How to Do Keyword Research for Free in 2026 (Because Paying $400/Month for SEO Tools Is Absurd)
I’m going to save you about $4,800 a year. That’s what you’d spend on premium SEO tools if you believed every marketing guru telling you that free keyword research is dead. Spoiler alert: it’s not dead. It’s just hiding in places those gurus don’t want you looking.
Here’s the thing. I’ve been doing this for years. I’ve had subscriptions to every fancy tool with “SEO” in the name. And you know what I discovered? About 80% of what those tools do, you can accomplish for exactly zero dollars. The other 20%? Nice to have, but not necessary for most people trying to build organic traffic.
Let me show you how.
Google’s Own Tools: They’re Literally Giving Away the Answers
Google is weirdly generous about telling you exactly what people search for. They just don’t advertise it because they want you buying ads instead.
Google Search Console (Your Secret Weapon)
If you have a website and you’re not using Search Console, we need to talk. This free tool shows you every keyword your site currently ranks for. Every. Single. One. Including keywords you didn’t even know you were targeting.
Here’s my favorite trick: Filter for queries where your average position is between 8-20. These are your “almost there” keywords. You’re close to page one, but not quite. A little optimization, maybe adding some schema markup to grab those rich snippets, and boom. You’re in the money zone.
Google Keyword Planner (Yes, It Still Works)
People act like Keyword Planner died in 2018. It didn’t. You just need a Google Ads account to access it. You don’t need to spend money. Just create an account, skip the campaign setup, and go straight to the planner.
The search volumes are ranges, not exact numbers. That’s annoying. But it’s still free data about what people actually search for. Stop complaining.
Google Trends (The Underrated Champion)
Trends won’t give you search volumes. What it will give you is something more valuable: direction. Is interest in your topic growing or dying? What related queries are exploding? When do people search for this stuff?
I use this religiously for my content strategy. There’s no point targeting a keyword that peaked in 2023 and is now flatlining.
The “People Also Ask” Goldmine
Type any keyword into Google. See that “People Also Ask” box? That’s free keyword research served on a silver platter.
Click one question. More appear. Click those. Even more appear. You can generate dozens of question-based keywords in minutes. And here’s the beautiful part: these are keywords Google is literally telling you people want answered.
I’ve built entire content calendars from this feature alone.
Free SEO Tools That Actually Work in 2026
Not every free tool is garbage. Some are genuinely useful.
Ubersuggest (Free Tier)
Neil Patel gets a lot of hate, but Ubersuggest’s free tier is legitimately helpful. You get limited daily searches, but enough to research a handful of keywords properly. Search volume, difficulty scores, content ideas. All there.
AnswerThePublic (Free Version)
This tool visualizes questions people ask about any topic. It’s creepy how well it works. The free version limits daily searches, so use them wisely. But for brainstorming content angles? Unbeatable.
Keyword Surfer (Chrome Extension)
Install this. Search anything on Google. See search volumes right in the results. It’s that simple. No login required. No limits that matter. Just free data while you browse.
The Reddit and Quora Method
Want to know what people actually struggle with? Go where they complain.
Search your topic on Reddit. Look at the questions with hundreds of upvotes. Those are pain points. Those are keywords waiting to happen. Same with Quora. The questions people ask repeatedly? That’s demand you can capture.
This approach is particularly killer for high ticket affiliate marketing because you find the exact problems expensive products solve.
Your Competitors Are Doing Free Research for You
Find three competitors who rank well. Study their content.
What topics do they cover? What questions do they answer? What’s their site structure look like? You don’t need expensive tools to see this. Just open their website and look. Their table of contents reveals their keyword targets. Their FAQ sections expose the questions they’re answering.
If you want to go deeper with competitive research, there’s a whole programmatic approach to scaling this kind of analysis that doesn’t require writing thousands of articles by hand.
Building Your Content Strategy Without Fancy Software
Here’s my free keyword research workflow:
- Start with Google Search Console to find what’s already working
- Use Google Keyword Planner for volume estimates on new ideas
- Check Google Trends to confirm the topic isn’t dying
- Mine “People Also Ask” for related questions
- Browse Reddit for real user language and pain points
- Document everything in a simple spreadsheet
That’s it. No $400 monthly subscription. No complicated dashboards. Just systematic research that feeds your content engine.
The One Thing Free Tools Won’t Tell You
Here’s where I’ll be honest. Free tools struggle with accurate keyword difficulty scores. They’re guessing. Paid tools guess better, but they’re still guessing.
My workaround? Actually look at page one results. Are they massive authority sites? Move on. Are they small blogs with thin content? That’s your opportunity. Your eyeballs are a better difficulty estimator than any algorithm.
Final Thoughts (Not “In Conclusion” Because I’m Not a Robot)
Free keyword research works. It’s slower than paid tools. It requires more browser tabs. But it works.
The people telling you otherwise usually have affiliate links to expensive software. Funny how that works.
Start with what Google gives you for free. Add a few Chrome extensions. Browse communities where your audience hangs out. That’s enough to build a content strategy that improves your Google ranking and drives real organic traffic.
Save that $4,800 for something useful. Like coffee. You’ll need it for all that content you’re about to create.