Can you do keyword research with no paid tools?
Yes. Five free Google tools cover demand, wording and direction: Search Console, Keyword Planner, autocomplete, People Also Ask and Trends. What none of them gives you is a difficulty score, so you check the competition by reading the results yourself (section four).
Here is what each one measures, and the limit Google's own help pages state for it.
| Tool | What it tells you | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| Search Console | Queries that already show your site, with clicks, impressions, CTR and position | Only queries you already appear for; the default view is the past three months |
| Keyword Planner | Estimated monthly searches and what advertisers bid | Needs billing details; very low-volume and sensitive keywords return nothing |
| Autocomplete | How people phrase searches | Shaped by language, location, trends and your past searches |
| People Also Ask | Related questions on the results page | You can't control what appears |
| Google Trends | Whether interest is rising or falling, on a 0 to 100 scale | Relative only; low-volume terms show as 0 |
Start with Search Console if your site already has content. Google's Performance report help says the report shows which queries are most likely to show your site. It also warns that a query in your list may not show your site when you search it yourself, because results depend on time, place, device and recent history. Trust the report over your own searches.
What does Keyword Planner actually measure?
Search estimates and advertiser bids, not how hard a term is to rank for organically. Google calls the planner a free resource to help advertisers build keyword lists. One catch: its help page on using Keyword Planner says you must enter billing information and complete your account setup before you can use "Get ideas for new keywords". Keywords with very low search volumes, or that Google considers sensitive, aren't discoverable, and health and finance terms often return no results.
The column that is easy to misread is Competition. Google's page on Keyword Planner metrics defines it as the number of advertisers that showed on a keyword relative to all keywords across Google. It is a paid-search measure. A keyword marked Low can still have ten strong organic pages.
| Column | Google's definition | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Avg. monthly searches | Average searches for the keyword and close variants, over 12 months by default; shown for exact match | Rough demand, comparing terms against each other |
| Competition | Number of advertisers showing on the keyword, relative to all keywords | How commercial a term is, not ranking difficulty |
| Top of page bid (low range) | About the 20th percentile of what advertisers have paid for a top-of-page slot | A floor for what a click is worth |
| Top of page bid (high range) | About the 80th percentile of the same | A sign of buyer intent when it is high |
Advertisers pay more for clicks they expect to turn into sales, so a high bid range is a fair hint of buyer intent. That is our inference; Google doesn't say it. Use the bids to rank your list by business value, the way our post scoring 20 of our own posts for business potential does with a 0 to 3 score.
How do you turn autocomplete and People Also Ask into a list?
Type a seed phrase, record every prediction, then repeat with each useful prediction as the new seed. Google's page on how autocomplete predictions work says predictions reflect real searches on Google, chosen from common queries that match what you type, while also weighing language, location, trending interest and your past searches. The same page says autocomplete doesn't simply show the most common queries, so don't treat its order as a volume ranking.
Here is a worked example. On 24 October 2026 Google's autocomplete returned these ten predictions for "crm for" (US English, signed out; the live list changes, so yours may differ):
- small business, real estate, non profits, real estate agents, insurance agents
- sales, contractors, realtors, business
- and "crm forward pe", a stock-market search with nothing to do with choosing CRM software
Three lessons in one list. Most predictions are audiences, which suggests the industry pages a CRM maker could write. One is noise and should be deleted. And running "crm for small business free" as the next seed returned predictions ending in "reddit", a hint that some searchers want peer opinions before they choose.
People Also Ask works the same way for questions. Google's visual elements gallery describes it as a group of questions related to the original search, and says that while you can't control what shows up, it can help to pay attention to related queries when deciding what to write about. Click two or three questions open and more appear. Copy each one exactly as written.
Finish with Google Trends to check direction. Its FAQ says it uses a sample of searches, scales results from 0 to 100, shows low-volume terms as 0, and adds noise that is most noticeable on low-interest queries. Compare two or three phrasings against each other; don't read a single line as a count.
How do you check keyword difficulty without a paid tool?
Search the term and judge the top 10 yourself. In an r/Blogging thread, a new finance blogger using only free tools described their four-step process: think of a topic, read People Also Ask and related searches, pick a primary keyword, write. The reply that answered the gap was blunt: if the keyword is "completely saturated already then you still won't rank". The missing step is a competition check.
A few minutes per keyword is enough. These are the checks we suggest:
| Look at | Sign you can compete | Sign to skip it for now |
|---|---|---|
| Who ranks | Forums, small blogs, off-topic pages | Ten large, well-known sites |
| Titles | Few use the exact wording of the query | Every title matches the query word for word |
| Answers | Thin, dated or vague | Full, current answers with original data |
| Page type | Articles, where you plan an article | Product pages or tools, where you plan an article |
| What you can add | A number, a template or first-hand detail they lack | Nothing but a summary of them |
A new site should lean even harder toward the left column. Our guide to how long a new website takes to rank explains why the top 10 favours older pages.
