Do you really need Ahrefs Lite or Semrush Pro to do SEO? I spent exactly zero dollars running the full pipeline for my three app websites — keyword research, page optimization, site audit, rank tracking. Here's exactly how each step worked.
Step 1: Keyword research — pick fights you can win
Most people do it backwards: they decide what their product is about, then write whatever keyword feels right. I did that too, until I realized it was just wishful thinking.
The correct order: list the words users might actually type, then use tools to filter out the ones you can't win.
Here's my process, using FocusBottle (my focus timer app) as the example:
- Brainstorm seed keywords: what would users search? "focus timer", "pomodoro timer" — basically these directions
- Expand seeds primarily with Ahrefs' free Keyword Generator, cross-checking trends and volume ranges with Google Trends and Keyword Planner. The Generator spits out a long list of related terms (including question-style queries) — roughly top 100 territory, plenty to work with
- Don't commit yet. Take the shortlist to Semrush's Keyword Overview for a final check on real volume and difficulty
The verdict: "focus timer" has modest volume but an Easy difficulty score. "pomodoro timer" gets searched more, but competition inside that cluster is fiercer. So focus timer became the primary keyword, and the pomodoro term went into an FAQ section to catch long-tail traffic.
LittleStory makes the point even better. It's an AI bedtime story app, so the obvious keyword is "bedtime stories" — except that keyword sits in the 10,000+ monthly search range with Hard difficulty, and page one is wall-to-wall parenting and education giants. A new site fighting for that is an egg against a wall.
So I added a modifier and re-checked: "AI bedtime story". Smaller volume, Easy difficulty — and anyone searching it wants exactly what my app does. Small keyword, but every searcher is a precise match.
One line to remember: Big keywords belong to the giants. The keyword you can actually rank for is yours.
Step 2: Divide the free tiers by their limits
Free tools don't automatically work well together. You need to know where each one hurts:
- Ahrefs free: can't research competitors, but once you verify your own site you get ~5,000 crawl credits a month for site audits, plus the keyword generator
- Semrush free: about 10 searches per day, then it locks. Too precious to waste on idle browsing
- Google Trends and Keyword Planner: completely free, unlimited — but only trends and volume ranges, no difficulty scores
The division of labor writes itself: high-volume work (expanding keywords) goes to the free unlimited tools; Semrush's 10 daily searches go only to the finalists — a last confirmation of real volume and competition before you commit.
Cheap ammo for spraying, expensive bullets for pointing.
Step 3: Site audit — it caught a bug I never knew existed
Ahrefs' free Site Audit simulates a search crawler: it crawls every page on your site and flags broken links, dead pages, duplicates.
I verified all four of my sites and ran audits. The scores were wildly different:
- LittleStory: 100
- ailorde.com: 86
- PocketBill: 71
Seventy-one? I opened the report and found that five blog posts' top navigation bars were all linking to a page that doesn't exist: /blog/blog.
The cause was embarrassingly dumb. The blog template used a relative path ../blog. For posts living under /blog/posts/xxx, the browser resolved ../blog into /blog/blog — a doubled path, straight to 404. I never noticed while browsing because the click still landed on the blog list page (the framework caught the fall); only the URL was wrong.
The fix: change those five spots to the absolute path /blog, ship it, verify each one with curl. Without the audit, that bug would still be sitting there — every blog page telling search engines "this site isn't maintained."
Step 4: Rank tracking — how to spend a 10-keyword budget
Everything above is one-time work. Rank tracking is ongoing, and Semrush's free Position Tracking caps you at 10 keywords.
Ten sounds like plenty. It fills up fast. My rule: never waste a slot on a keyword you can't win.
What went in: the 3 primary keywords from Step 1, 3 brand keywords (searches for my own app names — those you must defend), plus the ailorde brand keyword. Seven total. The remaining 3 slots stay empty, reserved for keywords I'm confident about later.
Day one results: the brand keyword "littlestory" ranked #47. Everything else: not ranked yet.
Looks sad? That's a normal starting point for a new site. The point of tracking isn't to feel good today — it's to see, next week and next month, whether the curve is heading up.
Last thing
Know the free tier's boundaries: it finds problems and runs health checks. Don't pretend it gives you paid-grade competitor backlink research.
My current rhythm: Monday — GSC plus audit reports; Wednesday — burn through Semrush's daily quota on final keyword checks; Friday — hand-copy the metrics (free tiers block exports, so it's copy-paste).
Zero budget doesn't mean you can't do SEO. It forces you to get every step right — when you can't win over your wallet, you have to win with method.
Which free SEO tools are you using? The useful part is the limit of each one — not another logo on the list.
X Article: https://x.com/bb833dong/article/2104144322937659404