SEO Tools for Trades: The Complete Free Toolkit and Keyword Research Guide for UK Tradesmen

You do not need a £300/month subscription to find out what your local customers are actually searching for

Ask ten UK tradesmen what SEO tools they use and most will say "none — I don't really understand all that." Ask the same question to the businesses sitting at position one in the map pack for "plumber [their town]" and the honest answer is usually: a handful of completely free tools, used consistently, with no subscription fee at all. The myth that effective SEO requires an expensive software subscription is one of the biggest barriers stopping UK tradesmen from doing genuinely useful keyword research — and it is simply not true for the first six to twelve months of any trade business's SEO journey.

£0 — the monthly cost of the core SEO toolkit every UK tradesman needs for the first 6–12 months

90% — of what most small businesses need from SEO tools is covered by three platforms: Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, and Ahrefs Webmaster Tools — all free

This guide covers exactly which free tools to use, what to actually type into each one (not abstract theory — real example searches), and a realistic month-by-month plan for when, if ever, it becomes worth paying for something more advanced. It is written specifically for UK tradesmen with no marketing background and no appetite for jargon. At WebWise Digital, this is the same free-tool-first approach we use when researching keywords for every UK trade client before recommending where to invest further.

1. The Three Free Tools Every UK Tradesman Should Set Up This Week

Before any keyword research begins, three free Google tools need to be set up. These are not optional extras — they are the foundation everything else in this guide builds on, and without them you are making decisions blind.

1.1 Google Search Console: What Your Customers Are Already Searching For

Google Search Console (search.google.com/search-console) is the single most valuable free tool available to any UK tradesman, because it shows the exact search terms that are already bringing people to your website — not estimates, not guesses, but real, confirmed search queries from real people who found your site. Setting it up requires verifying ownership of your website (a simple process involving adding a code snippet or DNS record, usually done in five minutes with help from whoever built your site).

🔍 TRY IT NOW — Find your hidden keyword opportunities right now

Once Search Console is set up and has at least a few weeks of data, go to Performance > Search Results, and sort by Impressions (not clicks). Look for queries with high impressions but low click-through rate, sitting in positions 8 to 20. These are searches Google already considers your site somewhat relevant for — they just are not ranking high enough yet to get clicked. Every one of these is a genuine, confirmed opportunity: a real search term, used by real local customers, that you are already partially visible for and could push higher with a dedicated page or stronger on-page content.

1.2 Google Analytics 4: What Happens After Someone Lands on Your Site

Where Search Console shows what people searched to find you, Google Analytics 4 (GA4) shows what they did once they arrived — which pages they viewed, how long they stayed, whether they clicked your phone number or filled in your contact form. Setting up GA4 with proper conversion tracking (phone clicks, form submissions, WhatsApp taps) is covered in detail in our analytics setup service, but the free version of the tool itself costs nothing and is essential for understanding which pages are actually generating enquiries versus which are simply being visited and abandoned.

1.3 Ahrefs Webmaster Tools: Free Access to Premium-Grade Data

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools (AWT) is a free, separate product from Ahrefs' expensive paid platform, available to anyone who verifies ownership of their own website. It gives you a genuine look at which keywords your site is already ranking for (with estimated search volumes and difficulty scores), how many backlinks your site has, and a technical site audit that flags the kind of issues covered in our Core Web Vitals guide. The free version is limited compared to a full Ahrefs subscription — you cannot research competitor domains, and monthly crawl credits are capped — but for a single trade business website, the free tier covers the overwhelming majority of what is genuinely needed.

2. The Free Keyword Research Tools — and Exactly What to Type Into Each One

Knowing a tool exists is not the same as knowing how to use it. The following section is deliberately practical: for each tool, the exact type of search to run for a UK trade business, with a worked example.

2.1 Google Autocomplete: The Simplest, Most Underused Tool of All

Open Google, start typing your trade plus your town, and stop before pressing enter. The dropdown suggestions Google shows are not random — they reflect genuinely common searches starting with that phrase, refined by real search behaviour.

🔍 TRY IT NOW — Run this search right now

Type "[your trade] [your town]" into Google and pause. For example, type "plumber croydon" and look at every suggestion. Then try "emergency plumber croydon", "plumber croydon cost", and "plumber croydon reviews". Each suggestion that appears is a genuine, common search phrase. Note down every one that is relevant to your business — these are free, zero-cost keyword ideas confirmed by Google's own data, and they took less than two minutes to find.

2.2 People Also Ask and Related Searches

When you search any trade-related query on Google, scroll down to the "People also ask" box (a set of expandable questions) and the "Related searches" section near the bottom of the results page. Both reveal genuine, common follow-up questions and related search phrases that real people are searching alongside your target term — an excellent source of content ideas for the diagnostic and cost-guide content covered in our content system guide.

2.3 AnswerThePublic: Visualising Every Question Format

AnswerThePublic (answerthepublic.com) takes a seed keyword — "boiler repair" or "plumber" — and generates a visual map of every question format people search around it: who, what, why, how, when, and comparison questions ("boiler repair vs replacement"). The free tier allows a limited number of searches per day, which is more than sufficient for a tradesman researching content ideas once or twice a month rather than running searches continuously.

2.4 AlsoAsked: A Cleaner Alternative for Question Research

AlsoAsked (alsoasked.com) serves a similar purpose to AnswerThePublic but presents results as a clearer tree diagram of related questions, sourced directly from Google's "People also ask" data. For a UK tradesman building diagnostic content (the "why is my boiler making a noise" style posts covered in our content system guide), this tool is one of the fastest ways to confirm exactly which symptom-based questions real customers are asking.

