Knowing what your audience is searching for online is absolutely vital and a fundamental part of SEO. This is why keyword research tools are a digital marketer’s best friend. They allow you to discover what keywords are highly searched for, and which ones aren’t.
Unfortunately, some keyword tools aren’t always as accurate as they should be – even Google Adwords – and this has been a hot topic of discussion for a number of years now. Even so, the tools listed here are an excellent way of getting keyword suggestions and providing data about the user behaviour of web searchers.
If you’re new to keyword research, (or SEO in general) check out this beginner’s guide from MOZ.
Google Keyword Planner
Adwords.google.com/keywordplanner
When it comes to free keyword research tools, Google Adwords really is the crème of the crop. The only downside is that you need an AdWords account to use it. While it has been designed by Google and is used primarily for paid search, there’s still quite a lot of value when researching keywords for SEO purposes.
Video Tutorial:
Keyword Tool by Word Stream
WordStream.com/keywords
WordStream uses a massive database of over 1 billion keywords – and they’re not only taken from Google, but from a diverse range of sources. Best of all, it can be used for both PPC and SEO purposes; however the free version limits you to a small amount of searches. But if you have the marketing budget, it is definitely worth considering.
Video Tutorial:
Wordtracker
Freekeywords.wordtracker.com
This tool provides you with keyword suggestions. All you need to do is simply enter a keyword or phrase and it will produce up to 100 suggested keyword ideas for you. At the same time, it will also give you estimated search volumes for each of those keywords. Pretty handy!
Video Tutorial:
UberSuggest
Ubersuggest.org
Similar to Word Tracker, UberSuggest also gives you a list of keyword suggestions when you enter in a search term. Interestingly, it allows you to search by format – including news, images, shopping, web, etc – after you enter in the desired keyword and language selection. It’s easy to see why UberSuggest has become so popular (it’s completely free!).
Video Tutorial:
Keyword Tool
Keywordtool.io
Widely touted as the best free keyword tool next to Google, Keyword.io allows you to scan the auto-complete feature to get keyword suggestions based on the phase you type in. You can receive data from any search engine – including YouTube and Bing.
Video Tutorial:
Do you have any keyword research tools other than the ones listed here? Or, have you used any of these tools and want to tell us how effective you thought they were?
Let us know in the comments section below!
