/ SEO · 7 min read
Keyword Research for Small Businesses (Without Paid Tools)
You don't need a £99/month tool to do keyword research. You need a process. Here's the one we use for our own clients.
Updated 5 July 2026
Start with intent, not volume
The biggest mistake small businesses make is chasing high-volume keywords. 'Plumber' gets 60,000 searches a month — and you'll never rank for it. 'Emergency plumber Colchester' gets 200 — and every one of those searches is a person about to hire someone.
High-intent, low-volume keywords are the entire game for small businesses. Ten searches a month for 'boiler repair CO1' is worth more than a thousand for 'how does a boiler work'.
The free tools that actually work
Skip the £99 tools until you know you need them. These are enough:
- Google autocomplete — start typing your service, note every suggestion
- 'People also ask' boxes on the results page
- Related searches at the bottom of the results page
- Google Search Console — see what you already rank for
- AnswerThePublic (free tier) — questions people ask around a topic
The five-buckets framework
Sort every keyword you find into one of five buckets: money pages (people ready to buy), local (with a town name), problem-aware (they know they have an issue), curious (learning), and brand (searching for you directly).
Money and local keywords go on your service pages. Problem-aware and curious go on your blog. Brand goes on your homepage. This alone stops most of the wasted effort we see on small business sites.
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