Keyword research is the process of identifying words and phrases that are used in search engines that will help your website, page, or article appear higher in the search results. In this article, I will walk you through the best free and cost-effective keyword research tools and how they can help you with your keyword research strategy.
Free Keywords Research Tools
AnswerThePublic
Answer The Public is a great tool that you can use to generate keyword ideas. This tool gives you raw search insights and displays the most commonly searched questions surrounding a keyword or phrase. All you have to do is enter the keyword and the results show a visual display (as seen in the image below) of all the questions that are asked.
Google Trends
This free tool helps you identify data and trends on popular keywords and phrases that are used on Google, Google Shopping, Images, News, and YouTube. This tool can be valuable for:
- Identifying local search trends
- Finding popular topics and subtopics within an industry or category
- Seeing trends of a topic over a range of time
- Discovering related topics and queries
SEM Rush
SEM Rush offers a free keyword research tool called Keyword Magic Tool that gives you insights on keywords such as search volume, keyword difficulty, cost-per-click, and competitive density. There is a daily limit of 10 search queries. This tool is great for individuals or businesses that need to conduct minimal research to access keyword data.
Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator
This tool provides you with access to thousands of keywords, questions, and ideas for Google, Bing, Youtube, and Amazon. For the first 10 keywords, the list will give you insight into the keyword difficulty and search volume. If you wish to access more than just the first 10 keywords insight you will need to sign up for a paid plan (which can be tested at no cost with their 7-day free trial).
Cost-Effective Keyword Research Tools
Investing in SEO tools is a good idea if your business is growing and you are looking to increase your online presence, want to improve your website, or have plans to publish more online articles or blogs. Below I will walk you through some of the best-paid SEO tools for keyword research.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer allows users to access keyword ideas, suggestions, and related topics. This tool offers filters so that you can easily access and prioritize the results based on keyword difficulty, search volume, cost-per-click, and more. You can also identify the organic keywords that your website ranks for and the organic keywords that your competitors rank for by using the Site Explorer function. Keyword Explorer is good for those who are:
- Looking to explore and prioritize the best keywords for an article or page
- Exploring the best PPC keywords to use for a campaign
- Need to perform a competitive keyword analysis
- Require advanced metrics on keywords or phrases
- Looking to export mass data on keywords
The plans include:
Lite – $99/month
- 175 reports per week
- 5 keyword lists
- 100 SERP updates per month
- 1000 rows of data per report
- 200,000 rows of data per month
- 25,000 export rows per month
- Access to new keywords over the last 1 month
- Access to Search Engine Results Page (SERP) position over the last 6 months
Standard – $179/month
- 700 Reports per week
- 50 Keyword Lists
- 1000 SERP updates per month
- 5000 rows of data per report
- 500,000 rows of data per month
- 100,000 export rows per month
- Access to newly discovered keywords over the last 1 month
- Access to Search Engine Results Page (SERP) position over the last 24 hours
Advanced – $399/month
- 1400 Reports per week
- 100 Keyword Lists
- 5000 SERP Updates per Month
- 25,000 Rows of Data Per Report
- 2 million Rows of Data Per Month
- 500,000 export rows per month
- Access to all newly discovered Keywords
- Access to the full history of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Position
Agency – $999/month
- 7000 Reports per week
- 250 Keyword Lists
- 20,000 SERP Updates per Month
- 100.000 Rows of Data Per Report
- 5 million Rows of Data Per Month
- 2 million export rows per month
- Access to New Keywords over the last 1 month
- Access to Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Position over the last 24 hours
Each of the above packages also includes additional SEO tools such as:
- Site Audit functions
- Site Explorer tools
- Content Explorer data
- Alerts on Keywords, Mentions, and Backlinks
- Extra Tools (Domain comparisons, batch analysis, etc.)
SEM Rush
SEM Rush also offers paid versions of their tools and offers 3 pricing plans to cater to businesses or individuals with different goals. The pricing plans are as follows:
Pro – $119.95/month
This plan is good for those who are new to marketing or have a small business team. The plan allows users to:
- Work on up to 5 Projects
- Track up to 500 Keywords
- Access over 20 tools and reports to help improve your SEO
Guru – $229.95/month
This plan is made for mid-size agencies, businesses, and marketing professionals and allows users to:
- Work on up to 15 Projects
- Track up to 1500 Keywords
- Access over 20 tools and reports to help improve your SEO
- Gain insight from historical data
- Access the Content Marketing Platform
- Integrate with Google Data Studio
Business – $449.95/month
This plan is suitable for large businesses and agencies and allows users to:
- Work on up to 40 Projects
- Track up to 5000 Keywords
- Access over 20 tools and reports to help improve your SEO
- Gain insight from historical data
- Access the Content Marketing Platform
- Integrate with Google Data Studio
- View the Share of Voice Metric
- Have API Access
What Keyword Research Tool is Best?
Each of the tools that I listed above has its own unique advantages. When it comes to keyword research, the tools that are best really depend on what your goals are and what your budget is.
If you are going to invest in an SEO tool, remember that many of the paid SEO tools have free trials so that you can test drive it before you commit to a long-term payment plan. So, try out some of the free SEO tools and invest in paid plans if it aligns with your needs. Happy keyword planning and best of luck with your digital marketing journey!
