How to Do Free Keyword Research [Top 12 Tools]
Do you know what keyword research service is & which is the best free keyword tool? It is the process of finding and analyzing search terms that people can enter into search engines while using that data for a specific purpose, such as search engine optimization (SEO) or general marketing. SEMrush keyword magic tool is the best and most well-rounded keyword.
The right pick of keyword research tools will make it easier to find the target keywords and give you data that can rank already. But you shouldn’t need to empty your bank account and regret it. You can use tons of free tools to conduct keyword research and analysis without spending a penny.
However, with the correct choice, your content gets higher on a search engine results page (SERP), as keyword research is a fundamental practice in search engine optimization (SEO).
That’s why, after in-depth testing and growing your business or site, we have come up with the top 12 free keyword research tools for you.
Have a glance below.
Why Is Keyword Research Important?
Keyword research helps find which keywords are best to target and provides valuable perception into the queries your target audience is searching on Google. This can help inform your content strategy as well as your larger marketing strategy.
Thus, people use keywords to find solutions when analyzing online. So, if your content is successful and the target audience as they conduct searches, you maintain to gain more traffic. Hence, it would help if you were targeting those searches.
Moreover, in the inbound methodology, we don’t generate content around what we want to tell people. Instead, we should be creating content around what people want to discover. Therefore, our audience is coming to us. This all starts with keyword research.
These are the benefit of conducting keyword research;
- Marketing trend insight: Effective keyword research can help you center your content on relevant topics and keywords your audience is searching for.
- Traffic growth: Putting the best keyword will rank in search engine results; therefore, you will get more traffic to your website.
- Customer acquisition: By researching keywords for their popularity, search volume, and general intent, you can tackle the questions your audience wants answers to.
- Keyword vs. topics: By researching keywords that are a high volume of searches per month. So, you can identify and sort your content into topics you want to create content on. However, you can use these topics to dictate which keywords you search for and target.
12 Free Keyword Research Tools to Boom Your Site
There are many fantastic free tools to gather vital information for marketing and SEO. We are coming with 12 free keyword research tools that are easy to use and fill with valuable data.
In addition, some keywords are powerful generators for Google and other search engines. In comparison, others provide targeted data for e-commerce websites like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. Most of these tools include essential SEO data, such as the monthly search volume and intensity of competition for your target terms.
Below are descriptions of each free keyword research tool, its benefits, and drawbacks. The free tools are:
- Ahrefs Keyword Generator
- SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool
- Ubersuggest
- Moz Keyword Explorer
- Keyword Surfer
- Keyword Everywhere
- AnswerThePublic
- QuestionDB
- Google Search Console
- Google Keyword Planner
- Keyword Sheeter
Freemium Keyword Research Tools for Graphical SEO Analysis
A few premium paid websites offer free tools for limited use. Still, you get the same outstanding services provided by the premium services for limited searchers or fewer features, even though they are comprehensive free keyword research tools.
1. Ahrefs – Free Keyword Generator
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is one of the free tools offered by Ahrefs, which is a famous paid service. When you enter any target keyword or phrase, it will pull the top 100 keyword ideas from its database of over 8 billion keywords from more than 170 countries.
Further, the keyword generator displays; the Search volume, Keyword difficulty from 1 to 100, how recently this result was updated, and a list of questions related to your search term for each keyword phrase.
Therefore, you can use this keyword research tool to identify long-tail keywords, target less competitive phrases, and isolate your search using geographic location or search engine. It also allows you to export your data by downloading your list of results.
Moreover, Ahrefs also has free Bing, YouTube, and Amazon tools. On the other hand, some freemium services include the SERF result inside the keyword search tool, and Ahrefs offers their free SERP service on a separate page.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is an efficient and valuable free tool that allows you to do limitless searches without creating an account. However, unlike other tools, it won’t allow you to download your results.
2. SEMrush – Keyword Magic Tool
SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool is one of the various free tools offered by SEO SEMrush. You need to create an account and select Skip Trial in order to access their tools. You can always sign up if you would like the paid service down the road. Further, The Keyword Magic Tool will access more than 20 billion keywords from over 120 geographical databases.
These free tool reports include; Monthly search volume, Competitive density (competition among paid advertisers), and Keyword difficulty (how difficult it would be to rank in Google’s top 20).
Moreover, the Keyword Magic Tool has also some help with sorting and organizing features. It provides you to sort keywords into topic-specific subgroups, apply smart filters to narrow or expand your search, and quickly export your findings. And you can also see related keywords by topic and semantically related keywords or by keywords with similar phrasing.
