How to do keyword research for beginners?

Most beginner keyword research guides are overwhelming because they list 30 tools and hundreds of filters. You do not need that. Here is the minimum viable process that actually works for a new site.

1. Write down 5-10 seed topics that describe what your business does. Not keywords yet, just topics. If you sell running shoes, your seeds are things like "running shoes for beginners", "how to choose running shoes", "best running socks". Keep them plain.
2. Expand each seed in a real keyword tool. Paste the seed, look at the related keywords and the People Also Ask questions. This is where you get real search terms that real people type, not the ones you imagined in your head.
3. Filter by difficulty you can realistically rank for. If your site is less than six months old, cap it at 20. If you are past a year, cap it at 40. Anything above that is a long-term bet, not a starter article.
4. Check the search intent for every keyword before you write. Google the keyword and look at what is on page one. If the top 10 is all product pages, a blog post will not rank there. If the top 10 is all how-to articles, a product page will not rank there. Match what Google already shows.
5. Group the survivors into articles. Three keywords that mean roughly the same thing should become one article, not three. Pick the highest-volume version as the primary keyword and mention the others naturally in the body.

Stop researching once you have 20-30 validated keywords. That is 2-3 months of writing for a solo operator. Do not try to build a 500-keyword spreadsheet before you start publishing. Publish, learn from real ranking data, then research more.