15+ Best Keyword Research Tools for SEO Strategy

According to Neil Patel, 68% of online activity begins with queries in search engines like Google or Bing. Your content will fail to rank if you don’t target specific keywords. Finding the right set of keywords can be nerve-wracking, especially if you are new to SEO. That’s why we bring some of the best keyword research tools to make your task easy.

What is Keyword Research, and Why is It Important?

Keyword research is very crucial for boosting traffic to your site. It helps you write the perfect content to increase your organic search traffic. Check out our exclusive article/guide on how to boost website traffic with the right keyword strategy and tool.

To get the majority of the load off your shoulders, it’s recommended you use a keyword research tool. Some of the best research tools help you find topics or ideas that people are currently searching on various search engines like Google, Bing, and YouTube. They also help you target long-tail words that are easy to rank and steal traffic from your competitors.

In this article, we will share some of the best tools for Keyword research to kickstart your SEO journey.

How do Keyword Research Tools Help SEO Professionals?

Keyword research is the first step in building SEO-friendly content. Each keyword is entitled to efficiency with a few parameters such as difficulty score, monthly search volume, clicks, PPC, and more.

Keyword research tools filter keywords for you based on these parameters and help you choose ones that best align with your business. These tools are a must-have for freelancers, marketers, online business owners, and SEO specialists.

They help you find keywords where your competitors are ranking at the top. You can then improve your content to target those keywords and steal their traffic.

Keyword research tools can show you what people are searching for rather than what you think they will search for.

A keyword research tool helps you:

• Target long tail and less competitive keywords
• Track your progress and rankings
• Find location-specific keywords
• Run SEO optimized Ad campaigns
• Target current and ch ging trends
• Brainstorm content or topic ideas

The right set of keywords can help you draw the right audience to your site who are more likely to convert. Keywords can make or break your website rankings, so it’s important to also focus on not using the ‘wrong’ set of keywords.

Best Keyword Research Tools for SEOs

KeywordTool

Keyword Tool is the best alternative to Google’s keyword planner. You don’t even have to create an account to use the tool.

The free version of the Keyword Tool is the best for business owners, online marketers, and content creators. For every term you search, it generates up to 750 long-tail keywords that are easier to rank on the search engines.

Unlike other keyword research tools, it uses Google Autocomplete to extract the most accurate searches to help you find what your readers are searching for on google.

Some of the best features of Keyword Tool are

• Discovers thousands of long-tail keywords related to any topic automatically from google’s search suggestions
• Helps find hidden keywords through Google’s Keyword Planner
• Best for content marketing. SEO and Blogging

Price – You can use it for free. However, a paid plan for $79/month is billed annually with bulk search volume analysis and Google Ads Competition data. Learn more about Keyword Tool’s Pricing here.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an all-around SEO tool that helps with keyword research, backlink building, and content research. Its Keyword Explorer tool is the internet’s most complete keyword research tool. With a database of 7 million keywords updated every month, Ahrefs is your go-to if you are serious about kickstarting your content marketing and SEO game.

By playing around with a large amount of clickstream data, Ahrefs estimates keyword volumes for ten different search engines. For each term, in your search, you will know everything about the keyword related to the term, like Keyword volume, density, click metrics, return per rate, percentage of clicks, and more.

It also has a side audit tool that will tell you exactly what’s good and what’s not on your website. Their world-class accurate data makes them one of the leading software on the internet for all SEO needs

You can also help you access SERPs and find out why their pages are ranking. You will be free to refine and filter as much as you want. This will bring you the best and not-so-difficult-to-rank keywords you can readily use on your pages.

Some of the best features of Ahrefs that list it among the best keyword research tools

• Ahrefs gives you data from 171 countries
• You get accurate search volumes as all the data are updated every month
• The only tool that shows you the estimated number of clicks for a specific keyword

Price – Ahrefs has four pricing plans. You will get two months of free access if you pay annually. The Lite Plan is $99/month. The Standard plan is $199/month. Advanced and Enterprise plans for $399 and $999 per month. Learn more about Ahrefs pricing here.

