You built a decent website, you describe your services properly, and almost nobody finds it on Google. Very often the reason is simple: your site uses your words, and your customers search with theirs. You call it "residential exterior cleaning"; they type "house washing near me." You say "managed IT support"; they type "computer help for small office."
Keyword research is how you close that gap. It means finding the phrases your customers actually type into Google when they need you, then deciding which page on your site should answer each one. It doesn't need an agency or expensive software. This guide covers how to find the words, how to target smaller phrases you can actually win, a free 20-minute method, and a worked example that turns a messy list into a page plan.
The quick answer
If you only have a few minutes:
- Write down your main services, your town, and the questions customers ask you on the phone.
- Type each service into Google and note what autocomplete suggests and what shows up under "People also ask."
- Open Google Search Console and look at the searches that already show your site.
- Group phrases that mean the same thing, and give each group one page on your site.
- Start with specific phrases (service plus town, or a real customer question), not the biggest, broadest term.
The rest of this post explains each step and shows what the result looks like.
What a keyword actually is
A keyword is just the phrase someone types into a search engine. Some are short and broad, like "IT support." Others are longer and more specific, like "IT support for a small dental office in Augusta."
Broad phrases get more searches, but they're crowded with national companies, directories and big sites, and you can't tell what the searcher wants. Specific phrases get fewer searches, but the person behind them has told you exactly what they need, and they're often close to picking up the phone. For a small business, the specific phrases are usually where the real opportunity is.
How to tell your words from your customers' words
Before you open any tool, think like the customer:
- What would someone type if they needed my help today?
- What would they type if they didn't know the name of my service?
- What do people ask me before they hire me?
A roofer may want to rank for "roofing contractor," but customers search "roof leak repair," "storm damage roof help" and "how much does a new roof cost." Businesses also tend to describe themselves in polished language. "Technology solutions" sounds professional; customers type "computer help for my business." Your site can still sound professional, but it has to use the words people search for.
Target something smaller: why specific phrases win
Most owners assume the best move is to chase the biggest keyword in their industry. Bigger keyword, more traffic, more customers. In practice, those broad terms are the most crowded, the hardest to rank for, and the least clear about what the searcher wants.
That's why the more specific phrases, often called long-tail keywords, are such a good fit for small businesses:
- They're easier to compete for. Fewer sites are trying to rank for "water heater repair Martinez GA" than for "water heater."
- They bring better-fit visitors. Someone searching "marketing" could want anything. Someone searching "help fixing bad SEO from previous agency" is telling you their problem out loud.
- They match how people really search. Real searches look like "why is my website not showing up on Google" or "how to get more calls from Google Maps." Those are questions that deserve a specific answer, which is exactly the kind of helpful, people-first content Google says it wants to rank.
Two cautions. First, "longer" doesn't automatically mean "better." A specific phrase still has to be relevant to what you sell and the people you serve; a long phrase about something you don't do is a waste of time. Second, specific phrases have small search numbers, often too small for tools to show at all. That's normal. Ten visitors who need exactly what you do are worth more than a hundred who were browsing.
A free 20-minute method
You don't need paid software for this. Open a blank document or spreadsheet, set a timer, and spend about five minutes on each step.
1. Google autocomplete (5 minutes)
Go to Google and slowly type one of your services, without pressing Enter. The suggestions that drop down come from real searches: Google says autocomplete predictions reflect real searches that have been done on Google, adjusted for things like language, location and trending topics. Write down the ones that fit.
Then try variations:
- your service plus your town ("gutter cleaning augusta")
- your service plus "cost," "near me," "best" or "for" ("IT support for")
- the problem instead of the service ("why is my ac", "roof leaking when")
Suggestions are personalized a little when you're signed in, so a private or incognito window gives a cleaner picture.
2. People also ask and related searches (5 minutes)
Now search one of your main phrases and scroll. The "People also ask" box shows questions searchers ask around that topic, and clicking one usually loads more. At the bottom of the results page, the related searches show other wording people use. Copy the questions that come up again and again. They're ready-made headings for FAQs and ideas for blog posts.
3. Search Console queries (5 minutes)
If your site is set up in Google Search Console, this is the most valuable step, because it shows real searches that already put your site in front of people.
Go to Performance > Search results, then click the Queries tab under the chart. The report defaults to the last three months and shows clicks, impressions (how often you appeared) and average position for each search. Sort by Impressions and look for:
- longer, specific searches you appear for but rarely get clicked on
- phrases where your average position is somewhere around the second page, which are often the closest wins
- wording you didn't expect, which tells you how customers really describe your work
Click a query, then the Pages tab, to see which page Google is showing for it. If it's the wrong page, that's a clue for the page plan below.
No Search Console yet? Setting it up takes a few minutes and is covered in the "Week 0" section of SEO basics for small businesses.
