Organize your keyword research with my free template – available in both Excel and Google Sheets. 

Save time with this template – it’s perfect for SEO professionals and those new to SEO. It’ll help you organize your keywords, improve your site’s traffic and increase your revenue! 

How To Use This Free Keyword Research Template

You do not need to buy subscriptions to expensive SEO tools for keyword research – the beauty in this template is that it works with free keyword research tools, along with a bit of manual research. 

Keyword research is one of the most important components of SEO – so it’s vital that you do it properly. 

#1 Enter Your Keywords 

Let’s say we want to perform keyword research for running shoes. In column B, type in running shoes. 

A paid SEO tool such as Ahrefs or SEMRush will help you generate keyword ideas faster, but we can still do this manually. 

When you type in “running shoes” on Google what are the suggested searches? Add those keywords to the list. 

On Google’s search engine results page, you’ll find a “People Also Ask” section. There’s more inspiration for keywords to include. 

Scroll to the bottom of Google and you’ll see related searches – what is Google recommending? Again you have some ideas here to include. 

Now go on to YouTube, and start typing running shoes – what is YouTube suggesting? Here are some more ideas. 

Again with access to an SEO tool finding questions becomes a bit easier – but can you think of them yourself? What kind of questions can you associate with your keyword? When we talk about running shoes here are some questions:

• “How long do running shoes last?”
• “How should running shoes fit?”
• “What are the best running shoes?”
• “When to replace running shoes?””

I bet this is easier than you thought it would be – however if you’re struggling for questions then check out forums like Reddit. People ask questions there all the time. 

Once you’ve entered a decent amount of keywords in column B, it’s time to fill out the rest of the sheet. 

#2 Filling Out Columns C – F

So this is where a paid SEO tool would come in handy – especially when you want to look at CPC costs, difficulty and trends – but I have a work-around for 2 of the columns. 

You can use this free tool to find keyword volume.  

You can use Google trends to see if those keywords are increasing in volume, or decreasing. 

For keyword difficulty and CPC, you’ll need access to a paid tool. You can get limited free searches with Uber Suggest.

#3 Completing Columns F – I

This one’s easy – search for your keywords. 

Who’s number 1? What type of result are you seeing? Is it a product, product category, an article, pdf etc. 

Then when you make your search, does the #1 result have a featured snippet? If it does, then you’ll get an idea of the type of content you need to create. 

Keyword Research – The First Step In SEO 

There you have it – that’s how to use my free keyword research template. 

You can download it as an Excel file or use it in Google Sheets. 

If you want to leave the keyword research to a professional then reach out to me – let’s talk about how we can boost your revenue and leads through SEO!