The 10 Best Keyword Research Tools

How much time does it take to find the best keyword for your content? Depending on your experience and keyword complexity it could take a few hours to sometimes even a few days. So wouldn’t it be great if there was an automated way to generate these reports? This is exactly why keyword research tools exist.

Keywords play a crucial role in SEO. They determine where your site appears in search engines and how well it ranks. You’ll never get organic traffic or conversions if you don’t know exactly what keywords to target.

You might spend a few minutes searching through the top organic rankings for specific terms and come up with a rough idea of what they cost. But if you really want a clear picture of what keywords bring in the highest traffic volume, you’ll need to dig deeper into the data.

Hence, it is vital to tailor your content using specific keywords and make it SEO-friendly to receive more views and boost traffic to your website.

Therefore, we have compiled a list of the ten best keyword research tools to help you write the perfect SEO article and increase your search visibility.

Rundown

  1. For the content marketing professionals: SEMrush, “One of the most used keyword research toolkits that provides all the necessary tools to find the best keywords as well the general keyword trends.”
  2. The all-in-one SEO toolset: Ahrefs Keyword Explorer, “A great option for SEO experts as it provides various keyword research tools and other important SEO tools that help optimize content for search engines.”
  3. For bloggers: KWFinder, “An intuitive and effective tool to find easy-to-rank and language-specific keywords.”
  4. For the online advertisers: Google Keyword Planner, “A one-stop solution for online advertisers who want to run their ads on google.”
  5. For the SEO agencies: Serpstat, “An enterprise-level tool for professionals who work for digital marketing agencies, SEO teams, and enterprises.”
  6. For a good SEO starting point: Moz Keyword Explorer, “A trusted and easy-to-use SEO analysis tool that provides an in-depth keyword and SERP analysis.”
  7. For the professional digital marketers: SpyFu, “A complete SEO marketing suite that is mainly beneficial for digital marketing and advertising.”
  8. A free keyword research tool: Ubersuggest, “The best free-to-use keyword research tool that can provide basic insight and analysis of websites on Google’s rankings.”
  9. For the publishers: Keyword chef“A beginner-friendly keyword research tool with a straightforward and easy-to-use interface that helps to find unique keywords phrases and clusters for blogs and articles.
  10. For AI-assisted keyword research: Twinwords, “The first A.I. powered SEO tool that helps to automatically detect user intent for keyword suggestions as well as analyze geographical keyword trends and patterns.”

Recommended Keyword Research Tools

semrush

For the content marketing professionals:

Semrush

Be it keyword analysis, competitor research, SEO rankings, or content optimisation; Semrush is the most used and recommended SEO suite that may make your content marketing journey more accessible and faster, all from one platform.

One of the most popular SEO suites provides a host of tools and services that can help you improve your website’s SEO rankings.

Semrush’s keyword overview tool gives you a complete analysis of the searched keywords and other metric data such as keyword search volume, keyword trend, and a list of popular alternative keywords.

It also provides organic search results to determine where your competitors rank for the keyword. You can also check Google ads that use this Keyword in PPC advertising (pay-per-click ads).

You can also use this tool to identify the keywords your competitors are ranking for.

Try Semrush to:

  • Discover popular long-tail keywords and keyword clusters.
  • Get keyword trend analysis within a particular time period.
  • Get access to a complete keyword research toolkit, including keyword difficulty analysis, search volume, and traffic insights.
  • Get access to worldwide CPC distribution statistics.

The best part? It offers a 7-day free trial.

ahrefs

The all-in-one SEO toolset:

Ahrefs

A perfect comprehensive platform for SEO agencies and SMEs who are looking for a complete SEO suite not just for SEO optimization but also for rank tracking, competitor analysis, site auditing, and much more.

The platform also provides a comprehensive keyword research tool that generates a  list of keyword suggestions along with its reports and ranking.

It also lets you see what keywords your competitors are using so that you can also write new content pieces targeting keywords related to those subjects.

Ahrefs is one of the best tools, as it

  • Provides an accurate keyword difficulty score.
  • Has over 1,000+ keyword suggestions and alternative keyword lists.
  • Has a user base in over 171 countries.
  • Provides click metrics for improving CTR.
  • Gives you an extensive SERP overview.
KWFinder

For bloggers:

KWFinder

KWfinder is a freemium tool developed by Mangools, a developer known for delivering the best keyword research tools across categories.

The KWFinder platform is an easy-to-use keyword research tool that provides low SEO difficulty and niche keywords along with several other valuable features.

It also helps you find long-tail keywords, analyze SERPs, and know your competition.

KWfinder is a good option as it provides you with

  • A Budget-friendly keyword research tool with an easy-to-use interface.
  • Multiple research options for unique keyword opportunities.
  • A reliable, one-click keyword difficulty score for any keyword.
  • The most accurate SEO difficulty and exact search volumes for keywords.

KWFinder also offers a 10-day trial period which you can avail yourself of without giving any credit card details.

adwords

For the online advertisers:

Google Keyword Planner

Designed exclusively for advertisers who want to run their ads on Google, Google Keyword Planner also doubles up as a great keyword research tool offering many valuable SEO optimization features.

Google keyword tool can provide mostly accurate data for how many monthly searches a keyword has. You will also see a list of alternative keyword ideas, which you can scroll through or download.

