Keyword research small business owners can do without paid tools starts with how customers describe their problems, then uses Google autocomplete, People Also Ask, Search Console and Keyword Planner to find real phrases. Prioritise specific, high intent phrases, map one main phrase to each page, and treat every volume figure as an estimate.
- Free keyword research small business owners can run in an afternoon uses Google itself as the main data source
- Autocomplete, People Also Ask and related searches show the exact words real people type
- Google Search Console shows the queries your site already appears for
- Keyword Planner is free to use but needs a Google Ads account with billing details set up
- Volume figures in any keyword research small business tool are estimates, and tools can disagree widely
- Specific, high intent phrases usually matter more to a small business than big, general terms
Table of Contents
Why keyword research small business owners need
Our guide to SEO for small businesses explains why targeting realistic searches beats chasing broad terms, and keyword research is how you find them. It tells you which words your customers use, so your pages match what they type.
Google’s SEO starter guide makes the same point: think about the words people might search for, and remember that different people use different terms, such as charcuterie versus cheese board. You do not need to cover every variation, because Google says its language matching systems are sophisticated.
Keyword research small business owners can do for free: 7 steps
Our post on what SEO is and how it works covers the bigger picture, and these seven steps turn keyword research small business owners find daunting into a practical routine. Lilach Bullock’s free keyword research guide outlines a similar approach, and it estimates the whole process at around 40 minutes.
1. Start with customer language
Write down what customers ask you, not what you sell. A customer might say “boiler making a banging noise”, while you say “boiler repair”. List 10 to 20 services, problems and questions in their words. The count is a suggestion from one agency guide, not a rule.
2. Use Google autocomplete and related searches
Type your topic into Google without pressing enter and note the suggestions. Lilach Bullock describes these as real queries pulled from real searches. Then scroll to the related searches at the bottom of the results and copy the useful ones.
3. Open People Also Ask
Click two or three of the questions and keep going, as new ones appear each time. Copy the questions into a spreadsheet. They often make good headings and FAQs, and they show the stage of the buying journey your customer is at.
4. Check Google Search Console
Google Search Console’s performance report shows impressions, clicks, click through rate and average position. Lilach Bullock suggests filtering to a relevant page and sorting by impressions, because high impressions with low clicks suggest your title or content is not winning the click.
5. Try Keyword Planner
Google’s Keyword Planner help page says you must complete account setup, including billing information, to get new keyword ideas. Another guide says you are not charged unless you run ads, but check current terms. Google says very low volume keywords may not return results, and its figures are estimates.
6. Compare interest with Google Trends
Google explains in its Trends help page that Trends shows relative interest on a 0 to 100 scale, not absolute search volume. It only shows data for popular terms, so a small local phrase may show as zero. Use it to compare two phrases or spot seasonality, not to count searches.
7. Check what already ranks
Search your main phrase and look at the results. Are they service pages, guides or directories? That tells you the intent Google expects. Our post on why a competitor ranks above you shows how to compare pages honestly. Lilach Bullock also suggests reading competitor headings and forum threads for the phrases people use.
Prioritising keyword research small business results
Our guide to local SEO explains why local phrases suit small businesses, and the same logic applies to wording. A guide from GTStudios, a web development firm, suggests favouring long tail phrases of three or more words, local modifiers and buying intent. That is one firm’s judgement, not data.
Ask a simple question of every phrase: would someone typing this become a customer? A lower volume, high intent phrase usually beats a big general one. The same guide treats Search Console positions 8 to 15 as quick wins, which is an author’s heuristic, so test it on your own data.
Why volume numbers disagree
Our breakdown of how long SEO takes shows why patience beats precision, and the same applies to volume in any keyword research small business tool. Lilach Bullock reports seeing one phrase listed at 40 searches a month in one paid tool and 480 in another in the same week, an anecdote she says can reflect differences of up to 300 percent.
So treat volume as a rough guide. Free sources such as AnswerThePublic and Ubersuggest have free tiers, but their limits change, so check them before relying on them.
Mapping phrases to pages
Our SEO services always start by assigning one main phrase to each page, because keyword research small business plans work best when every page has one job. Group similar phrases together and give each group its own page, so two of your pages do not compete for the same search. Then check Search Console monthly and refresh the list every few months. Google suggests waiting a few weeks before judging a change.
Examples
These are illustrative scenarios rather than client case studies, but they show what keyword research small business owners carry out themselves can uncover.
A plumber used autocomplete and found customers typing “boiler making banging noise”. A dedicated page answering that question matched the words people actually used.
A café owner opened Search Console and found impressions for a dog friendly search she had never targeted. She added a short section to her menu page that matched the phrase.
A consultant chased a very broad phrase with huge volume and no clear intent. Switching to specific phrases for one type of client produced more relevant enquiries.
Ready to find your best keywords
Good keyword research small business websites can act on is specific, honest and tied to real customers. At Atomic Artisans we build keyword plans and match them to pages through our SEO services. Take a look at our pricing, book a call with our team, or get in touch through our contact page to get started.
