There is an impressive number of powerful free tools that you can use to collect essential information for your marketing and SEO strategy. Here are 12 free keyword research tools that are easy to use and packed with useful data.
Some are powerful keyword generators for Google and other search engines. Others provide targeted data on e-commerce sites such as eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. The most comprehensive tools include essential SEO data like monthly search volume and competitive intensity for your keywords.
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| Keyword Research Tools |
Here is the description of each of the free keyword research tools, detailing their ability, advantages, and disadvantages. The tools mentioned are:
1. Keyword Surfer
2. AnswerThePublic
3. Keyword Sheeter
4. Keyworddit
5. QuestionDB
6. Ahrefs Keyword Generator
7. SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
8. Ubersuggest
9. Moz Keyword Explorer
10. Soovle
11. Keyword Tool Dominator
12. Google Trends
Keyword generator for blog topic ideas
Keyword generators allow you to guide you on what your potential customers want to know. They pull content from search engines and Q&A databases to display new blogging and keyword ideas.
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a new tool in the form of a Chrome extension. Once installed, each time you enter search criteria, the results are automatically displayed to the right of the results page.
The data transmitted by Keyword Surfer includes:
Keyword ideas with their search volume
Cost per click (CPC) for each search term
The pages which are positioned on the entered term
Traffic to pages ranked 1 to 10 for this term
This keyword generator is really efficient and shows results while you are surfing the web. However, some flaws need to be corrected. The results given by the extension are sometimes different from those provided by other Google search tools. Still, it's a quick and easy way to get content ideas.
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is the perfect tool for getting straight answers. After entering your search term, it displays user questions associated with that keyword. The results are displayed using the 5 W method (Who, What, Where, When, Why) in the form of a graph to answer all Internet users' questions.
Nothing better than generating keyword ideas and finding out what the interests of your potential customers are. You can download the data as a graph or as a list (CSV file).
The only downside to this tool is that the search is limited to 3 per day. It is therefore recommended to enter relevant phrases or sentences.
Keyword Sheeter
Keyword Sheeter finds Google search suggestions. It provides real-time data on what Internet users type into the search engine.
Keyword Sheeter is for you if you want to quickly generate a long list of keyword ideas. It finds around 1,000 ideas per minute and exports your results list for free.
It's a simple yet powerful resource for identifying blog content ideas. The downside to Keyword Sheeter is that its free features don't include search volumes or data on how competitive a phrase is.
Keyworddit
Keyworddit pulls data from Reddit. You must enter a specific subreddit with at least 10,000 subscribers and specify the period. The tool searches from titles and comments to extract up to 500 keywords with search volumes.
The relevance of the results may vary due to the diversity of responses from each subreddit. 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 a great addition to your existing strategy. Reddit is a popular site where people with specific interests dig into a topic. It can reveal keyword phrases and blog post topics that you wouldn't find with other search tools.
QuestionDB
QuestionDB is a great blog topic idea generator. It relies on several Q&A websites, including Reddit and Quora, to give you the questions people are actively asking related to your keywords.
The free version of the tool allows unlimited searches without opening an account. You can download your results with just one click.
You have the option to view the source link for each question. This allows you to examine additional details about how people are phrasing their questions. You can also view the responses. QuestionDB also displays related topics mentioned in the questions.
The free account limits you to 50 results per query.
Freemium keyword research tools for SEO analysis
A few of the premium paid websites offer free tools for limited use. You get the same great services that premium services provide, but for a limited number of searches or fewer features. Despite this, these free keyword research tools offer a complete solution.
Ahrefs keyword generator
The keywords Ahrefs generator is one of the free tools offered by Ahrefs, which is deemed a 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 over 170 countries.
For each target phrase, the keyword generator displays:
Search volume
The degree of difficulty of the keywords from 1 to 100
The date of the last update of this result
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 uploading your results list. In addition to the keyword builder that kicks off checkouts from Google, Ahrefs also offers free Bing, YouTube, and Amazon tools.
While some freemium services include SERP results in the keyword research tool, Ahrefs provides their free SERP service on a separate page.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is an efficient and convenient 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 since you don't create an account with the free service, you have to prove that you are not a robot with each new search.
SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool is one of the many 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 later if you wish. The Keyword Magic Tool gives you access to over 20 billion keywords from over 120 geographic databases
These free reports include:
Monthly search volume
Competitive density (competition between paid advertisers)
Keyword difficulty (how difficult it would be to rank in Google's top 20)
The Keyword Magic tool also has some useful ranking and organizing features. It lets you sort keywords into topic-specific subgroups, apply smart filters to narrow or broaden your search, and quickly export your results. You can see related queries by subject and semantically or by keywords with similar wording.
