I have never paid for a keyword research tool. My houseplant site launched in 2019, has been through every Google update since, and is still sending me traffic in 2026. I mention this not to brag, but because there is a version of keyword research advice that will have you convinced you need to spend £100 a month on Ahrefs before you can write a single post.
You don’t.
Paid tools are like professional cameras. Powerful in the right hands, but a source of overwhelming stress when you just need to get the job done. Every time I’ve dabbled with a free trial of Semrush or Ahrefs, I’ve come away with a list of 88 website “problems” (some severe, some not — none of which, it turns out, matter very much when you’re starting out) and a strong desire to go and do something else entirely.
This article is the process I actually use — free tools only, step by step. It won’t give you every data point under the sun. It will give you enough to write posts that rank, which is the only thing that actually matters at this stage.
If you want to understand why keyword research matters before getting into the how, What Is Keyword Research and Why Does It Matter for Bloggers? covers that first.
Before you open a single tool
The most important thing to remember before you start is this: you already know your niche. You know what topics belong on your site, what questions your readers ask, what problems they’re trying to solve. Keyword research doesn’t replace that knowledge — it helps you structure it, and points you toward the angle most people are actually searching from.
Start by writing down your topic in plain English, as if you were explaining it to a friend. Not a keyword — a topic. “I want to write about why pothos leaves turn yellow.” That’s your seed idea. Everything else flows from there.
Step 1: Google Autocomplete
Open an incognito browser window. This is important — regular browsing personalises your Google results based on your history, which means you’ll see suggestions skewed toward what you search for, not what everyone else does.
Type your seed idea into Google. Don’t press Enter.
The dropdown suggestions that appear are real searches that real people type. Write them all down. Then try variations:
- Add letters after your phrase one at a time (“why are pothos leaves turning yellow a…”, “…b…”, “…c…”) — each letter surfaces a new batch of suggestions.
- Add question words at the start: “what”, “why”, “how”, “when”, “can”. (“Can pothos leaves turn yellow from overwatering?” is a much more rankable long-tail keyword than “pothos yellow leaves.”)
You’re not committing to any of these yet. You’re building a list of possibilities.
What you’re looking for: longer, more specific phrases. “Why are my pothos leaves turning yellow and brown at the tips” is better than “pothos yellow leaves” for a new site. Specific searches come from people who are further along with their problem — they’ve already looked at the basics and need more targeted help. They’re also far less competitive.
Step 2: The People Also Ask box
Now press Enter and look at the actual results page.
Somewhere in the first few results — usually after the first one or two — you’ll see a box labelled “People Also Ask.” These are questions Google has identified as closely related to your search. Click each one to expand it, and then keep clicking — every time you expand a question, more appear below it.
Write them all down.
These questions are gold for two reasons. First, they tell you exactly what else your readers are wondering about — which means they become your H2 subheadings. Second, they’re a direct window into what Google considers relevant to your topic, which means including them in your article sends a strong signal that your content is thorough.
For a pothos article, your People Also Ask box might surface questions like:
- Should I remove yellow leaves from pothos?
- Can pothos recover from overwatering?
- How do I know if my pothos is getting too much light?
Each of those is a subheading waiting to happen.
Step 3: Related Searches
Scroll to the very bottom of the Google results page, past all the results. There’s a section called “Related searches” — eight short phrases that Google considers closely connected to your original search.
These often surface long-tail variations you wouldn’t have thought of yourself. Add any relevant ones to your list.
Step 4: Check the competition
Before you go any further, spend five minutes looking at who’s actually ranking for your keyword.
Search your main keyword candidate and look at the top 10 results. You want to see:
- At least three actual blog posts (not Wikipedia, WebMD, Healthline, or any other mega-site). If the first page is entirely dominated by large authority sites, this keyword may be too competitive for now.
- Blogs with domain authority under 50. You can check this with the free MozBar browser extension. If the blogs ranking are relatively small sites, that’s a good sign you can compete.
- Content that isn’t wildly better than what you could write. You don’t need to outclass everyone — you need to write something at least as useful, aimed at your specific reader.
If three or more results are beatable blog posts, you’re in reasonable shape. Move on to validating the numbers.
Step 5: Ubersuggest (free)
Go to ubersuggest.com and create a free account. The free tier gives you three searches per day, which is enough when you’re in the early stages.
Type in your main keyword candidate and note:
- Monthly Search Volume. For a new site, you’re looking for 100–1,000 searches per month. Anything lower won’t send meaningful traffic even if you rank. Anything higher and you’re likely fighting too hard for position.
- SEO Difficulty score. Under 40 is your target. Under 20 is ideal for very new sites.
- The Keyword Ideas panel. Scroll down and you’ll see related keyword suggestions with their own volume and difficulty scores. Add any relevant ones to your list.
Repeat for your top two or three candidates. By the end of this step you should have a clear front-runner.
Step 6: AnswerThePublic (free tier)
Go to answerthepublic.com and type in your main keyword. Select your country and hit search.
Switch to the “Data” view — the visual wheel is pretty but hard to scan. Focus on two sections:
- Questions: A full list of question-based searches around your topic. Compare this against your People Also Ask list and add anything you missed.
- Prepositions: Searches that use words like “for”, “with”, “without”, “near”. These often surface very specific long-tail angles. “Pothos care for low light” is a different article to “pothos care” — and often an easier one to rank for.
