Keyword research is the most important part of SEO. It all starts with research. You can have the best content in the world, but it won’t mean anything if people can’t find it.
The goal of keyword research is to find what people are searching for online and determine how many searches there are for any particular keyword or keyword phrase. This is important information that you can then use for crafting your content.
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a newer tool that plugs right into the Chrome web browser. When it’s on, results automatically display on the right side of your results page each time you enter a search term.
The data delivered by Keyword Surfer includes:
- Keyword ideas with their volume
- Cost per click (CPC) for each search term
- Pages that rank for the term you entered
- Traffic to pages ranked 1 through 10 for that term
It’s a highly efficient keyword research tool and delivers results as you use your web browser. As a new tool, there may be some kinks to work out. Data delivered by the plugin can sometimes differ from data supplied by other Google search tools. However, it’s a fast and easy way to get content ideas.
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a great place to see raw search insights. After you enter your search term(s), it displays the questions people are asking related to that topic. The results are shown in a graphic display with all the who, what, where, when, why and other questions users ask.
It’s a powerful way to generate keyword ideas and see what your potential customers actually want to know. You can download the data as a graph or a list.
There is one con for this tool: With a limit of 3 free searches a day, you have to be thoughtful about each phrase you search.
Keyword Sheeter
Keyword Sheeter pulls autocomplete results from Google. It delivers real-time data on what people are typing into the search engine.
If you want to generate a long list of keyword ideas fast, Keyword Sheeter is an excellent choice. It pulls about 1,000 ideas per minute, and exporting your list is free.
It’s a simple and powerful resource to identify ideas for blog topics. However, the free features of Keyword Sheeter do not include search volume or data on how competitive it is to rank for a phrase.
Keyworddit
Keyworddit mines Reddit for keywords. To use it, enter a specific subreddit with at least 10,000 subscribers and specify a timeframe. The tool searches through the titles and comments to extract up to 500 keywords with search volumes.
Due to the variety of answers within each subreddit, the relevance of the results may vary. There is an option to specify high relevance, which slows down the tool somewhat.
Keyworddit is not designed to replace other keyword research tools, but it can be an interesting complement to your existing strategy. Reddit is a popular site where people with specific interests take deep dives into a topic. It may reveal keyword phrases and blog topics you wouldn’t find using other search tools.
QuestionDB
QuestionDB is an excellent blog topic idea generator. It pulls from several question-and-answer websites, including Reddit and Quora, to give you questions people are actively asking related to your keywords .
The free version of the tool allows unlimited searches without registering for an account. You can download your results with a single click.
You have the option to display the source link for each question. This allows you to review additional details about how people are framing their questions. You can also review the answers. QuestionDB also displays related topics mentioned in the questions.
The free account limits you to 50 results per query.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is one of the free tools offered by Ahrefs, which is a popular paid service. Enter any target keyword or phrase, and it will pull the top 100 keyword ideas from its database of over 8 billion keywords from more than 170 countries.
For each keyword phrase, the Keyword Generator displays:
- Search volume
- Keyword difficulty from 1 to 100
- How recently this result was updated
- A list of questions related to your search term
You can use this keyword research tool to identify long-tail keywords, target less competitive phrases, and isolate your search using geographic location or search engine.
It allows you to export your data by downloading your list of results. In addition to the Keyword Generator that pulls from Google, Ahrefs also has free Bing, YouTube, and Amazon tools.
While some freemium services include the SERP results inside the keyword search tool, Ahrefs provides their free SERP service on a separate page.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is an efficient and valuable free tool that allows you to do unlimited searches without creating an account. However, unlike other tools, it does not allow you to download your results. And, because you don’t create an account with the free service, you have to prove you’re not a robot with every new search.
Kerboo
Kerboo is a link analysis tool that covers almost all aspects of SEO optimization and website maintenance. It lets you know the links you have and the available opportunities. The software has a wide range of features with excellent customization capabilities such as the audit, which checks your link-profile.
You can keep track of the links to your site and even set daily and monthly alerts using the monitoring feature. Moreover, peek helps you get as much information as possible on other websites and those behind them. Additionally, it has a ranking tool that keeps track of sites across different nations and generates a weekly or monthly report. To help you make better decisions, you can derive data from the investigate feature that highlights multiple sites in a graph.
Monitor Backlinks
Monitor Backlinks is an excellent checker tool designed to help you identify competitors’ quality links. The software can help you monitor and automatically discover your backlinks and keyword rankings. Further, you get email notifications whenever you lose or earn a link and keep track of your competitors’ keywords to outsmart them.
Monitor backlinks help you to know the backlinks that add value or drag down your domains. Additionally, it gives you more effective SEO strategies to boost your site’s traffic. The Platform also has vital features and metrics, integrated with Google Analytics to aid in handling large data sets, all in one place. Further, it derives information from many sources, including majestic and Moz.
The interface and dashboard are easy to use to maximize usability and ensure that anyone succeeds.
SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool is one of several free tools offered by SEO giant Semrush. To access their free tools, create an account and select Skip Trial. You can always sign up for the paid service down the road if you’d like.
The Keyword Magic Tool gives you access to more than 20 billion keywords from over 120 geographical databases.
Free reports include:
- Monthly search volume
- Competitive density (competition among paid advertisers)
- Keyword difficulty (how difficult it would be to rank in Google’s top 20)
The Keyword Magic Tool also has some helpful sorting and organizing features. It allows you to sort keywords into topic-specific subgroups, apply smart filters to narrow or expand your search, and quickly export your findings. You can see related keywords by topic and semantically related keywords or by keywords with similar phrasing.
The free account limits you to 10 searches a day across all the complementary tools provided by Semrush.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest provides a wealth of information with its free version. When you enter a search term, it displays the search volume, SEO difficulty, paid difficulty, and CPC.
Immediately beneath that display, it identifies the number of backlinks you would need to rank on the first page of Google for that keyword phrase.
As you scroll down, you can view lists of keyword ideas and page content ideas.
The list of page content ideas displays related blog titles. At a glance, you can see how many people click on and share each article. You can export most of your data reports to CSV to save and sort. Ubersuggest provides a free Chrome extension to see data right on the SERP easily.
The free version limits your use to a single website and 3 keyword searches per day.
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz Keyword Explorer is an attractive and well-laid-out keyword research tool. You can see monthly volume, organic difficulty, organic click-through rate (CTR), and a priority score for each search term.
The organic CTR displays how many people who use the term follow through and click on one of the results. The priority score aggregates the difficulty, opportunity, and volume to show you in a simple score how likely you are to rank for that keyword phrase.
Keyword Explorer delivers a long list of keyword suggestions for each term, with monthly search volume and relevancy.
The SERP analysis, also included with the free search results, gives you 10 specific pages that rank for your target keyword. You can see their title, URL, page authority, domain authority, number of backlinks to the page, and the number of backlinks to the root domain. It’s easy to download results into a spreadsheet.
Moz provides an excellent service. The downside is the free account limits you to 10 queries a month.
Soovle
Soovle is great for e-commerce websites or marketers using multiple channels. It helps you find popular keywords across several megasites, including Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, and eBay.
Soovle works as a keyword research tool and a keyword generator. As you type in your target terms, it autogenerates phrases to help you expand your ideas.
Soovle includes unlimited searches for free. On the downside, it is limited to an idea generator and does not include metrics like keyword difficulty or search volume.
Conclusion
As a business owner or an SEO specialist, you are constantly try to improve your online rankings. With the goal of keeping your visitors engaged with your brand, you always go for the most specific keywords. But at many times, it is hard to find the right keyword.