The free account limits you to 10 searches per day on all the additional tools offered by Semrush
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest, the platform of marketing specialist Neil Patel, offers a wealth of information with its free version. When you enter a search term, it displays search volume, SEO difficulty, SEA difficulty score, and cost per click. Immediately below this display, it identifies the number of backlinks (or backlinks) that you would need to rank on the first page of Google for that target phrase.
As you scroll down the page, you can view lists of keyword ideas and page content ideas.
The page content ideas list displays related blog titles. At a glance, you can see how many people click and share each post. You can export most of your data reports in CSV format for saving and sorting. Ubersuggest is a free Chrome extension that provides data on the SERP.
The free version restricts your usage to one website and 3 keyword searches per day.
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz Keyword Explorer is an interesting and well-designed keyword research tool. You can see monthly volume, organic difficulty, organic click-through rate (CTR), and a quality score for each search term.
Organic CTR displays the number of people using the term who follow and click on one of the results. The quality score combines difficulty, opportunity, and volume to show you through a simple score how likely you are to rank for that target expression.
Keyword Explorer provides a long list of keyword suggestions for each term, with monthly search volume and relevance.
SERP analysis, also included in free search results, gives you access to 10 specific pages ranking for your target keyword. You can see their title, URL, page authority, domain authority, number of backlinks to the page, and number of backlinks to the root domain. It is easy to download the results into a spreadsheet.
Moz provides excellent service. The downside is that the free account limits you to 10 requests per month.
Keyword Research Tools for E-commerce, Online Vendors, and Multichannel Marketers
Most keyword tools focus on Google and other search engines. However, platforms like YouTube, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy have their own algorithms.
For online stores or sellers whose goals go beyond ranking on Google and other search engines, tools like Keyword Tool Dominator and Soovle help you target the platforms you use.
Soolve
Soovle is ideal for eCommerce sites or marketers using multiple channels. It helps you find popular keywords on multiple megacities including Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, and eBay.
Soovle works as a keyword research tool and keyword generator. As you enter your target terms, it automatically generates phrases to help you develop your ideas.
The great thing about Soovle is that it includes unlimited searches for free. In contrast, it is limited to an idea generator and does not include metrics such as keyword difficulty or the search volume
Keyword Tool Dominator
Keyword Tool Dominator helps you identify search trends as they occur. It brings you the autocomplete databases from Google, YouTube, Amazon, Walmart, Bing, Etsy, and eBay to discover up-to-date keywords and search terms.
It's an exceptional resource for sellers and multi-channel marketers who want to rank on search engines other than Google.
The downside to this quick and easy-to-use tool is that the free version limits you to 2 searches per day. For more queries, you will need to subscribe to the paid version.
The use of keywords according to trends
Sometimes you want to know if a topic is a real trend or just a passing fad. In this case, Google Trends is a great, powerful and unique tool.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that offers graphs and data on specific search terms used on Google and YouTube.
When you enter a search phrase on the homepage, a Google listing will be provided by default. On the results page, you can change your options to see YouTube results instead. It also offers Google Shopping Trends, Images, and News.
Google Trends is a useful tool for:
Identify what is currently trending
Distinguish popular themes and sub-themes in one industry or associated with another theme
Discover local search trends
Find related keywords that are increasingly sought after
Graphically represent the public's interest in a topic over a defined period of time
Locate where a topic is most popular
Google Trends helps you identify keywords that are growing in popularity and avoid terms that are running out of steam. It does not provide data on monthly search volume or competition for each keyword.
Paid tools
Free keyword research tools aren't your only option. If your business is booming or you want to take a new path, you can always invest in paid tools. Tools that require payment or subscription to access do everything the free tools above can do, but can also:
- Provide more keyword data
- Allow more keyword research
- Provide features of location-based SEO tools
- Have ranking trackers to see how well your website is ranking on SERP pages for certain keywords
- Have more user-friendly interfaces
- Have an all-in-one suite where you can do all your keyword research
If you are looking to get into pay-per-click marketing, these tools can offer additional information on search engine marketing as well. ( Google Keyword Planner, for example, is a free planning tool for paid marketing. It provides data on Google keywords that can be bid on.)
Planning with Data
Whether you are promoting a blog or building an eCommerce website, every page you create requires time, energy, and some expertise. When you use the best keyword research tools for your business, you make sure that your efforts are producing results.
Don't throw darts in the dark hoping they find their target. All the data you need to make solid content planning decisions is available in these 12 free keyword research tools.
Your audience knows what they want and what they need. And you?
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