1. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is by far one of the best tools for your keyword research. It is designed for Google Adwords users and advertising purposes, but you can use it to research on organic keywords and more importantly, the data that you are pulling in is from Google directly, which is the search engine that you are going to target.
It is very easy to use and a great choice when starting out your new website, plus, it can also be one of your favorite places to get ideas and relevant keywords in your market as you grow your website and produce more content. As long as you have a Google account, you can sign in to set up your Adwords and then begin using the keyword tool.
Once you are in, you can start your keyword research either from a single keyword or more, or enter the website URL that you want to do the research on. Google Keyword Planner will then pull in relevant data from the search engine and show you stats such as average monthly searches, the competition, suggested bid for Adwords, and more.
You can also include the keyword filter to screen off unwanted keywords and to show only closely related keywords. The keyword tool from Google is simple and does not provide you complicated research, but the tool does everything right and gives you the largest range of related keywords.
Perhaps, the most important metrics you can get from the tool are the average monthly searches and other related keywords. If you are working on SEO for your website, you may need to drill deeper to find unique and interesting keyword ideas.
Although that Google Keyword Planner is the most used keyword research tool, it is built for advertisers, hence, it has less to do with keyword competitiveness for publishers. You may not find unique or great long-tail keyword that no one is targeting. Most of the keywords you get from the tool will be the more general keywords that people commonly search for.
2. KWFinder
The next option you should consider besides Google Keyword Planner is KWFinder. It is one of the best keyword research tools out there that can help you find hundreds of long-tail keywords with decent search volume and low SEO competition. KWFinder has a very user-friendly interface and the metrics provided are helpful to your SEO efforts.
After you have logged in to your KWFinder account, you will see three main taps. The first tap is the “Suggestion” tap for primary keyword research just like Google Keyword Planner. The second tap is the “Autocomplete”, which uses the Google Suggest feature to prepend and append your keyword with different words and letters. And the final tap is the “Questions” tap which is quite similar Autocomplete, just that it prepends the main seed keyword with question words.
KWFinder will provide you a lot of data, details, and metrics from your keyword searches, including the trend of the search in the last twelve months, the average monthly search volume, average cost-per-click of the keyword (CPC), level of competition in pay-per-click advertising (PPC), the SEO difficulty based on stats from Moz (DIFF), and more.
You can also get other detail for the keywords populated and KWFinder will also show you important metrics calculated using Moz including domain authority (DA), page authority (PA), MozRank (MR), MozTrust (MT), Links, and FB just to name a few.
KWFinder is a part of SEO tool developed by Mangools and their free account only includes 5 lookups per 24 hours and 50 keyword suggestions per search. If you need a more detail keyword research and analysis, you can go for their paid option, which also comes with other tools such as SERPChecker and SERPWatcher.
If you are totally new and have no experience with SEO or keyword research, it is better to start with the free plan and use other keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner. Once you get hold of how things work, you can go for the more professional keyword research tool like KWFinder.
Website: https://kwfinder.com/
3. Moz’s Keyword Explorer
The Moz’s Keyword Explorer is a tool from Moz and it gives you some additional dimensions and insights into your keyword research.
Apart from the common metrics that almost every keyword tool provides, Keyword Explorer from Moz shows you something unique:
· Opportunity – This stat shows you the estimation of the general CTR you may see as an organic listing on Google’s first page.
· Mentions – This will show you the latest mentions of the keyword or phrases across the web-based on Moz’s Fresh Web Explorer.
· Potential – A combination of all the keyword metrics to give you an idea of keywords with the best opportunity to target because of higher search volume and lower competition
You can test the tool yourself when you head over to their website, however, for the free version, you can only perform 20 search queries per month.
The Moz Pro package is quite expensive, but if you are a professional internet marketer or consider doing some serious SEO work, Moz Pro package may be what you are looking for. The package comes with many tools such as the Keyword Explorer, Site Crawl, Open Site Explorer, MozBar, SEO Insights, Backlink Research, and even one-on-one walkthrough.