What do bloggers without paid tools actually use?
Mostly the same free Google features. In an August 2026 r/Blogging thread asking for the most basic but effective way to do keyword research without Ahrefs or Ubersuggest (about 20 comments when checked on 24 October 2026), most answers named autocomplete, People Also Ask or related searches. Several added Google Trends or Search Console, and one listed Keyword Planner. One commenter used the chatbot Grok to estimate volume and difficulty for a shortlist, and said they didn't know what it was doing under the hood. A number you can't trace is a guess, so we'd keep it out of the decision.
Time spent varies widely. A 2025 thread asking how long a six-month content calendar takes to research (about 16 comments when checked on 24 October 2026) got answers ranging from no time at all to a couple of weeks. The most upvoted said two to three focused days, then a day to group the results. Another described collecting 80 to 100 real questions over three to five days before writing. Several others named 10 to 15 hours or a single day.
Two habits from the finance-blogger thread are worth copying. One commenter mines Search Console for queries where a site ranks around position 40 to 50 for something a post barely mentioned, and writes a proper post on each. The same commenter batches research for 20 to 30 articles once a month instead of one keyword at a time. These are one commenter's habits, not tested rules (the same comment also promotes an automation tool), but they cost nothing to try.
A one-hour keyword session you can run this week
This produces a ranked list of five to ten topics. Copy the column headings into a sheet first: Query (exact wording) | Found in | Avg. monthly searches | Top of page bid range | Trend | Top 10 beatable? | Business value 0 to 3.
Mine Search Console
Open the Performance report, Queries tab. Sort by impressions and note queries where you sit beyond page one with no page written for them.
Expand three seeds
For each seed, record autocomplete predictions and open two or three People Also Ask questions. Delete anything off-topic.
Add Keyword Planner numbers
Paste the list into "Get search volume and forecasts". Record monthly searches and both bid columns.
Check direction in Trends
Compare your top phrasings in pairs and mark each rising, flat or falling.
Read the top 10 for your shortlist
Run the difficulty checks above on your best five. Keep the ones you can beat.
Two to four of those topics are a month's work for most small teams; our guide to how often a small team should publish covers the pace. If you'd rather not rerun this by hand for every post, Siela's SEO Blog Writer checks search volume, cost per click, the top 10 Google results and People Also Ask for each topic, then writes an outline you approve before it drafts. When you outgrow free tools, start with our comparison of cheaper Semrush alternatives for small teams.
Frequently asked questions
Is Google Keyword Planner really free?
Google describes Keyword Planner as a free resource for advertisers, but its help page says you must enter billing information and complete your Google Ads account setup before you can use Get ideas for new keywords. Very low-volume keywords and sensitive ones, including many health and finance terms, may return no data.
Does Keyword Planner's Competition column show SEO difficulty?
No. Google defines Competition as the number of advertisers that showed on a keyword relative to all keywords across Google. It measures paid-search crowding. A keyword marked Low can still be hard to rank for organically, so check the top 10 results yourself.
Why does Google Trends show 0 for my keyword?
Google's Trends FAQ says it only shows data for popular terms, so searches with low volume appear as 0. It also adds statistical noise that is most noticeable on low-interest queries. A 0 means too few searches to show, not necessarily no searches at all.
Is autocomplete ordered by search volume?
No. Google's help page says autocomplete doesn't simply display the most common queries. Predictions reflect real searches but also weigh language, location, trending interest and your past searches. Use autocomplete for wording and ideas, and Keyword Planner or Search Console for numbers.
Can I use Search Console for keyword research on a new site?
Only once Google shows your pages for some queries. The Performance report lists queries your site already appears for, so a brand-new site has little to show. Start with autocomplete, People Also Ask and Keyword Planner, then come back to Search Console after your first posts collect impressions.
Sources
- Search Console Help: Performance report (Search results) (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Ads Help: Use Keyword Planner (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Ads Help: About Keyword Planner forecasts (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Ads: Keyword Planner (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Help: How Google autocomplete predictions work (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google Search Central: Visual elements gallery (updated 4 Feb 2026)
- Trends Help: FAQ about Google Trends data (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- Google autocomplete predictions for "crm for" (US English) (checked 24 Oct 2026)
- r/Blogging: What is the most basic but effective way to do keyword research? (1 Aug 2026)
- r/Blogging: How much time do/would you spend doing keyword research? (12 May 2025)
- r/Blogging: What does your keyword research process actually look like before writing an article? (25 May 2026)
- Google autocomplete predictions for "crm for small business free" (US English) (checked 24 Oct 2026)