This article will cover:
Paid Keyword Research Tools
Free SEO Keyword Research Tools
SEO starts with targeting good keywords that get a decent amount of traffic. Also, you want to make sure your keywords are not too competitive. There are a lot of keyword research tools on the market. Some of them are free, and some of them are paid.
Trust me, I have wasted lots of time targeting keywords that were too hard to rank for. You want keywords that are low competition and high search volume. Any experienced SEO can tell you that.
Look no further because I am going to discuss the best tools to make this process easier for you. If you’re looking for the top keyword research tool, this article is going to cover 14 tools.
Paid Keyword Research Tools
Jaaxy
Jaaxy is a keyword research tool that was developed by Wealthy Affiliate. You can search for keywords and Jaaxy will show you the average monthly searches, traffic, QSR, KQI, SEO score, and domains. I wrote a Jaaxy review which explains what these terms mean. There are video tutorials that show you how to use all the features that come with Jaaxy.
Can try out Jaaxy for 30 searches. Do have a paid option which gives you an unlimited amount of searches per month. These two plans cost $19 to $49/month.
Jaaxy also has these features:
- Alphabet soup.
- Saved Lists.
- Search History.
- Search Analysis.
- Site Ranking Tracking.
- Related.
- Brainstorm.
KWFinder.com
This is a long tailed keyword research tool with a very user-friendly interface. It shows you trends, searches, CPC, PPC price, and the difficulty level. In another box, you can see lots of metrics from a site already ranking on Google. It shows their domain authority, page authority, Moz trust, social shares, and rank strength.
You can add list, export CVS list, and open in SERPChecker. The prices are very reasonable for KwFinder.com. There is a free version. Can check 3 per 24 hours. Their basic plan is $12.42 – $29.99/month. Allows 100 searches per 24 hours. Their premium plan is $24.92 – $49/month.
SEMrush
SEMrush is a popular keyword tool that a lot of experienced SEO’s use. According to 61 SEO’s that were polled it was the preferred SEO tool. It can be used for SEO or PPC campaigns.
Can view a search report and find other relevant search queries. Also, SEMrush will look at the top 100 domains show you related keywords and synonyms. This keyword tool research tool is $69 to $549.
FreshKey
Freshkey is an inexpensive tool that allows you to pull up more data from the search engine’s drop down menu with fewer keystrokes. Pull up more information by adding letter variations like a, b, c, d, etc. to your keyword root. This research tool enables you to see new keyword ideas and variations based on the keyword’s popularity. Freshkey is a $49.95 software that can be used with Amazon search box suggestions. This is a one-time bill, though. Create a spreadsheet or copy to your clipboard by exporting the keyword results from the Freshkey software.
Longtail Pro
Longtail Pro is a keyword research tool that was developed in 2011. It allows you to find “long tail” keywords. You need to connect your Google account and a free Moz account with it. The interface is very clean and easy to work with. It shows lots of metrics on keywords your targeting. It’s based on a keyword difficulty 1 to 100 factor. Also, you can see all the sites that are ranking for those keywords.
The pricing plans are as follows:
- Starter. $37 – $25 month.
- Pro. $67 – $45 month.
- Agency. $147 – $98.
KeywordTool.io
If you are familiar with Google’s Keyword Planner tool, then you will find this tool to be great. Can show you long-tail keywords. This tool is completely free for the first 750+ keyword suggestions. Also, it’s integrated with YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and App store.
An excellent keyword research tool for keyword data mining. It’s integrated with Google Autocomplete.
The pro version is $48 to $88/month.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
This is one of my favorite SEO tools to use. I have actually written an Ahrefs review. Ahrefs has an Ahrefs keyword explorer which shows the keyword difficulty, search volume, return rate, clicks, clicks/search and a list of keyword variations. This allows you to drill down and find more keywords you might not have thought about.
The prices are as follows:
- Lite. $82 – $99 month.
- Standard. $149 – $179 month.
- Advanced. $332 – $399 month.
- Agency. $832 – $999 month.
Moz Keyword Difficulty
Moz.org is a very popular SEO tool that lots of experienced SEO’s have used over the years. I have used Moz.org a lot over the last 10 years. They do have a tool that draws on Keyword Planner, Google Suggest, and Related Searches.
This tool will show you the following metric:
- Volume.
- SERP features.
- Difficulty.
- Opportunity.
- Potential Score.
Moz.org does cost $99/month. There are lots of other features with this paid monthly subscription.
Buzzsumo
Buzzsumo is a popular tool that allows you to monitor what going in in social media. For instance, you can check out influencers to see what the experts are writing about in your niche. The free version allows you to do 4 searches per day. However, the paid option allows you to do unlimited searches per day.
Here are the prices for the paid version:
- Pro. $99/month.
- Agency. $299/month.
- Enterprise. 699/month.
