How to do Keyword Research for Free: Detail Explanation

Keywords are the most important part of SEO and your articles. Suppose if you write an article on a particular topic without any Keyword Research and no one searches for that topic, then you will not get traffic for that post. Today I will tell you some important tools to do keyword research for free.

The quality, length, and hard work of that article don’t matter. You will never get traffic if you do not write articles using proper keyword research.

In this article, I will guide you on how you can do proper keyword research for free to get a better ranking and traffic on the search engine results page. If you want a good ranking and more traffic on SERP then you will like this article.

But before that, you should select the perfect and best niche for blogging.

Best tools for Keyword Research for Free:

Best Free Keyword Research Tools for SEO

Best Free Competitors Keyword Research Tools

What is Keyword Research in SEO?

It is a process that helps the bloggers to find the terms or topics that people are searching in the search engines like- Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

It helps to target that audience.

And you get to know what people are searching for according to your niche.

By this, the opportunities to rank in the search engine results become very high. You can say that it is a fundamental practice in search engine optimization.

As you know that it is the most important part of the ranking.

If you want to rank your blog posts to increase traffic and earnings then you should do this. It plays a very important role in the success of a blog.

Why is Keyword Research important?

Before you know How to do keyword research for free? you need to know this.

It is the only way to show your article on search result.

If you are writing a blog on a topic that anybody is not searching or looking for then you will not get any traffic, no matter how well you write that blog post.

It is a content-making strategy.

It is also true that using a keyword that exactly matches a person’s search in a search engine is no longer the ranking factor.

The intention and the content behind that keyword is the most important thing to rank your article.

But if you don’t have the keyword that people are searching for then on which topic you will write a blog post?

So, it is very important.

From here you will get at least an idea that-

• On which topic you should write the blog post?
• What is the search volume of that keyword?
• And can you rank on that keyword?

AS well as,

I think you know that to rank your blog you need to do on-page SEO and off-page SEO.

So, Keyword Research should be the first step of that SEO.

In a summary, you can say that it will narrow down the competition.

How to Find Best Keywords for Your Blog?

Before you select a keyword and expect that it will rank in search engine results, you should know-

1. Relevancy

Do you know how Google ranks content or depending on which thing?

It’s the relevance. Google will only rank your content when your content will be appropriate for the searcher’s need.

As well as your content should be updated and the best content for that keyword.

Otherwise, you know that there is much good content already available in the search engine results.

So, if your content is not good and unique from them then Google will not rank your blog post.

2. Brainstorm Seeds Keyword

I think you know that the SEEDS keyword is the thing that defines your niche and it will help you also to find your competitor’s activity.

If you are researching keywords on any tool, it will first ask for a SEED keyword and then it will give you some long-tail and short-tail keyword ideas depending on that SEED keyword.

It will help you make a successful blog as well as if you have an offline business, it will also help.

Like- if your niche is on FOOD, and you want to write a blog post on this topic then your SEED keywords will be like-

• Spicy Food
• Healthy Food

Now, let’s imagine you have a business and you want to promote it. Then it will be very easy to find a SEED keyword to promote. Just you need to be updated on- What’s people are searching for, that is related to your business.

Like- If you are selling Shoes then SEED keywords will be-

• The Shoe’s making Machine
• Shoes (With any brand name)
• Loafers

Now, you can understand that finding a SEED keyword is not that hard. But it is not the only keyword that will increase your traffic.

By this, you will get to know what people are searching and you need to make content covering or surrounding these SEED keywords.

3. See on what keywords your Competitors are ranking

To know this, you need to search one of your SEED keywords in the search engine or Google.

Then you will see that many sites are ranking for that keyword.

So, the sites that are ranking on that SEED keywords are your competitor.

By this, you can easily find out your competitor. And if you can’t see anything on that SEED keyword then after entering the keyword in Google just give a space.

And Google will show you some suggestions based on that keyword.

For example, if you are selling a Shoe Making Machine then you need to search for -Shoe Making Machine instead of a “Shoe”. That will give you the exact result that you are looking for.

Now if you have some forum website or some E-Commerce site is ranking for that keyword, then you should not take them as a competitor. Any blog or any site like yours will be counted as your competitor.

After finding or selecting the competitor’s website you need to put that site on any keyword research tool.

Like- if you use Ahrefs as a keyword research tool, then you need to put that competitor’s domain in the site explorer section.

There you will find the data that you want. Like- you will get the number of organic traffic that the site is getting, the keywords which are ranking in search engine results.

You will also find the top keywords on every page.

Here I can say one thing that if you are familiar with your niche or industry then you will get a huge number of keywords from your competitor analysis, which you can’t find from brainstorming alone.

You can find more keywords in the Competing Domains section.

