A free keyword research tool will get you started, but each free option answers only part of the question, and none hands you a sorted list of what to write next. Our recommendation is to use Google's free tools for signals, then spend one paid run on the seogeoaeo.ai keyword research tool when you need volume, difficulty and cost per click for a whole topic at once. Everything below runs in a browser tab, with nothing to install.
If you run a small site, a game page or a side project, that mix is usually all you need.
What "free" usually covers
Free keyword tools tend to fall into three kinds. Some show search suggestions with no numbers. Some show numbers but only for searches you already rank for. Some show trends without volumes. Knowing which kind you are using saves a lot of confusion.
| Free option | What you get | What you do not get |
|---|---|---|
| Google search suggestions | The phrases people type as you start typing | Any volume or difficulty |
| Google Search Console | Queries your site already shows up for, with clicks and impressions | Searches you do not appear for yet |
| Google Trends | Interest over time on a 0 to 100 scale | Actual search counts |
| Google Keyword Planner | Search and cost estimates | Access without a Google Ads account and a campaign |
Google Search Console
If your site is live, start here. The Performance report shows the queries people typed when your pages appeared in results, along with clicks, impressions and average position. Searches where you sit on page two are the quickest wins you will ever find, and this is the only place that shows them for free.
The catch is that it only sees searches you already show up for.
Google Trends
Trends compares interest in a phrase against all searches in a place and time, scaled from 0 to 100. Very small searches show as zero. Use it to compare two ways of saying the same thing, or to see when a topic peaks in the year. Do not use it to estimate traffic.
Google Keyword Planner
Google calls Keyword Planner a free resource for advertisers. To open it you need a Google Ads account, and Google says you get access after you create a campaign. Once in, you see estimates of searches and the cost to target each keyword. It is built for ad planning, so its suggestions lean toward commercial terms.
When to stop using free tools
Free tools work well for spotting ideas. They get slow when you want to compare 30 related searches side by side and decide which three to write about. That is the point where a paid lookup saves an evening.
The seogeoaeo.ai Keyword Research tool takes one topic and a country and returns related Google searches with monthly searches, difficulty, cost per click and trend. It sorts them into easy wins, blog topics and keywords worth bidding on, so the decision is mostly made for you. A run costs 34 credits. If you already have a list, its Keyword Metrics tool scores that list instead.
Volume and difficulty are estimates there too, as they are everywhere. They are best for ranking options against each other.
A simple routine
- Write down five phrases a visitor would type to find you.
- Check Search Console for queries you already appear for.
- Check Trends if timing matters.
- Run one topic through seogeoaeo.ai and pick the easy wins.
- Write one page per search, with the phrase in the title and first paragraph.
If you need rank tracking or full site crawls as well, a larger suite like Ahrefs or Semrush is the better buy. For picking what to write on a small site, the routine above is enough.