How to Do Keyword Research for Free
Why Keyword Research Matters for Small Businesses
If you want your small business’ website to bring in new customers ready to buy what you are selling, you need it to show up in people’s search results. But showing up on the third or fourth or seventeenth page will do nothing for your business.
75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
(Source: Hubspot)
Showing up on that first page of search can make or break your business.
It’s a hot commodity.
Your competition knows that, and is already optimizing their website for search engines. So how do you get your pages ranking?
You don’t just cross your fingers and hope that your website starts to rank on the first page of search results.
You need to optimize each page for a keyword (Note: A keyword is any word or phrase that someone is typing into the search bar. It’s not limited to a single word.).
I hope to give you a good detailed overview of exactly how to do this in this article. I’ll cover:
Free tools to use,
Steps to choose your keywords,
How to analyze the best keywords,
How to implement them onto your website, and
Common mistakes to avoid.
Free Keyword Research Tools You Can Start Using Today
Google Keyword Planner - Google’s Keyword Planner provides search volume data and forecasts for keywords, helping you identify high-potential terms based on relevance, competition, and audience reach. It’s a solid choice for small businesses needing accurate keyword data for free.
Ubersuggest - Ubersuggest offers free keyword ideas, search volume, and SEO difficulty scores, allowing you to discover keywords that align with your content goals and competition level. It’s a comprehensive, beginner-friendly tool to kickstart keyword research.
ChatGPT - Use ChatGPT to brainstorm keyword ideas by entering broad industry terms and getting suggestions for related search terms or commonly asked questions. It’s a fast, free way to gather inspiration and gain insights into potential keywords.
People Also Ask - Google’s “People Also Ask” section displays real-time questions related to your topic, giving you a snapshot of popular queries. Incorporating these into your content can improve SEO by targeting phrases people are actively searching for.
Step-by-Step Guide: Finding the Best Keywords for Your Website
Step 1: Brainstorm
Start by making your own list of keywords that you think/hope someone would use to find your website. If possible, group these into topical clusters.
Then use Google Search to generate more long-tale keywords (which is an industry term for longer, more specific phrases). Do this by start typing your keyword into the search bar, and look at the suggested completion options below. That gives you a good idea of related terms that may be applicable.
Also look down in the search results at “People Also Ask”. This gives you some great question-based keyword ideas.
Use ChatGPT. Explain your business and goals or even type the URL of an already created page you are optimizing and ask for a list of keyword ideas.
Use a free keyword brainstorming tool like Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, or Moz. Type in a general keyword and ask for more ideas.
Step 2: Assess Quality of Keywords
So now you have a large list of potential keywords, and you need to pick the best ones for you.
Start with ChatGPT. Pick one topic cluster and copy-paste your best keyword ideas into ChatGPT. Explain what the purpose of the page is going to be and ask which would be the best primary keyword for the page based on your goals. But don’t trust this completely! This is just a starting point to help you narrow down if you have a large list.
Next, go to Google Keyword Planner in Adwords or Ubbersuggests. Now take what ChatGPT told you and paste that into the search bar.
(If you don’t yet have a Google Adwords account, you will need to set that up. To access the Keyword Planner in Adwords, click on Tools and then Keyword Planner.)
When picking your keywords, it’s important to pick the best ones for your business. No matter which tool you are using (Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, etc.), you should filter your results to only target the keywords that would bring you the most success.
Keyword Difficulty - Keywords are given a keyword difficulty (KD) score based on how hard it would be for you to rank for that keyword. For small businesses, it’s smart to only target keywords that have a keyword difficulty of 30 or less. Filter your results to only show these easier keywords.
Volume - Sort your results by volume, so that the keywords with the most search volume show up at the top of the list. Note: Your keyword doesn’t have to have a huge search volume to work for you. If your keywords don’t have large volumes, don’t stress. If, say, 30 people are searching for your long-tail keyword, that is still 30 potential new customers for you! It’s more important that your keywords are specific and not too hard to rank for!
Audience Intent - Decide which type of intent you’d like to bring to your page. Do you want to bring in people who are looking for information or are looking to make a purchase right now?
Step 3: Pick a Primary Keyword
Each page on your website should have one primary keyword. This is the main search term you are aiming to answer and rank for. When choosing a primary keyword, it’s important to keep it general enough to fit for the whole page, but also specific enough to not have too much competition.
This is why I love long-tail keywords for small businesses.
You don’t have to compete with large businesses that are using tons of ad money to dominate a general keyword. Long-tail keywords are also the best at helping the right customers find you.
