7 Ways To Find SEO Keywords Without A Paid Tool

You need to do keyword research, but you don’t want to spend over $100 per month on an advanced SEO tool.

I get it.

Without getting too deep in the weeds I’m going to show you some free tools that you can take advantage of immediately.

Google Keyword Planner

If you’re not running Google Ads, you’ll need to set up an advertising account as if you are going to run an ad.

Input all of the necessary information, and once you get to the end DO NOT run your campaign.

This will give you access to the Keyword Planner.

>>Input more information<<

People Also Ask

To discover what people are already asking, do this:

1. Go to Google
2. Type in anything you’d like
3. Scroll down the page until you see the “People Also Ask” section

Pro Tip: You can click on the bottom question and more questions will automatically populate, revealing more questions that people are asking

Your Competitors Websites

One of my favorite ways to reverse-engineer what’s already working is by heading to a competitor’s site.

You need to analyze their:

1. Page Title
2. <H1>, <H2>, <H3> Title Tags
3. Word count (per page)
4. URL Slug

To check the word count per page you can use a tool like WordCounter.

The URL Slug is the unique URL that has been created for that page (see below).

For complete optimization the URL Slug, Page Title, & <H1> Title Tag should ALWAYS be the same.

Google Related Searches

After conducting a search, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the terms that Google deems as related.

I typed in “Get Money Online” and all of these related terms popped up.

When you’re building out content outlines and trying to decide on <H2> Title Tags to incorporate into your pages/posts, these terms can be great candidates.

Mainly because your competitors are fighting over the same terms, while these terms are wide-open keyword variations waiting to boost page rank.

Also Asked

To automatically get a host of questions in relation to any topic you can go to Also Asked and input a query.

I typed in “Social Media” and the tool created a mind map of frequently asked questions.

These questions can help you ideate potential blog topics and they also give you insight into the psychographics of your market.

Perform a Google search around any one of these questions and scroll down to the “People Also Ask” section for a list of even more topics.

Export your findings into an Excel or .CSV document & you’re well on your way to creating a content roadmap engineered around discoverability.

Autocomplete

Let’s get back on the money train.

When I type in “money order ___” Google’s autocomplete feature suggests keywords that make the most logical sense in the syntax of the sentence.

You can find trending searches using this method as well as other terms you may not have thought about.

Your Brain

“Your brain works just like a computer so make sure you’re the only one programming it.”

And similarly, we are the ones programming the machine.

And by the machine, I mean Google & all the tools that have been developed subsequently.

When we’re creating topical maps we use our brains to formulate questions & create topic clusters.

Not sure what to ask?

Try using the 5 W’s in relation to your topic:

1. Who
2. What
3. When
4. Where
5. Why

See what you come up with & afterward you can cross-reference your keywords/questions with Google Keyword Planner.