Moz

Wave goodbye to spreadsheets for good. Moz is the most comprehensive keyword research tool that organizes, prioritizes, and manages keywords for you, so you can focus on real-time website traffic. SERP’s data are refreshed every two weeks to give you suggestions that are always up to date. Moz Pro has a well-stocked array of SEO tools in a single package. They cover everything from keyword research, SERPs, page optimizations, link crawling, competitor analysis, backlinking, and weekly performance reports.
You can also add your score to each keyword based on the metrics that you care about, like Search volume, click-through rates, and other organic metrics.

Some of the best features of Moz’s keyword research tool are

• Add weight to keyword importance by giving a custom own score.
• Add, manage, prioritize and compare in a single dashboard
• Free 30-day trial

Price– Moz offers a 30-day free trial. They have four pricing plans. The standard for $99/month. Medium, large, and premium plans for $179, $299, and $599/month. Learn more about Moz’s pricing here.

SEMrush

SEMrush is one of the best keyword research tools with a robust SEO bundle with many features to cover all your marketing needs. You can get insights from all areas of marketing.

From spying on your competitor’s backlinks, keywords, and ads to tracking your page’s progress, SEMRush does it all. If you want to rank organically, find what keywords your competitors are performing for, and uncover metrics, reports, and Adwords you never thought existed, use SEMRush.

Simply enter a keyword or URL and find tons of resources you might not know existed. You can find what keywords you are ranking for and what can be done to push it to the first page. The best part is you can look into all the amazing features for free within their trial period

Optimize your existing ranking keywords to dominate the search engines. The feature we loved the most is the keyword gap analysis to launch or upgrade efficient SEO campaigns.

Highlights of using the SEMrush keyword research tool

• Keyword Manager to analyze and compare the metrics of thousands of keywords all at once
• Integrate with Google Analytics to track and document your process
• Find a dozen of metrics like intent, difficulty, CPC, competition results, and more for every keyword

Price– 7- day trial with access to all their features. Paid plans come in three tiers. The Pro Plan for $119/month. The Guru Plan for $229/month and Business for $449/month. Know more about SEMRush pricing here.

KWFinder

Many marketers, freelancers, and on-page SEO specialists need to research keywords that aren’t too difficult to rank but can bring visible traffic. If that is your case, KWFinder is one of the best keyword research tools.

It also collects past data to see how your site or your competitor’s site has progressed in rankings for a single keyword. You can also compare your site against other top-performing sites in your industry.

It is the best dedicated and affordable SEO tool that caters to all your keyword needs. You can opt for this tool if you are just looking to research keywords and do not want other unnecessary features that come with popular SEO tools.

Some of the best features of KWFinder are

• SERP analysis of top-performing pages
• Thorough keyword analysis to come up with a keyword strategy and attract traffic
• Keyword analysis of competitor’s page

Price– They have a 48-hour money-back guarantee policy. They have three paid plans – The Basic ($29/month), Premium ($39/month), and Agency ($79/month). Know more about KWFinder Pricing here.

Keywords Everywhere

Who said you need to spend dollars researching accurate and easy-ranking keywords? With Keywords Everywhere, you don’t have to hop between your keyword tool and planner.

It also helps you see how your website is performing for specific keywords and also lists the average CTR (click-through rate) for your content. You can optimize your title or CTA to boost your CTR and improve the keyword rankings.

It gathers data from all the prime SEO tools like google analytics, Google search console, and google trends to find the best keywords to bring traffic to your website.

Some of the best features of Keywords Everywhere are

• Use this one tool to save your time and avoid going through various websites to find the right keyword
• Retrieves hidden Google keyword data. Best to filter keywords with desired metrics
• Best free keyword research tool to find refined and accurate keywords

Price – Their paid plans vary on credits. Each credit is equal to a keyword. $10/year for 100,000 credits. $50/year for 500,000 credits. $100/year for 1,00,000 credits. Know more about Keywords Everywhere’s pricing here.

