How do I do keyword research for free?

You can get 80% of the way with free tools: Google Search Console (queries you already rank for), Google Trends (seasonality), People Also Ask boxes in Google results, and Google Keyword Planner (free with any Google Ads account). Ubersuggest and Keyword Surfer add rough volume estimates for free. You do not need a paid tool stack until you are running at serious scale.

What is search intent and why does it matter?

Search intent is what a user actually wants when they type a query. Someone typing 'best website builder' wants comparisons. Someone typing 'wordpress vs shopify' wants a decision framework. Someone typing 'shopify pricing' wants numbers. Match the format of your page to the format Google is already rewarding on page one — informational, commercial, transactional, or local — or you will not rank regardless of technical SEO.

How many keywords should a small business target?

Realistically, you want one clear primary keyword per page, plus 5 to 15 supporting variations. Across your whole site, most Irish SMEs will target 20 to 50 keywords in their first year. Not thousands. Depth beats breadth.

Should I target high-volume or low-competition keywords?

Low-competition, high-intent keywords will always beat high-volume, low-intent ones for a small business. A term with 100 searches a month where you can rank and the searcher wants exactly what you sell is worth more than a term with 10,000 searches where you will never make page one and half the traffic bounces.

How long does it take for a new page to rank?

Low-competition long-tail keywords can move in 2 to 6 weeks. Competitive commercial keywords take 4 to 12 months. Anything targeting a head term (single word or two words) can take a year or more, and often requires domain authority you may not have yet.

What is keyword cannibalisation and how do I avoid it?

Keyword cannibalisation is when two or more pages on your own site compete for the same keyword. Google gets confused and demotes both. Fix it by picking one primary keyword per page, merging duplicate pages via 301 redirects, and using clear internal linking to signal which page is the definitive answer.

Do I need paid SEO tools like Ahrefs or Semrush?

Not immediately. For an Irish small business doing under 20 hours of SEO a week, free tools plus Google Search Console will cover most of what you need. Paid tools become worthwhile once you are doing competitive intelligence at scale, tracking hundreds of keywords, or running SEO as a full-time function.

SEO Keyword Research for Irish Small Business: A Practical Workflow

If you have ever opened Ahrefs or Semrush, seen 40,000 keyword ideas, and closed the tab in a panic, you are not alone. Keyword research has a reputation for being a black art. It is not. It is a repeatable workflow that anyone can run.

This guide gives you the exact process I use with Irish small business clients. It uses mostly free tools, avoids the traps that waste months of effort, and turns keyword research from guesswork into a system you can run every month.

Why keyword research still matters in 2026

Google is smarter than it was ten years ago. It understands synonyms, related concepts, and search intent without needing exact-match phrases. But keywords are still the foundation of how Google matches queries to pages. Research gives you three practical advantages:

Focus. You prioritise topics that move revenue, not vanity phrases.
Fit. You match the content format Google is already rewarding.
Forecast. You estimate potential traffic and enquiries before you invest hours creating content.

Ahrefs research puts organic search at 53% of trackable website traffic, more than paid, social, and email combined. And in Ireland specifically, Google holds over 96% of the search engine market. If you are going to invest in one channel this year, the numbers say it should be organic search.

The four types of search intent

Before any tool, understand the four intents. Every keyword falls into one of these buckets, and your page has to match.

Intent	What the user wants	Signal words	Content format that ranks
Informational	To learn something	”how to”, “what is”, “why”, “guide”	Long-form blog post or guide
Commercial	To compare options	”best”, “top”, “review”, “vs”, “alternatives”	Listicle, comparison, or category page
Transactional	To buy or book now	”buy”, “price”, “quote”, “book”, “near me”	Product, service, or landing page
Navigational	To find a specific site	Brand names, “login”, “contact”	Homepage or dedicated brand page

If you publish a blog post targeting a transactional query, you will not rank. If you publish a service page targeting an informational query, you will not rank. Match the intent first, tune the copy second.

The 14-step workflow

Here is the full process. It works whether you have zero tools or a full agency stack.

Phase 1: Set the goal

Step 1. Write one sentence. “Generate 15 qualified enquiries per month for our web design service in Dublin.” That sentence tells you what geography, service, and intent you are optimising for. Skip this step and you end up chasing keywords that never convert.

Step 2. Define your audience. Job title, industry, location (Cork, Dublin, Galway, or nationwide Ireland). Write it down. This filters every keyword decision from here on.

Phase 2: Build seeds

Step 3. List 10 to 20 seed topics. Your services, your products, your industry categories, common customer problems. If you are a Cork accountant, seeds might be “small business accountant”, “tax return help”, “bookkeeping services”, “sole trader accounts”. No tools yet, just your knowledge of the business.

Phase 3: Mine real Google data

Step 4. Google Autocomplete. Type each seed into Google and note every suggestion. These are real searches people made this week.

Step 5. People Also Ask (PAA). Every question in the PAA box is a keyword. Screenshot them all.

Step 6. Related Searches. Scroll to the bottom of the SERP. Google literally hands you related keywords for free.

Step 7. Google Trends. Check seasonality. “Wedding photographer Ireland” is highly seasonal (peaks January and February for summer weddings). Do not launch content in the trough.

Now expand your list. You should have 100+ keyword ideas.

Phase 4: Study the SERP

Step 8. Analyse page one. For your five most valuable seed terms, look at what actually ranks. Blog posts? Service pages? Videos? Local Map Pack? Tools? This tells you what Google thinks the intent is. You need to publish that format.

Note also: word count, headings used, presence of FAQs, presence of comparison tables, presence of images. Your page needs to match or exceed the norms of page one.

