An important part of SEO is doing keyword research. That way, you know what keywords you should be creating your content around and which ones are worth ranking for. If you need a better explanation of what keyword research is and how to do it, check out my step-by-step guide on how to do keyword research.
There will also be some special stat names that I will be mentioning in this article and, if you don’t know what those are (such as cost per click or search volume), I highly recommend you read my keyword research guide.
In this article, I’ll show you six tools that you can use to help you in your keyword research. Keep in mind that most of these tools are paid and that some of them are free and won’t cost you anything. Either way, these keyword research tools are definitely going to be tools you should look into for your own SEO work.
So let’s start off this list with the two freebie keyword research tools, and then we’ll get to the ones that offer you more features at an affordable price. With that being said, let’s get going.
1. AffiloTools
PRICE: FREE!
This feature is exclusive to members of Affilorama, a website that trains users on the topic of affiliate marketing. But the cool thing is that joining this website is completely free. And, inside AffiloTools, there is a keyword research tool.
However, you need to already have a website before you can use AffiloTools. If you don’t have a website or a blog yet, you can learn how to start a blog step by step here. Once your blog is set up, now you need to become a member of Affilorama. You can join Affilorama for free here or read my review of what to expect before you do.
Then put the domain name of your website into Affilorama and you will be granted access to AffiloTools. On the left side of the screen is a menu with multiple options. Find Research and click on Keywords. You’ll see a screen where you can fill in possible keyword ideas to look through.
Click Search and you will see a list of keywords to look through related to what you put in along with the search volume, cost per click, competition, and the number of sites indexed for that keyword.
AffiloTools does not have a bad keyword research tool, but to be honest, it does not give you very good keyword ideas, which is why I prefer the second keyword research tool. However, the AffiloTools keyword tool is very simple and easy to use and, if you’re not really an analytical kind of person, then AffiloTools would be a nice way to do your keyword research.
2. Ubersuggest
PRICE: FREE! (Premium for as low as $29/month)
Ubersuggest is a really awesome keyword research tool which is part of the website of Neil Patel, who is arguably the best digital marketer in the world. There are so many features to love about Ubersuggest and I will be going over them in this section.
Just head over to neilpatel.com/ubersuggest and then enter a keyword idea inside the box. When you search up your keyword, you will see a whole lot of really insightful stats that can help you tremendously in searching the right keywords.
On the front page, you see some keyword ideas and a button to click on to find even more keyword ideas. And, for each of these keyword ideas, you can see the trend of the keyword (how popular it is), the search volume, the cost per click for that keyword, and two special scores: PD (paid ad difficulty) and SD (SEO difficulty).
Ubersuggest also shows Content Ideas, which are the different blog articles that have ranked for the keyword you want to rank for. You can look through these content ideas and get ideas to help you create content that can rank for the keyword you want to rank for.
There are a few other surprises inside Ubersuggest as well which would take too much of this section to go into detail. You can find these surprises on the menu shown on the left of Ubersuggest.
Ubersuggest is for the most part free to use. With the free plan, you get up to 3 searches with Ubersuggest per day. However, if you would like unlimited searches, unlimited website auditing, more keyword ideas, and even a worksheet and a human coach to help you with your keyword research, you can get a free 7-day trial of the premium version of Ubersuggest before you will need to pay at least $29 per month.
3. Keywords Everywhere
PRICE: $10 for 100,000 keywords
Unlike any of the other tools in this list, Keywords Everywhere is actually a plugin that you install onto your Firefox or Chrome browser. Once installed, for whatever keyword you look up, Keywords Everywhere will give you stats on that keyword at the top of the search engine and some related keyword ideas to the right side of the screen.
This is very handy when you want to look through your keyword ideas on Google and, at the same time, see the numbers for it.
The plugin used to be free to use. However, they now charge you before you can check stats for a certain number of keywords. The price is actually very affordable. They only charge you $10 to be able to receive stats for 100,000 keywords! That’s probably a year’s worth of research.
So, while Keyword Research is not free like the other two we mentioned, its price is very reasonable and which is why we placed it third on the list.
4. Wordtracker
PRICE: As low as $27/month
Wordtracker is a great keyword analysis website that gives you metrics and stats that you won’t find on a typical keyword research tool. It does provide you with keyword suggestions, keyword trends, search volume, competition.
And it includes a metric called “IAAT”, which stands for “In Anchor and Title”. This tells you how many times the content creator put your keyword inside their anchor links and inside the title of their content.
