Budget

Keyword research on a $0 budget

A free keyword research method using Google autocomplete, Search Console and AnswerThePublic-style questions. No paid tool required to find 20-30 usable topics.

3 August 2026
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Short answer

How do I do keyword research with no budget for tools?

You don't need a paid tool to start. Use Google's autocomplete and 'People also ask', your own Search Console queries, and 20 customer support questions to build a list of 20-30 topics in about three hours. Add Ubersuggest's free tier for rough volume. Paid tools (Ahrefs, $99/month) earn their keep once you're publishing weekly and need competitor gap data.

Last updated 3 August 2026

Free keyword research sources and what they're good for
Source	Cost	Best for	Time to first list
Google autocomplete	Free	Real phrasing people type	20 minutes
Google 'People also ask'	Free	Related questions, subtopics	20 minutes
Search Console queries	Free	What you already rank for near page 2	30 minutes
Support tickets / sales calls	Free	Questions with buying intent	1 hour
Ubersuggest free tier	Free (3 searches/day)	Rough volume checks	15 minutes
AnswerThePublic free tier	Free (limited)	Question-shaped topics	15 minutes
Ahrefs/Semrush	$99-129/month	Volume, difficulty, competitor gaps	Ongoing

Do this

The steps, in order.

Step 1
Pull 20 real questions from your inbox and calls
Search your support tool and CRM notes for the exact words customers use when they ask something before buying. These convert far better than generic topics because someone with real intent already asked them.
Step 2
Expand each with autocomplete and 'People also ask'
Type the seed phrase into Google, note the autocomplete suggestions, then open the 'People also ask' box and click through three or four expansions. Fifteen minutes per seed phrase typically produces eight to twelve related angles.
Step 3
Check Search Console for near-miss rankings
Filter for queries ranking positions 8-20 with over 10 impressions a month. These pages are already close; a rewrite or expansion is faster to rank than starting from zero, often moving up within 4-6 weeks.
Step 4
Sort by intent, not volume
A phrase with 40 searches a month from someone about to buy beats one with 2,000 searches from someone doing unrelated research. Tag each topic as buying, comparing, or learning, and prioritise buying and comparing first.
Step 5
Validate volume with a free tool before writing
Run your shortlist through Ubersuggest's free daily searches or Google's Keyword Planner (free with an Ads account, no spend required). Drop anything showing under 10 monthly searches unless it's clearly high-intent.

Worth knowing

The bits people get wrong.

The biggest mistake in free keyword research isn't the lack of a paid tool — it's writing about what you assume people search rather than what they actually type. Autocomplete and Search Console both show real phrasing, and real phrasing is what ranks, because it's what the search engine sees repeated at scale.

Search Console is the most underused free source. Any page already getting impressions but few clicks is telling you exactly what to fix: either the title doesn't match intent, or the content undersells what's on the page. This data doesn't exist anywhere else, paid or free.

Volume numbers from free tools are directionally useful, not precise — treat 'roughly 50 vs roughly 500' as meaningful and '320 vs 340' as noise. For a small business publishing one or two posts a week, precision to the exact search count doesn't change which topic you pick.

Move to a paid tool when you're spending more time guessing at competitor coverage than writing. That's usually somewhere past 15-20 published posts, when you need to see which topics a competitor ranks for that you don't.

Questions

Follow-up questions.

Is free keyword research good enough to actually rank?

Yes, for a small business publishing under 10 posts a month. The ranking factor that matters most — matching real search intent — comes from the same free sources professionals use as a first pass; paid tools mainly add scale and competitor comparison.

How many keywords should I have before I start writing?

20-30 is enough for three months of weekly publishing. More than that becomes a spreadsheet you never finish; fewer and you'll run out mid-quarter and default to generic topics.

Does Google Keyword Planner require an active ad campaign?

No. You need a free Google Ads account, but you can view keyword ideas and rough volume ranges without spending anything, though the ranges get less precise the less you've ever spent.

Should I target keywords my competitors already dominate?

Only if you have something genuinely different to say. Chasing a keyword you can't win on a page that reads the same as five others in the top 10 wastes the writing hours; a narrower, less contested angle usually ranks faster.