4. Google Keyword Planner's free access (5 minutes)
Keyword Planner is part of Google Ads and doesn't charge to use. To open it you need a Google Ads account, and Google's help says you must finish account setup, including entering billing information. You don't have to run ads to use it. In your account, open the Tools menu and choose Keyword Planner, then Discover new keywords, and enter a few of your phrases and your location.
Two things to know. Accounts that spend little or nothing on ads usually see search volumes as broad ranges (for example "100 to 1K") rather than exact numbers, so use it to compare phrases, not to predict traffic. And Google notes that keywords with very low search volume aren't shown at all, so a specific phrase missing from Keyword Planner doesn't mean nobody searches it. Autocomplete and Search Console will often show phrases Keyword Planner can't.
When the timer runs out, you'll have a list of 30 to 60 phrases. Now it needs sorting.
Deciding which phrases are worth it
Check the reason behind the search
Every search has a goal behind it:
- "what is a heat pump" is someone learning.
- "heat pump vs furnace cost" is someone comparing options.
- "heat pump installation augusta" is someone close to hiring.
Each needs a different kind of page. A sales page won't rank for a "what is" question, and a general explainer won't rank for a "hire someone today" search. If you've picked good keywords and your page still isn't showing up, a mismatch here is the usual reason; this post on why the right keywords still aren't ranking covers it in depth.
Relevance before volume
A big number is exciting, but a high-volume phrase can bring visitors who will never buy from you, or be so competitive you'll never rank. Don't just ask whether people search for it. Ask whether the right people search for it, in the area you serve.
Don't chase everything
Prioritize your core services, your best-fit customers, your main service area, and phrases that signal someone ready to act. You don't need to rank for every search, only the right ones.
Worked example: from a messy list to a page plan
Say you run a small heating and air company in Augusta, Georgia. (This is an illustration, not a real client.) After the 20-minute method, your list looks something like this:
- ac repair augusta ga
- air conditioner not cooling
- ac blowing warm air
- emergency ac repair near me
- hvac company augusta
- heat pump installation augusta
- heat pump vs furnace
- how much does a new hvac system cost
- new ac unit cost
- ac maintenance plan
- how often should you service your ac
- furnace repair evans ga
- hvac repair martinez ga
Step 1: Group phrases that mean the same thing
Phrases belong in the same group when someone searching either one would be happy with the same page:
- AC repair: ac repair augusta ga, emergency ac repair near me, hvac company augusta
- AC problems: air conditioner not cooling, ac blowing warm air
- Replacement and cost: how much does a new hvac system cost, new ac unit cost
- Heat pumps: heat pump installation augusta, heat pump vs furnace
- Maintenance: ac maintenance plan, how often should you service your ac
- Nearby towns: furnace repair evans ga, hvac repair martinez ga
Step 2: Give every group one home
Then map each group to the kind of page that matches the reason behind it:
- AC repair → the AC repair service page. Title along the lines of "AC Repair in Augusta, GA | Company Name."
- AC problems → a blog post: "AC blowing warm air? 6 things to check before you call," linking to the AC repair page.
- Replacement and cost → a replacement service page with an honest section on what affects the price.
- Heat pumps → a heat pump installation page for the hiring search, plus a short "heat pump vs furnace" post that links to it, because one is a buying search and the other is a learning search.
- Maintenance → the maintenance plan page, with "how often should you service your AC?" answered in its FAQs.
- Nearby towns → a service area section on your service pages, or separate town pages only if you can write something genuinely different for each town. Thin copies with the town name swapped are worse than nothing.
Step 3: Check for collisions
Look for two pages chasing the same group. If your homepage and your AC repair page both target "AC repair Augusta," they compete with each other and Google has to guess which one matters (SEOs call this keyword cannibalization). One group, one page. Then link the pages together: every blog post in the plan points to its service page, which is where internal linking does its quiet work.
The result is a short page plan you can work through one page at a time, instead of a pile of keywords sprinkled across the site.
Other free tools worth knowing
- Google Trends shows whether interest in a search is rising, falling or seasonal, and where it's strongest. Useful for seasonal businesses (HVAC, landscaping, tax prep) so you update pages before the busy season, not during it.
- Ahrefs' free keyword generator gives extra variations and a rough difficulty score, which helps you spot phrases that are realistic for a small site.
Paid tools help with deeper competitor research and large lists, but most small businesses get a long way with the free ones. A tool doesn't replace judgment about what your customers want.
Using the words once you have them
Put each group's main phrase where it counts on its page: the page title, the main heading, the first paragraph, and naturally in the body and FAQs. If a sentence sounds odd out loud, rewrite it; there's no magic number of repetitions. The on-page SEO guide covers the rest of the page, and title tags are usually the quickest win.
Then come back to Search Console once a month. New queries will show up as Google starts testing your pages, and those are the next phrases to add to your plan.
When to get help
Keyword research is very doable on your own. It's worth bringing someone in when:
- you serve several towns or many services and the page plan is getting tangled
- Search Console shows your pages competing with each other for the same searches
- you've done the research and the pages, and nothing has moved after a few months
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on your page plan, that's part of our small business SEO services.