There are a lot of things you can play with all the tools available from Moz. It is great that they are providing such remarkable tools in helping online marketers in their researching and analysis work. With the full access to the tools, you are able to come up with a better and more effective keyword plan and SEO strategy to grow your business.
Website: https://moz.com/explorer
4. Keyword Tool
Keyword Tool is perhaps the best alternative to Google Keyword Planner because it uses Google Autocomplete feature to generate hundreds of relevant long-tail keywords for your niche.
What is good about Keyword Tool is that it is free to use to generate over 750 long-tail keyword suggestions for every of your search. And the search terms suggested by Google Autocomplete are selected are based on a few factors, and one of them is how often users were searching for a particular search term in the past. And this is how Keyword Tool generates their long-tail keywords for you.
If you are only relying on Google Keyword Planner, the related keywords you can get from the tool will be very limited. And with Keyword Tool, it will uncover the hidden long-tail keywords that you can use to for your website content creation. And this is what makes Keyword Tool the best alternative to Google Keyword Planner.
Apart from researching keywords from Google, Keyword Tool allows you to perform the searches and pull the data from other websites such as YouTube, Amazon, eBay, Apple App Store, and also Bing.
The downside of Keyword Tool is that the free version only allows you to pull in the relevant keywords without the metrics such as average monthly search volume, cost-per-click, competition score, etc. If you need those metrics, you will have to go for their paid option.
Therefore, the best way to use Keyword Tool is to use it together with Google Keyword Planner. You can populate long-tail keywords from Keyword Tool, and then analyze them using Keyword Planner for the metrics. Of course, if you have the budget, you can save the work and go for the premium version.
Website: https://keywordtool.io/
5. SEMrush
SEMrush a very popular one-stop tool that comes with a list of impressive features. When it comes to keyword research, you can use SEMrush to search for keywords that perform well on both Google and Bing. You can gather in-depth information and the tool will show you a variety of metrics for your analysis.
Besides that, SEMrush features the Full Search Report that allows you to find relevant and alternative search queries for alternative targeting or latent semantic indexing. The keyword tool will pull in keywords with synonyms and other suggested variations for your use.
Another good feature from SEMrush is that it offers regional databases for countries such as US, UK, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Hong Kong, and more. You can do your keyword research based on the language and country that you are targeting.
Remember, SEMrush is an all-in-one SEO tool, and so they provide all kinds of amazing features and powerful tools that you can use. The Organic Traffic Insight is another great feature available on SEMrush. By linking your Google Analytics account to SEMrush, you can get a detailed list of keywords every page is indexed for. Plus, you can identify the keywords that drive traffic to specific URLs on your website. Here are some of their features and tools:
· Organic Research – You can see your competitor’s best keywords, discover new organic competitors and observe position changes of domains.
· Advertising Research – Uncover your competitor’s advertising strategies, budgets, ad copies, and keywords.
· Backlinks – Conduct a deep link analysis, identify your links’ geolocation, and find out referring domains’ authority.
· Keyword Difficulty – Find out the keywords will less competition and estimate their difficulties in SEO ranking.
· Domain VS Domain – Get a side-by-side domains’ comparison and check out the common and unique keywords from the domains.
· Position Tracking – Track your keyword positions and learn to target different devices.
· Site Audit – Check your site’s health, track SEO progress, and learn to fix on-site mistakes.
· And much, much more.
Their free plan has a limited number of search queries you can perform. And to get full access to their tools and features, you need to go for the premium package.
Website: https://www.semrush.com/
6. Keyword In
Keyword In is one of the simplest keyword research tools available in the market right now. It will only take you a few seconds to plug in your relevant keywords, choose your options and generate related long-tail keywords.
It is a free tool that anyone can leverage to create more keywords to target their online business. You can start by plugging in a few keywords, and then Keyword In will mash everything together, providing you with a long list of potential keywords to use.
This tool may seem too simple at times, but sometimes, what is simple does not mean that it is not powerful. If you need a long list of long-tail keywords, this combiner can be the perfect tool for the job. Marketers who advertise using PPC like Google Adwords may require unique and long-tail keywords, and this is where they can generate a list of those keywords.