4. Use of Long-tail keywords

I think you know that it is very important if you are starting a new blog. You should use long-tail keywords. But if you need to search for that first.

#Use Google Suggest

This is one of the easiest and powerful ways to find long-tail keywords. Just put your SEED or main keyword in the search bar of Google, on which you want to write a blog post.

Then press enter. Now, at the bottom of the first result page, you will find related and suggested keywords or related searches on that topic which will be the long-tail keywords.

Except for this, you can do one more thing. That just gives a space after entering the main keyword on that you want to write a blog post.

Then Google will show you many suggested keywords or long-tail keywords that people are searching in Google.

#Use another Platform

You can use other platforms like Quora, Question Hub, etc.

These are some platforms that are very much in use. You can easily find a long-tail keyword from these platforms.

Just search your topic or idea that you want to write a blog post on. You will get the related keyword and other long-tail keywords that people are searching for.

These are also some very good platforms that can be used to find a long-tail keyword.

5. Use of Google Keyword Planner

Now, it is one of the free best tools that can help you to narrow down your blog topic.

First, you have to make an account in Google Ad to use it.

Then click on tools and settings and then keyword planner to search for keywords. Then click on Discover new Keywords and then click on Get Results.

In the keyword planner, you will get the estimated traffic and search volume for that keyword.

Precisely, you will see average monthly searches, competition, and page bids.

Here you will not get the exact traffic but you will get an idea from here. From the page bid and Competition, you need to understand the actual keyword difficulty.

For a rough idea, you can say that the keyword with high competition and high page bids can be difficult to rank.

6. Use of Google Trends

By the name of Google Trend, you can understand that you can find the trending topics from here that people are searching.

You can save time and energy from here. You can sort the data by region, type, category.

After some time or as you get more comfortable with Google Trends you can find the trending topics and related queries to optimize your SEO.

Also, if you are doing Event Blogging then also it can help you very much. You can choose a seasonal topic from here that will increase your traffic.

After some experience and time, you can also assume the search volume of a keyword from here and related queries.

The benefits you can get from Google Trend are-

• You can identify the seasonal trend
• You can use trend predictions
• You can find related queries to beat the competition
• Find trending topics
• Optimize your local SEO

7. Study Your Niche

You can find huge keyword ideas if you follow all the above-mentioned points.

But it will also keep you at a limit because everything you are doing is a tool’s base work. If you can think over it and can come out from the dependence on these tools only then you may get some fresh keyword ideas.

So, if you have in-depth knowledge of your niche then you can get some more fresh keyword ideas that can help you to rank your blog.

You can also visit forum websites to get knowledge of the questions that people are asking.

So, if you get any questions from any of the platforms try to search in the keyword research tool that you are using. Like- the keyword has how much search volume, what is the keyword difficulty, etc.

You will also get some keyword ideas in the tool related to your searched question. If you see that one of the related questions is easier to rank then you can target that.

Except for these comments on your blog can also be a very keyword source option for you.

If your readers are asking any question in any of your blog posts that are related to your blog niche then you can pick any most asked questions among them. But before writing an article on it, do your research.

How to analyze keywords?

This is one of the most important parts of the topic- How to do Keyword Research?

After doing keyword research picking up a single keyword to write a blog post can be very difficult. Because you will have many keywords, according to you that will be very good.

But you need to pick up the best one. So, to find the best keyword among all you need to check some parameters. That is-

1. User Intent
2. Search volume
3. Clicks
4. Traffic potential
5. Keyword Difficulty
6. CPC

Now let’s discuss the points.

#User Intent

The first and most important thing you need to do is to understand the intention of the user. If you are selecting a keyword you have to understand the main thing that people need.

Like if you target a keyword which is- Age of Queen Victoria. You have searched and selected this keyword as best. But if you think properly then you can understand that people will not read any blog post on this.

They just wanted to know the actual age of Queen Victoria. If you search it on Google, it will show the age in the featured snippet. And after seeing that people will not read your blog.

So, you can find a huge search volume on this type of keyword but this will not give any benefit to you. So, first, understand the user’s intent.

#Search Volume

It tells you the number of times people searched for it in Google or any search engine. If you enter any keyword in any keyword research tool it will show you the number.

As well as you can select the country where you want to know the keyword details.

Here you need to remember something that is-

1. The search volume can’t tell you how much traffic you will get after the ranking.
2. It is the number of searches, not the number of people who are searching.

These are the things you need to keep in mind. Except for these, you can also filter your search. Like if you want a keyword within the keyword difficulty of 20 or something else, you can also do that.

You can also select the country where you want to target. You should not target only one country. You need to do smart work and need to target all the countries as much as possible.

#Clicks

If one keyword has a huge search volume that does not mean that all the people who are searching for that keyword will click on the top-ranking pages in the search engine.