SpyFu

If you ask us to choose between SEMRush and SpyFu for keyword research, hands down its SpyFu without a second thought. This keyword tool has set the bar high for all other software.

They are specially designed to dig deeper into your competitors’ ranking keywords and even Ads. Enter any domain and you will find every place they have shown on google, every keyword they bought, every ad variation, and the entire history of their rankings.

It doesn’t stop here. Find all the relevant information like social media, email address, phone, and much more from just a domain. It can either be yours or from anywhere on the internet. And you can try all of it for free without even logging in.

Some of the best features of SpyFu are

• Monitor your SEO rankings on Google, Bing, and Yahoo
• Find competitor’s keywords that you haven’t bought yet
• Search for a competitor and download their PPC keywords

Price– The basic plan is $8 per month, and the Professional for $58 per month. Both are billed annually. Know more about SpyFu pricing here. Check our spyfu coupon codes for amazing discounts.

GrowthBar

With AI rising stronger than ever, GrowthBar helps you create SEO-optimized content in less than 10 minutes. For any search in 20+ languages, this tool will give you a list of up to 200 long-tail keywords with all the desired metrics. On top of everything, GrowthBar generates 100% unique content for any topic.

You can also view lots of details about your competitors for any keyword you enter, to know how visible they are (the higher the number here, the more visitors they might receive)

Some of the best features of GrowthBar are

• Accurate keyword searches and volume
• Simply enter a keyword and get done with your content in just a few minutes
• Supports 20+ languages

Price– You get a 5- day money-back guarantee. Growth Bar comes with 3 pricing plans. The Standard for $29/month. The PRO for $79/ month, and the Agency plan for $199/month.Know more about Growth Bar pricing here.

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is the best for analyzing paid searches. However, the downside is that it becomes difficult to find organic keywords as the search volume is available only in range and not in exact numbers.

You also need a Google Ad account to access the tool. If you have, you can enter the payment details and get started. However, you must be running an active campaign to get started

This free keyword research tool allows you to export data and hosts other unique features easily. We recommend you use this tool if you are looking for ad keywords and are not targeting low-search volume keywords.

Highlights of Google Keyword Planner

• Best for paid search volumes
• Relatively accurate results
• You can pay according to your budget.

Price– Pay only for results, like clicks to your website or calls to your business. Decide how much you want to spend, and they’ll show you the estimated results based on your advertising budget before you create your campaign. Know more about Google Keyword planner’s pricing here.

Google Trends

Google Trends is the best tool to find the search trends for keywords and know the search cycle. Its subscriptions feature enables you to track keywords and trending topics, and you will also receive notifications in the inbox

It can save you lots of time and money and lets you focus on other areas of SEO.

Keywords having a higher search cycle will help a lot in ranking higher. To determine how the search volume for any keyword has changed over time, use Google trends.

Some of the best features of Google Trends

• Finding search queries and trends
• Easy-to-use and visually appealing dashboard
• Allows to search keywords and topics in specific locations
• Gives insights on current trends

Price– Free

SECockpit

SECockpit is another one of the best keyword research tools that let you perform advanced analysis and list out low-competitive keywords.

Put in any seed word and you will get thousands of results that get minimum CPC in AdWords. It provides extensive data beyond Google Searches, Google Ads, and Google Suggest, which is ideal for today’s market research.

SECockpit provides a list of high-performing pages and metrics related to these pages, including page rank, backlink counts, keyword ranking, social shares, etc. Keywords can also be filtered by competition, traffic, and cost per click. To determine niche keywords, it uses a Google scraper.

Highlights of using SECockpit

• Shows keywords that have Amazon, eBay, or YouTube
• Free trial available
• A built-in rank tracker that checks your engine rankings every day

Price– Starts from $25/month ( Personal plan) .$42 and &75 per month for PRO and Agency plans, respectively. Know more about SECockpit’s pricing here.

