You type a query into Google, click on the first result, and find exactly what you were looking for. Behind this smooth experience lies precise work: choosing the right keywords. Successfully analyzing a site’s keywords means understanding what your potential visitors are actually typing, and then aligning your content with those queries. Without this step, even a technically perfect site remains invisible.
Filter queries by intent before collecting volume
Most guides start by listing tools. The problem is that a tool gives you numbers, not a strategy. Before opening any software, you need to know what you are looking for.
Let’s take a concrete example. You sell online pastry courses. The query “apple pie recipe” generates considerable volume. You might be tempted to create content around this keyword. The intent behind this search is purely informational: the internet user wants a recipe, not a paid course. Targeting this query would attract traffic that does not convert.
Before any collection, classify your candidate queries into three categories:
- Informational: the internet user seeks to understand (“how to analyze keywords”, “difference SEO SEA”). This content builds your authority but does not directly sell.
- Commercial: the internet user compares options (“best keyword research tool”, “Semrush vs Ahrefs”). This is the moment they are getting closer to a decision.
- Transactional: the internet user wants to act (“buy SEO training”, “SEO audit price”). This traffic converts, but the volume is often lower.
Mastering this framework transforms a raw list of keywords into a content strategy aligned with the buying journey. This is exactly what a well-conducted site keyword analysis allows: linking each page to a specific intent.
Free tools for keyword analysis: what they really provide
You don’t need a three-figure subscription to get started. Several free tools provide actionable data, as long as you know their limitations.
Google Keyword Planner
This is the go-to tool for accessing Google data. It shows ranges of monthly search volume and suggestions for keywords related to your topic. Its limitation: the volume ranges remain broad without an active ad campaign. You get “100-1000” where a paid tool would show a more precise number. For initial scouting, this is sufficient.
Google Search Console
If your site already exists, the Search Console is an overlooked goldmine. It shows the actual queries on which your pages appear, along with the number of impressions and clicks. You will discover keywords you hadn’t thought of, and especially pages that rank for untargeted queries. Leveraging these “accidental discoveries” is often more profitable than searching for new keywords.
Ubersuggest
Neil Patel’s tool offers a few free searches per day. It provides estimated volume, SEO difficulty, and suggestions for long-tail queries. For a site starting its SEO, it’s a good complement to the Keyword Planner.
These three tools cover the needs of a medium-sized site. A common mistake is to multiply tools without exploiting the data from the first one.
Analyze your competitors’ SEO keywords
Your competitors have already done part of the work for you. The goal is not to copy their strategy, but to spot the gaps in theirs, and in yours.
Type your target query into Google. Open the first three or four results. Look at their titles, their subtitles, the recurring terms in the text. You will quickly identify the lexical field that Google associates with this query.
With a tool like Semrush or Ahrefs (in trial version), you can go further: enter a competitor’s URL and see the complete list of keywords they rank for. Two situations deserve your attention:
- Queries with high commercial intent where your competitor ranks but with weak or outdated content. This is a direct opportunity.
- Queries that several competitors target and that you are completely ignoring. This signals a blind spot in your content strategy.
- Long-tail queries (four words or more) where competition is low. These specific queries often correspond to users close to conversion.
Competitor analysis is not a one-time exercise. Redo it every quarter to detect new pages gaining visibility on your topics.
Adapt keyword analysis to AI-generated responses
Google AI Overview is set to roll out in France before September 23, 2026. This system generates a summary at the top of the results page, even before the traditional links. For keyword analysis, this changes the game.
Some simple informational queries (“what is a keyword”) will receive a direct answer from AI. The click to your site becomes less likely for these queries. On the other hand, complex, comparative, or very specific queries (“which SEO tool to analyze a French e-commerce site”) remain difficult to synthesize for a model. This is where your content retains its value.
To be cited in AI Overview responses, structure your content in short, factual, and well-tagged passages. Paragraphs of two to three sentences, explicit subheadings, bullet lists: these elements facilitate extraction by AI.
The concept of Search Everywhere Optimization takes this logic further. Keyword analysis is no longer limited to Google: it includes questions asked in ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini, internal searches on YouTube or TikTok, and queries on marketplaces. A relevant keyword on Google may be phrased very differently in a conversational engine.
Mapping these variations in phrasing by platform becomes a concrete advantage for optimizing your overall visibility. Keyword analysis remains the foundation of SEO, but its scope expands every year. Start with intent, validate with tools, monitor your competitors, and adapt your structure to new response formats. It’s this combination that makes the difference between a stagnant website and one that regularly captures qualified traffic.