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How can you sift among all those keyword tools and find the ones worth using? We did the heavy lifting for you. To create this list, we looked into keyword research tools that simplify finding the right keywords to target and gives you a clear picture of their ranking, without having to take a mortgage to pay for them. Here is our take on the Top 25 keyword research tools you should know:
Best Keyword Research Tools Summary
#1 Best Free Keyword Research Tool Overall: [Moz Keyword Explorer] [FREE & Paid]
#1 Best PPC Research Tool: [Google Keyword Planner] [FREE]
#1 Best Keyword Research Tool for Questions: [QuestionDB] [FREE & Paid]
#1 Best Keyword Research Tool for Amazon: [Soovle] [FREE]
#1 Best Extension as a Keyword Research: [Keyword Surfer] [FREE & Paid]
#1 Best Keyword Research Tool Price for Quality Features: [Ahrefs] [PAID]
#1 Best Keyword Research Tool for SEO Experts: [Semrush] [PAID]
#1 Best Keyword Research Tool for Non-English Markets: [Serpstat] [PAID]
Using the right tools can help you find the right keywords to target. Here is our pick of the best free and paid keyword research tools.
Best Keyword Research Tools [FREE & PAID]
What we considered to make this list? We looked at the range of features, the value for money (or for the free product), and the ease of use, as the main factors. Short on time? Here is a summary of our top 25:
Summary table for SEO Keyword Research Tools:
1.Moz Keyword Explorer (Free & Paid)
Features: difficulty, CTR and monthly volume, similar keywords, priority score
Moz’s keyword research tool has multiple features that help with keyword search. The Keyword Explorer feature, enables you to search for a target keyword and instantly see its difficulty, CTR and monthly volume. They also offer suggestions for similar keywords. The Moz Keyword Explorer gives you all the information that the Google Keyword Planner does and more. You can learn about opportunity for certain niches, get keyword suggestions, and even get suggestions for blog post ideas around a topic. The keyword suggestions are also parsed into different topic areas, which makes it easier for you to explore new directions.
The best feature in our opinion: The keyword tool includes a “priority score” which tells you if the keyword is worth it or not. The keyword explorer uses the keyword’s volume, CTR and difficulty to calculate the score. You can also set your criteria for prioritizing keywords.
Pricing:
Moz allows up to 10 free queries per tool per month. You can also have up to 1000 keyword variations and SERP analysis per query for free. If you need more, the platform offers Pro plans starting at $99/month.
Moz Keyword Explorer Pros and Cons
2. Google Keyword Planner (Free)
Of course, Google offers its own Keyword Planner as part of its host of tools for AdSense. The planner has undergone some changes in recent years, but it still serves as a solid starting point for your keyword research. You’ll learn about local and global search volume, average ad rates, and current competition.
Features: PPC, search volume, competition, bid range
Google Keyword Planner is the best keyword research tool when it comes to PPC keywords. It is free, without a premium paid plan. You can use it for explore and discover new keyword ideas or for research on search volume and in-depth forecasting. It has a feature called “Keyword ideas”, it is similar to other keyword research tools. You input a search term, and the platform generates other keyword variations. You can visualize also the monthly search volume, the competition, bid range and how the keyword importance changed.
The best feature is that you can refine the list by source website, brand or non-brand keywords. It is especially useful for Google Ads users, which can budget and plan their strategy.
Pricing:
Free
Google Keyword Planner Pros and Cons
3. Uber Suggest (Free & Paid)
Most keyword tools start with the assumption that you know what keywords you want to research. But sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you just don’t know where to start. Uber suggest helps by giving you keyword ideas that aren’t even yet available in the Google Keyword Tool. Just put in a simple, generic term, and uber suggest will help you narrow down the options with its suggestions. You’ll get related keyword suggestions as well s search data.
Features: keyword suggestions, search volume data, and difficulty, top 100 Google results, number of backlinks, domain score, social shares
This free tool offers keyword suggestions, search volume data, and difficulty. The tool also displays the top 100 Google results for that keyword with number of backlinks the domain score and social shares. If that wasn’t enough, Ubersuggest also shows content related to your keyword to give you content ideas. The Chrome extension also gives you keyword suggestions, daily rank tracking and personalized SEO suggestions.
