Keyword Research Tools are essential for improving your SEO and maximizing website traffic. Effective keyword research helps the cornerstone for increasing your site’s visibility and attracting a targeted audience through organic search traffic.
This becomes particularly challenging for newcomers to SEO, given the options available. In this article, we present the best keyword research tools, trusted by experts, to fuel considerable growth in website traffic.
What is a Keyword Research Tool?
A keyword research tool is a tool that helps you discover topics that people are searching for on search engines such as Google, Bing, Amazon, and more. This helps in identifying content ideas that align with your customers’ interests. Later, you can strategize your content creation to address these topics within your blog posts and landing pages.
Additionally, keyword research tools provide insights into both primary keywords and longer, more specific phrases where your competitors hold top rankings. Armed with this information, you can improve your content to target these keywords effectively and potentially divert traffic from your competitors.
Now, we share the best keyword research tools for SEO that you can utilize.
Semrush
Semrush is a comprehensive SEO toolkit designed to simplify keyword research and improve your SEO performance.
With the Keyword Overview tool, simply input a keyword to access comprehensive insights. You’ll uncover valuable data such as the monthly search volume, trend analysis showing popularity changes, and additional relevant information.
Scrolling further shows a useful compilation of related keywords and organic search results, allowing you to measure competitor rankings.
To gain a competitive edge in your PPC campaigns, it’s important to explore Google Ads using relevant keywords. You can do this by entering a competitor’s website into the Domain Overview. Doing so will give you access to invaluable information such as organic search terms, keyword data, and traffic metrics.
By analyzing this data, you can gain a better understanding of your competitor’s digital marketing strategy and make informed decisions about how to optimize your campaigns for better results. So, make sure to take advantage of this useful feature within Google Ads to stay ahead of the competition.
For detailed insights into relevant keywords, competitor search engine ranking positions, traffic value, and more, you can navigate to the Organic Research tab. Additionally, Semrush simply integrates with the All in One SEO plugin, which makes it easier to discover related keywords directly within WordPress.
This tool offers real-time search volumes and trends, enabling effortless keyword integration into your content. Renowned as the exclusive keyword research tool by top marketers worldwide, Semrush provides a comprehensive suite of tools for content marketing, digital marketing, social media, and beyond.
Answer The Public
Answer The Public offers a unique approach compared to traditional keyword research tools. It presents keywords in a visually appealing format, although you can also view them as a list or download them as a .csv file.
Ideal for beginners in SEO and keyword research, Answer the Public doesn’t require an account setup. Simply input your keyword and explore the generated results.
These keyword suggestions are derived from Google and Bing’s auto-suggest and autocomplete features. Clicking on any keyword directs you to a Google search, providing insights into ranking content and featured snippets.
The free version of Answer the Public is particularly beneficial for bloggers. However, for those conducting regular keyword searches, upgrading to their pro plan is recommended.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a free tool developed by Neil Patel, is a valuable resource that provides insights on search volume data, keyword suggestions, and an assessment of the ranking difficulty of your chosen keywords.
Additionally, it offers so many related keyword suggestions along with detailed information on trends, volume, cost per click (CPC), paid difficulty, and SEO difficulty.
Within the Content Ideas section, Ubersuggest displays content associated with your keyword, along with estimated monthly visits, backlinks, and social media shares on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, and Reddit.
For improved features, sign in with your Google account to unlock additional benefits, including more keyword suggestions, daily rank tracking, and personalized SEO recommendations. Ubersuggest also offers a convenient Chrome extension to streamline your workflow and boost productivity.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another popular keyword research tool, offering features of SEMrush. With Ahrefs’ keyword explorer, generating keyword ideas is as simple as inputting a keyword into the search box, yielding a comprehensive list of suggestions.
Furthermore, Ahrefs allows you to identify keywords that your competitors rank for, but you do not, facilitating the creation of targeted content around related subjects.
A significant competitive feature of Ahrefs is its capability to track new keywords and changes in search queries.
Both Semrush and Ahrefs provide a lot of additional tools, including reports to identify broken links on your site, PPC keywords for Google Ads campaigns, and more.
Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is specially designed for advertisers desiring to run ads on Google, still proves to be a valuable tool for SEO purposes. Unlike other paid tools, it’s freely accessible.
To utilize it, you’ll require a Google Ads account. If you don’t have one yet, you’ll need to create an account and provide payment details, although there’s no obligation to run an active campaign or make any payments.
Once you’ve gained access to the Keyword Planner via your Google Ads account, you can enter any keyword to obtain an estimate of its monthly search volume.
Additionally, you’ll receive a comprehensive list of related keyword ideas, which you can scroll through or download for further analysis.
Long Tail Pro
Long Tail Pro like other advanced keyword tools, provides a comprehensive overview of data related to your keyword. It places special importance on analyzing your ranking compared to competitors on the first page of Google.
With Long Tail Pro, you can analyze the top search engine results for your keyword, gaining insights into your competitive positioning.
Moreover, you have the option to input specific keywords for tracking purposes. This allows you to monitor changes in your content’s ranking for those keywords over time.
Serpstat
Serpstat is another outstanding keyword research tool. It enables you to discover fresh keyword ideas, providing essential data such as volume, cost per click (CPC), and interest trends over time.
With Serpstat, accessing the top Google results for your keyword is effortless. These results even highlight the site featured in the snippet, if applicable, as the primary outcome.
Furthermore, Serpstat offers comprehensive insights into your competitors’ performance for the given keyword, indicating their visibility level. A higher visibility score suggests they will likely receive more visitors.
Additionally, you can access valuable statistics like backlinks, referring domains, and more for deeper analysis.
SpyFu
SpyFu is designed to help you gain insights from your competitors by uncovering their most lucrative keywords and advertisements.
You can freely explore the features of the tool without signing in. Simply enter the URL of the site you wish to analyze into the search bar, and you will receive instant results. However, if you wish to analyze multiple sites, you will need to create a free account and log in.
SpyFu offers recorded data, allowing you to track changes in rankings for specific keywords on your site or your competitor’s sites. Additionally, you can compare your site against others within your industry.
The platform provides various statistics including overlap, common keywords, number of keywords, monthly clicks, and more for comprehensive analysis.
Picking the Best Keyword Research Tool (Expert Choice):
After thoroughly testing various keyword research tools, our expert opinion points to Semrush as the top choice and the leading SEO toolkit available.
If you’re in search of a free keyword research tool, consider AnswerThePublic.
Regardless of whether you run a blog or an eCommerce website, a successful keyword research strategy hinges on setting up Google Analytics and linking Google Search Console to your site.
These tools offer insights into your website’s performance for specific keywords, including the average click-through rate (CTR) on your listing. By adjusting your title to enhance CTR, you can further optimize your keyword rankings.
