7 Great Keyword Research Tools
Everyone that’s ever written an article or created a website knows how important keyword research can be. Optimizing your past posts can be a pain, too, which is why doing effective keyword research off the bat is paramount.
In today’s article, we’ll look at a list of some of the top keyword research tools out there. Some of them are paid, some of them are free, but the important thing to keep in mind is that each of them can help you.
Best keyword research tools
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SEMRush
More often than not, paid keyword research tools can give you information that you wouldn’t have access to when using a free version or a freemium. That’s the exact case with SEMrush, which can be used in several ways to find keywords that your competitors target, but also some that you need in accordance with your niche.
A neat feature would be that you can see what keywords your competition is getting ranked for in different countries, as the tool has several databases for different places across the globe.
On top of that, you can use SEMRush’s Keyword Magic Tool, which pulls keyword suggestions from a database of over 800 million terms. This one is very straightforward and easy to use, and it tells you the CPC, the keyword difficulty, and the search volume.
You can then look at each keyword individually and see what pages on what competitor websites are getting ranked — and how you can make your content better.
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Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
Ahrefs is one of the best SEO keyword research tools out there simply because it is very easy to use, it gives you everything you need to know, and it supplies you with in-depth information for each keyword.
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The neat thing about the Keywords Explorer tool is that you can group keywords based on their difficulty and try to target high search volume ones with the lowest keyword difficulty possible.
You can also look for suggestions, keywords that have the same specific terms, or broader ones that are part of the same groups. All in all, it’s a very handy tool to have and use on a regular basis.
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Keywordtool.io
If you don’t want to get stuck in the Google Search Console or Google Keyword Planner, you can use this site, instead. It does come with a paid version, but you can use one of its free keyword research tools, too.
Some of the info that you’ll get ranges from the search volume and trend to the CPC and competition. You can also look for keywords on different search engines, meaning both Google and Bing, but also other platforms such as Amazon, eBay, YouTube, or Instagram.
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We’d argue that this is one of the best tools for keyword research for folks who don’t want to use overly complex software or that don’t need any other info, such as backlinking, competition, and everything else. Plus, it has one other cool feature and it consists of the ability to set the location and language of the search term you’re looking to target.
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Soovle
Soovle is capable of suggesting keywords from several different sources such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, Amazon, and many more.
There’s also a feature called ‘Saved Suggestions’ that you can use to compile a list of the keywords that you want to target and then conveniently download them all in the form of a CSV file.
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KWFinder
If you’re looking for one of the easiest to use tools for keyword research, KWFinder might just be right up your alley. It’s packed with a myriad of features, but where it takes the cake is its intuitiveness.
Like other options that we have showcased here, it comes with a Keyword Difficulty feature, which means that you automatically find out how hard it might be to rank for that particular keyword. What makes it stand out from the crowd, however, is that it shows you the score right next to the keyword, much like Ahrefs does.
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The cost of KWFinder is just $29 a month, which means that it’s among the most affordable tools in this line currently available.
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Serpstat
You can use Serpstat for a variety of SEO tasks from link building to effective keyword research. It seems that the tool is very easy to use, too, but what makes it unique is the Competitors Graph it comes with.
This means that you can look at the competition for every keyword and see which sites are ranking for it right away. Serpstat is also quite budget-friendly, too, since it costs just under $20 a month.
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Google Trends
While it is most definitely not the most specific keyword research tool out there, Google Trends can still give you some pointers as to which keywords are growing and which ones you can ignore.
Plus, you can use the same tool for YouTube Keyword Research, which can’t be said for some of the others we have described in this post. You should give Google Trends a try if you’re looking to create a lot of evergreen content.
Other keyword research tools to try out today
There are many other tools that can help you with your keyword research if you are building a new website, and here are some that you should at least look into before deciding on getting a paid plan from any.
- WordStream
- Wordtracker Scout
- Ubersuggest
- Google Correlate
- Google Adwords: Keyword Planner
Need help with your keyword research or other parts of your SEO campaign? We have different plans available and we also offer consultancy. Use the button below to reach out.
Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
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