With Google AdWords, you can,

  • Determine commercial keywords using the “top of page” bid range.
  • Get an accurate search volume directly from Google’s search engine.
  • Have the best choice for business websites.
  • Get Keyword max CPC and competition.
 Google keyword planner is a free-to-use tool that only requires you to sign in using your Google account.
serpstat

For the SEO agencies: 

Serpstat

If you are an SEO professional who needs a tool that can cater to all your needs, then look no further than Serpstat. Serpstat is an excellent all-in-one solution to streamline the entire category of SEO.

Serpstat brings together several essential SEO tools under one platform, such as website analytics, keyword research tool, SERP analysis, backlink analysis, a rank tracker, and website audit features.

Serpstat is the fastest-growing SEO tool on the market that provides comprehensive search analytics data to more than 300,000 users.

With Serpstat, you can

  • Know your competition using the competitor graph feature
  • Find keyword difficulty and keyword trends.
  • The most budget-friendly option on our list.
  • Determine what keywords will be most appropriate for your projects.
  • Get the most relevant topic ideas for your content marketing
  • Track the progress of your website on a daily basis in any region.
spyfu

For a good SEO starting point:

Moz Keyword Explorer

If you are an SEO beginner or content writer looking for a good starter SEO tool, then Moz Keyword explorer could be the ideal option for you.

Moz provides an easy-to-use interface and features you’d expect from the best keyword research tools, plus two unique data points.

It also reveals how content is shared on social media and how that drives traffic to a website, and it includes a comprehensive set of SEO tools, including rank tracking, link opportunities, site audit, prospective keyword analysis, and content grading, as well as a crawl test to detect broken or poorly designed site elements.

With Moz keyword explorer, you can

  • Get related keyword suggestions.
  • Receive Organic CTR and Priority score for smart targeting
  • Get a keyword priority score to know whether the keyword is trending or not.
  • Use a Keyword Planner tool to search any keyword and see its monthly volume, difficulty, and organic clickthrough rate (CTR).

The keyword is also helpful for freelancers or one-time users as it provides up to 10 queries per month free of charge.

unleashed

For the professional digital marketers:

SpyFu

SpyFu is a well-known tool used by professional marketers who are starting a campaign to analyze their competitors’ SEO strategies and uncover valuable, mostly untapped keywords that can make a massive difference if you’re working in a highly saturated niche.

You can type in a domain to see all the keywords it ranks for the ads it buys on Google and its strongest competitors. You can also do deep keyword research.

You can even find the domains that buy or rank for it, along with deep insights and reporting.

Some of the best things you can do with SpyFu are;

  • Compare different websites competing for a single search term
  • Discover ranking difficulty and historical rank changes
  • Additional modules for in-depth domain analysis

You can check it out without even logging in. Simply enter the name of the site’s domain in the search field, and you’ll see the results immediately. If you wish to look at more than one site, you must register a free account and log in.

ubersuggest

A free keyword research tool: 

Ubersuggest

If you are a content writer, you may know how difficult it is to constantly think of new content ideas that would generate more views and increase the traffic to your website. Then, Ubersuggest and its features will solve your problems.

Ubersuggest is a free-to-use tool developed by Neil Patel and offers many useful features for all your SEO needs. It has search volume data, keyword suggestions, keyword difficulty, and more.

Ubersuggest is a fantastic tool because,

  • It provides 100 Google results for that keyword, with estimated visits, number of backlinks, a domain score, and a total number of social shares.
  • Shows content related to your keyword, listing estimated monthly visits, backlinks, and the number of shares on social media.
  • Top SEO pages report to discover which of your competitor’s pages are ranking for popular organic keyword phrases.

Signing into Ubersuggest using your Google account provides more keyword suggestions, daily rank tracking, and personalized SEO suggestions. UberSuggest also has a Chrome extension to help you improve your workflow.

keyword chef

For the publishers:

KeywordChef

Finding relevant keywords for content development is one of the most difficult aspects of digital marketing. Keyword Chef is a user-friendly tool that is perfect for online publishers to quickly find and filter the most searched for the best keywords in any niche.

Keyword chef allows you to find amazingly low competition keywords with high search intent and relevant long-tail keywords that are easier to rank than similar search terms.

It also helps you search for specific keywords, weeding out any irrelevant terms and examining the SERPs to determine how accessible each relevant keyword is.

With Keyword chef, you can

  • Automatically filter keywords for clear search intent and remove junk keywords.
  • Do real-time SERP analysis in bulk finds and highlight these sites for you.
  • Uncover best keywords or build keyword clusters by using a wildcard search function.
  • Have a user-friendly and straightforward Keyword Chef dashboard.

Keyword Chef is intended to make keyword research more straightforward and faster.

twinwords

For AI-assisted keyword research:

Twinwords

TwinWord is a unique SEO tool as it uses an AI-powered keyword research tool that can automatically generate keyword suggestions based on your search intent. It is a tool built for SEO and PPC marketing that can help you sort and filter by setting criteria like keyword relevance, user intent, search volume, and more.

From long-tail to LSI keywords, this AI-powered tool can rate each keyword’s relevance and allow you to filter them out.

It provides text analysis APIs along with support for over 200 regional settings and up to 40 languages to help you find the right keywords faster.

By using Twinword, you can get 

  • Relevant and most searched keywords without going through a long list of unrelated suggestions.
  • The automatic keyword grouping of new ideas and concepts on popular topics was detected and grouped by the A.I.
  • Target keywords with the best keyword score and rank to create great content.
  • Accurate search volume data to make decisions based on search volume, organic competition, paid competition, and CPC.

What’s great is that the basic plan is free; however, it will only show 250 keyword suggestions and allows only 10 searches per day. Also, it doesn’t allow to export of the keyword list.

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