How to find useful search terms without paying for tools

You can do useful keyword research for free. Not perfect research, and not research at the scale of a large retailer, but enough to decide which pages to create, which terms belong on existing pages, and which topics are a waste of time.

For most small businesses, free keyword research is enough to build a sensible content plan. It helps you find the phrases customers actually use, spot gaps in your site, and judge whether a search is likely to bring a buyer or just a casual reader. The limit is not usually the tools. It is whether you can interpret what you find and turn it into pages that deserve to rank.

What free keyword research can actually do for a small business

Free keyword research is good at four things.

First, it shows you the language of demand. You may call your service one thing internally, while customers search for another. A manufacturer might talk about “protective enclosures”, while buyers search for “outdoor electrical cabinet”. A legal practice may describe “settlement agreements”, while some searchers still type “compromise agreement”. Those differences matter.

Second, it helps you prioritise pages. If ten people ask for one service every month and two ask for another every quarter, that does not prove search demand is identical, but it does tell you where to start. Free sources often give enough evidence to make a sensible order of work.

Third, it helps you avoid thin content. Once you can see that several terms mean the same thing, you stop planning five weak pages and build one strong page instead.

Fourth, it helps you match intent. A person searching “cost”, “price”, “near me”, “supplier”, “book”, “quote” or “for sale” is usually closer to buying than someone searching “what is” or “how does it work”.

Where free keyword research falls short is scale and precision. You will not get a full market map. You will not get reliable difficulty scores from free tools alone. You will not always know whether two similar phrases get 20 searches a month or 200. But for many local firms, specialist B2B companies, and small ecommerce shops, you do not need perfect numbers to make better decisions.

If your site is in a language other than English, this matters even more. Many paid tools are strongest in English markets and weaker in smaller language markets. We built Seonis around that problem. We research and publish in the site’s own language, because translated keyword plans often miss the words real buyers use. If you want a broader view of what this work is for, see what keyword research means for a small business site.

Start with the words your customers already use

The best first keyword list is usually inside your business already.

Start with sales calls. Pull notes from the last 20 to 50 calls if you have them. If calls are recorded, listen for repeated phrases. Do not tidy the language too early. Write down the exact wording people use when they describe the problem, the product, the location, the urgency, and the outcome they want.

Then review emails and contact form enquiries. Look for wording such as:

• “We need…”
• “Can you supply…”
• “Do you cover…”
• “How much is…”
• “Do you work with…”
• “I’m looking for…”

These are often better than brainstormed SEO terms because they come from people already trying to buy.

Next, review your own product pages and service pages. Not because they are definitely right, but because they show the language you already believe matters. Pull out noun phrases, modifiers, locations, industries, sizes, materials, compliance terms and use cases.

A simple spreadsheet is enough. Create columns such as:

• Core term
• Variant
• Source
• Buyer intent
• Page type
• Notes

For example:

• payroll software
• payroll software for small business
• sales call
• high
• service page
• asked about monthly pricing

Or:

• powder coating
• powder coating aluminium parts
• enquiry email
• medium
• service page
• industrial use case

Service enquiries are especially useful for local and specialist firms. If customers ask “Do you install in Cork?” or “Can you certify for German export?”, those modifiers belong in your research. In the UK and Ireland, county and city terms often matter. In the Baltics, Nordics, Poland and Germany, the local-language form usually matters more than the English equivalent, even if your team uses English internally.

You should also check internal site search if your website has it. WordPress, Shopify, Webflow and Ghost sites often have some form of search logging through plugins, apps or analytics setups. Internal search terms are direct evidence of what visitors expected to find and did not immediately see.

At this stage, do not worry about search volume. Build the vocabulary first. We often find that the first useful keyword set comes from three places only: enquiry emails, sales calls, and existing service pages. If you want a practical method, our guide on how to find keywords your customers actually use goes deeper into turning those conversations into a working list.

Which free tools are worth using?

There are plenty of free sources. Only a few are consistently worth the time.

Google autocomplete

Start typing your core service into Google and note the suggestions. Then try:

• the core term on its own
• the term plus a location
• the term plus “cost”, “price”, “near me”, “supplier”, “services”, “for small business”
• the term plus industry words
• the term plus letters of the alphabet

Autocomplete is useful because it reflects common searches and common refinements. It is fast. It also shows language patterns you may not have considered.

Its limit is obvious. It does not tell you volume. It can also be shaped by your location, language settings and prior search behaviour.

People Also Ask and related searches

Search the term and review the People Also Ask box and the related searches at the bottom of the results. These are useful for article ideas, FAQ sections, and supporting topics around a service page.

If you sell accounting software, for example, your main commercial page might target the software category, while People Also Ask gives you article ideas around setup, migration, pricing models, tax rules or integrations.

Again, there is no precise volume here. But you do get a sense of what Google associates with the topic.

Search Console

If your site already gets impressions, Search Console is the most valuable free keyword source you have.

Go to Performance and review:

• Queries
• Pages
• Countries
• Devices

Set a useful date range, usually the last 3 months or 6 months. Then compare with the previous period.

What to look for:

• queries with high impressions but low clicks
• queries where you rank on page 2 or low on page 1
• pages that rank for terms you did not intend
• country differences, if you serve more than one market
• branded queries versus non-branded queries

If a page has impressions for “industrial floor coating” and “warehouse floor coating” but barely mentions warehouses, that is a content opportunity. If a page ranks in position 9 for a valuable term, improving that page is often easier than creating a new one.