When you head to Keyword In’s website, you will notice they offer two services. One is to generate keywords for SEO and PPC. And another is to generate ideas for your new domain names.
And since Keyword In is a free tool, you might as well check it out and try to get some keyword ideas from there.
Website: http://keywordin.com/
7. Soovle
Another good place to do your keyword research is Soovle. It has the similar function as Keyword Tool. When you enter the seed keyword into Soovle and perform the search, it will pull in results from Google Autocomplete feature. Besides Google, you can also get keyword suggestions from Amazon, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Answer.com, YouTube, and Bing.
Soovle is easy to use and its platform is extremely easy to navigate. When you are at the homepage, just click on the icon of which search engine you would like to pull in the keyword suggestion from. And then simply key in the seed keyword you are targeting, and Soovle will work its magic.
The best part is that it is free to use and there is no upgrade or premium version available. The keyword phrases you are getting may not be the most perfect or advanced, but you will probably find a few keywords that make sense for your website and you would like to target.
And since Soovle is a free keyword tool, you might want to leverage and use it as often as possible to discover new and relevant keywords to target for your website.
Website: https://soovle.com/
8. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is another good keyword tool to quickly find new keywords that are not available in Google Keyword Planner. It is similar to Keyword Tool and Soovle. In their homepage, they have a short YouTube video showing you how to utilize the keyword search available.
This is another free keyword tool where you can search for more keywords that are not widely available. It is easy to use like Soovle, just key in your seed keyword and hit the “Suggest” button will do. Ubersuggest will then populate all the suggested keywords for your reference.
The best part thing about Ubersuggest is that the keywords found are sorted in alphabetical order. Of course, you can choose to sort the keywords according to any alphabet or number that you want. This makes the results really easy to organize and review. You will be able to better check each keyword to find the best that is the most suitable for you to target.
Website: https://ubersuggest.io/
9. Wordtracker Scout
Wordtracker Scout is a Chrome extension developed by Wordtracker. This extension claims that you can get keyword ideas from any webpage at the click of a button.
Once you have installed Wordtracker Scout extension, visit any website, and when you click on the “W” extension icon from them, the tool will pull in all the related keywords from that particular page. Here are some of the features you might want to know:
· You can draw on Big Keyword Data from Wordtracker’s huge databases of search terms.
· You can analyze competitors’ websites for keywords.
· You can access keyword performance metrics at a glance.
One of the key features of Scout is that it saves you a lot of time accessing to keywords from any page at a click of a button. When you visit a competitor’s website, you can generate the keywords used by your competitor without hoop to jump through, no long and complicated reports to try and somehow figure out.
You can select a successful website in your niche and quickly understand how the site performs and work its magic. You can find out keywords other successful websites use to attract visitors too.
The coolest part is that Scout is free to use. Yes, you can install Scout to your Chrome browser and use the extension right away.
Website: https://www.wordtracker.com/scout
10. Answer The Public
Answer the Public is brought to you by the team behind CoverageBook and it is a handy tool for those looking to get started with keyword research without spending anything. Yes, it is free to use.
The big idea behind the tool is to compliment the auto-suggest results you see on Google and Bing. The same functionality with Keyword Tool and Soovle. The auto-suggest results provided by Bing and Google can be a goldmine for marketers because they are looking at what people are searching for, not robots.
According to Answer the Public, it was designed in such a way that the search insight should be used by any marketing team and they built it with simple visualizations of the data. When you perform a search, the data and relevant keywords are populated in a cool, mind-mapping-style.
And when you arrive at the homepage of Answer the Public, you will be greeted by the Seker with a bald, white-bearded old man, who is waiting for you to enter your keyword idea. What is interesting to note is that the results you receive are divided into three main categories:
1) Questions – what, why, where, how, which
2) Prepositions – with, to, for, like
3) Alphabetical – a, b, c, d, etc.
The search results populated will be in one-page or you can also choose to save all the results as a CSV file. And if you do not like the visual, there is also a feature to show the data according to the three main categories.