Phase 5: Listen to customers

Step 9. Mine customer language. Reviews, sales call notes, support emails, DMs. Real customer phrases make outstanding long-tail keywords because they are how humans actually talk. If your customers say “sort my books out”, that is a keyword. If your marketing says “streamlined bookkeeping solutions”, that is not.

Phase 6: Add intent modifiers

Step 10. Expand with modifiers. Take each seed and add:

Commercial: best, top, review, comparison, alternatives, vs
Transactional: price, cost, quote, near me, buy, book, hire
Informational: how to, what is, why, guide, checklist, template
Local: [city], [county], [area], near me, Ireland

Long-tails have lower competition and higher conversion. A search for “accountant Cork small business” is worth more than “accountant” even though “accountant” has 100x the volume.

Phase 7: Score the opportunity

Step 11. Simple 1-to-5 scoring. For each shortlisted keyword, rate:

Relevance to your service (5 = perfect fit, 1 = tangential)
Value — likely lead worth (use Google Ads CPC as a proxy)
Difficulty — check the domain ratings on page one (paid tools show this, but a rough eyeball works)
Effort — new page vs. refresh existing page

Prioritise total score, not raw volume.

Phase 8: Cluster

Step 12. Group keywords into clusters. Related keywords belong on one page.

For example, all of these belong on one page (probably called “SEO for Small Business Ireland”):

SEO for small business
Small business SEO Ireland
Cheap SEO for startups
SEO packages small business
Is SEO worth it for small business

Cluster properly and you avoid keyword cannibalisation (where two of your own pages compete for the same term and both suffer).

Phase 9: Map to pages

Step 13. Assign each cluster to one URL. Existing page? Plan a refresh with new sections and FAQs. No existing page? Schedule a new page in your content calendar.

Every cluster should have exactly one target URL. Every URL should target exactly one primary keyword plus supporting variations.

Phase 10: Publish, link, measure

Step 14. Publish, then work. Push the page live. Internal-link from at least three existing pages. Submit the URL in Search Console. Track weekly for 90 days:

Impressions in Search Console
Average position for the primary keyword
Click-through rate
Conversions in GA4

Adjust based on data, not opinion.

Free vs paid tools — what actually matters

Tool	Cost	What it does best	Worth it for a small Irish business?
Google Search Console	Free	Queries you already rank for, average positions, impressions	Non-negotiable. Set this up day one.
Google Trends	Free	Seasonality and rising/falling interest	Yes, for planning content calendars
Google Keyword Planner	Free (with Ads account)	Rough monthly volume, competition tiers	Yes, and it uses real Google data
People Also Ask + Autocomplete	Free	Real questions searchers ask	Yes, the best free source of ideas
Ubersuggest	Freemium	Volume estimates, keyword ideas	Optional. Free tier gives a few searches a day
AnswerThePublic	Freemium	Visualises question keywords	Good for content ideation
Ahrefs	€99+/month	Deep backlink analysis, competitor SEO, keyword tracking	Only if SEO is a full-time function
Semrush	€130+/month	Same as Ahrefs, different UI, better competitive intelligence	Only if SEO is a full-time function

For most Irish small businesses under €1m in revenue, Google Search Console + Google Keyword Planner + AnswerThePublic covers 90% of the workflow. Save the paid tools until you are running 20+ hours of SEO a week.

Two brands that show this workflow works

Wise (formerly TransferWise) — nailing intent segmentation

Wise built its early SEO by mapping every combination of currency pair and audience to a dedicated landing page. “Send money from Ireland to Poland”, “Send money from Ireland to UK”, “Send money from Ireland to Australia” — each got its own page targeting a specific intent. The lesson for Irish businesses: think of every “service in location” or “product for audience” combination as a potential page. Even a small business can have 10–50 legitimate landing pages built this way.

Ahrefs — content-as-marketing at scale

Ahrefs’ own blog is a masterclass in keyword research applied to content strategy. Every post targets a specific search intent, ranks for the exact phrase in the title, and internal-links to their tool. According to their own reporting, the blog drives the majority of their inbound signups. The lesson: your blog is not a diary. Every post should have a target keyword, a matched intent, and a defined conversion path.

The 30-minute weekly sprint

If you have limited time, this is the cadence that works:

10 minutes. Pull new queries from Search Console. Note any that are ranking positions 11 to 20 — those are your quick wins.
10 minutes. Add 3 to 5 new long-tail ideas from PAA and Autocomplete.
10 minutes. Update one existing page. Add a new section, tighten the meta description, or add two internal links.

Do this every week and the compound over 90 days is genuinely significant. Small consistent effort beats sporadic big pushes every time.

Common mistakes

Chasing head terms. “SEO”, “marketing”, “web design” — you cannot rank there. Long-tails or nothing for the first year.
Ignoring intent. Publishing a blog when the SERP wants a service page. Publishing a service page when the SERP wants a comparison guide.
Duplicating topics. Two pages for the same cluster. Cannibalisation kills both.
Thin content. A 400-word post cannot beat a 2,500-word answer no matter how many keywords you cram in.
No internal links. Your new post is orphaned and Google will not discover it, let alone rank it.
Publishing and forgetting. Refresh your best pages every quarter. Update stats, add sections, retest CTAs.

What to do this week

If you are an Irish small business owner reading this and wondering where to start:

Connect Google Search Console. Free, ten-minute setup. See what you already rank for.
Identify your page-two performers. Any URL currently averaging positions 11 to 20. Those are your fastest wins.
Rewrite one of them. Add 500 words. Answer the 5 most common PAA questions. Add two internal links.
Submit the updated URL in Search Console for re-indexing.
Check back in three weeks. Positions almost always move.

Or if you would rather have me build a full keyword and content plan for your business, book a 20-minute call or get the free Digital Blind Spot Report. I will map the priority keywords, the intent, and the pages you need — before you write a single word.