Keyword Research Without Ahrefs (Free Tools + AI)

Ahrefs is $99/month. SEMrush is $129/month. For most small businesses and solo founders, that's not in the budget — especially before there's organic traffic to validate the spend.

Here's the honest truth: you can do keyword research that's 80% as good as Ahrefs for $0 using free tools + AI. This is the exact workflow we use at Automately AI.

The free keyword research stack

This stack takes the place of Ahrefs for 90% of keyword research work.

The 5-step workflow

Step 1: Brainstorm seed keywords (15 min)

Start with what you know. Write down 10-20 phrases your ideal customer would Google. For example, if you run a freelance design studio in Manila:

• freelance graphic designer manila
• logo design philippines
• brand identity design freelancer
• cheap logo design philippines
• how to find graphic designer
• portfolio website design

Don't filter yet — just brainstorm.

Step 2: Expand with free tools (30 min)

Take each seed keyword and run it through:

Google Keyword Planner:

• Get rough monthly search volume (it shows ranges like 100-1K)
• See related keywords Google suggests
• Filter by location (Philippines specifically)

Google Trends:

• Compare your seed keywords side-by-side
• See which are growing vs declining
• Discover related rising queries

AlsoAsked:

• Enter your seed keyword
• Get the "People Also Ask" tree
• Find long-tail question keywords like "how much does logo design cost in Philippines"

Reddit / Quora:

• Search your topic
• Note what real questions people ask
• These become article-worthy keywords

At the end of step 2, you should have 50-200 keywords in a spreadsheet.

Step 3: Add real volume data (15 min)

This is the part where Ahrefs would normally help. Without it:

Option A (free, vague): Use Google Keyword Planner's range data ("100-1K/mo")

Option B (paid, precise): Pay one-time ₱500 to a freelancer for an Ahrefs lookup of your 100 keywords

Option C (free, approximate): Use Ubersuggest's 3 free searches/day

Honestly, for SMBs, the rough ranges from Google Keyword Planner are good enough to start.

Step 4: Cluster + classify intent with AI (5 min)

This is where AI shines. Paste your 50-200 keywords into [Automately AI's Keyword Cluster tool](/tools/ai-keyword-cluster):

The AI:

• Groups related keywords into clusters
• Classifies each cluster's search intent (informational / commercial / transactional)
• Recommends "blog article" vs "landing page" for each
• Suggests 3-5 titles per cluster

This 5-minute step replaces what would take 4-6 hours of manual clustering.

Step 5: Prioritize and execute (15 min)

Look at your clusters and pick the 5 highest-priority ones based on:

1. Intent alignment: does this match your business?

2. Estimated volume: rough size from step 3

3. Competition feel: Google the cluster keywords yourself — are top 10 results from big sites or small ones? Small = you can compete.

4. Effort vs reward: which clusters can you actually write expert content for?

Write content for those 5 clusters first. Refresh and repeat the workflow every 3 months.

What you lose without Ahrefs

Being honest about the tradeoffs:

• **No backlink data** — you won't know who's linking to your competitors
• **No exact volume** — only ranges, not "this keyword gets 1,800/mo"
• **No keyword difficulty score** — you'll have to eyeball SERP competition
• **No rank tracking** — you'll need a free alternative like Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (free for your own site only)

For most SMBs and bootstrapped founders, these tradeoffs are fine. The 80/20 is "find keywords with reasonable volume that match your business + intent." That's doable for free.

When you should buy Ahrefs

Get Ahrefs (or SEMrush) when:

1. You're earning $5K+/month from organic traffic — the data ROI is clear

2. You're managing 5+ client sites as an agency — the time savings add up

3. You need to do competitor backlink analysis seriously

Until then, the free stack + AI cluster tool is more than enough.

Conclusion

You don't need a $99/mo Ahrefs subscription to do good keyword research. The combination of free Google tools + AI clustering covers 80% of the value for $0.

Start your keyword research today: [Automately AI's Keyword Cluster](/tools/ai-keyword-cluster) is free for 3 clusters/month — paste your keyword list and get a content strategy in 60 seconds.