Keyword research for dummies

Hi, everyone.

I am mostly a lurker, but I keep seeing suggestions in threads that always say do your keyword research. Sure, I get that. But how do you actually do it? Every keyword research tool I find requires payment of some kind and the free versions are useless. Is there something I am missing here? Do I just need to subscribe to AHREFS to do this or are there actually free keyword research tools somewhere I am missing? If there is a newbie guide on the forum somewhere, kindly point it out.

Thanks for the help.

These threads might be of help to you.
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/w...arch-tool-or-method-do-you-recommend.1429542/https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/method-keyword-research-for-free-in-2022.1412508/