Good quality keywords are essential for attracting consistent, quality traffic to your site, whether you’re starting an old blog or developing a content strategy for a new one. Here is a list of some of the best keyword research tools to help you create great content.
The 10 Best Keyword Research Tools
1. SEMrush
SEMrush is not just a keyword tool. It is also a competitive analysis tool that suggests 5-10 specific keywords that your competitors are already using.
Standout features
- Uncover long-tail keywords and ad group ideas
- Get yearly keyword trends
- Worldwide CPC distribution statistics
- Access to the complete keyword research toolkit
- Keyword difficulty analysis and organic traffic insights
Pricing
If you’re curious about whether SEMrush is right for you, the best way to find out is to try it yourself. The service offers a 7-day free trial, during which you can use all the features without spending a dime. Just be sure to cancel your subscription within the trial period if you decide you don’t want to continue using the service.
SEMrush has four different pricing plans. The best discount is available when you pay for the service annually.
- Pro – A plan for limited budget sites and freelancers, it starts at $99.95 per month and gets billed annually.
- Guru – SEO agencies and small to mid-sized business will find the features in this plan perfect for the day-to-day management of content sites. Guru starts at $191.62 per month.
- Business – It is ideal for eCommerce stores and agencies, and opens at $374.95 per month.
- Enterprise – If you have an extensive content strategy, reaching beyond the capacity of the above solutions, SEMrush can custom fit a plan for your needs.
2. KWFinder
KWFinder, designed by Mangools, is a great tool for keyword research, especially if you’re just starting out. They have a beginner guide on their website to help you get started.
KWFinder is a great platform for finding keywords with low SEO difficulty. Other great features include the ability to find related keywords, get monthly search volume for keywords, and more.
Standout features
- A unique and easy to navigate user interface
- Find keywords in any language target, anywhere
- Choose options from the list of powerful keywords
- Get precise statistics for keyword competition
- In-depth SERP overview alongside a list of suggestions
- Use filters to refine the list of keyword suggestions
Pricing
KWFinder is part a package of Mangools that includes four other SEO tools. This keyword tool allows only a handful of free searches. Save up to 40% by selecting an annual plan on any of their three subscriptions.
- Basic – $30 (freelancers and small businesses)
- Premium – $40 (new startups and blogs)
- Agency – $80 (eCommerce stores and heavy sites)
3. Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
If you’re looking for a great keyword research tool to help with your content creation, Ahrefs is a great option. The platform provides a comprehensive keyword report, and uses clickstream data to provide unique click metrics.
Standout features
- Accurate keyword difficulty score
- 1,000+ keyword suggestions
- Supported in over 171 countries
- Click metrics for improving CTR
- Extensive SERP overview
Pricing
Ahrefs has four pricing plans. The rates for freelancers, online marketers, mid-sized organizations, and bigger brands start at just $82 per month if you choose the annual payment plan.
The Lite and Standard subscription plans come with a 7-day trial offer for $7.
4. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a keyword tool that offers a few basic features. Although it has limited functionality, it is one of the most accurate sources of keyword data. The data comes directly from Google and works well with AdSense monetization.
Standout features
- Locate commercial keywords using “top of page” bid range
- Accurate search volume directly from Google’s search engine
- Best choice for business websites
Pricing
Google Keyword Planner is available for free.
5. GrowthBar
GrowthBar is a great time-saving tool for marketers and bloggers who want ranking difficulty or keyword suggestions to appear along with their search results.
The recently added feature of content outline generation allows you to create outlines for your blog or website with keywords, word counts, headers, images, links and more with just one click.
It also allows you to explore a competitor’s profile featuring things like backlink data, organic keywords, info about Google/Facebook ads, and related insights.
Standout features
- Generate content outlines with AI
- Keyword rank tracking
- Accurate ranking difficulty
- Long tail keyword suggestions
- Exportable keyword data
- On-page word count
Pricing
If you sign up for GrowthBar, you can try it out for five days for free. After that, you’ll be charged depending on which plan you choose. If you choose the more expensive plan, you’ll be able to search for as many keywords as you want.
- Pro – $29/month
- Scale – $79/month
6. Long Tail Pro
It is increasingly common for people to use long-tail keywords for SEO purposes. Long Tail Pro is a keyword tool that helps generate long-tail keywords for niche sites. Additionally, Long Tail Pro has become a popular choice for content producers who create micro-niche sites.
Standout features
- Powerful, detailed keyword metrics
- Easily find long-tail keywords
- Provides recommendations for attracting highly convertible organic traffic
- 2,500+ SERP lookups every 24 hours
Pricing
Long Tail Pro is a premium tool that offers a free trial for 7 days (subscription must be cancelled before 7 days). Subscriptions start at $25 per month (when billed annually). Long Tail Pro currently offers three plans to users.
- Starter – $25/month
- Pro – $45/month
- Agency – $98/ month
7. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free data exploration tool that allows you to explore and analyze real-time and historical search trends. You can see what is trending in regions across the globe based on sampled data and search queries from Google.
The things we like about Google Trends are that it can help with content ideation and planning, providing insights about audiences, creating ad campaigns based on seasons, and more. Additionally, Google Trends can be used to identify new trends and see when people’s interest in them is decreasing.
