Keyword Research with Google Search Console for Free

Keyword research with Google Search Console means mining the Performance report for queries your site already appears for. Filter by page, use regex to pull out questions and local terms, and look for queries ranking on page two or getting impressions without clicks. It's free, it's your own data, and it shows real searches rather than guesses.

This guide is about finding keywords. If you want to watch positions over time, our guide to free rank tracking with Search Console covers that side. If you've never opened Search Console, start with the beginner's guide and come back once your site is verified.

Key takeaways

Search Console shows the real queries your site already appears for, which makes it the best free starting point for keyword research.
Regex filters use RE2 syntax and are case-insensitive by default, so you can pull out questions, local terms and long queries in seconds.
Queries on page two and terms with lots of impressions but few clicks are usually your quickest wins.
Every search volume figure, from Keyword Planner ranges to Bing impressions, is an estimate, so use it to compare keywords rather than to forecast traffic.

Why your own data beats a blank keyword tool

Third-party keyword tools model search behaviour across the whole web. Search Console reports what actually happened for your site: the queries that triggered an impression, how many clicks you got, your click-through rate and your average position.

That proves Google already links those queries to your site, reveals wording customers actually use (a Leeds plumber writes "boiler servicing" while searchers type "boiler check up cost"), and tells you exactly which page to improve.

The catch: it only shows queries you already appear for. For new topics, use the other free tools later in this guide.

How to do keyword research with Google Search Console

Open Performance > Search results, tick all four metrics (clicks, impressions, CTR and average position), and set the date range to the last three or six months. A longer range smooths out weekly noise and catches seasonal queries.

If most of your customers are in one country, add a Country filter for it, such as United States or United Kingdom. Your report then reflects searches on Google from that country, which is what matters for local and national businesses. Keep search type on Web unless you're specifically researching image or video searches.

Step 1: Sort the Queries tab by impressions

Click the Queries tab and sort by impressions, not clicks. Impressions show demand you're being considered for, including queries you rank poorly for. Note any themes you hadn't expected.

Step 2: Filter by page to see each page's keyword set

Click + Add filter > Page and enter a URL, or part of one. Google's advanced filtering help explains that "URLs containing" matching ignores case, and that you can filter by several pages at once.

Filtering by page shows what Google thinks each page is about. Look for subtopics that appear again and again but that the page barely mentions. Those are often your best content additions. If your "boiler servicing" page gets impressions for "how often should a boiler be serviced" but never answers it, add a short section that does.

Step 3: Use regex filters to slice the queries

The query filter has a Custom (regex) option, and this is where Search Console becomes a proper keyword research tool. Google confirms that the filter uses RE2 syntax. It matches anywhere in the query unless you anchor it with ^ or $, it's case-insensitive by default, and there's a "Doesn't match regex" option for exclusions.

Patterns that work well for finding keywords:

# Question queries: content and FAQ ideas
^(how|what|why|when|where|which|who|can|does|do|is|are|should)\b

# Cost and buying intent
(cost|price|prices|cheap|cheapest|quote|how much)

# Comparison queries
(\bvs\b|versus|best|alternative|compared|review)

# Local modifiers for a Leeds business
(leeds|headingley|horsforth|near me)

# Long queries of six words or more
^(\S+\s+){5,}\S+$

To strip out branded searches and see only the non-branded demand, use Doesn't match regex with your brand variants, for example (bloggs|joe bloggs|bloggsplumbing).

One thing to know: RE2 doesn't support everything. The RE2 syntax reference lists lookaheads such as (?=...) as not supported, so patterns copied from other tools sometimes fail.

Step 4: Find page-two queries

Queries with an average position of roughly 11 to 20 sit on the second page of results. You're relevant, but not quite relevant enough. These are often your quickest wins, because the page exists and Google already rates it.

In the report table, click the filter icon and show rows where Position is greater than 10, then sort by impressions. Work down the list and ask of each query: does the ranking page answer this directly, in a heading and in the opening lines of a section? Often the honest answer is "only in passing".

