Article by Jack Breen
Jack is an experienced SEO consultant with several years working in both in-house and agency roles, helping small businesses from a variety of industries grow online.
For many small business owners, the idea of SEO and keyword research can feel overwhelming, often associated with expensive third-party tools and complex strategies. However, basic keyword research is a lot easier than you may think, especially with the help of Google.
If you’re a small business owner aiming to improve the organic presence of your website, but unsure where to start, this article is for you. I’ll be covering four great tools provided by Google to inform your SEO strategy, allowing you to find new keywords, ideas for content, and ways to improve your website.
1. Google Search
Ironically, one of the easiest ways to conduct early keyword research is by simply using Google. The search engine provides several features that suggest similar keywords to what you’ve searched. Here’s several ways you can use Google Search to your advantage.
Autocomplete suggestions
When you search for something in Google, it often tries to autocomplete your search or offer other terms that are similar. For example, typing “kitchen worktops” into Google Search reveals other related terms, such as “kitchen worktops cut to size” and “kitchen worktops quartz”.
Whilst these may not all be directly relevant, it gives you a good idea as to what people are searching for and a strong base to start from.
People also ask
Google Search Results often provide questions related to your search in a section named ‘People Also Ask’.
These can be a great way of adding additional information to your website in the form of articles or FAQs, depending on the depth of the question. For example, a search for kitchen worktops suggests important questions like “how much does a kitchen worktop cost”, signifying the type of information people are searching for.
People also search for
Typically near the bottom of the page, Google can also provide several similar terms to what you’ve searched for. This gives other things that users have typed in, giving more avenues to go down. For example, using our prior example of “kitchen worktops”, Google provides several useful queries like “laminate kitchen worktops” for business owners to create content for.
From here, you can also click on the terms to find more related keywords, and so forth.
Advantages and disadvantages of using Google Search for keyword research
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Simple to use | No keyword volumes associated with the data |
| Sourced through Google, so information is trustworthy | No information on trends and seasonality |
| Quick to build a list of keywords to work with | Limited in scope compared to other tools |
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2. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is an excellent tool for finding keywords with their relevant volumes, competition, and related terms. Whilst its main use is for Google Ads, it is still incredibly useful for aiding SEO efforts.
Discovering new keywords
The first tool that Keyword Planner provides is the discovery tool. This enables users to input a keyword and receive a long list of related queries. For example, inputting “kitchen worktops” results in a list of 1,659 related keywords.
Some of these may not be relevant, but you can use this tool as a basis to find the average monthly searches, seasonal volume changes, and competition of related keywords. You can then decide whether it is worth building content for such terms.
Whilst competition refers to Google Ad competition, it’s safe to assume that you can apply this thinking to SEO as well. Generally speaking, a keyword that is competitive for ads will be competitive for organic search too.
Important: Google Keyword Planner’s search volume is measured as ‘broad match’ by default. This means that any search that contains the term is included in that volume. For example, broad match volume for “SEO” would include “SEO services”, “local SEO”, “on page SEO”, and so forth. Remember this when considering the volume of a keyword.
Getting search volumes and forecasts
If you already have a list of curated keywords, you can use Keyword Planner to quickly find searches, change, and competition – similarly to above. This is an easier option than sifting through thousands of suggested keywords, instead letting you choose the keywords and put multiple in at once.
Again, this also uses broad match for keyword volumes, so keep that in mind when using this tool.
Advantages and disadvantages of using Google Keyword Planner for keyword research
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Great for finding relevant keywords in bulk | Requires you to set up a Google Ad campaign (though you don’t need to run it) |
| Provides lots of useful information including volume, trends, and competition | Focuses more on ads rather than pure SEO (though data is transferable) |
| Will also be beneficial for Google Ad campaigns | More complex than other methods |
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3. Google Trends
Google Trends is a great tool for finding trending keywords related to your industry and creating content around them. It’s also a good way of determining the seasonality of a given keyword, meaning you can plan ahead for it.
Searching for a keyword’s trend
Entering a keyword into Google Trends gives insight into its popularity over time. You can change the time measurements here to get a feel for how a keyword performs over days, months, or years.
Google Trends then displays how popular this keyword has been on Google Search for your chosen time period. When the graph reaches 100, this means that this particular date was when the keyword was most searched over your chosen period.
You can also add a second keyword to compare their popularity over time. This is particularly useful for synonyms or outdated services and products, allowing you to determine when to switch focus to the newer keyword.