The first thing you see when you insert a keyword in the search box is the difficulty, ran, and cost per click of the keyword
Then you see keyword ideas, which can be in the form of questions, prepositions or related keywords:
Pricing:
Free in the basic plan. There is a paid plan that starts at $29/month.
Ubersuggest Pros and Cons
4. Keyword Tool (Free & Paid)
Despite its generic name, Keyword Tool delivers great results for your keyword research. Just enter in a search term and Keyword Tool will generate up to 750 long-tail keyword suggestions. You’ll need to upgrade to the pro version to get information like search volume, cost per click and competition.
Features: Google Autocompletе, search volume, trend, CPC, competition data
This solution uses Google Autocomplete to provide keyword suggestions. The paid version offers search volume, trend, CPC and competition data. It is a basic tool that works well if you only need to create a list of keywords to target or to begin research on. You can also use it to find keywords for Amazon, Bing, YouTube, eBay and Instagram.
Pricing:
Free limited tier, Plans start at $69/month.
Keyword Tool Pros and Cons
5. Buzz Sumo (Free)
Keyword research should look beyond basic search. This tool from Buzz Sumo helps you see what’s being shared so you can get a handle on what’s popular on social networking. Buzz Sumo lets you look at the most shared social media posts and articles by keyword or by domain. You can filter the results by date range, length, language, country of origin, content type and more. With this tool, you’ll see what types of content are most popular, not just what types of keywords.
Features: competitor intelligence, content discovery, new keywords, suggestions, tracker
BuzzSumo is focused on content marketing data, with strong features for content research. Their keyword research tool provides competitor intelligence, and content discovery. It discovers new keywords and provides suggestions. It also features a keyword tracker and identifies questions for your target keywords.
Pricing:
Buzz Sumo has a free tier with 10 free searches a month and a max of 1000 results. The paid plan starts at $99/month.
Buzz Sumo Pros and Cons
6. Majestic SEO (Paid)
The tool at Majestic SEO gives you many metrics that you don’t get with other keyword tools. The tool returns URLs that have the keywords, and it provides a search score that is broken down by total hits, hits in title, hits in anchor, and so on. It also provides the number of backlinks for each URL, as well as a trust score. You’ll get a better idea of how the keywords are performing outside of basic volume.
Features: all-in-one SEO tool, target keywords, researching competition, trustworthiness and authority of sites
All SEO features available in a single solution. Majestic offers an all-in-one SEO tool to find easy to target keywords, including researching the competition. The platform also analyzes the trustworthiness and authority for the websites.
Pricing:
It has a free trial of three searches. The keyword tool is only available in the paid plans. The SEO toolkit plan starts on $83.33 when you pay annually.
Majestic SEO Pros and Cons
7. SEO Book Keyword Tool (Free)
SEO Book is a leader in the SEM field, and it offers a keyword tool that uses its own custom database. This tool provides daily search volume for Google, Yahoo! and Bing, links to trends and other tools, links to topical databases, links to ad programs for price matching, and more. Whatever you need to find out for your keyword, you’ll be able to find it here.
Features: keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, competitive research
SEO Book offers basic SEO features, such as keyword research, on-page optimization, link building and competitive research.
Pricing:
It has a free/basic account. The paid plans are currently closed to new members.
SEO Book Pros and Cons
8. Keyword Spy (Free)
One way to find out what you need to do is to find out what your competitors are already doing. Keyword Spy lets you know what keywords your competitors are using and how they are ranking with them. You can also see what your competitors are spending on their PPC campaigns so you know what is going into their results. The tool can also help you identify competitors you didn’t know you had.
Features: advanced keyword research, competitive intelligence, competitor’s most profitable keyword/copy, view competitor’s PPC campaigns
This keyword research tool specialized in advanced keyword research and tracing for competitive intelligence. You can find out what your competitors have been advertising on their PPC campaigns. The platform also indicates your competitor’s most profitable keyword/copy combination.