With Wordtracker, you can filter the given keyword ideas and include and exclude certain keywords. In addition, Wordtracker prides itself on being “actual”. The results it gives you are actual, not estimated, and the keyword ideas it gives you are actual, not grouped.
There’s a lot of great things you can do with Wordtracker, and it all comes at a cost of $27/month, which is worth the hassle if you’d like to use all these exclusive features Wordtracker has to offer.
5. KWFinder
PRICE: As low as $30/month
This tool was developed by Mangools, an SEO company that wants to help online site owners just like you succeed in search engine optimization, but in an engaging and user-friendly manner. KWFinder can tremendously help you in your keyword research and might even make the process easier for you.
KWFinder allows you to analyze keywords quickly and easily and gives you plenty of information about the keywords you’re researching. There is also a Search by Domain feature where you can look up a website and see what keywords it’s ranked for. You can then use the tool to find the stats of those keywords.
From search trends to competition to search volume to its gradual change over time, KWFinder has everything you need to get you acquainted with any keyword.
You can start a 10-day free trial of KWFinder. Afterward, you have three pricing plans, the lowest of which is the $30/month annual plan (a payment of $360). You can also pay by the month for $49/month. Even with the basic plan, you will still be limited as to what you can do with KWFinder, but if you do decide to invest in a bigger plan, you will get a big return out of it. More data you get to see means higher chances of success for you.
6. SEMrush
PRICE: As low as $83/month
If you’ve been in the world of search engine optimization long enough, then you should be at least a little familiar with these next three tools I’m going to be sharing with you.
SEMrush is an SEO nerd’s playground, with everything from domain analytics, marketing insights, and paid ad stats. But, of course, it also has keyword analytics. For every keyword you search, you get organic traffic data, paid traffic data, the keyword trend, and hundreds (if not thousands) of keyword ideas!
It is free to start a SEMrush account and start using its keyword tool for free. However, you are limited to 10 searches per day. To remove this limitation, you can get a 7-day free trial of SEMrush Pro.
At the end of the trial, you can keep the pro version by making a one-year payment of $83/month. If you decide to pay by the month, you pay $100/month.
7. Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
PRICE: As low as $99/month
Ahrefs is another big name in the SEO industry. Their website boasts a ton of stats and metrics on websites that are ranking and keywords that you may want to rank for.
Now Ahrefs is a package deal, which means, if you get access to their keyword research tool, you get access to all their SEO tools in general.
You will obtain information on how difficult it is to rank for the keyword you chose, the overall search volume, the number of clicks, and of course, find similar and related keyword ideas to help you in your research. It even uses click data not just from Google, but from all the other search engines out there like Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo.
For $7, you can get a 7-day trial of Ahrefs. After the trial ends, you pay $99/month to keep using all the great analysis tools that Ahrefs has to offer.
8. Moz Keyword Explorer
PRICE: 10 free keywords per month or unlimited for as low as $79/month
In my opinion, Moz is the king of SEO. They are the inventors of two well-known SEO metrics: Domain Authority and Page Authority. They are so cool that I check my site’s DA and PA every day. Yes, I’m so analytical, but that’s beside the point.
Moz has a Keyword Explorer tool that is clean and simple to use. The first metrics you see for the keyword you search are the monthly search volume, the difficulty, the organic CTR, and the Priority metric, which basically tells you how good of a keyword it is to rank for. The higher the Priority of a keyword, the higher volume and lower competition that the keyword has.
You also have hundreds of keyword suggestions to look through and a breakdown of the stats of each website ranking for the keyword you chose. All this makes Moz a good, comprehensive, and user-friendly choice for all your keyword researching and SEO needs.
For free, you can search up to 10 keywords a month. Afterward, you will need Moz Pro, which does come with a 30-day free trial. At the end of the trial, you pay a one-year payment of $79/month, or $99/month if you’d rather pay by the month.
Conclusion
I hope this list gave you some tools to look into that can help you in your keyword research. Again, don’t be afraid to pay if you’re interested in the features one of these tools can give you. I promise a big return on your investment if you do decide to pay and, trust me, all these tools I’m showing are indeed reputable companies.
Again, I recommend checking out my guide on how to do keyword research step by step so you can refresh yourself on how the process works and how these tools can help you in getting your keyword research well. You can also take a refresher course with SEO by checking out my complete SEO guide for beginners.
But that’s gonna do it for the list. It’s now time to look into one or some of these tools and use them to help you grow your online business and make yourself known to the World Wide Web!