In this way, the free account limits you to 10 searches a day across all the complementary tools offered by SEMrush.
3. Ubersuggest – Free Keyword Research Tool
This tool provides a wealth of information with its free version. When you put a search term, Ubersuggest displays the Search volume, SEO difficulty, paid difficulty, and CPC.
Further beneath that display, it identifies the number of backlinks you need to rank on the first page of Google for that Keyword phrase. You can also view lists of keyword ideas and page content ideas by scrolling down the Ubersuggest page.
The list of page content ideas shows related blog titles. At first sight, you can see how many people click on and share each blog post. You can export your most data reports to CSV to save and sort.
Moreover, Ubersuggest offers a free Chrome extension to see data on the SERP easily. The free version limits your use to a single website and 3 keyword searches per day.
4. Moz – Free Keyword Explorer
The Moz Keyword Explorer tool is an amazing and well-designed research tool that shows monthly volume, difficulty, and organic clickthrough rate (CTR). You can scroll down there to see an analysis of current results ranking for it and suggestions for similar keywords.
In addition, one of the best features of Moz includes a ‘’Priority’’ score that simplifies keyword research by giving you the bottom line on whether a keyword is worth chasing for you. Moreover, Moz automatically calculates the score based on the keyword’s volume, organic CTR, and organic difficulty, with ‘’My Score’’- Is a metric you set yourself, labeling how important a given keyword is to your business which is based on your expertise and knowledge of your business and industry.
Plus, with the new keyword Gap feature (part of the Competitive Research tool), you will find all the keywords your competitors rank for. Keyword research features are accessible for free for up to 10 queries per month, with up to 1000 keyword suggestions and SERP analyses per query. To unlock more features, Moz Pro plans start at $99/month for 150 keyword queries per month.
Free Chrome Extension Keyword Research Tool
Google Chrome Extension are software programs that can be installed into chrome in order to change the browser’s functionality. Below is the free chrome extension keyword tool that shows the exact keywords and growth channels that are working for any site.
1. Keyword Surfer
This keyword research tool is a free Chrome extension that shows the global estimation, and monthly search volume for any query entered into Google. Currently, the keyword Surfer shows local search volume estimates for 19 countries includes, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, France, and Germany.
Moreover, the Keyword Surfer includes keyword ideas with their volume, Cost per click (CPC) for each search term, rank pages for the search term, and traffic to pages 1 via 10 for that term.
In short, it is a highly efficient keyword research tool that delivers results as you use your web browser. However, the only downside is that there is no way to get search volumes in bulk.
2. Keywords Everywhere
This research tool is a free browser add-on that lets you do keyword research naturally while browsing Google, Bing, YouTube, etc.
Whenever you search for something, it will be considered a keyword, and you will get keyword search volume immediately in Autosuggest. While on the SERPs themselves, a box with new keyword ideas is embedded on the right-hand side of the page so that you can fill in your keyword list without actually leaving Google. You can easily access the Keyword Everywhere research tool as it is free.
Question-Based Keyword Research Tools
To generate more ideas related topic, you can use the below outlined question-based keyword tool.
1. AnswerThePublic
Making your content answer the exact questions is one of the key aspects of your keyword research success. At the same time, question-based content has a bigger chance of squeezing into Google’s featured answers.
However, the quickest and simplest way to find popular questions related to your business niche is AnswerThePublic. It is a no-brainer keyword tool that combines your main keywords with several question words such as who, what, why, where, how, which, when, etc.
In addition, you will also get a handful of keyword ideas through prepositions like for, near, without, with, and to, plus comparison keywords.
Hence, one of the best things AnswerThePublic is a free keyword generator.
2. QuestionDB
It is the best tool among others. You type a keyword into the tool, and it comes up with a list of related questions people ask online. Most importantly, QuestionDB has a unique feature of sourcing. Unlike other tools that will show you question-based keywords taken from Google or Bing, QuestionDB scrapes questions from across the web, including sites like Reddit, Quora, and Stack Exchange, which obviously are a gold mine of questions.
For instance, you may be searching for a topic like ‘’keyword research’’. QuestionDB will scrape the web to find common questions related to keyword research, enabling you to see how, why, and where people are talking about the topic.
Moreover, it is free for up to 50 results per search. Its Pro plan includes complete results for up to 500 searches per month for $15/month.