Soovle

Soovle is the best user-friendly keyword research tool even the stupidest will know how to use it.

You can add your brand’s logo and name to save all your keyword lists for future uses and can use the autocomplete action to get instant keyword ideas. Soovle is the best free research tool if you are not ready to invest in a paid one. It accesses more sources than any other paid tool and delivers more keyword ideas than your competition.

Some of the best features of Soovle are

• See the most used search suggestions by major service providers
• Maintain a list of your favorite suggestion
• Add your logo and Branding to Soovle

Price– Free

Serpstat

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO bundle with about 30 tools for marketers, agencies, business owners, and in-house SEO teams to conduct a whole website audit, keyword research, analyze competitors, check backlinks and generate reports to share with the stakeholders.

With Serpstat, it is easier to batch-analyze keywords and domains for free. The best part is you get free all the features and keyword research.

Some of the best features o Serpstat are

• Perform site audits
• SERP Crawling
• Batch analysis of keywords and domains
• Competitor analysis

Price– Free

It becomes harder to find a tool that can get you local keywords among all the best keyword research tools. Keyword Snatcher generates local keywords and has a database of over 3 million cities. So if your target audiences are based locally, go for this tool.
It provides a list of high-performing pages and metrics related to these pages, including page rank, backlink counts, keyword ranking

Keyword Snatcher

It becomes harder to find a tool that can get you local keywords among all the best keyword research tools. Keyword Snatcher generates local keywords and has a database of over 3 million cities. So if your target audiences are based locally, go for this tool.

It provides a list of high-performing pages and metrics related to these pages, including page rank, backlink counts, keyword ranking

Highlights of using Keyword Snatcher are

• 1000+ label rights articles
• Target local audience in just a few clicks
• Get lifetime access with a one-time payment

Price– $47 for a lifetime. Full 30-day free trial.Know more about Keyword Snatcher’s pricing here.

Long Tail Pro

Long Tail Pro is a dedicated keyword research tool. Though they have additional SEO features, they are not the best for Backlink analysis, competitor tracking, and site audits.

So if you’re looking only for best keyword research tools, Long Tail Pro is the best investment. It is best for freelancers, marketers, and business owners planning to get their hands on content marketing.

Some of the best features of Long Tail Pro are

• Keyword competitiveness score
• Rank tracker
• Easy training videos to help you get started

Price– The annual starter plan for $297/ year. The Annual PRO and agency plan is for $537 and $ 1177 per year. Know more about Longtail pro’s pricing here.

Majestic

Majestic is the mine for keywords. Unlike other keyword tools, the Majestic Keyword generator uses NLP-based AI technology to mine relevant keywords that you need to dominate your network.

This tool finds the links’ quality, quantity, and editorial style and their SEO impact. You will get a score for your links to compare where you stand amongst your niche’s top-performing pages.

Some of the best features of Majestic are

• Trust flow and Citation flow metrics to find the quality and quantity of the links
• Comparison of your backlink score with your competitors to gain insights into what impacts your content

Price– The Majestic has three pricing plans. The Lite for $49/month (1 million analysis units). The Pro for $99/month(20 million analysis) and the API for 399/month (100 million analysis). Know more about Majestic pricing here.

GetKeywords

GetKeywords believes in showing real-time metrics. Unlike all other data-storing SEO tools, this tool analyzes data in the present and shows you instant results.

What brings this to the list of the best keyword research tools is its comprehensive filter options to get exactly what you need.
Have you ever wondered how to target local keywords? GetKeywords has all locations covered with accurate metrics to help you understand your local market.

Some of the best features of GetKeywords are

• 100K+ keyword metrics
• Supports 45+ languages
• Unlimited keyword suggestions

Price – They have three paid plans. The Startup plan is for $29/month. The growth plan is for $29/month, and the Executive plan is for $39/month. Know more about GetKeywords pricing here.

Frequently Asked Questions