2.5 Google Trends: Understanding Seasonality

Google Trends (trends.google.com) does not show absolute search volume, but it shows relative interest over time on a 0-to-100 scale — which makes it the best free tool for confirming the seasonal demand curve covered in our heating engineers and plumbers SEO guide. Searching "boiler service" in Google Trends, filtered to the UK, will show a clear, repeating spike every September and October — confirming exactly when to push that content for maximum impact.

💡 TIP — Set the location filter to United Kingdom every time

Google Trends defaults to worldwide data unless you change it. For every search, set the region filter specifically to "United Kingdom" — and if the tool allows it, narrow further to your specific region or city. Worldwide trend data for "boiler service" includes search patterns from countries with completely different climates and heating seasons, which will give a misleading picture of UK-specific seasonality.

3. Finding What Local Customers Search For: The Local-Specific Method

General keyword tools are built for broad markets and often underestimate genuine hyperlocal search volume — the specific phrase a homeowner in a particular town actually types rarely shows accurate numbers in a tool calibrated for national search patterns. The most reliable methods for genuinely local keyword discovery are different from the generic tools above.

3.1 Google Business Profile Insights

Inside your Google Business Profile dashboard, the Insights or Performance section shows the actual search queries that led people to view your profile — genuine, confirmed local search behaviour specific to your business and area. This data is frequently more accurate for hyperlocal terms than any third-party tool, because it comes directly from Google's own local search system. Reviewing this monthly, as covered in our GBP guide for UK tradesmen, should be a standing part of every trade business's keyword research routine.

3.2 Competitor Profile and Website Analysis

Search your target keyword on Google Maps and open the GBP profiles of the businesses ranking in the top three. Note their primary category, their services list, and the specific language in their business description — this reveals, indirectly, what Google considers relevant for that search in your specific area. Then visit their websites and note the headlines and page titles of their service pages. This is not about copying competitors — it is about understanding the genuine local search landscape you are competing in.

3.3 Asking Your Existing Customers

The most overlooked local keyword research method of all: ask your actual customers how they searched before finding you, or how they would describe their problem to a friend. A simple question on a job — "out of curiosity, what did you type into Google to find a plumber?" — produces genuine, real-world phrasing that no tool can replicate, because it comes directly from the exact audience you are trying to rank for.

4. The High-Search-Volume Keywords for UK Plumbers and Trades

While every local market varies, certain keyword patterns consistently show high search volume across UK trades, based on the aggregated data visible through Ahrefs Webmaster Tools and Google Search Console across multiple client accounts.

🛠️ FIELD NOTE — Why "near me" and "[town]" variants should both be targeted

A common question is whether to optimise for "plumber near me" or "plumber [specific town]" — the answer is both, because they serve different purposes. "Near me" searches are answered primarily by your Google Business Profile and proximity to the searcher, and there is limited on-page content value in targeting the phrase "near me" literally. "[Town]" variants, by contrast, are directly addressable through dedicated town pages, as covered in our local SEO guide, and these are the searches where on-page content makes the biggest ranking difference.

5. The Month-by-Month Plan: When (If Ever) to Pay for a Tool

The honest, realistic guidance most SEO tool guides avoid giving: most UK tradesmen do not need a paid SEO tool in their first six to twelve months. The free tools covered in this guide — Search Console, GA4, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, autocomplete, AnswerThePublic, AlsoAsked, Google Trends, and GBP Insights — cover the overwhelming majority of what a single local trade business genuinely needs.

💡 TIP — Do not buy multiple tools that solve the same problem

The most common wasted spend in small business SEO is paying for two or three tools that overlap almost entirely in function — a keyword tool, a rank tracker, and an all-in-one platform that already includes both. Identify your single biggest, specific gap (not "I want to do SEO better" but "I cannot find local citation opportunities" or "I run out of content ideas every month") and choose one tool that solves that specific problem, rather than a broad platform with features you will not use.

6. BrightLocal and Whitespark: The Local-Specific Layer

Once a UK trade business has outgrown the free toolkit, the first paid addition worth considering — ahead of generic platforms like SEMrush or Ahrefs — is a local-SEO-specific tool, because local citation management and tracking is the area where free tools genuinely fall short. BrightLocal and Whitespark are the two most established options in this category, both built specifically for managing citations across the directories covered in our local SEO complete guide, tracking map-pack rank position by specific keyword and location, and auditing NAP consistency across the web.

For a single-location UK trade business, BrightLocal's entry-level tier is typically the more cost-effective starting point. For a business managing multiple branches or service areas, Whitespark's citation-building tools scale more efficiently across multiple locations simultaneously.

Conclusion: The Tools Matter Less Than Using Them Consistently

The gap between a UK tradesman ranking well and one who is not is rarely explained by which tools they use. It is explained by whether they actually look at the data the free tools already provide, on a consistent basis, and act on what it shows. A Search Console report checked once and never opened again provides no value. The same report reviewed monthly, with new keyword opportunities identified and acted on each time, compounds steadily into genuine ranking improvement.

Start with the three free foundations in Section 1 this week. Run the autocomplete and "People also ask" research in Section 2 for your top three services this month. Check your GBP Insights for genuine local search terms. None of this costs anything beyond an hour of your time, and it will reveal more genuine, locally-specific keyword opportunities than most paid tools would surface in the same hour.

If you would rather have this research done for you — and turned directly into the dedicated service and town pages that actually capture these searches — the starting point is a 15-minute call at webwise.digital/contact. WebWise Digital handles keyword research as a standard part of every UK trades engagement, using exactly the free-tool-first methodology in this guide before recommending any paid addition.

Further reading: our local SEO complete guide for what to build once you have your keyword list, and our content system guide for turning question-research tools like AnswerThePublic and AlsoAsked into a genuine twelve-month content calendar.