How to choose keywords without paid tools

In three months, my site has appeared 1,179 times on Google for “consultor marketing digital” (digital marketing consultant). It has had one click. One.

For “consultoria de marketing para pequenas empresas” (marketing consultancy for small businesses), typed just like that, without accents, it has appeared 125 times, in position 2.8. Fewer people search for it, but those people know what they want.

I’m Nico, a freelance digital marketing consultant in Seville. Choosing keywords is the first thing I do when I work on a website’s SEO, and you can do it without paying for a single tool. Here’s how.

What is a keyword, and which one suits your business?

A keyword is what someone types into Google when they’re looking for something you sell. It’s hardly ever a single word. It’s usually a phrase: “emergency plumber in Triana” or “how much does a website for a restaurant cost”.

Google says so in its SEO starter guide: think about the words someone would use to find your content. And it adds the point I find most useful in the whole guide. People who know a lot about a topic search with different words from people who are just starting out.

That’s where the most common mistake lies. The business describes its service in industry jargon, and the customer searches for it in their own words. The keyword you want is the customer’s.

Short keywords or long searches?

Both have their place, but for a small business the long ones tend to win. I can see it in my own Search Console data, from 4 August to 1 November 2026:

Impressions are the number of times the site showed up in the results. Average position is where my site’s top result ranked: 1 is right at the top.

Short searches bring more impressions because more people search for them. Agencies and big portals also compete for them, which is why my site is stuck beyond page five. Long ones show up less, but they tell you who is searching and what they want: a small business that needs marketing consulting.

Go for short searches if your site has been around for years and carries weight in your sector. Go for long searches if you’re starting out, if you work in one local area or sell something specific. That’s the case for almost every small business.

About clicks: being near the top isn’t enough. Position 2.8 hasn’t brought me a single one yet. That depends on the title and description people see on Google, and that’s a separate job.

How to choose your keywords step by step, in an afternoon

I do it in this order. With Google’s free tools, it takes about two and a half hours.

1. Write down how people ask you for what you sell (20 minutes). Go through emails, WhatsApp messages and call notes. Copy the phrases word for word: “I need someone to handle my social media”, “I want to show up on Google”. Ten phrases is enough.
2. Type them into Google and look at autocomplete (20 minutes). Google explains that its predictions reflect real searches that have been made on Google. Note down the ones that fit what you do. At the bottom of the page, related searches give you more ideas.
3. Compare them in Google Trends (15 minutes). Trends doesn’t give you the number of searches. It scales interest from 0 to 100 based on a sample. It helps you choose between two ways of saying the same thing, such as “web design” or “website design”, and see whether a search is rising or falling in your region.
4. Check Search Console if you already have a website (30 minutes). The performance report shows the searches you already appear for, with impressions and average position over the last three months. I look at the ones between positions 4 and 20: Google already associates you with them, and a little push makes a difference.
5. Give each page one main keyword (30 minutes). One search, one page. If two pages chase the same one, they compete with each other. The list of which pages your business website needs works as a guide.
6. Review it every three months (15 minutes). Go back to Search Console and see what has changed. The new searches you appear for are your list for the next quarter.

What about Google’s Keyword Planner?

It’s the Google Ads tool. It gives estimates of monthly searches and of what it would cost to advertise on each keyword. To use it you need a Google Ads account with billing details. And Google warns that it doesn’t find searches with very low volume.

If you’re not going to advertise, you don’t need it to get started. A local business’s long searches are precisely the low-volume ones, and autocomplete and Search Console are better at giving you those.

Mistakes I see when people choose keywords

Repeating the keyword until it sounds odd. Google calls it keyword stuffing, and it goes against its spam policies. Write for the reader and the keyword will come up naturally.

Filling in the meta keywords tag. Google says in its guide that it doesn’t use it. It’s a waste of time.

Choosing your industry’s word instead of your customer’s. A made-up example: writing “urban mobility solutions” when people search for “bike hire”.

Chasing the same search with two pages. It happens a lot with blogs: the article and the service page compete for the same thing. The article gets the question and the page gets the service.

What I see with my clients

Of the 30 websites I reviewed in the 2026 Diagnostic Sessions, up to September, 8 had a single “Services” page for everything the business sold. One page can’t answer five different searches. Google has to guess which one it answers, and so does your customer.

On my own site, Search Console shows me something that’s growing: searches written the way you’d talk to an assistant. One 15-word search, “estoy buscando una consultoría de marketing que ofrezca servicios a pequeñas empresas. ¿qué opciones tengo?” (I’m looking for a marketing consultancy that offers services to small businesses. What are my options?), has appeared 69 times in three months, in position 10.

No paid tool will give you that phrase. It comes from listening to how people ask, which is step 1 on the list.

Do it yourself or do it with me?

With the steps and the template below, you can do it yourself in an afternoon. If you’d rather I did it, keywords are part of the SEO and search rankings work on every website I build, with monthly position tracking. After that, the action plan keeps it going, from €450 a month excl. VAT.

If you have a local business, combine this with your Google Business Profile: I cover it in how to appear on Google Maps.

If you don’t know where to start, in the Diagnostic Session I first look at what can be seen of your business from the outside: your website, your Google Business Profile and what comes up when people search for you. It’s 30 minutes, free, and you leave with three priorities. Book yours.

Sources

• Google Search Central, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide (think about the words a user would use; people who know the topic and people who are new to it search differently; keyword stuffing goes against the spam policies; Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag; updated 10 December 2025): https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
• Google Search Help, How Google autocomplete predictions work (they reflect real searches made on Google; accessed 4 November 2026): https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/7368877
• Google Trends Help, FAQ about Google Trends data (scale from 0 to 100, relative popularity based on a sample of searches; accessed 4 November 2026): https://support.google.com/trends/answer/4365533
• Search Console Help, Performance report (impressions, clicks and average position; last three months by default; accessed 4 November 2026): https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7576553
• Google Ads Help, Use Keyword Planner (account with billing details; monthly search estimates; keywords with very low volume don’t appear; accessed 4 November 2026): https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7337243
• Google Business Profile Help, Guidelines for representing your business on Google (real name, no unnecessary information; accessed 4 November 2026): https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177
• Own data: Search Console for auvenico.es (from 4 August to 1 November 2026); 30 websites reviewed in the 2026 Diagnostic Sessions (data as of September 2026).