Finding keywords with free tools
Autocomplete, People Also Ask, and Google Trends: three free tools for mapping a topic, capturing real search language, and avoiding themes in decline.
Without a budget for a paid SEO tool, three free resources are enough to build a solid list of topics: Google Autocomplete, the “People Also Ask” box, and Google Trends. Combined, they reveal both the exact language people use and how their interest shifts over time.
Google Autocomplete: capturing the exact language people use
Type the start of a query into the Google search bar without hitting enter, and look at the suggestions offered. They're generated from the most frequent real searches associated with that beginning of a phrase — a direct source of authentic phrasing, often closer to everyday language than what a writer would come up with on their own.
A concrete example: for a site selling invoicing software, typing “invoicing software” into Google surfaces suggestions like “free invoicing software”, “invoicing software for freelancers”, “invoicing software legal requirements”. Each of these variants corresponds to a different user profile (freelancer, small business, compliance concern) and can justify a dedicated piece of content rather than a single generic page.
To go further, add a letter after your base query (“how to find keywords a”, then “b”, “c”...): each letter triggers a new batch of suggestions, letting you cover the full alphabet of possible variants. This technique, sometimes called the “alphabet soup” method, is tedious to do by hand but stays free and remarkably thorough.
People Also Ask: digging into sub-questions
On the Google results page, the People Also Ask box lists questions related to your query. Clicking one reveals new ones, generated dynamically: a simple way to map out every sub-question a reader might have around a given topic.
This box is especially valuable for GEO: generative engines often structure their answers as question-and-answer pairs, and the questions appearing there are a good indicator of which ones a generative engine will consider relevant to round out an answer.
Google Trends: comparing and dating topics
Google Trends doesn't give an absolute search volume, but a relative interest curve over time, comparable across several queries. Two practical uses: detecting a topic's seasonality (useful for planning publication) and avoiding spending writing time on a theme whose interest is in structural, not temporary, decline.
Trends also lets you compare several phrasings of the same topic (“GEO” vs “generative engine optimization” vs “AI search optimization”) to see which dominates in your target region — useful information for choosing a piece's main title. Another use: comparing your main topic to a related one to prioritize your editorial effort. If “generative AI” is climbing noticeably faster than “chatbot” in Trends over the past twelve months, that's a signal to lean your titles and subheadings toward the growing term, without necessarily dropping the older one if your current traffic still depends on it. Trends also breaks results down by region within a country, which can matter for a business whose customer base is geographically concentrated rather than spread evenly across the market.
Bonus: YouTube suggestions, forums, and social platforms
The YouTube search bar works on the same autocomplete principle as Google, but reflects somewhat different intents, often more tutorial- or demonstration-oriented. If your topic lends itself to video, it's worth checking separately.
Forums (Reddit, niche communities) and platforms where questions are asked in natural language, with context and nuance, are another valuable source — particularly because generative engines increasingly cite this type of content as a source, provided it offers a clear, verifiable answer.
Keeping the collection in a single spreadsheet
To avoid losing track across the three sources, centralize everything in one spreadsheet: a column for the exact phrasing, one for the source (Autocomplete, People Also Ask, Trends), one for the likely intent, one for status (to do, in progress, published). This spreadsheet becomes the backbone of your editorial calendar and keeps you from redoing the same research twice a few weeks apart.
Combining the three sources without duplicating work
The efficient method: start from a broad query identified in Search Console or a topic strategic to your business, run it through Autocomplete to collect phrasings, through the questions box to collect sub-questions, then through Trends to confirm interest isn't declining. Group everything by intent (see the lesson on search intent) rather than treating each suggestion as a separate piece of content. A realistic pace for a small team: dedicating thirty minutes a week to this collection is enough, over several months, to build up a reserve of dozens of topics ready to be prioritized in the editorial calendar.
The limits to keep in mind
These free tools give no reliable search volume data or competition level: they tell you what to search for, not exactly how many people search for it or whether the topic is already saturated. One simple way to partly offset this gap: cross-check the rough volume suggested by Google Ads Keyword Planner (accessible for free with an ad account, even without an active budget) against the trends observed in Trends. The figure remains a wide range, but it gives enough of a sense of scale to prioritize between several candidate topics. These tools should be seen as a starting point for mapping a topic, to be cross-checked with your own performance data and, budget permitting, a paid volume tool.
This mapping of topics connected by meaning rather than by the mere presence of a keyword ties directly back to the logic developed in the lesson on thinking in entities.