How to Do Keyword Research for Free (Without Ahrefs or Semrush)

Free keyword research uses Google Search Console, Google autocomplete, the "People Also Ask" feature, and competitor content analysis to identify high-value keywords without paying for Ahrefs or Semrush. For a startup with an existing site, Google Search Console alone surfaces more actionable keyword opportunities than most founders realize. A systematic free workflow can identify 50 to 100 strong keyword targets in a focused session.

Why You Don't Need a Paid Tool to Start

The premium keyword tools — Ahrefs ($99+/month), Semrush ($120+/month), Moz ($99+/month) — are genuinely useful at scale. If you are managing SEO for multiple clients, tracking hundreds of keywords, or doing competitive research at volume, they are worth the cost.

For a founder building their first content strategy, the ROI calculation is different. The most valuable keyword data for a startup is: what do your customers actually search for? What queries are already bringing people to your site? Where are your competitors getting traffic?

All of that is accessible for free. The paid tools add efficiency and depth, not fundamentally different information.

Source 1: Google Search Console (Your Most Valuable Free Tool)

If your site has been live for more than a few weeks, Google Search Console is your highest-value keyword source. It shows the exact queries that people typed into Google and then saw your site appear — even if you rank on page 5 and nobody clicked.

How to find keyword opportunities in GSC:

Open Search Console → Performance → Search Results. Set the date range to the last 90 days.

Sort by Impressions descending. This shows every query your site is appearing for, even for low-ranking pages. A query with 500 impressions and a position of 15 means: 500 people searched for this in the last 90 days and your site showed up on page 2. That is a rankable keyword you are close to winning.

Filter to show queries where your average position is between 8 and 20. These are pages on the cusp of page 1. A focused post update or a new post targeting these keywords can push them onto the first page, often producing a significant traffic jump from a small improvement.

What to look for:

Queries with 100+ monthly impressions and position 8-20: write a new post or improve the existing one targeting these
Queries with high impressions but very low CTR: your meta title and description are not compelling enough, rewrite them
Queries your competitors rank for but you do not appear for at all: these reveal your content gaps This is the single highest-leverage free keyword research action available. Most founders have not looked at this report in detail.

Source 2: Google Autocomplete and "People Also Ask"

Open Google in an incognito window (to avoid personalization bias) and start typing queries your ICP would search.

Autocomplete shows you what people actually type. Type "how to do marketing" and Google will complete it with "how to do marketing without a team," "how to do marketing for a small business," "how to do marketing on social media." Each of those suggestions represents a real search query with real volume.

Systematically explore autocomplete by:

Starting with a seed query relevant to your product
Noting every autocomplete suggestion
Typing each variation to generate more suggestions
Adding modifiers: "how to," "what is," "best," "for [audience]," "without [thing they want to avoid]" This takes 30 minutes and produces 50+ keyword candidates for free.

People Also Ask (PAA) boxes appear within Google results and show related questions real searchers ask. These are high-value because they often reveal the specific informational intent behind a broader keyword.

Search for your seed query. Note every PAA question that appears. Click on one — it expands and generates more PAA questions. This waterfall of related questions is essentially Google telling you the exact questions your content should answer.

Source 3: Competitor Content Analysis

Find the sites competing with you in search and analyze what they are ranking for.

Free method using Google: Search the queries you want to rank for. Note which sites consistently appear in the top results. These are your main competitors for SEO purposes.

Browse their blog. Note which topics they cover extensively. Look for:

Topics they cover well (these are proven keywords with demonstrated demand)
Topics they have covered poorly or superficially (these are gaps you can out-compete them on)
Topics they do not cover at all (potentially underserved keywords) Free method using Ahrefs' free tools: Ahrefs offers a free Domain Overview tool that shows the top organic keywords for any domain. Enter your competitor's URL. It will show you their top 10 ranking keywords on the free plan — limited but useful for identifying the highest-value keywords in your space.

Method using Ubersuggest free tier: Ubersuggest provides limited free keyword data. Enter a seed keyword and it will show search volume, difficulty, and related keyword suggestions. The free tier caps daily searches but is enough for focused research sessions.

Source 4: Reddit and Community Research

The language your ICP uses in communities is the language they use in search queries. Reddit, Indie Hackers, and relevant Slack groups are goldmines for keyword intent data.

Reddit search method: Go to the subreddits where your ICP is active. In the search bar, type a broad topic related to your product. Sort results by "Top" to see the most popular posts on that topic.

The titles of high-upvote posts are often exact queries that would work as blog post titles. "How do I do marketing when I'm a solo founder with no budget?" is a real post that tells you the exact language to optimize for.

