I’m trying to grow a small niche site and need a reliable free keyword research tool for SEO. Most of the tools I’ve tried either hide the good data behind paywalls or have super limited daily searches, which makes it hard to plan content and find low competition keywords. Can anyone recommend a genuinely useful free keyword tool and share how you use it for keyword ideas, search volume, and competitor analysis?
Short answer for a small niche site on a tight budget:
Use Google tools first, then layer free freemium stuff on top.
- Google Search Console
- Free, no limits.
- Go to Performance → Search results.
- Sort by Impressions.
- Filter by Position between 5 and 30.
- Those queries are your easiest low hanging topics.
- Export to Sheets and group by intent.
This gives you what users already type to reach your site.
- Google Keyword Planner
- Need a free Google Ads account.
- You do not need to run ads.
- Use “Discover new keywords.”
- Start with 3 to 5 seed terms from your niche.
- Filter by country and language.
- Use “Top of page bid (low range)” as a rough value signal.
- Use “Competition” as a hint, but not final truth.
It gives grouped ideas and rough volume ranges. Volumes are not precise, but good enough for a small site.
- Google Autocomplete + People Also Ask
- Type your main keyword, add letters a, b, c.
- Collect the autocomplete phrases.
- Use “People also ask” questions on SERPs.
- These become H2s and FAQ sections.
This is free and has no search cap, only your time.
- Free versions of third party tools
They hide stuff, but if you combine several you get a decent picture.
My picks:
- Ahrefs Free Webmaster Tools
- Connect your site.
- Use “Organic keywords” to see terms you already rank for.
- Check “Top pages” to see content themes that work.
- Ubersuggest free tier
- Limited searches per day but ok for small projects.
- Use “Keyword ideas” and sort by SEO Difficulty from 0 to 25.
- Keyword Surfer (Chrome extension)
- Shows rough volumes in Google results.
- Lets you eyeball volumes without switching tools.
- How to make this really useful
Process I use for tiny sites:
- Start from Search Console queries where you rank between positions 8 and 30.
- Plug those into Keyword Planner, confirm there is at least some volume.
- Check SERP with Keyword Surfer to avoid targeting stuff with no intent.
- Look at top 3 results.
- If they are huge sites but thin content, you still have a shot.
- If they are huge sites with deep content and links, target a longer variant.
Quick niche example:
Seed: “indoor herb garden”
Keyword Planner + Autocomplete gives:
- indoor herb garden for beginners
- indoor herb garden ideas
- indoor herb garden without sunlight
- best herbs to grow indoors
Take “indoor herb garden without sunlight” - Check SERP.
- People also ask might show:
- What herbs grow indoor without sunlight
- How to grow herbs indoors with artificial light
Turn that into:
- Main article: “Indoor herb garden without sunlight”
- H2s: herbs list, light setup, soil, watering, mistakes.
- Another article: “Best grow lights for indoor herbs” and interlink.
If you want one single “tool” that feels closest to paid, honestly it is the combo of:
- Search Console for real queries.
- Keyword Planner for rough numbers.
- Ahrefs Free Webmaster Tools for extra data.
Everything else is nice but optional if your time is tight.
Honestly, the “one best free tool” doesn’t really exist, but there is one I’d lean on that @himmelsjager didn’t really spotlight:
Answer: manual SERP scraping + low‑tier data via Chrome extensions.
If I had to pick a single “tool” for a broke niche site, I’d choose:
1. Glimpse or Keyword Surfer + Google SERP itself
You install one of those Chrome extensions and then:
- Google a seed keyword
- Let the extension show rough volume + related terms in the sidebar
- Scroll the SERP:
- Collect titles of ranking pages
- Grab “People also ask” questions
- Check related searches at the bottom
You’re basically stealing Google’s own understanding of the topic, then the extension gives you just enough volume to prioritize without hitting crazy daily caps. The “related keywords” panel is stupidly useful for niche clusters.
Where I slightly disagree with @himmelsjager: I wouldn’t lean too hard on Keyword Planner volume for a tiny niche site. It’s built for ads, not organic, and for long‑tails it’s often either mashed into a bucket or flat-out “0–10” while it still brings in traffic. For micro‑niche stuff, the exact number matters less than:
- Is someone searching this at all
- Is the SERP full of weak pages / forums / Quora
- Are the top results actually matching the intent
You can figure that out mostly by just staring at the SERP with a lightweight extension.
2. Reddit + niche forums as a “keyword tool”
For niche sites this is stupidly underrated:
- Search
site:reddit.com [your topic]in Google - Sort by “past year”
- Collect recurring phrases, questions, product names
- Turn the exact phrasing into article titles and H2s
No caps, no paywall, and you get real language people use. Volumes are unknown, but these often end up being the long‑tail queries that rank easily and drip traffic.
3. Simple spreadsheet scoring
To make this actually usable:
- List your ideas from:
- SERP + People also ask
- Sidebar suggestions from the extension
- Reddit / forums
- Give each term 1–3 scores for:
- “Obvious real human question”
- “SERP looks beatable”
- “Fits my site perfectly”
- Sort by total. Write from the top down.
No fancy metrics, no KD score fetish, but it works.
If you absolutley want a single tool name:
“Google SERP + a free Chrome extension like Glimpse or Keyword Surfer” is the closest thing to a genuinely free, practical replacement for paid keyword tools for a small niche site. Everything else is just layering on nice‑to‑haves.