Here you can see the number of clicks. And also you can see that the search volume number and the number of clicks are different. Clicks are very less than search volume.

You need to check the organic clicks also. This should be above 40 to 50 percent.

So, you need to know there is a feature in Google called Feature Snippet.

This is called a featured snippet. If you are getting a clear answer to your query then why you will click and read articles. So that is why the search volume number and the number of clicks are different.

#Traffic Potential

Let’s assume that you have targeted a keyword that has a search volume of 5000 per month.

Now if your blog gets ranked then it is not definite that the blog post can drive a maximum of 5000 traffic per month.

Because when a blog post is ranking on a keyword, there is a chance that it will rank for some other keywords also that you have entered in your blog post.

That can be as a heading or a subheading, etc.

That is why you may get a huge amount of traffic. Because every keyword that your blog post is ranking for has a search volume.

And people will also click on the post if they are coming from the different keywords you are ranking for.

So, cumulatively you will get good traffic.

#Keyword Difficulty

It is one of the most important to rank a blog post. But it depends on only one factor. There are many reasons behind this. The SEO professional believes that the reason can be-

• Searching Intent
• Number of Backlinks
• Content’s uniqueness, length
• Domain Rating, etc.

These are some important factors on which it depends. But it is not the only reason, as well as these are not the particular reason.

Some experts say that it is dependent on Domain Rating, some say it is dependent on backlinks, etc.

So the reason may differ. But most of the experts say that it is mostly depending on the backlinks that it has or the top 15 or 20 pages that are ranking for it.

• You should choose a keyword with a low competition level or difficulty if your blog is very new.
• Later, you can choose a slightly difficult keyword or you can work on the SEED keyword/short keyword.

#CPC

Lastly, one of the main reasons to make a blog and think about how to rank. It shows how much advertisers are willing to pay for a click on the keyword.

Here you can see the CPC. It means the advertiser will pay 0.66$ for a click on a particular keyword. This will be different for different keywords.

Somewhere it is depending on search intent also. And also depending on search demand.

Like if you search Shoe Making Machine then you will see that CPC will be high. But on the keyword of “Shoe,” the CPC will be down.

The CPC is not fixed. It can be changed anytime.

If you are running a very new blog then do not look for it initially.

How to Target Keywords in a Blog or Business Website?

To target a keyword for your blog post you need to follow some steps.

These are-

# Find Keyword Opportunities

First, you need to check what the opportunities of that keyword are.

You need to think about what kind of keyword of blog post can give your traffic in your niche.

For that, you can take help from Google Trends. There you can find the latest and trending topics.

After selecting the keyword you can use any of the above-mentioned tools to check the search volume and keyword difficulty of that keyword.

If you want then you can take a keyword from the related keywords also.

# Next Step

Now, if you select a keyword or question from Google Trends or anywhere else and if the topic is too broad then you need to narrow down that topic or question.

Like- if your niche is finance, and you got a mutual fund as a trending topic and you want to make a blog post on that then obviously you can.

But the mutual fund is a vast topic and the competition will also be very high on this.

So, you need to narrow down that. You can use any of the tools again to do that.

You can use a topic or a keyword like-

Best mutual funds to invest in-2021 instead of the whole mutual fund topic.

This will narrow down the competition level also and the chances of getting traffic have become high.

# Optimize your Post for SEO

After all these things, now you have to write an optimized blog post. Here you need to mention your targeted keyword in your blog post.

The places where you need to mention your keyword are-

1. You need to mention it in the Title Tag
2. Mention your keyword in Meta Description
3. Use your keyword in heading and subheading
4. Use the keyword in the Meta tag
5. Use Internal Link
6. Use External Link

If you want then you can use any SEO plugin like Rank Math or Yoast SEO to do on-page SEO or to optimize your post [ But it does not mean that it will rank your post].

If you do all the things correctly then the chances of getting ranked in the search engines become very high.

Now I think I should answer one of your most asked questions in Google. Ok, let me answer that.

How do I Track the Performance of My Keywords?

To check, you need to sign up for Google Search Console. You will see the keywords you are ranking in the search engine and their average position.

Also, you need Google Analytics to track your performance. Just you need to put the code in the Theme editor section (Header section ).

You can also install any plugin to do that.

By these two best ways you can track your website performance or keyword’s performance.

Frequently Ask Questions

Conclusion:

Remember that Google does not share any kind of data with anyone.

So, the information or data these tools are showing is not 100 percent accurate. These tools are approx 60 to 90 percent right.

So, don’t rely on this data fully. Take some ideas from here.

I hope you learn about detailed guides on How to do Keyword Research for free. In the next articles, you will learn some advanced techniques of keyword research.

If you have any questions you can ask me, I will guide you on that or if you like this article do share it with your friends on social media.