WordStream
The WordStream’s keyword tool will help you group keywords coming from a common theme. The keyword tool will also allow easy ad group launches. You will be able to pull up the top hundred keywords out of thousands by using WordStream’s keyword suggestion tool. The first thirty searches are free; in addition to a seven-day trial period. Use WordStream’s keyword tool to ensure that your ads show up at the right time and in the targeted pay-per-click campaigns.
The paid pricing is pretty high with WordStream. The cheapest plan is $249/month. You do get 2,500 searches per month. Also, they have plans for enterprise SEO companies. It can cost $7,188 for an entire year’s worth of searches.
Free SEO Keyword Research Tools
Soovle
Soovle is a free tool that enables you to type in a keyword root and view the most reviewed keywords utilized on numerous search engines and popular sites; including Amazon, eBay Wikipedia, Answers, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo. Soovle is most helpful when you have to use numerous channels for keyword searches. Soovle also enables you to use it for brainstorming purposes. Start typing in your ideas and Google will generate its own ideas. You might come across different keywords that you otherwise would not have ever thought of.
Love this tool for brainstorming for ideas. Have found some really good keyword variations over the years with it.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a free keyword search tool that takes keyword searching to a whole new level. This super tool enables you to type in any keyword and immediately get unlimited variations of that keyword. Ubersuggest isn’t considered ‘uber’ without reason. You can even add ab, ac, or ad to the end of your keyword and it will pull up several variations that you may be able to bid on or even use for SEO purposes.
This tool is amazing for brainstorming. Also, you install this tool on Google Chrome and Firefox.
AdWords Display Planner
The AdWords Display Planner is a free tool that is accessed in your AdWords.com account. It will allow you to see what keyword(s) interests the public demographically. Make the most of your keyword search on YouTube with video ad campaigns. The AdWords Display Planner offers functionality that could be beneficial to you or any marketer. The AdWords Display Planner isn’t just a keyword search tool. It could give you the edge needed over any competitor.
Google Keyword Planner
The Google Keyword Planner is the be-all and end-all of keyword search tool options. It is free, but you will need an AdWords account to access it. The search tool offers a variety of stats and gives you variations and more synonyms than FreshKey or Ubersuggest. The Google Keyword Planner is easy to access from your AdWords.com toolbar. Type in your keyword and you will be given competition levels, as well as, the average cost per click stats.
Thanks for the list. I’ve used Jaxxy before and have had good results with it. I’ll have to give a few of your other recommendations a try. Thanks again
Your welcome.
This is a great article on keyword search tools. I honestly did not know there were so many of them available. What do you think of the free sites like Soovle? I currently use Jaaxy, which I love. So I don’t know if free is actually better. Or if I should stick with what works.
No, I don’t think Soovle is better than paid keyword research tools like Jaaxy. The reason being is it doesn’t provide any information on how competitive keywords are. But, what Soolve does help with is brain storming. You can do your keyword research in Jaaxy and then type in those keywords in Soovle and get some good suggestions.
Do you feel as though a blogger can still be successful by only using the free SEO Keyword search tools?
Yes and no. When you create a website you’re going to find very low competition keyword phrases. They can be hard to obtain without a paid keyword research tool. However, Jaaxy does allow you 30 free searches which can help. However, the free tools won’t provide you with the metrics that you need to check for finding low competition keywords.
Great post Garen! I am new to the use of SEO tools and this list gives me a ton of what look like really good options. I really had not heard of most of these although I really liked how Jaaxy was set up when I tried the 30 free searches.
Yeah, the 30 free searches is an excellent part of that keyword research tool. The training videos are also an excellent feature to show you how to do your keyword research correctly, too.
Hello, Garen, this is an extensive keyword research tools list of both paid and free tools.
You have certainly done the work that many would be hard pressed to do, (because of time and a lack of knowledge of some of what is available). You have taken the ‘hard’ of it for many people desiring these tools and combine them all in a simple, presentable and very clear way. You will certainly make some people very happy with this collection.
By adding your own experience, opinion, and suggestions that will no doubt aid the intended user who lacks the experience in knowing which is best. This is done in a very well thought out way.
I was interested in learning more about Ubersuggest. However, what are the pros and cons of using it?
Thanks Garen
Pros
Free.
Easy to use.
Can search web, images, shopping, YouTube, news.
Multiple locations.
Can easily view Google Trends.
Download keywords.
Cons
Does not tell you how competitive keywords are.
Thanks for the recommendations, I really like Jaxxy but I will give the other ones a try! I am new at this but so far it is paying off, Thanks once again!
Hi Garen, Thanks for your post, I’m fairly new to Keyword search tools and this article will save me heaps of time in choosing the right one to suit me.
I have been using Buzzsumo for several months now. Really I am loving it.
Yeah, Buzzsumo is awesome. It’s good to find what is going on in social media and then crafting articles in which you can pitch to authority sites. Bigger sites will be more apt to reply if you send them a pitch for high-quality content that people are “buzzing” about.