The data that Google Trends uses comes primarily from actual Google search data that has not been filtered. This data is anonymized, which means that it cannot be linked to a specific person, categorized, and grouped by topic, region, and time period to enable you to analyze relevant data more accurately.
To use Google Trends, first enter a keyword or phrase into the search bar. You can then narrow your results by choosing a location, time frame, and category. After you’ve done this, Google will show you how often that keyword or phrase has been searched for over time. You can also compare multiple keywords at once.
Some examples of the reports they offer are the 2021 Year in Search, Shopping Trends 2022, and Holiday Season 2021. Each one collects and analyzes data related to a particular topic or time period.
To get an idea of the topics people are currently searching, check out Recently trending:
If you want to research a specific topic, enter it into the search bar.
Click “+ Compare” to compare multiple related keywords simultaneously. This can help you analyze audience interests in related topics and how those interests vary over time in different regions. You can use this data to decide what to focus on in your content and even for competitive analysis.
If you’re looking to target a specific region with your content and marketing, Related Queries can help you come up with ideas that are relevant to your target keywords. This can help you fine-tune your content strategy and keyword research to better suit your needs.
You can also find out how popular a topic is in different countries and compare the results. This can help you find new audiences worldwide or make sure you’re creating content that is relevant to your target region.
Google Trends is free, making it a great research tool.
8. QuestionDB
QuestionDB allows you to see the questions people ask on websites and forums, rather than just focusing on keywords.
This tool is good for coming up with content ideas because it has a lot of questions that can give you a better understanding of what your audience is interested in. This can be used to make content that is more relevant and useful to them.
The questions in QuestionDB come from forums like Reddit and StackExchange, and Quora will be included soon.
This program focuses on users’ questions instead of keywords in order to understand the context of how your target audience is interacting with your chosen keywords. This can help you learn what types of things they want to know about these keywords.
Come up with a list of broad seed keywords related to the topic you want to target. Enter one of them into QuestionDB. The tool will return a list of more specific questions related to that overall topic.
Repeat this process with the rest of your list to generate even more content ideas for your blog. If you want to learn more about a question, click through to the source to read the original conversation, which could generate even more ideas.
The free version of this search only lets you see the first 50 results. This is good for people who only need to use it occasionally or want to get a general idea of what their audience is interested in.
The Pro plan is $15 per month and it lets you do unlimited searches and get unlimited results. It would be good for users who want to do lots of research on a particular topic, or who want to use QuestionDB to get ideas for content on a regular basis.
9. TubeBuddy
TubeBuddy is a browser extension that helps make it easier to do things like optimize, publish, promote, and grow YouTube channels. It can also help with testing out new ideas for videos. Some of the features included are things like Keyword Explorer, which helps people find popular keywords and tags to use.
There are several reasons why we like the Keyword Explorer tool. First, it allows you to specifically research keywords for use on YouTube. Additionally, the templates and split testing tools provided can help you test and apply your new keywords to your channel effectively.
Keyword Explorer includes data from both YouTube and Google Trends.
The TubeBuddy Keyword Explorer can be found in the browser extension and app. To use it, enter a keyword or topic you’re interested in and click “Explore.”
The score gives you an idea of how difficult it would be to rank in the top 3 for that keyword. The Summary tab provides a score for a given keyword that takes into account the level of competition as well as how well optimized the top-ranking videos are. This score can give you an idea of how difficult it would be to rank in the top 3 on Youtube for that keyword.
With a paid account, you can also access weighted scores that are specific to your channel.
This text discusses the topic of finding related topics and tags on YouTube and Google. It breaks down the interest over time in that topic, and provides related topics and tags that may be of interest.
The Results tab gives you a quick look at how your chosen keyword is faring on YouTube. This includes which videos and channels are currently ranking the highest. Doing this kind of research can help you better understand the competition.
If you click through to watch one of those videos, you’ll find a Videolytics panel. Here you’ll find performance data, SEO, best practices, and even video tags:
The Map tab allows you to see which geographical regions are most interested in the topic. You can use this information to plan content that speaks directly to viewers in those regions.
Free users can only see the top three results of their searches in Keyword Explorer and are only allowed 25 searches per day. Channel-specific data, like weighted keyword scores, is not accessible to free users.
To use Keyword Explorer without limits, you’ll need to upgrade to a Pro account or higher:
- Pro: $9 per month
- Star: $19 per month
- Legend: $49 per month
10. Soovle
This is a search engine aggregator that collects search suggestions from multiple engines, including Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Amazon, eBay, Youtube, and more.
We like this tool because it is a quick way to compare related search suggestions from different search platforms. This allows us to target new long-tail keywords.
The suggestions on Soovle come from the different engines that you choose to include. If you include Google, you’ll notice that the suggestions are completely different from the suggestions of other engines.
Soovle shows you the most popular searches related to your main keyword on various search engines. You can enter your main keyword in the search bar in the middle of the screen, and the suggestions will appear above the logos of the respective search engines.
Hit the left and right arrow keys to switch between different search engines. To see live search results for a suggestion, click on it. Drag a suggestion to the book icon in the top left corner to save it for later.
How much it costs: Soovle is completely free.
Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, you are the expert on your own content. Doing extensive research on keywords guarantees that your content will be seen by the people who need it the most, when they need it.
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