How to Find Keywords for SEO: Six Free Sources That Work
You can build a usable list of keywords for SEO without paying for a single tool seat. The raw material is already public: what people type into search boxes, what they type into your own site search, what competitors rank for, and what your sales team hears on calls. This finder list covers six free sources, exactly what to record from each, and how to merge the raw phrases into one short list you can act on this month.
Send us your site. We will mark which sources you are already ignoring.
What Is the Fastest Free Way to Find Keywords for SEO?
Start with your own business: site search logs, support tickets, and sales call notes contain the exact phrases buyers use. Then mine Google autocomplete and related questions for each product term, and copy competitor category pages and sitemaps. Merge everything into one sheet and delete duplicates by intent, not by spelling.
The Finder List: Six Free Sources
Work them in this order. The first two take twenty minutes each, the last two require a conversation with someone who talks to customers, and all six produce phrases no paid tool will hand you.
Search suggestions free · 20 min
Every major search box auto-completes from real query data. Type a seed term, then append each letter of the alphabet, then append question words. This is the cheapest way to see how people phrase a problem before they know the product category.
Record: full phrase · seed it came from · engine and date
Related questions free · 25 min
People Also Ask and the related searches block at the bottom of a results page expose the second and third question a buyer asks. Expand two levels deep from one seed and you usually find the structure of an entire guide.
Record: question wording · which result triggered it · intent guess
Competitor categories and sitemaps free · 40 min
Navigation labels, category trees, and URL slugs reveal what competitors believe the market searches for. Slugs matter more than titles: they are written once, by the person who built the taxonomy, and rarely edited for marketing.
Record: category label · slug · page type · product line
Your site search log free · 30 min
On-site search is the highest-intent keyword list you will ever own, because the visitor is already on your site. Pull the top hundred queries and, separately, the queries that returned zero results. The zero-results list is a queue of missing pages.
Record: query · result count · visits · zero-result flag
Sales call language free · 45 min
Ask sales for the last twenty call notes and listen for three things: what customers call the problem, what they compare you to, and the objection that appears in most deals. Those three produce commercial and comparison pages that convert.
Record: verbatim phrase · objection type · deal stage
Support tickets and chat logs free · 30 min
Support sees the phrasing that happens after purchase: setup problems, error messages, and "how do I" questions. That language belongs in help content and in the FAQ block of the relevant product page, not in a blog post.
Record: recurring noun · error text · product area · frequency
How to Collect From Each Source
The method matters more than the source. A fixed column set per source is what makes the merge step possible later, instead of a pile of screenshots nobody can interpret.
| Source | Where to look | Capture in this shape |
|---|---|---|
| Search suggestions | Search box, seed plus a to z, then "how", "best", "cost", "for" | phrase | seed | engine in one row per suggestion |
| Related questions | People Also Ask panel, related searches, forum threads on page one | question | parent query | depth |
| Competitor categories | Main nav, footer sitemap, sitemap.xml, collection URLs |
label | slug | page type |
| Site search | Analytics site-search report, or the platform's search log export | query | results shown | visits |
| Sales calls | CRM notes, call recordings, proposal comments | verbatim | objection | stage |
| Support tickets | Helpdesk tags, chat transcripts, return reasons | issue | product area | count |
Six sources, one list, endless rows?
We merge raw keyword exports into a page-by-page plan, with intent labels and a build order you can hand to a writer.
Merge and Deduplicate: Six Rows Become One Page
This is the step most lists never reach. Duplicate phrases are not a formatting problem, they are an intent problem: three spellings of the same question should produce one page, not three competing ones.
| Raw findings | Merge rule | Result |
|---|---|---|
| cost of X · X price · X pricing | Same commercial intent, same answer. One page with three H2 variants. | Pricing page |
| how to X · X tutorial · X steps | Instructional intent. Merge unless the skill levels differ sharply. | One guide |
| X near me · X in [city] | Location intent. Build one page per city only where you can serve it. | Location pages |
| X vs Y · X alternatives | Comparison intent. One page per serious alternative, not one per phrasing. | Comparison page |
| Zero-result site searches | An unmet request. Either create the page or answer it inside an existing one. | New page or FAQ |
| Support ticket phrasing | Post-purchase intent. Belongs in help content, not the blog. | Help article |
How to Judge What Is Worth Building
Free sources do not give you volume scores, so judge on evidence instead. Three gates, each answerable in under a minute per keyword.
Can you answer it better?
Open the top three results. If two are thin and one is a forum thread, you can win with a clear, structured page. If all three are specialist tools with data you do not have, skip it.
Does the searcher buy?
Ask what the reader does next. If the honest answer is "nothing related to us", the keyword is research entertainment. Useful for links, expensive for leads.
Will it still be asked next year?
Evergreen phrasing compounds. Trend phrasing needs a refresh every quarter. Both can work, but they belong in different parts of the plan.
Four mistakes that waste a good finder list
- Treating autocomplete as demand. It shows phrasing variety, not the number of people asking.
- Ignoring zero-result site searches. Those visitors told you exactly what page is missing.
- Collecting without a fixed column set. Six sources in six formats never merge cleanly.
- Deduping by string. "Price", "cost", and "how much" are one page; "cost" and "calculator" are usually two.
What to do with the list next
- Assign one page per intent. No URL should own two clusters.
- Order by evidence. Build first the pages that already have impressions or internal demand.
- Set a review date. Re-run the six sources each quarter; the phrasing shifts before the topics do.
- Keep the merge log. Future you will ask why a keyword was cut.
Where We Fit In
Running the six sources is the easy part; deciding which phrases deserve a page is the work. Our Keyword Research Services handle the collection, the deduplication, and the build order. When the list is signed off, On-Page SEO Services make sure each new page actually matches the intent you selected, from the title tag to the internal links pointing into it.
Teams rarely fail at finding phrases. They fail at stopping. A finder list is finished when you can name the next six pages and the reason each one exists.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I find keywords for SEO without any paid tool?
Yes. Autocomplete, related questions, competitor sitemaps, site search logs, sales notes, and support tickets will produce more usable phrasing than most paid exports. The trade-off is time, not quality.
How many phrases should the raw list contain?
A hundred to a hundred and fifty is a comfortable working set for a small site. Beyond that the merge step slows down and duplicates multiply faster than insights.
What if my site has no site-search data?
Use Search Console queries and support keywords instead. If the site is brand new, start with competitor category pages and sales language; those two produce the fastest usable shortlist.
Should I target competitor brand names?
Comparison pages are fair and often convert well. Bidding on a competitor's name in ads is a separate decision with legal and quality-score consequences; treat the two channels differently.
How do I know a phrase is worth a whole page?
If it has a distinct intent, a distinct answer, and a plausible next step toward your offer, it earns a page. Otherwise it becomes a section inside an existing page.
How often should the finder list be rerun?
Quarterly for stable B2B categories, monthly for fast-moving consumer niches. Keep the previous sheet so you can see which phrases appeared and which quietly disappeared.