console showed 2,400 impressions in three months for “cockapoo grooming leeds” but only 19 clicks, because no page mentioned cockapoos at all. The owner built a 140-row sheet in one afternoon, then created a breed grooming page covering cockapoos, poodles and other doodle crosses, with prices, timings and coat-care advice. Twelve weeks later the page was earning around 160 clicks a month from search, and online bookings for breed-specific grooms had roughly doubled.
Illustrative example: the business, people and figures are fictional.Key takeaways
- Start from customer language, not industry jargon
- Search Console shows the queries you already appear for, which are often the quickest wins
- Treat volume figures as rough ranges and weigh them against business value
Exercise
Write 20 seed phrases for your business, expand each one with autocomplete, “People also ask” and related searches, and export the last three months of queries from your Search Console Performance report. Combine everything into one spreadsheet with at least 100 rows and a column noting the source of each phrase.
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