Make It Flow's free Search Console dashboard does this automatically. Its quick wins list shows keywords in positions 8 to 20, so you can see the near misses without building filters each time. It's free on every plan. For a longer list that adds low-CTR, rising and question keywords, see Keyword Opportunities.

Step 5: Find high-impression, low-CTR queries

A query with lots of impressions but very few clicks for its position means people see you and choose someone else. That's a snippet problem as much as a ranking problem.

Compare CTR against position. If a query at position 3 gets far fewer clicks than your other position-3 queries, look at the result as a searcher would. Is the title vague, or does the description answer a different question?

Rewrite the title and meta description to match the query's intent, then check how it looks with our free SERP snippet preview.

The limits of Search Console keyword data

Search Console is the best free source you have, but it doesn't show everything. Know these limits before you treat the numbers as complete.

Limit	What it means for keyword research
Anonymised queries	Queries "that aren't issued by more than a few dozen users over a two-to-three month period" are left out of the table to protect privacy, according to Google's deep dive on performance data. Rare long-tail searches are under-reported.
Totals change when you filter	The same source notes that anonymised queries are omitted whenever a filter is applied, so filtered totals won't add up to the site total.
1,000-row export	Google says the most you can export through the interface is 1,000 rows. The API can return up to 25,000 rows per request and up to 50,000 rows per day per site per search type.
16 months of history	Search Console keeps data for the last 16 months, so export anything you want to compare year on year.
Only queries you appear for	No impression, no data. Topics you've never covered won't appear at all.

Free tools for keywords you don't rank for yet

To find topics outside your current footprint, use these free sources alongside Search Console.

Bing Webmaster Tools keyword research

Bing Webmaster Tools is free for site owners, and it includes a Keyword Research tool. Reviews describe it as free and say it shows impressions as its volume measure, related keyword suggestions, the top-ranking URLs for a query, and a CSV export (Practical Ecommerce, Kinsta). You can narrow results by country and language.

Two cautions. The figures reflect Bing searches, which are a much smaller pool than Google's, and Practical Ecommerce notes that Bing doesn't explain exactly what counts as an impression. Use it for ideas and for comparing keywords against each other, not for Google volumes. If you haven't set it up yet, our Bing Webmaster Tools setup guide takes about ten minutes if you already use Search Console.

Google Keyword Planner

Google describes Keyword Planner as "a free keyword search tool" for advertisers. To use it, Google says you need to complete your Google Ads account setup and create a campaign, and switch from Smart Mode to Expert Mode if necessary. Google's help also says you must enter billing information to reach basic features. Be careful during setup so you don't launch ads you didn't mean to run.

What you get:

Average monthly searches. Google defines this as the average number of searches for a keyword and its close variants, averaged over 12 months by default for your chosen location.
Ranges for many accounts. Since 2016, Google has said that "advertisers with lower monthly spend may see a limited data view", which shows bands such as 100–1K or 1K–10K instead of exact numbers (Search Engine Journal). Google hasn't published the exact threshold.
Keyword ideas from a seed term or a competitor's URL, with location settings you can set to the United Kingdom or a specific region.

Google Trends

Google Trends shows how interest in a term changes over time and by region. Google's Trends FAQ explains that each data point is divided by total searches for that place and time, then scaled from 0 to 100. So Trends shows relative popularity, not search counts.

Use it to compare two phrasings (for example "solicitor" versus "lawyer" in the UK), to spot seasonality before you plan content, and to see which regions show the most interest.

Google autocomplete and People Also Ask

Type the start of a query into Google and note the predictions. Google says autocomplete predictions "reflect real searches that have been done on Google" and take into account where the search comes from and trending interest. Searching from the UK gives you UK-flavoured predictions, and searching from the US gives you US ones. Try adding letters after your main term ("boiler service a…", "boiler service b…") to surface more.

The "People also ask" box on many results pages lists related questions. Expanding one usually reveals more. Check Search Console to see whether you already get impressions for any of them.

