There are hundreds of keyword research tools available that range from beginner friendly to advanced level. These tools make it easier to gather all the right keywords to reach the target audience. But the problem with most of these keyword research tools is that they only offer paid services. This makes many new SEOs worried as most of them cannot afford paying hundreds of dollars for keyword research.
To help SEOs find free keyword research tools, we considered tens of free tools and used them ourselves to find out which ones are offering the best features. At last, we finalized four keyword research tools that have many features and are free to use. Let’s talk about all these tools individually.
Top 4 Best Keyword Research Tools for SEOs
By using Moz Keyword Explorer tool, you can search for any keyword and see its difficulty, monthly volume and organic clickthrough rate. Even though Moz doesn’t have any data points like SERP position history, it has enough features like ‘priority’ score that makes up for it. There is also a keyword gap feature on Moz Keyword that you can use to find out the keywords your competitors have ranked.
Pricing:
Users can use Moz Keyword Explorer for free for ten queries per tool per month. If you want to use the pro plan, it starts from $99 per month.
Pros of Moz Keyword Explorer:
● It has a better data presentation than any other keyword research tools.
● The ‘priority core’ feature helps in finding the important keywords.
● Most of the tools on Moz Keyword are free to use.
Cons of Moz Keyword Explorer:
● It has less data than other keyword research tools.
● If you use a free plan, you can only have ten queries per month per tool.
Google Keyword Planner is available for web and is best for PPC keyword research. There are many helpful features available on Google Keyword Planner like explanatory keyword research and in-depth keyword research. There is no limit on Google Keyword Planner and you can use it for free for as long you want.
Pricing:
Google Keyword Planner is completely free to use.
Pros of Google Keyword Planner:
● No cost at all.
● It has amazing forecast features for budgeting too.
● Google Keyword Planner can suggest keywords just by looking at your website.
Cons of Google Keyword Planner:
● Google Keyword Planner is not a good tool for organic keyword research.
Ahrefs has a lot of free SEO tools that let you research keywords for your website or campaign. These free tools include Keyword Difficulty Checker, Backlink Checker, SERP Checker and other keyword tools for YouTube, Amazon and Bing. The free features on Ahrefs SEO tool offer you all the tools and features that are required for basic SEO.
Pricing:
Ahrefs Free SEO tool is available for 150 keywords with limited data while the paid plan starts from $99 per month.
Pros of Ahrefs:
● The Ahrefs Free tool provides a lot of tools for basic SEO tasks.
● It is quite simple and easy to use which makes it best for beginners.
● It also has keywords for non-search engines like Amazon, YouTube and Bing.
Cons of Ahrefs:
● There are some limitations in data on Ahrefs free SEO tool.
If you are looking for a more advanced keyword research tool, Semrush offers users many advanced features like with a lot of keyword data and SERPs. Semrush also provides keyword manager, position tracking, standard keyword overview, organic traffic insights and competitive keyword gap analysis. Its SEO content template tool also lets users make a content brief to grade and optimize your content.
Pricing:
The free plan of Semrush contains 10 analytics reports and 10 tracked keywords per day. Its paid plan starts from $119.95 per month.
Pros of Semrush:
● Semrush has a lot of keyword data.
● It has a variety of keyword research tools and features.
● Its free plan covers a lot of important tools for keyword research.
Cons of Semrush:
● It is not good for people who are beginners or do not have much keyword research experience.
● If you want to upgrade your tools, its paid plan is a bit more costly than other tools.
What Should You Look for in a Keyword Research Tool?
There are some things you need to keep in mind while looking for a keyword research tool. The keyword research tools we have mentioned above have all these features one way or another. If a research tool has all the following things, this means it is good to use.
1- Data Included: Make sure that keyword research tool has all the data you need to rank like traffic, keyword difficulty and SERP.
2- Data Source: Keyword research tools should have no errors and biases and you should be sure of the data from the tool. The tools that use Google Analytics or Google Search Console use data that is trusted.
3- Keyword Optimization Guidance: Even if you are a beginner, you shouldn’t have any problems using a keyword research tool. A keyword research tool that has a good keyword optimization should be your priority.
4- Free Plan Allowances and Upgrades: Many keyword research tools only give limited free tools and call it a free plan. A good keyword research tool shouldn’t have that. The free plan should include all the features that are needed for keyword research.