Just think about this. Say you sell dog collars, but what makes yours special is that they are made with real leather by hand and they are bejeweled. Would you rather rank for someone just searching for “dog collars” and hope that they want bejeweled, handmade, leather collars? You’d be competing against all kinds of pet stores and cheap products on Amazon. Wouldn’t you much rather have someone who is typing “bejeweled dog collars” or “handmade leather dog collars” find you? That would be the right traffic to bring to your site.
Those are the types of keywords we are aiming for. The ones that bring the right traffic to you.
Step 4: Pick Secondary Keywords
Secondary keywords are all of the other queries you aim to answer on the same page, but aren’t optimizing your entire page for. These you can incorporate anywhere onto the page, like subheadings, image file names, etc.
It’s okay to use keywords here that are a little harder to rank for or have lower search volume.
Next Steps: Implementing Keywords on Your Website
Now that you have your keywords picked out, you are probably wondering how to use them on your website. Incorporate your keywords in these places:
One Primary Keyword Per Page - Decide which keyword you are going to implement on each page, to avoid that dreaded keyword cannibalization I mention down in mistakes to avoid. It helps to keep them organized in a spreadsheet, especially if you have a large page.
URL Slug - Make your URL slug short and snappy, words separated by dashes, and include keywords when possible.
Title tag and Meta Descriptions - Incorporating your keyword into the title tag and meta description can signal to users that your webpage answers the question they are directly searching for, making them more likely to actually click on your page. That’s the goal, right?
H1 and H2 Headings - The H1 heading is the title of your page, so make sure to incorporate your keyword into the title as best as you can. Organize the rest of the page into H2 and H3 headings, and include your primary and/or secondary keywords wherever these fit.
Alt Tags and Filenames for Images - Make sure to name your image files with relevant keywords, separated by dashes. Alt tags for images are the image descriptions that only robots and people with special tools for sight loss use to better understand a photo. This is a great place to incorporate your keywords on the backend. More about optimizing your images here.
Flow Throughout Your Site - Incorporate your primary keyword within the first 100 words of your page if possible, and any secondary keywords anywhere they deem relevant. Just make sure that it flows well and makes sense grammatically!
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Doing Keyword Research
Mistake #1: Using a common, short keyword -
If your keyword is too basic, your competition is likely way higher by much bigger brands, and the chance of ranking becomes much more difficult. It also doesn’t narrow down your audience enough, so it might increase your bounce rate.
Mistake #2: Not realizing the audience intent -
Some keyword search tools label the search intent so you can better understand if your page is aligned with that person’s intent. These are categorized as:
Informational: The user wants to find an answer to a specific question.
Navigational: The user wants to find a specific page or site.
Commercial: The user wants to investigate different brands or services.
Transactional: The user wants to complete an action (conversion).
You can also just use your common sense to decide what people are hoping to get out of their searches if your tool isn’t giving you the information. What is the purpose of this specific page? Are you hoping to give people information like in a blog post, or are you trying to sell a product?
Mistake #3: Not finding the right balance on our page for implementing keywords -
Write your content for humans first, and the bots second!
Repeat that for the people in the back…
Write your content for humans first, and the bots second!
While SEO is important, it’s not as important as legitimately helping your customers. Say you write a blog post and stuff it full of your keyword, even placing it in places that don’t flow easily. Even if that page ranks in the search engine, if the writing is odd, it can turn customers away.
Also, search engine algorithms get better and better about detecting odd phrasing and keyword stuffing and they don’t like it.
The lesson here: Place your keywords where they make sense naturally. It’s even ideal to include variations of your keywords if they don’t flow exactly as listed. Do what looks and sounds best.
Mistake #4: Not utilizing local keywords -
If you are a local business, make sure to include local keywords where they make sense. You don’t want to accidentally bring in users to your site searching for your exact service, but in the wrong city.
For example, if you have a dog walking service, and you only serve people in one neighborhood, you don’t want to attract people to your site who live in areas you won’t serve! Make sure to include the name of your neighborhood as well as specific local landmarks.
Mistake #5: Duplicating keywords across your site -
Each page on your site should have different keywords. If you repeat the same keywords across different pages on your site, your pages will start to compete with each other. This is called Keyword Cannibalization. Don’t let those pages eat each other’s traffic!
Summary
Mastering keyword research without a big budget is not only possible but essential for small businesses aiming to grow their online presence. By following these steps, you’ll be able to identify valuable keywords, incorporate them strategically into your website, and start attracting the right audience.
However, if you’re ready to take your content game to the next level, why not work with a professional? My content strategy service offers a full package, from in-depth keyword research to a customized content calendar to keep you on track. Let’s work together to make your content truly work for you—learn more about my content strategy service here!