Search volume figures are always estimates

Whichever tool you use, the search volume number is an estimate. Keyword Planner rounds and averages, and often gives a range. Bing counts impressions on a different search engine. Trends doesn't give volumes at all. Paid tools such as Ahrefs and Semrush build their own models from different data sources, so they often disagree with each other.

Search Console impressions are the closest thing to hard data, but they only count searches where your site appeared, and they leave out anonymised queries.

So use volume to rank keywords against each other, not to predict traffic. A keyword with clear intent that matches a page you have, or could build, is worth more than a big number. In niche B2B and local markets, a keyword showing "10–100" can still bring the enquiries that matter.

Turning keyword findings into actions

A list of keywords is only useful once each one has a job. If your export runs to hundreds of rows, sort it into topics first with our keyword grouping tool. For every keyword worth pursuing, choose one of three actions.

What you found	Action
Query ranks on page two, and the ranking page is the right match	Update the page. Add a section or heading that answers the query directly, improve the title, and add internal links from related pages.
Query has high impressions and low CTR	Rewrite the snippet. Change the title and meta description to match the intent, then check it in a snippet preview.
Query needs a different intent from any existing page (e.g. "how much does X cost" against a service page)	Create a new page that answers that intent fully.
Two of your pages swap places for the same query	Consolidate or differentiate before adding anything new.

Update or create? A quick test

Search the query on Google, from the country you're targeting, and look at what ranks. If the top results are pages like yours, the same type and the same depth, update your existing page. If they're a different type entirely, say guides when you have a service page, a new page is usually the better bet. Matching search intent matters more than squeezing one more keyword into a page that serves a different purpose.

Avoid creating competing pages

The most common mistake after keyword research is writing a new post for every variation: "boiler service cost", "boiler servicing price", "how much is a boiler service". Those are one topic. Separate pages for each can end up competing with each other, which is keyword cannibalisation. Before you create a page, filter Search Console by the query and check whether an existing page already gets impressions for it. If one does, improve that page instead.

Check the on-page basics

After an update, check that the change is visible where it counts:

Title and description. Run the page through our free meta tag checker to confirm the new title and description are in place and not duplicated.
Headings. Use the heading checker to see whether the new subtopic has its own H2 or H3. A heading that names the query is a clear signal of what the section covers.
Patience. Give Google a few weeks to recrawl and re-evaluate the page before judging the result, then compare the same date ranges in Search Console.

FAQ

Can you do keyword research with Google Search Console alone?

Yes, for keywords your site already appears for. The Performance report shows real queries, impressions, clicks and positions, which is enough to find page-two opportunities, low-CTR snippets and missing subtopics. It can't show topics you've never covered, so add Keyword Planner, Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Trends and autocomplete for new ideas.

Is there a completely free keyword research tool?

Several. Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools are free for verified site owners. Google Trends and autocomplete need no account. Google describes Keyword Planner as free, but it sits inside Google Ads, needs account setup including billing details, and many accounts see search volumes as ranges rather than exact numbers.

How do I find question keywords in Search Console?

Why don't Search Console totals match when I filter queries?

Google leaves anonymised queries out of the table to protect privacy. These are queries not issued by more than a few dozen users over two to three months. They're counted in the unfiltered chart totals but dropped whenever you apply a filter, so filtered numbers will always add up to less than the site total.

How accurate are keyword search volumes?

Treat every figure as an estimate. Keyword Planner averages over 12 months and often shows broad ranges. Bing reports impressions on its own search engine, and Google Trends shows relative interest on a 0–100 scale rather than counts. Use volumes to compare keywords against each other, not to forecast exact traffic.

Should I create a new page for every keyword I find?

No. Close variations of the same query usually belong on one page. Creating separate pages for each can lead to keyword cannibalisation, where your pages compete with each other. Create a new page only when the query needs a different intent or format from anything you already have.

Keyword Research with Google Search Console: A Free Method

Why your own data beats a blank keyword tool

How to do keyword research with Google Search Console

Step 1: Sort the Queries tab by impressions

Step 2: Filter by page to see each page's keyword set