AnswerThePublic is particularly useful for finding content gaps: things your readers are searching for that your competitors haven’t fully answered yet.
Step 7: Pinterest (your secret weapon)
Pinterest is a search engine, not a social platform — and most bloggers treat it like an afterthought. That’s a mistake, and one that’s increasingly costly as Pinterest has grown as a traffic source.
Personally, I start my keyword research on Pinterest rather than Google. It’s less overwhelming, and I find it connects me to what my readers are actually interested in faster than a results page full of competitor articles. The SOP order above is more logical for beginners to follow — but once you’re comfortable with the process, try Pinterest first and see if it works better for you.
Here’s how to use it:
Go to Pinterest.com (you don’t need to be logged in). Type your seed idea into the search bar. Don’t press Enter — write down all the autocomplete suggestions.
Then press Enter. Below the search bar, a row of colour-coded keyword bubbles appears. These are Pinterest’s suggested refinements for your search. Click through a few and note what people are looking for.
You can also click into the pin and look for ‘more information’ and it sometimes gives you the keywords that pin is ranking for. Sometimes it just insists you log in, so you may have to click around until you get what you want.
Important: Pinterest keywords often differ from Google keywords. “Pothos plant aesthetic” might trend on Pinterest while “pothos care guide” performs better on Google. Your Pinterest keywords go into your pin titles and descriptions — not necessarily into the article itself. The two serve different algorithms.
How I found one of my best-performing articles
I want to pause here and tell you about a Philodendron Pink Princess.
One day I noticed that the leaves on mine were getting stuck as they unfurled — something a lot of people put down to low humidity, though in my experience it’s just something they grow out of as the plant matures. I took a quick photo and shared it to Instagram. The comments and DMs came in immediately. Other people were dealing with the same thing, and most of them had been told to buy a humidifier.
That was my signal. Real people, real problem, real urgency. I ran the keyword through the process above, confirmed there was search volume and almost no competition, and wrote the article. It did well on Google. Then it went viral on Pinterest. That single post drove a significant chunk of my traffic for months.
The lesson isn’t “post more to Instagram.” It’s that keyword research doesn’t have to start with a tool. It can start with noticing what your audience is already asking about — and then using the tools to confirm that the search demand is there before you invest the time in writing. The tools validate the instinct. The instinct comes from knowing your niche.
Putting it all together: your keyword cluster
By the time you’ve worked through the steps above, you should have:
- One primary keyword (the main phrase your article targets)
- Two to four secondary keywords (related phrases you’ll weave in naturally)
- Five to ten LSI keywords (terms Google expects to see on a page about this topic — find these by scanning the subheadings and repeated words in the top three ranking articles for your keyword)
- A handful of People Also Ask questions (which become your H2 subheadings)
- One Pinterest keyword (which may differ from your Google primary keyword)
Write these down before you start drafting. Then put them away and write your article naturally. Come back to the list afterwards and check that your primary keyword appears in your title, your first 100 words, at least one H2, and your meta description. Add secondary keywords and LSI terms only where they fit without forcing it.
Google is cleverer than you think. You don’t need exact match keywords – in fact, it sounds weird if you try to shoehorn them in.
(If you’re not sure if they fit naturally, read your article aloud so you can hear if it sounds a bit like a 12 year old trying to make an 800 word essay 1000 words).
The goal is an article that reads like it was written for a human — because it was — but is structured in a way that Google can understand. That’s the balance. [Article 27: How to Write a Blog Post That Ranks on Google] goes into the placement side in more detail.
Your pre-write checklist
Before you start writing any post, tick every box. If you can’t tick it, go back to the relevant step.
- Primary keyword identified via Google Autocomplete
- Monthly search volume checked in Ubersuggest (100–1,000/month)
- SEO difficulty checked (under 40)
- Top 10 results Googled and reviewed
- At least 3 of the top 10 are blog posts (not mega-sites)
- Competing blog domain authority under 50
- Search intent confirmed and post format matches
- 2–4 secondary keywords identified
- 5–10 LSI keywords noted from competitor analysis
- People Also Ask questions collected for subheadings
- Pinterest keyword noted (may differ from Google keyword)
Frequently asked questions
Is free keyword research actually good enough?
For a site with fewer than 40 posts, yes. Paid tools give you more data and more precision, but at that stage you don’t need more data — you need to write more posts. Save the tool subscriptions for when your site is earning enough to justify them.
How many keywords should I target per article?
One primary keyword, two to four secondary keywords, and five to ten LSI terms. You’re not stuffing them in — you’re writing a thorough article that naturally covers the topic. The keywords follow from that.
What if Ubersuggest shows low volume for my keyword?
Check a few variations — sometimes slightly different phrasing has significantly more volume. If all variations are under 50 searches a month, it may be worth reconsidering the topic, or accepting that it’s a low-volume article worth writing anyway because it fills a gap in your site.
What’s the difference between a Google keyword and a Pinterest keyword?
They serve different algorithms and different user behaviours. Google users type specific questions; Pinterest users browse visually and often search for inspiration or ideas. A post about “pothos care” might need the Pinterest keyword “pothos plant aesthetic ideas” on its pins, even though the article itself is optimised for “how to care for pothos indoors.”