It is a fun and insightful tool to use. More importantly, Answer the Public is free to use and anyone can leverage it to discover relevant keywords to target for their websites.
Website: https://answerthepublic.com/
11. Serpstat
If you are looking for an all-in-one SEO platform with a cheaper option, Serpstat may be the right place for you. Serpstat started as a keyword research tool, and it has then evolved into a full SEO platform including tools and features such as:
· Backlink Analysis – get a detailed backlink analysis report. You will get data such as a list of anchors, referring domains, and also be able to monitor backlinks activity on your website and your competitors’.
· On-page Audit – Serpstat’s unique SDO score will show you how well your website is optimized. You can compare the quality of your website’s optimization to your competitors’ optimization.
· Competitor Research – You can get the complete list of websites and pages in organic and paid search that rank for the keywords in the same niche here.
· Rank Tracking – Serpstat keeps track of all top 100 search results for a keyword so that you can easily track and monitor competitor’s ranking.
· Content Marketing Ideation – This is where you can discover and create unique content that is working well in your niche. Use this feature to discover questions that your target market has in mind and discover content that gets shared on Facebook. And then create a popular content that will perform in your market.
The above are just some of the features of the tools provided by Serpstat. And of course, since they have provided such a tremendous value and great tools for users, you will have to pay to get full access to their tools.
You can use Serpstat for free which allows you to research keywords and analyze competitors with a limitation to 30 searches per month. They have a few paid packages for you to choose from and the cheapest option for personal use can be a great bargain.
Website: https://serpstat.com/
12. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another popular all-in-one SEO platform for marketers. It supports both traditional and competitor-based keyword research. And like SEMrush and Moz, you can do all sorts of research and analysis with the full range of SEO tools it offers.
And Ahrefs too provides many tools and features for their users to use such as Competitive Analysis, Keyword Research, Backlink Research, Content Research, Rank Tracking, and Web Monitoring.
Using their Competitive Analysis, you can perform the organic search report to analyze search traffic of your competitors. You can see the exact keywords that your competitors are ranking for and how much traffic the keyword brings to them. Ahrefs claim that they have data of over 240 million keywords in the United States alone, so you can get the most coverage with keyword research from them.
And their Keyword Explorer tool is able to perform in-depth research for thousands of keyword ideas with advanced metrics for analysis. You can then use their keyword difficulty score and the advanced keyword metrics to make educated decisions about which keywords to target.
Another cool feature from Ahrefs is their Content Explorer. This is where you can plug in a relevant keyword in your market and the tool will show you the best performing content in terms of social buzz, amount of backlinks and organic search traffic. You can find all the content and articles for your target keyword and “hack” your website to perform the same.
There is no doubt that Ahrefs is one of the best SEO platforms that provide a great keyword research tool, but to use it, you need to sign up for their premium package. You can test-drive Ahrefs with their 14-day free trial, but after that, you will have to pay to use it.
Website: https://ahrefs.com/
13. Long Tail Pro
As the name suggested, Long Tail Pro is a powerful tool to find profitable long-tail keywords. They have plenty of great features and metrics such as:
· Keyword Competitiveness Score – Use this score to determine the difficulty of ranking different keywords in the top 10 Google results.
· Custom Difficulty Targets – You can add a domain to a project to discover what level of keyword difficulty you should be targeting with each of your sites.
· Calculate Keyword Profitability – With this feature, you can use the Rank Value to determine a keyword’s profitability based on what you are targeting.
· Real-Time Filtering – You can filter keyword results by CPC, local searches, number of words, and also keyword competitiveness.
· Determine Metrics – View metrics such as domain strength, page strength, indexed URLs, backlinks, site age, etc.
Long Tail Pro can be a great keyword research tool if your online business has to rely on keyword and you are into SEO model. You can start with a 7-day free trial for Long Tail Pro, and if you find their tools are great, you can upgrade and use their premium packages.
The only drawback for Long Tail Pro is that it requires you to give access to your Google Adwords account for evaluating the keywords. Otherwise, it is one of the great keyword tools available in the market.
Website: https://longtailpro.com/
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