Look at the comment sections. The questions people ask in the comments of popular posts reveal specific informational gaps — subtopics that people want answered that the original post did not cover. These are keyword opportunities.

Quora and community forums: Type your seed query into Quora search. The most-viewed questions are high-volume queries. The most-detailed answers tell you what level of depth people expect on the topic.

Source 5: Free AI-Assisted Keyword Research

AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude can assist with keyword research when used correctly.

Prompts that generate useful keyword lists:

"What questions does a solo founder ask when trying to grow their SaaS product organically? List 30 specific search queries."
"What are the specific problems a bootstrapped startup faces with SEO? List these as search queries a founder would type into Google."
"For a product that [description], what would the target customer search for when they have the problem this product solves?" AI-generated keyword lists require validation — the AI cannot tell you actual search volumes, and some suggestions will be low-volume or poorly phrased. Use them as a starting point to feed into your other free research methods, not as a final keyword list.

Evaluating Keywords: What to Target Without Volume Data

The main thing paid tools give you that free tools do not is accurate search volume and keyword difficulty scores. Without them, you evaluate keywords qualitatively.

Signals a keyword is worth targeting:

Google autocomplete suggests it (high-volume queries appear in autocomplete)
Multiple PAA questions are related to it (Google sees it as having complex informational intent)
Competitors have written about it (they would not if it had no traffic potential)
Your customers have described the problem in exactly these words
The query appears in your GSC data with impressions Signals a keyword is too competitive early:
The top results are major publications or high-authority domains (HubSpot, Forbes, Neil Patel, industry-specific authorities with DA 70+)
The top results are very comprehensive, deeply-researched posts that would take significant effort to surpass
The keyword is very short and generic ("SEO," "marketing," "content") — these are almost universally dominated by high-DA sites Target specific, longer queries early. "How to do SEO for a bootstrapped SaaS startup" is more winnable than "how to do SEO." As domain authority grows, move toward more competitive queries.

Organizing Your Keyword Research

Once you have a list of 50 to 100 keywords from the sources above, organize them into clusters:

Quick wins — queries where you have existing pages ranking 8-20 in GSC. Update these pages first.
Cluster posts — keywords that fit into a topical cluster you are building. Prioritize these for new content.
Informational content — questions and how-to queries that build topical authority.
Commercial content — comparison and alternatives queries that capture buyers in evaluation mode.
Long-term — competitive keywords that require six to twelve months of domain authority building before they are winnable. A simple spreadsheet with keyword, source, estimated intent (informational/commercial), and priority level is enough to manage this systematically.

When to Upgrade to a Paid Tool

The free workflow above is sufficient to build a content strategy that drives meaningful organic traffic for an early-stage startup. The limitations become meaningful when:

You need accurate volume data to prioritize between many similar opportunities
You want to do thorough competitive backlink analysis
You are managing SEO for multiple sites or clients
You want to track keyword positions over time at scale At that stage, Ahrefs ($99/month) or Semrush ($120/month) are worth evaluating. Both offer 7-day trials. Okara's SEO Agent surfaces keyword gaps and competitor analysis automatically from your site — without requiring a separate keyword tool subscription.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you do keyword research without paid tools? Yes. Google Search Console, Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, competitor content analysis, and community research provide sufficient keyword data for early-stage startup content strategies. Paid tools add efficiency and depth, but are not required to identify strong keyword targets.

What is the best free keyword research tool? Google Search Console is the most valuable free keyword tool for sites with existing traffic — it shows exactly which queries are already driving impressions. For new sites, Google autocomplete and the free tiers of Ahrefs (Domain Overview) and Ubersuggest provide useful keyword data without a paid subscription.

How do you find low-competition keywords for free? Search your target query in Google and evaluate the top results: if the first page is dominated by DA 70+ publications, the keyword is competitive. If the top results are smaller sites or thin pages, the keyword is more accessible. Long-tail, specific queries ("how to do keyword research for a bootstrapped SaaS") are consistently lower competition than short, generic queries ("keyword research").

How many keywords should a startup target? Focus on 10 to 20 keywords per topic cluster at a time. Building one well-linked cluster of 10 posts around 10 to 20 related keywords is more effective than publishing individual posts targeting 50 unrelated keywords. Depth and topical coherence compound over time in ways that scattered coverage does not.

Okara's SEO Agent automatically identifies keyword gaps on your site — comparing your existing content against what your competitors rank for — and drafts posts targeting those gaps. Try it free at okara.ai.