Best Paid Alternatives Keyword Research Tool
Instead of paying a high cost on a keyword tool and regretting it later, we will provide you with the best-paid alternatives which will tell you the most ranked keywords with no cost. Let’s explore below.
1. Google Search Console
This tool is the place to analyze your current SEO keywords with their average Google positions, impressions, and CTRs. It is a great way to find unexpected SEO shortcuts. For instance, if your URL recently ranks on page two or three, Google already considers it pretty relevant for the keyword.
However, your URL might need just a little SEO boost to storm onto page one and start bringing you a lot more traffic. In addition, a little tweaking of their SERP snippets or adding the Schema markup could work wonders. Plus, Google Search Console is a free keyword research tool.
2. Google Keyword Planner
It is one of the best PPC keyword research tools and is completely free. So you will never worry about running into limits or high-priced upgrades. Google keyword planner has two exclusive features; one for exploratory keyword research and discovery and the second for more in-depth research on search volume and forecasting.
Furthermore, searching for a seed term generates other keyword ideas and details on monthly search volume, changes over time, competition, ad impression share, and bid ranges. You can refine your keyword list by brand or non-brand keywords, source websites, and more. If you are using Google Ads, the ‘’Forecast’’ feature makes it easier to plan your paid ads and budget.
What’s more? Keyword Planner can also inform your organic strategy, showing you where ranking organically would help you save on PPC costs.
Free Ideas Generator Keyword Tools
When you are worried about generating more ideas for your blog post, don’t get any suggestions. The tools below will help you create more ideas to gather information for your post easily.
1. Keyword Sheeter
This keyword research tool drags thousands of autocomplete suggestions from Google. Enter one or more seed keywords and click ‘’Sheet keywords.’’
If you want to generate a lot of keyword ideas fast thus, this is the best tool for you. It pulls around 1000 ideas per minute, and you can export the result for free in one click.
2. Keyworddit
It is a unique tool that pulls keyword ideas from Reddit. Enter a subreddit, and it will mine the titles and comments of threads to find up to 500 keywords. Keyworddit tool is a fantastic starting point if you know little about a niche.
For instance, if you want to start a tech blog about ‘Apple’ but know nothing about the topic, pull ideas from r/apple. This tells you about Apple updates, Apple Watch, etc.
Moreover, it also tells you what kind of language they use to describe such things. Besides ideas, the tool pulls estimated US monthly search volumes for each keyword and gives you some idea about the popularity of each subtopic.
In short, Reddit is a popular site where people with specific interests take deep dives into a topic. It may reveal keyword phrases and blog topics you didn’t find anywhere.
FAQs
Q1: How do I find good keywords for my blog for free?
Ans: You want to start with an idea, then find keywords to target, uncover the questions people are asking, use Google trends to find trending topics, uncover keywords you are already ranking for, and use site search data to uncover what people are struggling to find.
Q2: How do I find highly searched keywords?
Ans: The most searched keywords on Google can be done using Google Trends. It also helps you find trending searches for tons of keywords and topics for each day, week, month, and year.
Q3: What are the 4 types of keywords?
Ans: When analyzing a user’s intentions behind searching, we can divide all keywords into four main categories; commercial, transactional, informational, and navigational.
Q4: How many SEO keywords should I use?
Ans: You should focus on two or three primary keywords per page on one topic. Although targeting four or more keywords would be difficult due to limited space in the title and Meta description tags.
Q5: What is keyword difficulty?
Ans: Keyword difficulty deals with how difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword in search engine optimization (SEO). Keywords with a lot of competition have high keyword difficulty. However, keywords with a low difficulty can easily rank high.
Q6: How much keyword difficulty is good for SEO?
Ans: 30-49 would be good enough; you will need quality content that is very well organized with good structure.
Q7: Which is better, SEO or PPC?
Ans: SEO is more effective for local searches and can grow your online presence for the long term, while Pay-per-click (PPC) is an acquisition strategy that provides you to spend ad money to access your content before the audience when searching for specific keywords online.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, there is hardly any SEO task more important than keyword research. Whatever goals you have and the business you run, choosing the right SEO keywords is the key to boosting your business and ranking your website. So, you would better pack your SEO toolset with these free and easy-to-use tools.
Furthermore, paid keyword tools unlock many advanced features like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer runs on a huge amount of data, making them much more efficient at finding low-competition keywords.
Free keyword tools are good when you are starting. But, if you grow your site, we highly recommend paid tools like Ahrefs –the best research keyword paid tool.