The platform lets you filter your search by domain, keywords, URL and copy content. It even discovers the ad spending budget for your target sites. Keywordspy provides statistics on key metrics, such as search volume, position and cost per click.
Pricing:
We couldn’t find pricing information, but some sites say it is free.
Keyword Spy Pros and Cons
9. Wordtracker (Free & Paid)
Wordtracker promises to help you find high-performing keywords in minutes. The free tool gives you search volume, competitor information, and related keywords. It tells you what keywords you should be focusing on based on your area of interest.
Features: keyword ideas, competitors’ keywords, niche explorer tool, trending keywords, API for SEO
Wordtracker keyword research tool offers keyword ideas, and discovering competitors’ keywords. I also has a niche explorer tool and a feature that uncovers trending keywords for any niche. It has an API for SEO on the go and it has a free trial. With Wordtracker you can look up from a 1000 keywords and over 200 territories.
Pricing:
It has a free 7-day trial period. The paid plans start at $195/year and include from 1000 keyword results and 7 territories up to 10,000 keyword results with 200 territories for $640/year.
Wordtracker Pros and Cons
10. Google Trends (Free)
If you have a news site or some other general interest site, your potential keyword base can be quite large. You can get fast answers by looking at Google Trends. Just check out what the hot topics are right now and create some relevant content. Or, if you prefer, you can look at trends over time to find topics that will be of interest for longer than a couple of weeks.
Once you’ve found the right keywords, you can start putting together the right content marketing strategy to get the results you want. You’ll reach the right customers and get more conversions with less effort.
Features: trend data
You can review trend data for a specific period, and location. The platform provides you trends data at a glance for a specific area. It also gives you the interest in the topic for the last month or year.
Pricing:
Free
Google Trends Pros and Cons
11. Ahrefs (Paid)
It is a keyword research tool with similar features to SEMrush. Ahrefs features a keyword explorer to discover thousands of keyword ideas and suggestions. You can see which keywords the competitors are ranking for and you aren’t. The platform displays results from over 171 countries and 10 different search engines.
Features: keyword explorer, rankings, breakdown of the competition, keyword difficulty, backlink profiling, domain check, content gap check, competitor comprisons, built-in crawler, project performance tracker
Besides the keyword explorer and ranking, it displays new keywords and keyword movements. The best feature: it gives in-depth information on each keyword. For instance, a breakdown of the competition for the first page, and also how many searchers click on a result. It also displays the keyword difficulty and how many backlinks you need to rank on the first page of Google, which sets it apart from other solutions.
Ahrefs also has a domain verification system that lets you use the platform with multiple sites. It is also inexpensive to add seats for Ahrefs. The platform also has a feature that spots untapped keywords.
Ahrefs Keyword explorer helps you with keyword ideas when you type a keyword in the search box. You’ll see a list of suggestions, the difficulty, search volume and CPC.
Pricing:
Sadly, Ahrefs has no free tier. The paid plans start on $99/month. It may be pricey, but it offers a great value for price.
Ahrefs Pros and Cons
12. Keyword Surfer (Free & Paid)
This keyword research tool works as a Google Chrome extension and displays keyword suggestions directly in your SERP. The tool automatically shows keyword suggestions on the right side of the SERP.
Features: related keywords overlaps, search volume, group & save keywords
The related keywords overlaps with the original search query, showing the search volume and other metrics. You can group and save the keywords.
Pricing:
Free, the Content tool is paid
Keyword Surfer Pros and Cons
13. SEO PowerSuite [Free Limited Version & Paid Full Access]
SEO Powersuite is a comprehensive tool that goes beyond keyword research. You get essential keyword research along with optimization features.
