How to Find Keywords
Keyword research is not a single action - it is a set of methods you run in combination. Each one surfaces different types of opportunities. Start with the free methods and build toward the paid tools as your strategy develops.
Start with what you already rank for
If your site has been live for any length of time, Google Search Console is the most valuable place to begin. Under Performance > Search Results > Queries, you will find every search term that has generated at least one impression for your site in the last 16 months - direct from Google's own data, not estimated by a third-party tool.
Look for two things. First, queries with strong impressions but low click-through rates - these are keywords where you appear but searchers are not choosing your result, which usually means your title or meta description is not matching the intent. Second, queries where you rank between positions 8 and 20 - these are pages close to the first page that could break through with targeted optimisation. Both are faster wins than trying to rank for entirely new keywords from scratch.
Google autocomplete and related searches
Open an incognito browser window and start typing your seed keyword into Google. The autocomplete suggestions that appear are drawn from real search behaviour - actual phrases people type. Work through variations systematically: add letters after your seed keyword, add question words before it ("how to", "what is", "why does"), and add commercial modifiers ("best", "vs", "for").
Once you run a search, scroll to the bottom of the results page. The "Related searches" section shows a further set of real queries Google associates with your topic. The "People Also Ask" boxes embedded in results give you question-based keywords your audience is using - each one is a potential page or section heading.
None of this gives you volume or difficulty data. But it gives you real language, real intent signals, and a fast way to expand a seed keyword list before you go anywhere near a paid tool.
Competitor keyword research
Your competitors have already done a large portion of your keyword research for you. The pages ranking above you for your target queries are the benchmark - and the keywords driving traffic to those pages are visible in any major SEO tool.
In Ahrefs or Semrush, enter a competitor's domain and look at their top organic keywords by traffic. This shows you which queries are worth targeting in your niche - not based on estimates, but based on what is actually sending traffic to sites like yours. Look specifically for keywords where multiple competitors rank but you do not. These gaps represent areas where demand is proven but your site has no presence yet.
Keyword research tools
Paid tools give you data you cannot get any other way - specifically, search volume estimates, keyword difficulty scores, and large-scale keyword discovery. The two most widely used are Ahrefs and Semrush.
Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool draws from a database of over 26 billion keywords across 142 countries, according to Semrush's own published data. Enter a seed keyword and it returns hundreds or thousands of related variants, grouped by topic, with volume, difficulty, and intent labels. Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer works similarly and is particularly strong for surfacing low-competition long-tail variations.
Both tools offer free trials. The Ahrefs walkthrough and Semrush walkthrough pages cover the specific workflows in detail. Do not pay for either tool before you have exhausted the free methods above - they are supplements to good research, not substitutes for it.
Forums, communities, and real audience language
Reddit, Quora, and niche-specific forums are an underused keyword source. Search your topic on Reddit and look at the titles of highly upvoted posts. These are the actual questions your audience asks in their own language - often with phrasing that never appears in keyword tools because it is too conversational or specific.
The value here is not volume. It is language. The way someone phrases a question in a forum is often closer to how they type it into Google than the polished keyword variants that appear in research tools. If you see the same question asked repeatedly across multiple threads, that is a signal of real, unmet demand.
How to build a seed keyword list
Before running any of the above methods, write down 10 to 20 seed keywords - the core topics and terms that describe what your site covers. These are not your final keywords. They are the starting points you feed into each discovery method to generate a broader list.
A seed keyword for an SEO consultant might be "SEO consulting", "keyword research", "technical SEO", or "SEO training". Each seed expands into dozens of variations once run through autocomplete, Search Console, and a keyword tool. The goal at this stage is volume - a large raw list you then filter by difficulty and intent, which is what the next two pages cover.