Keyword research is a huge part of SEO. Whether you’re developing a content strategy or building an ad campaign, it’s important that you’re using the right keywords and phrases to attract potential customers to your website! There are plenty of great keyword research tools designed to help you find keywords that are relevant to your business and marketing goals. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best keyword research tools that our SEO and content team use regularly!
AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic listens into autocomplete data from search engines like Google and finds questions, prepositions, comparisons and other related items people are searching for surrounding the keyword you enter. This keyword generator is great for gaining consumer insights and generating content ideas, and potential products and services. You’re allowed 10 free keyword entries per month before paying for a plan.
Keywords Everywhere
Keywords Everywhere is one of our favorite keyword brainstorming tools! This browser add-on can be installed on either Chrome or Firefox. Keywords Everywhere pulls the “People Also Search For” and “Related” keywords from Google and Bing, and displays them to you right on the search results page. With the paid version, you can also see search volume, cost per click (CPC) and competition data and download the metrics as Excel, CSV or PDF files. Above the keyword suggestions, Keywords Everywhere also features a historical search volume chart using data from Google Trends.
Google Ads Keyword Planner
Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool you can access with your Google Ads account that collects and displays keyword data directly from Google. You can discover new keyword variants, and see keyword stats like average monthly searches, competition levels, the average cost per click and more. Keyword Planner also allows you to see search volume, historical metrics and forecasts for how specific keywords might perform in the future. This SEO keyword tool is especially valuable for integrating with your search ad campaigns.
SEMRush
SEMRush offers a number of helpful keyword research tools that dive into in-depth data and outside-of-the-box keywords. “Keyword Overview” will give you a snapshot of a particular keyword’s value, showing important metrics like volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, competition in paid search, top-ranking pages, ad copy and more. You can even analyze the data for Google’s desktop and mobile indexes separately. The Keyword Overview tool also gathers related phrase matches, questions and keywords, as well as advertising trends and SERP analysis among keywords.
The “Keyword Magic Tool” allows you to enter a keyword and find all possible broad match, phrase match and exact match keywords related to your entry, along with their metrics. We like to use this tool for brainstorming content ideas! You can get 10 reports a day for free before you upgrade to a professional plan.
The “Keyword Gap” tool gives you a full analysis of the keywords you rank for and the keywords your competitors rank for side by side. You can add up to five domains, subdomains or exact URLs and get a list containing all common and unique keywords they rank for. The tool also provides distinct keyword lists for organic, paid search and PLAs (product listing ads), so you can evaluate your SEO and PPC efforts in comparison to your competition and find opportunities in your niche!
Available with a paid subscription, the “Keyword Manager” tool allows you to import keywords manually, from organic search or from the “Keyword Magic Tool” main table to get a deeper analysis of your keywords with real-time metrics. You can analyze their volume, trend, CPC, competitive density, keyword difficulty, SERP features, click potential, top competitors and last changes. Keyword Manager allows you to send the list to other tools within SEMRush and save it within a categorized list so you can go back and reference your keyword research any time!