Features: SEO Audita, competitor tracking, link management, keyword research
This tool features include SEO audit, competitor rank tracking, link management and keyword research. According to the reviews in TrustRadius, it includes four essential tools full of features — SEO SpyGlass, Link Assistant,Website Auditor, and Rank Tracker. Each of the four application focuses on a specific aspect of SEO. WebSite Auditor helps users run audits that tackle technical issues. and provide recommendations. SpyGlass is great at finding backlink opportunities, while LinkAssistant helps run link outreach campaigns. Finally, the Rank Tracker helps you with rank monitoring, including competitor’s analysis, and look for new keyword ideas.
Pricing:
A limited free plan, and two premium plans with full features. The paid plans are expensive, starting at $299 a year.
SEO PowerSuite Pros and Cons
14. GrowthBar (Paid)
GrowthBar is a keyword research tool that provides fast and at a glance results. The ranking difficulty and keyword suggestions appear in the same page as the search results. It also features a content outline generation with keywords, word counts, headers, images, and links. The competitor research feature enables you to explore your competitors profile for organic keywords and backlink data.
Features: keyword rank & difficulty, long-tail suggestions
You can track keyword rank and find the keyword ranking difficulty. It also offers exportable keyword data including long-tail suggestions.
Pricing:
It has a free 5-day trial. Each plan has a higher threshold of keywords they let you search, with the most expensive plan allowing to search unlimited keywords.
GrowthBar Pros and Cons
15. SE Ranking (Paid)
SE Ranking Keyword research tool is different to the other solutions because it gives you insight into the quality of each keyword. Once you input the seed term, you can see the difficulty score, search volume, CPC, and competition or each keyword. You can filter and refine your keyword list, and adjust your strategy.
Features: Check the list below
But SE Ranking is more than a keyword research tool. It gives a full website optimization solution. Besides giving a detailed analysis of each keyword. You can also group keyword suggestions, visualize and export the data. Features include:
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Pricing:
Free 14-day trial. It is more affordable than other solutions. The Starter plan starts at $31.20 and allows to track 250 keywords.
SE Ranking PROS and CONS
16. SEMrush (Paid)
Semrush is not for beginners, but it has a learning curve, which makes it ideal for advanced SEO professionals. This keyword research tool displays a lot of keyword information. .
Features: advanced SERP features ( featured snippet, reviews, image pack, links), backlink analyzer, content gap, project tracker, site audits, keyword intent
The broad range of keyword research tools Semrush offers, makes them the best tool for professionals. Some of the features include, a Keyword Overview, a Magic Tool to discover new keyword ideas, a Keyword Manager, competitive gap analysis, and traffic insights. It links to Google analytics, too. Semrush even has a tool that helps you automatically create a content brief with SEO optimization as you write.
Pricing:
Semrush has a free, and a paid plan. The free plan gives you 10 analytics reports a day and you can track up to 10 keywords. The pay plan is kinda pricey but it offers a good value for money, you can have 3000 reports a day and track 250 keywords.
SEM Rush Pros and Cons
17. Answer the public (Free & Paid Pro Version)
This keyword research tool displays different types of keywords related to what people are searching online in a data visualization graphic.
Features: seed keyword, common words, suggested keywords, topic ideas, data visualization tree
The visualization tool displays a chart similar to a tree, with the seed keyword as the trunk, with the common words as branches and suggested keywords as the leaves. This tool helps you find topic ideas and find what people are looking for. The best features is the data visualization tree which shows you how the keywords are connected. You can save and organize the searches. With the paid plan you can hide unwanted keywords from the visualization tree.
Pricing:
It has free and paid versions. The free plan offers a limited number of searches, while both paid plans offer unlimited searches and data comparison over time.
Answer the Public Pros and Cons
18. KWFinder (Paid)
This tool focuses in finding keywords with low SEO difficulty among other features.
Features: keyword competition, SERP overview, keyword suggestions, import keywords in bulk, filter non-profitable keywords, competitor’s and long-tail keywords
It has an easy to navigate interface, and lets you find keywords in any language target. You can have advanced statistics for keyword competition, and SERP overview. You can refine your list of keyword suggestions with filters. You can import keywords in bulk, and filter non-profitable keywords. You can also find competitor’s and long-tail keywords.
