The short version: the best places to do keyword research for your website are Google Search Console, Google itself (autocomplete, People Also Ask, related searches), and your own customer conversations, all free. Paid tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush and Ubersuggest are worth it once you’re publishing content weekly or managing more than one site, not before. Most small business owners waste money on the paid tools and ignore the free data sitting in their own Google account.
Start with the data you already own
Before you open a single new tab, go into Google Search Console. If you’ve never connected it, that’s the first job, and I’ve written a full walkthrough on how to use Google Search Console to check your website performance. It’s free, it’s Google’s own data, and it tells you what people are already typing to find you, including the phrases you rank for on page two that you didn’t even know existed.
I had a client, a small accountancy firm in Kent, who came to me convinced they needed to “do more content” for SEO. We pulled their Search Console data and found they were already showing up on page one for “self assessment deadline reminder service” with zero content targeting that phrase directly, just a mention on their homepage. That single insight told us exactly what to build next: a proper landing page around that exact phrase. Three months later it was their top organic entry point, bringing in around 40 enquiries a month. No tool subscription needed to find that. It was sitting in their Google account the whole time, unused.
Google itself is still the best free keyword tool
Type your topic into Google and look at three things: autocomplete suggestions, the “People also ask” box, and the related searches at the bottom of the page. These aren’t gimmicks, they’re Google showing you real query patterns pulled from actual searches at scale. If you sell handmade candles and you type “soy candle” into Google, autocomplete will show you what real buyers add next, things like “soy candle burn time” or “soy candle vs paraffin health,” phrases you’d never guess sitting at your desk.
Do this in an incognito window so your search history doesn’t skew the results, and do it from a few different devices if you can, phone and desktop often surface different suggestions.
Free tools worth bookmarking
- Google Keyword Planner (inside Google Ads, free to use even without running ads): gives you rough monthly search volume and related terms. The volume figures are bucketed and vague unless you’re actively spending on ads, but the related keyword list is useful for spotting phrases you haven’t thought of.
- AnswerThePublic: free for a handful of searches a day, brilliant for finding question-based keywords, the “how,” “why,” “can I” type phrases people type into Google.
- AlsoAsked: maps out the “People also ask” chains several layers deep, so you see the follow-up questions people ask after their first one.
- Ubersuggest: has a limited free tier that gives you volume, difficulty score and content ideas for a set number of searches per day, enough for a small local business doing research once a month.
Where the paid tools earn their keep
Ahrefs (from around $129 a month on the Lite plan) and SEMrush (from around $139.95 a month on the Pro plan) are the two big names, and they’re worth every penny once you’re publishing content on a regular schedule, tracking rankings for dozens of keywords, or doing competitor research at scale. They show you what your competitors rank for that you don’t, keyword difficulty scores, and click-through-rate estimates that free tools simply don’t offer.
But here’s the bit most “best keyword tools” round-up posts won’t tell you plainly: the search volume numbers these tools give you are estimates, not facts, and they’re often wrong by a wide margin. I’ve seen the same keyword show 200 monthly searches on one platform and 1,600 on another, for the exact same term, same country, same month. Ahrefs, SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner all pull from different data sources and use different modelling to smooth out the gaps, so treat every volume figure as a rough direction, not a spreadsheet you can bet your content calendar on. The keyword with “1,600 searches” that never converts is worth less than the “80 searches” one that brings you three enquiries a month, every time.
If you’re not ready to commit to a monthly subscription, most of these tools offer a free trial or a limited free version, enough to do one thorough audit of your top ten target pages before you decide whether the ongoing cost is worth it for your business.
Watch your competitors, not just the keyword tools
Some of the sharpest keyword research I’ve done in the past year didn’t come from a keyword tool at all, it came from watching what a competitor was doing on their own site and in their ads. A website spy tool lets you see a competitor’s traffic estimates, the keywords driving their paid ads, and sometimes even their landing page changes over time. I go into more detail on what a website spy tool is and how it helps your marketing, and separately on which website spy tools are worth paying for, because not all of them are, and some of the well-marketed ones give you data that’s months out of date.