Related topics and queries
Underneath the interest over time section, Google Trends gives information on related topics and queries pertaining to your keyword. This is a great way of finding ideas relevant to your topic to include on your website.
For “kitchen worktops”, Google Trends has provided me with a list of related topics and queries that I can use to further bolster my website. From here, we can click on the given topics or queries to see their trend over time. For example, clicking “wrapping kitchen worktops” shows that the keyword has had a high peak during the last 30 days, and shows the different worktop options users are searching for.
Advantages and disadvantages of using Google Trends for keyword research
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Great for determining the general interest of a keyword over time | Quite basic compared to other tools |
| Simple visualisation and easy to understand | Doesn’t provide actual figures to work with |
| Allows for planning ahead for seasonal content | Provides little to no data on low volume keywords |
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4. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is easily the most informative and detailed of Google’s tools for keyword research. The information it provides is second to none and every website should be using it to improve their SEO strategy.
Performance over time
Google Search Console’s performance tab is the bread and butter of finding optimisation opportunities for your website. You can determine what pages are driving traffic, which keywords are contributing to the most to your visibility, and where best to focus on improving your website.
In the example above, we can see our website’s clicks, impressions, click-through-rate, and average position over time. These are important metrics in determining how your website is improving over time.
You can also change the time period and set up a comparison between two selected time periods, allowing you to measure the success of any website changes.
The average position metric is a great way of visualising where your website appears on Google for a given keyword or page. For example, having an average position of 15 for “kitchen worktops” means that, on average, your website appeared on page two for this term.
Important: Your click-through-rate will generally decrease as you begin to compete for more keywords. This is because impressions tend to rise quicker than clicks, meaning your percentage of clicks per impression will go down.
Pages and queries
Underneath the performance graph, Google Search Console provides more details about how users are arriving on your website. The two most important metrics here are ‘Queries’ and ‘Pages’. This ultimately tells you your website is performing organically, specifically by listing the number of users arriving on your website on a given page or through a given keyword.
Pages and queries
In the example above, and with branded queries omitted, we can see that the website in question received a high number of impressions for terms like “creative wedding photography” and “worthing wedding photographer”. By drilling down deeper into this, we can compare these over selected time periods and work out when these keywords began to improve or decline, allowing us to inform our overall SEO strategy.
Important: By default, Google removes clicks that can potentially identify users on your website. Therefore, adding up the total number of clicks through queries will be less than the total clicks displayed at the top of the page. Remember that the true value of a particular page or query is likely higher than displayed.
Advantages and disadvantages of using Google Search Console for keyword research
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Most reliable tool for measuring organic traffic through Google | Requires initial set up |
| Provides real data to analyse | Slightly more complex than other tools |
| Shows you how all your ranking keywords are performing, thus informing your strategy | Not helpful for new websites or sites with little data |
Planning ahead for SEO
You’ve now seen how powerful Google’s own free tools can be for unlocking keyword opportunities and understanding your online performance. However, for many small business owners, dedicating the time and expertise to consistently implement these strategies can be a challenge.
If you’re ready to take your website’s organic success to the next level but find yourself short on time or confidence, I’m here to help.
Contact me today for a free consultation on your website, aiming to rank you higher, attract more customers, and achieve sustainable growth on Google. Let’s turn those keyword insights into results for your business.
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FAQs
Does Google have a free keyword tool?
Which free tool is best for keyword research?
For free keyword research using Google’s own tools, Google Keyword Planner is generally the most comprehensive. It provides search volume estimates, competition levels, and related keyword ideas directly from Google’s data. Additionally, Google Search itself is invaluable for discovering natural language queries and related topics, but lacks the depth of other options.
What is Google Suggest keyword tool?
Google Suggest, also known as Google Autocomplete, is a feature of Google Search that provides real-time search queries as you type. It anticipates what you might be searching for based on popular and trending queries. This can be a fantastic free keyword tool for discovering longer keywords and understanding common user intents.
How can I find a niche with Google Keyword Tool?
You can find a niche with Google Keyword Planner by starting with broad keywords related to your industry and then looking for more specific, less competitive terms. Filter for lower search volume keywords that still have commercial intent or align with a particular sub-section of your market. Look for keyword ideas that are highly relevant but show less competition, indicating a potential niche opportunity where you can more easily rank.