Pricing:
It offers a 10 days free trial, with a money-back gurntee. There are three paid plns, starting at $29.90/month.
KWFinder Pros and Cons
19. Soovle (Free)
This keyword research tool also collects search suggestions across 15 different search engines.
Features: search suggestions across different platform, find new long-tail keywords
You can compare search suggestions across different platform, which helps find new long-tail keywords to target. Once you input your target keyword, Soovle displays top suggested searches related to it. You can click on any suggested long-tail keyword to see a live search result page.
Other features includes a user-friendly interface, showing you the top ranking page for each search term, and the top internet keywords.
Pricing:
Free
Soovle Pros and Cons
20. QuestionDB (Free & Paid)
This keyword research tool will show you a list of related questions people ask online when you input a keyword or topic into their search box.
Features: pulling questions from Google & Bing
While other keyword research tools source the questions from Google or Bing, QuestionDB broads the range, pulling questions from across the web. It sources questions from Reddit, Quora, and Stack Exchange. It is a good alternative to Answer The Public.
The best feature: it sorts the results by popularity.
Pricing:
It is free for the first 50 results per search. QuestionDB also features a paid keyword research tool that gives you complete results for up to 500 searches per month. The price? $15/month.
QuestionsDB Pros and Cons
21. TubeBuddy (Free & Paid)
This browser extension helps YouTube creators optimize their channels. It includes a keyword explorer for discovering long tail keywords and trending topics from YouTube and Google Trends.
Features: research keywords specific to YouTube, split testing, templates,
It enables you to research keywords specific to YouTube, do split testing and it has templates you can use. Since it is a browser extension, it works once you have granted it access to your YouTube channel. The platform offers a lot of features.
When you search for a keyword, it will show you a score, which considers the competition you have for that keywords and the optimization score for your videos. With the paid plan, you can access scores specific for your channel.
You can see a snapshot of the current YouTube results for a keyword, performance data. SEO, best practices and video tags.
Pricing:
The free plan lets you access the top three results per search in Keyword Explorer, up to 25 searches per day. The platform offers several paid tiers, starting on $11.99 per month.
TubeBuddy Pros and Cons
22. Long Tail Pro (Paid)
The importance of long tail keyword in SERP rankng is known. Long Tail Pro is a keyword research tool that generates long-tail keywords for niche sites.
Features: long-tail keywords, overview of data how you rank, top results in search engines
The platform offers recommendation for easy to find long-tail keywords. With Long Tail Pro, you can search up to 2,500 SERP lookups per day. This premium keyword tool displays an overview of data, including how you rank against competitors in the first page of Google. You can also look at what are the top results in search engines for a particular keyword.
Pricing:
It has no free plans, only a 7 day free trial. There are three paid tiers for users: Starter, at $24.75/month, Pro, at $44.75/month, Agency, at $98.08/month.
Long-tail Pro Pros and Cons
23. Serpstat (Paid)
Serpstat is a fully featured SEO suite. It offers website analytics, SERP analysis, rank tracker, website audit features, and backlink analysis.
Features: competitor graph features, keyword difficulty, popularity and trends
The competitor graph features lest you understand your competition. You can also find keyword difficulty, popularity and trends, in the Keyword Research Tool. For a paid option, it is budget friendly. It also helps find the right search term.
Serpstat shows you the top Google results for your keyword. Including the page of the featured snippet. They can also view details about your competitors for your target keyword.
Pricing:
Serpstat offers a trial membership. The paid option starts at $52/month
Serpstat Pros and Cons
24. Jaaxy (Free & Paid)
Jaaxy keyword research tool is very simple to use. You just input in a keyword or topic and the tool gives you a list of keyword variations, with basic statistics on each. What differences Jaaxy’s from other keyword research tools is that it helps you find affiliate programs to feature on your site.
Features: find affiliate programs
Helps find affiliate programs, sources from LinkShare, Digital River, ClickBank, and Commision Junction.It gives you the listed commission for each program.
Pricing:
It has a free limited plan, and the paid plans start at $49/month.