Search Console does have limits. The data is sampled and grouped. Very low-volume queries may be hidden. It is not a full keyword database. But for your own site, it is usually more actionable than a third-party estimate.

Google Search itself

The results page tells you a lot without any tool.

Search your term and inspect the top results:

• Are they service pages, category pages, product pages, articles, directories or forums?
• Are the results local?
• Is there a map pack?
• Are there shopping results?
• Are the top pages broad guides or narrow transactional pages?

This tells you intent. If the results are mostly category pages, an article probably will not win. If the results are mostly explainers, a sales page may struggle.

Google Business Profile insights

For local businesses, your Google Business Profile can show categories of searches that led people to your listing. It is not a full keyword tool and the detail is limited, but it helps confirm local intent and whether searchers are finding you for the right type of service.

Google Ads Keyword Planner

This is technically free to access with a Google Ads account, though the usefulness varies if you are not spending. In some accounts, you will see broad ranges rather than precise numbers. Even so, those ranges can still help you distinguish between a term that is barely searched and one with clear demand.

Use it carefully. The planner is built for advertisers, not organic search strategy, so grouped terms and broad matching can blur distinctions that matter for SEO.

Free tools can take you a long way if you combine them properly. We covered a wider set in free SEO tools that a small business can actually use, but the core stack for most firms is still Google autocomplete, the search results page, and Search Console.

How to tell which keywords are worth your time

Without paid metrics, you need a practical filter.

Start with relevance. If a term does not describe a service you actually provide, a product you actually sell, or a problem you genuinely solve, drop it. Traffic that cannot convert is not a win.

Then judge intent. A simple three-part model is enough:

• High intent, terms like price, quote, supplier, near me, service, buy, book, provider
• Medium intent, terms comparing options or looking for specifics
• Low intent, broad educational searches with no buying signal yet

High intent terms usually deserve commercial pages. Low intent terms usually suit articles, if they support the sales journey.

Next, check the results page for difficulty. You do not need a score to see whether a term is crowded by:

• national brands
• large marketplaces
• government pages
• major publishers
• strong local directories

If every result is from very strong domains and the pages are tightly matched to the query, the term may not be your best starting point. Look for a narrower version with clearer fit.

Local value matters too. A keyword with modest demand can be worth more than a larger national term if it brings the right enquiries in the right area. “Accountant for contractors in Leeds” may be worth more to a local practice than a broad national query about accounting software.

For businesses serving several countries, check whether the same term behaves differently by market. In the EU, language and terminology can shift sharply across borders. Even where buyers understand English, they often search in their own language for transactional queries. In the UK and Ireland, English may dominate, but local place names, service wording and regulatory terms still differ. A “solicitor” in one market is not always searched the same way as a “lawyer” in another. VAT-related wording can also vary by country, even within the EU generally.

A simple scoring system helps. Give each keyword 1 to 3 for:

• relevance
• buyer intent
• realistic competitiveness
• local or commercial value

Then total the score. You do not need mathematical perfection. You need a list you can act on.

Turn a keyword list into pages that can win traffic

A keyword list on its own does nothing. The value comes from grouping terms into pages with a clear job.

Start by separating keywords into three page types.

Service pages

These target commercial intent for a service you provide. Group close variants onto one page when the intent is the same.

For example:

• office cleaning company
• commercial office cleaning
• office cleaning services

These usually belong on one strong page, not three separate ones.

Create separate pages only when the service, audience or location is meaningfully different. “Office cleaning” and “medical facility cleaning” may deserve separate pages because the requirements differ. “Office cleaning in Manchester” may deserve its own page if you genuinely serve that location with enough substance to say something specific.

Product or category pages

For ecommerce, group by product type first, then use filters, copy and internal linking for variants such as size, material, brand, use case or compatibility.

Do not create a thin page for every slight wording difference. If “waterproof work gloves” and “wet weather work gloves” lead to the same products, one category page may be enough, with copy that covers both phrasings naturally.

On Shopify, WordPress, Webflow or Ghost, the platform matters less than the structure. The page still needs a clear primary topic, useful copy, and a reason to exist beyond a title tag.

Articles

Use articles for informational searches that support commercial pages. Good article topics answer pre-purchase questions, explain processes, compare options, or deal with concerns that block conversion.

Examples:

• cost factors
• timeframes
• compliance questions
• product selection guides
• common mistakes
• maintenance advice

Each article should link naturally to the relevant service or product page. That is how information content supports revenue instead of becoming an isolated blog archive.

Avoid duplicate and near-duplicate content. If two planned pages would answer the same query with mostly the same information, merge them. Thin location pages are a common problem. So are multiple articles that all answer slight variations of the same question.

A good check is this: if a visitor landed on page A instead of page B, would they still get what they came for? If yes, you may not need both pages.

Finally, measure what happens. After publishing, watch Search Console for new impressions, query spread, and early ranking movement. You are looking for signs that Google understands the page and is testing it for relevant searches. Then refine. Add missing sections. Improve headings. Strengthen internal links. Tighten the title and description if clicks are weak.

That is the practical value of keyword research free of paid subscriptions. It will not give you every number. It will not replace judgement. But it will show you what customers ask for, how they phrase it, and which pages your site actually needs.

If you want to go further without building a full in-house SEO process, that is the gap we built Seonis to fill. We research keywords in the site’s own language, write and publish natively rather than translating, check every piece through a language gate, and report the results in the owner’s language. We also track whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Grok mention your business when buyers ask category questions, because search is no longer the only place people discover suppliers.