How To Find Low-Competition Keywords For Free

If ‘keyword research’ sounds technical or expensive, don’t panic! You can uncover winnable keywords and plan smart content without paying for fancy tools. This guide walks you through a simple, free process to spot opportunities, judge how competitive a keyword really is, and turn that research into traffic and leads.

What Is Keyword Research? 

Keyword research is about matching what you offer to how people search. It involves:

• Understanding your audience’s questions, problems, and language.
• Estimating demand (are people searching for it?) and difficulty (can you realistically rank?).
• Studying the current search results to understand intent and competition.
• Choosing a primary keyword per page and supporting variations.
• Creating the best, most helpful page for that search.

What Is A ‘Good’ Keyword?

• Search demand: enough people look for the topic to make it worthwhile.
• Rankability: you have a realistic shot at showing up near the top.

You can’t sprinkle random keywords around the website and expect results. One page of the website should target one primary topic and satisfy the searcher more effectively than what’s already ranking.

What Does ‘Ranking’ Mean (And Why Top Results Matter)?

Ranking is your position in Google’s results for a query. Most clicks go to the top few results, and clicks drop sharply as you go further down the page.

Each page of the website should focus on one primary keyword (avoid cannibalisation). Google ranks individual pages, not entire websites. Support the focus keyword, with closely related phrases. Signal relevance by:

• Using the primary keyword (or a close variant) in the title tag, H1, URL slug, and early in the intro.
• Covering subtopics with descriptive H2/H3s.
• Including relevant synonyms, related entities, and FAQs.
• Internally linking from related pages using natural, descriptive anchor text.

Ensure you don’t overuse the same primary keyword across multiple pages, doing so will make Google guess which page to rank.

What Is Search Intent?

Most queries fall into one of four buckets: 

1. Informational: Queries usually start with words like ‘how’, ‘what’ or ‘why’, and often seek best practices or definitions. In the results, you’ll typically see guides, tutorials, videos and featured snippets. To win these searches, create comprehensive, skimmable guides that answer the question quickly and thoroughly.
2. Commercial: Queries focus on comparisons, best-of lists, alternatives, or reviews. The results often include list posts, reviews or videos. You should produce honest comparisons with clear criteria, pros and cons, buyer tips and helpful links to relevant products.
3. Transactional: Queries signal intent to buy with terms like ‘buy’, ‘price’, ‘coupon’, or ‘near me’. Search results typically show product pages, shopping ads, local packs, and visible prices right in the results. To compete, publish optimised product or service pages with appropriate schema, strong calls to action, and clear trust signals such as reviews and guarantees.
4. Navigational: Queries use brand, site, or app names to find a specific destination. The results usually show the brand’s website with sitelinks and app pages.

Make sure your site’s structure is clear, indexable, and well organised so searchers can reach the right page immediately.

How To Find Low-Competition Keywords 

1. Start with keyword ideas from your audience

• Review the exact language customers use in emails, chats, sales calls and reviews.
• Review your internal site search terms (if you have site search enabled).
• In Google Search Console, open the Performance report and check the queries tab – this is a goldmine of phrases you already appear for!
• Explore communities such as Reddit, Quora, forums, and Facebook groups to hear how people describe their problems.
• Look at marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy and eBay to note real-world use cases and phrasing buyers use.

2. Expand With Free Google Data

• Expand those keyword ideas with free Google data. Start typing your terms in Google and capture autocomplete suggestions. Scroll to the bottom of the results to review and capture related searches.
• Check YouTube for how-to and comparison search terms.
• Use discussion forums to find threads/questions users are searching.
• Review Google Trends to compare terms, spot rising trends and identify seasonality.
• Use Keyword Planner inside Google Ads to get idea ranges without spending on ads.

3. Finally, Check Search Intent And The SERP Layout

• Check search intent and the SERP layout by searching your ‘keyword idea’ and reviewing the first page results. Note which formats dominate, whether they are guides, list posts, product pages or videos. The results will help to identify the intent of the type of content that will rank.
• Identify which SERP features, for example ‘Featured Snippet’, ‘Map Pack’ or ‘People Ask’, to guide how you structure and optimise your content.

How Do I Know If The Keyword Is Too Competitive For Me?

Review who owns the top 10 organic positions. If the main companies are Amazon, Wikipedia, established well-known brands, and you are a new website, that keyword is probably too hard right now.

If there are smaller sites or niche blogs ranking, then that is probably a green light, and an opportunity for you to compete.

If there are forums, for example, Reddit, Quora, that often signals a gap you can fill with a polished answer. If you search an informational query and a Reddit or a niche forum ranks, it often means no one has published a definitive answer. Consider writing a well-structured article that answers the question directly. Then consider participating in that thread, add a helpful summary and, if appropriate, link to your in-depth resource. Make sure to lead with value as self-promotion will get removed.

Another opportunity is if the content is thin, outdated or is not aligned to intent.

Typically, the fewer the words in a query, the more competitive the keyword is, so focus on long-tail keywords.

A long-tail topic with only 10-100 monthly searches can drive leads if it matches your offer and you rank in the top 3.

What On-Page Optimisation Can I Complete For Free?

• Title tag: include the focus keyword and a clear benefit; keep it concise and compelling.
• URL: short, descriptive, includes the main concept.
• H1: matches the search intent and clarifies the topic.
• Intro: confirm the reader’s problem and state the solution quickly.
• Subheads: map to sub-topics and questions people ask.
• Featured snippet: add a concise 40-60 word definition.
• Media: helpful images/video, descriptive alt text.
• Schema: Product, FAQ, HowTo, or Local Business where appropriate.
• Internal links: point to and from related pages with descriptive anchor text.
• Clear CTA: make the next step obvious (demo, quote, newsletter, product)

FAQs

1. What Is A Featured Snippet?

A featured snippet is a special search result box that appears at the top of Google’s search results, often called ‘Position Zero’. It displays a direct answer extracted from a web page, presented in various formats including paragraphs, lists, tables or videos.

Google’s automated systems select featured snippets based on how well they answer a specific search query.

2. What is Low-Competition Keyword?

A search term that still gets searched but isn’t dominated by established/high authority sites, because fewer strong pages target it, you have a better shot at ranking.

3. What Is Keyword Difficulty?

An estimate of how hard it is to rank for a term. High difficulty means many strong pages compete; low difficulty means fewer or weaker competitors.

4. What Is Search Volume?

How often people search a term (usually monthly). Do not chase volume alone. Relevance, intent fit, and your ability to rank matter far more than high volumes you can’t win.

Author

Kirsty Wright - www.cothoughtdigital.com

Co Thought Digital empowers brands with actionable AI and SEO strategies to win visibility in the age of intelligent search.

Want to read more? Take a look at our  ← Previous Post  or browse  All Our Posts