Jaaxy Pros and Cons
25. AlsoAsked Questions (Free & Paid)
This tool collects the “People Also Ask” questions and displays it when you input a keyword in their search box. People Also Ask is a treasure of topics and questions related to your target keyword.
Features: PAA related questions
When you input a target keyword, Also asked shows you what PAA questions are related to your keyword in a diagram showing the relation between these questions. For example, when asking for the keyword “women boots” this is what we got:
Although the features are limited to this, it allows you to export this data as a CSV or as an image to use in presentations.
Pricing:
It has a free tier that allows you to perform 10 searches per month. The paid tiers start at $15 per month and lets you perform 100 searches.
People Also Ask Pros and Cons
Which are the Best Free Keyword Research Tools
After that long list, we can summarize the best free keyword research tool is Moz Keyword Explorer. It offers full basic features even in the free plan.
Best Google Keyword Research Tools to use
Google offers great keyword research tools, such as the:
- Google Keyword Planner and
- Google Trends.
There are also other solutions that work with Google, such as:
- Ubersuggest,
- TubeBuddy and
- QuestionDB.
Which keyword research tool is most accurate?
Although free, simple to use and offering a very basic features, Google Keyword Planner is actually the most accurate source of keywords data on the market, because the results come from the Google search engine.
What is the best way to search for keywords?
You can search a website for keywords but if you want to have better insights, you must use a specific keyword tool. The right keywords will consider the relevance, authority and volume. You want to find highly searched keywords fr your audience.
What is the best free keyword research tool for SEO?
We chose Moz as the best free keyword research tool for SEO. Other alternatives are Ubersuggest, and Google Keyword Planner
What tools do you use for keyword analysis?
Once you discover and find your target keywords, you need to analyze them for relevance, volume,competition and difficulty. The best keyword research tools also provide analytics features. They provide keyword gap analysis and competitive data that enables you to see how the keyword is used by your competitors.
Which tool is used for Amazon keyword research?
Many of the top keyword research tool alo pull keywords from Amazon. For example, Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, and KEyword Tool. AMZ.One is especialized in Amazon sellers, offering a suit of tools, including keyword rank tracking and On Page Analyzer.
FAQs
Is there a free keyword tool?
Yes. If you are starting and cannot yet invest in an paid suite, there are several free solutions to choose. Some of them offer a basic free plan, while others are completely free. Here is a short list:
- Moz Keyword Explorer is our top choice, and has a free basic plan.
- For PPC keywords, or if you need basic but deep features, Google Keyword Planner can be a good choice.
- Ubersuggest is completely free and also give content recommendations.
- QuestionDB is good for finding question-based keywords
There are more above in our guide, but this is a short list.
Which is the best tool for keyword research for SEO in 2023?
If money is not an object, it’s a tie between Ahrefs and SEMrush. They provide robust all-in-one SEO suites that can help you with research and application. If you are looking for free tools, you may look into Moz, Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest. Google’s tool offers basic features but it is still powerful if you don’t need much more.
Is Google keyword research tool free?
Yes, both Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends are free.
Which Google tool is used for keyword research?
You have two, Google Keyword Planner and Google Trends. Google Keyword Planner is a great place to start, wich gives you a list of related keywords along with simple metrics. This will help you understand the competition around ech one and the search volume. Google Trends, as its name suggests, gives you trending topics in your category, or location. You can even compare between different keyword variations. Just click on Compare and it will give you interest in both over a period of time.
Which tool is used for keyword research?
To research keywords across the web, you should use a specialized tool, called a keyword research tool. This will give you keyword suggestions, ideas and content suggestions.
How do I find the best keywords to search?
The best tools give you competitive intelligence. That means they allow you to see which keywords are your competitors using. You can start from there. You can also use Google trends to identify what’s trending in your area and category.
When choosing the right keywords for SEO, the most important factor is relevance. Think about your audience and how they would look for your product. Be specific and take the location into account too. There are tools that can help you identify potential keywords, among the the Google Keyword Planner, and Keyword Tool.
How do I research keywords for free?
There are numerous ree tools for keyword research.
