Keyword research for membership sites without expensive tools

Keyword research simply means finding the words and phrases people type into search engines, so you can create pages that match them. Paid research tools can be useful, but their subscriptions add up, and for a niche membership they often show little or no data for the very specific phrases your future members use. If a tool says nobody searches for something, that doesn’t mean nobody does.

The good news is that the best keyword research for a membership site is mostly free. It relies on listening: to your members, to the search box and to the conversations already happening in your field. Here is how to do it, using a hypothetical watercolor painting course site as the example throughout.

Start with the words your members already use

Your members and prospects tell you what they search for every day, in their own words. The trick is to capture their exact phrasing rather than translating it into your expert vocabulary.

Look through:

• Support emails and messages from prospects asking questions before they join.
• Forum threads, especially the first post someone makes when they’re stuck.
• Answers to any “what brought you here?” question on your sign-up form or welcome survey.
• Questions asked during live sessions and in comments on your content.

The watercolor site’s instructor might think of a topic as “color mixing theory.” Her students write “why do my colors turn muddy?” and “how do I stop paint going everywhere when it’s wet?” Those are the phrases people search for, so those are the phrases to collect. If you already turn member questions into your next month of content, you have a head start: the same list doubles as keyword research.

Let the search box do the research

Search engines show you what people search for, as long as you know where to look. Open a private or logged-out browser window so your own history doesn’t skew the suggestions, then try these:

1. Autocomplete. Type a starting phrase such as “watercolor for” and note every suggestion. Then add a letter after it (“watercolor for a,” “watercolor for b”) and work through the alphabet.
2. Question words. Start with “how,” “why,” “what,” “can I” and “should I” followed by your topic. Questions make excellent article topics.
3. The questions box. Many results pages include a box of related questions other people ask. Expanding one often reveals more.
4. Related searches. Scroll to the bottom of the results page for a list of related phrases. Click one and repeat.

Paste everything into a simple spreadsheet as you go.

Read the results page to understand intent

Search intent is what the searcher actually wants: to learn something, to buy something, to compare options or to find a particular website. Before you choose a phrase, search it and look at what already ranks, because the results tell you what kind of page the search engine thinks answers it.

• “How to fix muddy watercolors” brings up step-by-step articles and short videos. A clear tutorial from the course site fits perfectly.
• “Watercolor paper” brings up shops and product listings. People want to buy, not learn, so a tutorial is unlikely to satisfy that search.
• “Best watercolor paper for beginners” brings up comparison articles. That could work, but only if you’re willing to write a genuinely thorough comparison.

If the pages ranking are all from large, established publications, a newer site may struggle for that phrase. Look for results where smaller sites, forum threads or thin, dated pages appear on the first page. Those are signs you could compete.

Use Google Search Console once you have some traffic

Google Search Console is a free service from Google that shows how your site performs in its search results. Once you have verified your site, the Performance report lists the actual search phrases (queries) that showed your pages, how often they appeared and how often people clicked.

Look for two kinds of opportunity:

• Phrases where you appear often but rarely get clicked. The page may need a better title, or it may not quite answer the question.
• Phrases where you rank on the second page. A little more depth or a few internal links might move them up.

This is the most reliable keyword data you have, because it describes your own site and audience.

Borrow from conversations in your field

Public discussion boards, question-and-answer sites, video comment sections and hobby groups are full of people asking questions in plain language. So are the tables of contents of popular books in your niche. Note recurring questions and the words people use. When the same question appears in several places, it is almost certainly being searched for too.

Choose and group your phrases: a worked example

You can’t write for every phrase at once, so score each candidate from 1 to 3 on three questions: Is it relevant to what members get? Does the searcher want to learn? Could you compete with what ranks now? Here is how the watercolor site might score a few phrases (the scores are illustrative):

• “how to fix muddy watercolors”: relevance 3, intent 3, competition 2. Total 8. Write it.
• “wet on wet watercolor for beginners”: relevance 3, intent 3, competition 2. Total 8. Write it.
• “watercolor painting ideas”: relevance 2, intent 2, competition 1. Total 5. Maybe later.
• “watercolor paper”: relevance 2, intent 1, competition 1. Total 4. Skip.

Then group phrases that mean the same thing. “Why are my watercolors muddy,” “how to stop watercolors getting muddy” and “muddy watercolor fix” belong on one page, not three. Each page should have one clear job, as described in give every page a job before you publish it, with one main phrase and a handful of close variations.

Your one-hour keyword session

Block out an hour and work through this list:

1. Pull ten real questions from member emails, forum posts or sign-up answers, in their exact words.
2. Run each through autocomplete, question words and related searches, and add what you find to your spreadsheet.
3. Search your top twenty phrases and note what kind of page ranks for each.
4. Score them for relevance, intent and competition, and group phrases that mean the same thing.
5. Pick the three highest scorers and add them to your content plan as public articles.
6. If your site is verified in Google Search Console, check the Performance report for phrases on page two and add those to the list.

Repeat the session every couple of months. Your members’ questions change as they progress, and your list of phrases should grow with them.