How to Do Keyword Research (Free, for a Small Business)
Keyword research sounds technical. It is really just this: figure out the exact words your customers type, then make sure you have a page for each one. Here is how to do it without paying for a single tool.
Search: “how to do keyword research” · ~1,000/mo · free to do yourself
Run the free scorecardFirst, the plain-English version
Every ranking decision starts with a keyword — the phrase someone types into Google. If you guess at these instead of checking, you end up writing pages for words nobody searches, or fighting the whole internet for a word that is too broad to win. Keyword research is just the habit of checking first.
You do not need Ahrefs or Semrush to begin. For a local business, the best keyword tool is Google’s own search box, and the goal is not a giant spreadsheet — it is a short, honest list of phrases you can actually build pages around. Here is the process.
The steps, in order
- 01
Start with what you sell, in plain words
Write down the services or products you make money on, in the words a customer would use, not your industry’s words. A customer searches “drain cleaning”, not “hydro-jetting solutions”. This first list is your seed — five to ten plain phrases is plenty to start.
- 02
Mine Google autocomplete
Type each seed phrase into a Google search box and watch the suggestions drop down — “drain cleaning near me”, “drain cleaning cost”, “drain cleaning service [city]”. Those suggestions are real searches Google sees often. Jot down the ones that match what you do. This alone will double your list.
- 03
Read “People also ask” and “Related searches”
Run one of your searches and scroll. The “People also ask” box and the “Related searches” at the bottom of the page are a free map of how people phrase the same need. They surface question-style keywords (“how much does drain cleaning cost?”) that make great page sections and FAQ answers.
- 04
Add the place, because local intent is where you win
For a local business, “[service] [city]” and “[service] near me” are the phrases that convert. Attach your town, your neighborhoods, and the surrounding areas you serve to your best service phrases. These are lower-competition and higher-intent than the bare service word — exactly what a small site can rank for.
- 05
Sort by intent: is the searcher ready to buy?
Split your list into “ready to hire” (drain cleaning near me, emergency plumber [city]) and “still learning” (why is my drain slow). Ready-to-hire phrases get their own service pages first — that is where the money is. Learning phrases become blog posts or FAQ answers later, once the money pages exist.
- 06
Match one keyword to one page
The payoff: assign each strong keyword to a single page, and give each page its own keyword. Do not make five pages fight over “plumber [city]”, and do not cram ten services onto one page. One clear intent per page is the structure that ranks — and your keyword list is now your site map.
Would rather have it done?
Everything above is genuinely do-it-yourself, and doing it will make you a far smarter buyer if you ever hire help. But if you’ve read this far and thought “I’d rather run my business than build the tenth service page,” that’s the honest signal to hand it off — and this site is run by the people who’d do it. We sell the outcome — more of the local searches that end in a call — never a guaranteed ranking.
Want a free scorecard first? The DIY SEO Scorecard runs you through twelve real signals in three minutes and hands back a prioritized fix list — no email required.
Keyword research: the questions owners ask
Do I need paid keyword tools?
No, not to start. Google autocomplete, “People also ask”, and free Google Search Console tell you the phrases people use and the ones you already show up for. Paid tools give you search-volume numbers and competition scores that save time at scale, but for a small local business the free process above finds the keywords that matter.
What is search intent and why does it matter?
Intent is what the searcher actually wants — to buy, to compare, or to learn. “Emergency plumber near me” is buy-now intent; “how to fix a leaky faucet” is learn intent. Matching a page to the right intent is more important than the keyword’s popularity: a smaller buy-now keyword beats a huge learn keyword for booking jobs.
Should I target high-volume keywords?
Usually not first. Big, broad keywords (“plumber”) are the hardest to rank for and the least specific. Smaller, specific, local phrases (“water heater repair [city]”) are easier to win and pull customers who are ready to act. Volume is nice; winnable-and-high-intent is better for a small site.
How many keywords do I need?
Fewer than you think. One solid keyword per page, and a page per real service and area, is the whole game at the start. A focused list of 15–30 keywords you can actually build pages for beats a spreadsheet of a thousand you will never use.
Did the free stuff and would rather run your business?
Tell us your business and your town. We’ll send back the exact searches we’d go after and why — no “guaranteed #1” nonsense, because that’s the scam we help you rank against.