The point isn’t to copy your competitor, it’s to spot the keyword and content gaps between what they’re doing and what you’re doing. If three competitors in your niche are all ranking for a phrase and you’re nowhere near it, that’s your research done for you.
Forums, reviews and Reddit: where real customer language lives
This is the part most keyword guides skip entirely, and it’s the one that’s made the biggest difference to my own content over the last two years. Go to Reddit and search your topic. Go to Amazon and read the one-star and three-star reviews for products near yours, that’s where people describe problems in their own raw, unpolished words, not the polished phrasing a keyword tool spits out. Facebook groups in your niche and Quora threads work the same way.
When I was rebuilding my own content strategy after a few quiet years, I spent an afternoon just reading comments on LinkedIn posts from other consultants in my space, not to steal ideas but to see the exact phrases people used to describe their frustration (“I don’t know where to even start with AI for my business” came up over and over, almost word for word, from different people). That phrase, near enough verbatim, became a headline. No keyword tool handed me that. A room full of tired small business owners typing their honest thoughts did.
A simple step-by-step process that works
- Open Google Search Console and pull your last three months of queries, sorted by impressions. Look for anything ranking positions 5 to 20 with decent impressions but low clicks, those are your quick wins.
- Type your five core topics into Google in an incognito window and note every autocomplete and “People also ask” phrase.
- Spend 30 minutes on Reddit, Amazon reviews or a niche Facebook group reading how real people describe your problem in their own words.
- Check two competitors using a website spy tool or simply their own site’s blog and see what they’re publishing that you’re not.
- Cross-reference your list against a free or trial keyword tool for a rough volume sense, remembering the number is a guide, not gospel.
- Pick five keywords, write one solid page or post for each, then track them.
On that last point, don’t skip tracking. Doing keyword research once and never checking rank movement is like planting a garden and never watering it. I’ve written a straightforward guide on how to track keywords effectively as a small business, and it doesn’t require a big budget, a monthly check using a free rank tracker or Search Console is often enough for a site with under 50 target pages.
When it’s worth paying someone else to do it
If you’ve read all of the above and your honest reaction is “I don’t have four hours a month for this,” that’s a completely fair place to land, and it’s worth knowing what a freelancer or agency charges before you go looking. I’ve broken down real numbers in how much you should charge for keyword research services in 2026, and the short version is that a single-site keyword audit typically runs anywhere from £300 to £1,500 depending on depth and whether it includes competitor analysis, while ongoing monthly keyword tracking and reporting tends to sit between £150 and £500 a month for a small business site. Knowing those figures helps you judge whether a quote you’ve been given is fair or padded.
The mistake I see constantly
The mistake I see over and over, from solo founders to marketing teams, is treating keyword research as a one-off task rather than an ongoing habit. Search behaviour shifts, new competitors show up, Google’s own answer boxes change what gets clicked. A keyword list from eighteen months ago is not a strategy, it’s a museum piece. Block 30 minutes into your calendar once a month, cycle through Search Console, Google’s own suggestions, and one forum or review site, and you’ll stay closer to what real people are typing than most businesses spending three figures a month on a tool subscription they check twice a year.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a paid tool to do keyword research ?
No. Google Search Console, Google autocomplete, and free tiers of tools like AnswerThePublic or Ubersuggest cover most small business needs. Paid tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush earn their cost once you’re publishing content weekly or tracking dozens of keywords across multiple sites.
Where can I find keyword ideas Google’s own tools won’t show me?
Reddit threads, Amazon product reviews, Facebook groups and Quora questions in your niche. These reveal the exact, unpolished phrases customers use to describe their problems, which keyword tools often smooth over or miss entirely.
How accurate is the search volume shown in keyword tools?
It’s a rough estimate, not a fact. The same keyword can show a monthly volume that differs by hundreds or thousands between Ahrefs, SEMrush and Google Keyword Planner, since each pulls from different data and modelling. Use volume as a rough guide, not a precise number to plan a content calendar around.
How often should I redo my keyword research?
Monthly for a fast-moving niche, quarterly at minimum for most small business sites. Search behaviour and competitor content change constantly, so a keyword list from a year or more ago is likely already out of date.
