How to do keyword research for beginners?

Here is the minimum viable process that actually works for a new site. Five steps, no 30-tool stack required.

1. Write down 5-10 seed topics that describe what your business does. Plain language, not keywords yet.
2. Expand each seed in a real keyword tool to see related keywords and People Also Ask questions.
3. Filter by difficulty you can realistically rank for. New site: cap at 20. Past a year: cap at 40.
4. Check search intent by Googling each keyword. Match the format of what is already on page one.
5. Group the survivors into articles. Three keywords meaning the same thing become one article, not three.

Stop once you have 20-30 validated keywords. Do not build a 500-keyword spreadsheet before publishing. Publish, learn from real data, then research more.