How to Do Keyword Research Using Free Tools (Step-by-Step for Small Businesses)

Published June 2025 • DBell Creations • SEO • Digital Marketing

Keyword research sounds like something that requires expensive tools and an SEO agency. It doesn't. You can find the exact phrases your potential customers are typing into Google — right now — using tools that cost nothing. This guide walks through the free tools available, how to use each one, and how to decide which keywords are actually worth targeting for a small business. No jargon, no fluff.

Why Keywords Matter for Your Business

A keyword is simply the phrase someone types into a search engine when they're looking for something. If someone in Fairhope searches "landscaping company near me" and you run a landscaping business, that phrase is a keyword. If your website contains that phrase — used naturally, in the right places — Google is more likely to show your site when someone searches it.

The problem most small business websites have is not a lack of SEO effort — it's targeting the wrong keywords. They optimize for industry terms that their customers never search, or they go after highly competitive broad terms they have no realistic chance of ranking for. Good keyword research fixes both problems. It tells you exactly what language your customers use and which terms you can realistically compete for.

The goal of keyword research: find phrases that have real search volume, match what you actually offer, and that you have a realistic shot at ranking for given your current website authority.

Tool 1: The Google Search Bar (Autocomplete and Related Searches)

The simplest keyword research tool in the world is already open in your browser. Google's autocomplete and "People also search for" features are built directly on real search data — they show you what people are actually typing.

How to use it:

1. Open a private/incognito browser window (this removes personalization from your results)
2. Start typing a service you offer — for example, "HVAC repair" — but do not press Enter
3. Note the autocomplete suggestions that appear. Each one is a phrase real people are searching
4. Try variations: "HVAC repair [city]", "emergency HVAC", "HVAC repair cost", etc.
5. Once you run a search, scroll to the bottom of the results page and look at the "Related searches" section — another gold mine of real phrases

Write down every phrase that is directly relevant to what you offer. A single 15-minute session with Google autocomplete can produce 20–30 keyword ideas without spending a dollar.

Tool 2: Google Search Console

If your website is already getting any traffic from Google — even a small amount — Google Search Console is the most valuable free tool available to you. It shows you the exact search queries that led real people to your website, how many times your site appeared for each query, and how many people actually clicked through.

How to access it: Go to search.google.com/search-console and add your website. Verification takes a few minutes via Google Analytics or a DNS record. Once set up, data will populate over a few days.

What to look for:

• High impressions, low clicks: Queries where your site appears in results but people rarely click. This often means you're ranking on page 2 or 3 — you're close to winning traffic but not quite there. These are your highest-priority optimization targets.
• Queries you didn't expect: Search Console frequently reveals that people are finding your site through phrases you never consciously targeted. These unexpected queries can reveal service gaps or content opportunities you'd never have guessed.
• Your best-performing queries: The phrases already driving clicks. Double down on the pages that rank for these — add more content, improve the page, build internal links to it.

Search Console gives you real data about your real audience. No guessing, no third-party estimates — just actual search behavior from people who found or almost found your business.

Tool 3: Answer the Public and AlsoAsked

These two free tools reveal the questions people ask around a topic — and questions are some of the best keywords to target because they reflect high intent and specific needs.

Answer the Public (answerthepublic.com)

Enter a topic or service — say, "web design" or "roof replacement" — and Answer the Public generates a visual map of questions, prepositions, and comparisons related to your topic. The free version allows a limited number of searches per day. Focus on the "Questions" wheel, which groups phrases by who, what, when, where, why, and how. Each one of these is a potential blog post topic or FAQ page section that directly matches how your customers think about their problems.

AlsoAsked (alsoasked.com)

AlsoAsked pulls from Google's "People Also Ask" boxes and shows you how questions branch and connect. It reveals the follow-up questions people have after searching your topic — giving you a map of the full conversation your customer is having with Google. The free tier gives you a limited number of searches monthly, so focus them on your highest-priority services.

Both tools are best used for content planning: each question you find is a candidate for a blog post, FAQ entry, or dedicated service page section that targets a specific long-tail phrase.

Tool 4: Google Keyword Planner (Free)

Google Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads and is technically designed for paid advertising — but it is also one of the most accurate free keyword volume tools available. You don't need to run ads to use it.

How to access it for free: Go to ads.google.com, create a Google Ads account (you can skip the campaign setup by choosing "Switch to Expert Mode" and then "Create an account without a campaign"), then navigate to Tools > Keyword Planner.

What it shows you: Monthly search volume ranges for any keyword, related keyword ideas, and competition level (Low / Medium / High — which reflects advertiser competition, not organic SEO difficulty, but still useful as a directional signal).

Limitation to know: Without an active ad campaign running, Google shows volume in ranges (100–1K, 1K–10K) rather than exact numbers. This is less precise but still useful for comparing relative popularity between keyword options.

Use Keyword Planner to validate and prioritize the keyword ideas you generated with the other tools. If autocomplete gave you five candidate phrases, Keyword Planner tells you which ones have the most search traffic behind them.

How to Evaluate Keywords: Volume vs. Competition

Not every keyword worth ranking for has huge search volume. For local small businesses, the right keyword is one that:

• Has genuine intent behind it. Someone searching "emergency plumber Fairhope AL" is ready to call. Someone searching "how does a water heater work" is not. High-intent keywords convert better even if their search volume is lower.
• Has manageable competition. Look at the first page of Google for the phrase. Are you seeing national brands, major directories (HomeAdvisor, Angi, Yelp), and sites with thousands of pages? That's a hard keyword for a new local site to crack. Are you seeing local competitors' individual websites? That's a keyword you can compete for.
• Matches an actual page on your site. Every keyword you want to rank for should have a dedicated page — service page, location page, or blog post — that is specifically built around that phrase. Keywords without matching pages don't rank.

Long-Tail vs. Short-Tail Keywords: Which to Target First

Short-tail keywords are broad, high-volume phrases: "plumber," "landscaping," "web design." They get lots of searches but have extreme competition and low purchase intent. A small local business has essentially no chance of ranking for "plumber" in organic search against the major directories and national sites that dominate those results.

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases: "emergency plumber Fairhope Alabama," "commercial landscaping service Baldwin County," "affordable web design for small business Alabama." They have lower search volume individually, but:

• They are far less competitive — you can actually rank for them
• They indicate higher purchase intent — the person knows what they want
• They convert at a higher rate — a more specific query means a more qualified visitor
• They add up — 20 long-tail keywords each bringing 30 visitors per month is 600 targeted visitors

The strategy for small businesses: Start with long-tail, location-specific keywords. Rank for those first. Build your authority by getting traffic and links from those wins, then gradually compete for broader terms as your site gains credibility.

Putting It Together: Your Keyword Research Process

1. Brainstorm your core services — write down every service you offer, the way a customer would describe it (not the industry term).
2. Run Google autocomplete — for each service, spend 5 minutes in an incognito window collecting autocomplete suggestions and related searches.
3. Check Search Console — if you have any existing traffic, mine it for phrases already working and for queries close to ranking.
4. Use Answer the Public or AlsoAsked — identify the questions your audience is asking around each service.
5. Validate with Keyword Planner — check relative volume for your top candidates and identify which have real search demand.
6. Group keywords by page — assign each cluster of related keywords to a specific page on your site (service page, location page, or blog post). If no page exists for a valuable keyword cluster, that's your next content task.