Keyword research tools help to select keywords to optimize content for better visibility and rank in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Keyword research tools provide statistics that help in the identification and selection of keywords for a given context. The context for keyword research can be a blog post, product or services description, or any other online content.
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What is a keyword research tool?
Keyword research is done with the help of online tools with many of those available in the market. Each tool has many features with keyword research being the core. The online tools that do more than keyword research and include features for broader SEO requirements are classified as SEO tools.
The selection of a keyword research tool is primarily dependent on the purpose, user technical knowhow, and budget. There are both free and paid tools available in the market.
If you are independent professionals or individuals then we recommend starting with a free tool. After you gain a basic understanding, you can progress to the paid tool depending on your requirements. For SMB’s (Small and Medium Business), we recommend starting with a basic plan of a paid tool. You can progress to premium plans based on your requirements and tools’ performance.
We have outlined four paid and one free tool to help users select the right keyword research tool for their requirements.
SEMRush
Description
SEMRush is one of the most preferred keyword research tools by different user groups. SEMRush has built its credibility through exclusive partnerships with keyword scraping firms and its large engineering team. SEMRush is featured as a strong performer in the Forrester Wave report on SEO platforms.
SEMRush has strength in competitive intelligence and helps users evaluate competitors on multiple parameters. It maintains a large keywords database that helps in the selection of most appropriate keywords.
The following screenshot from the tool shows the keyword overview for the phrase ‘Keyword Research Tool’. The tool shows the search volume in India and globally. search queries in the form of questions, keyword variations along with related phrases.
The menu on the left side displays multiple features available within the tool that helps with not only keyword research but also broader SEO requirements such as backlinks assessment, Paid Per Click (PPC) advertisement, and digital marketing insights.
SEMRush is suitable for SMB’s (Small and Medium Business) to support their content marketing initiatives across digital channels. Many independent business owners and bloggers are using SEMRush to improve their website rank on search engines.
Features
- Domain Analytics – The feature allows the users to obtain website statistics such as organic search, backlink, and traffic. The user gains insights into keywords used by competing websites.
- Keywords Analytics – This feature provides keywords statistics such as volume, difficulty level to help users fine-tune their content strategy and/or PPC campaign
- Marketing Insights – This feature provides information on specific marketing objectives.
KWFinder
Description
KWFinder is a keyword research tool by Mangools and its core objective is to help users find keywords with low SEO difficulty and high volume. The tool is used to check webpages rank, perform backlinks analysis, and gain insights into website performance.
KWFinder is known for ease of use with user-friendly interface and accuracy of the keyword difficulty score. A user can analyze keyword both through keywords and domain names.
When you search by keywords the result are displayed in three main sections
Keyword list – List of keywords with volume, keyword difficulty, cost per click
SERP Overview – The ranking of websites for specific keywords from the list on the search engine result page
Keyword difficulty – The difficulty level on a scale of 1 to 100 for getting ranked for different keywords.
Features
- Keywords identification – KWFinder helps to identify high volume and low difficulty level keywords that offer maximum potential for search ranking improvement. You can select and create a keywords list only for specified phrases from the complete list displayed by the tool. Using the autosuggestion and question format keywords options you can get long-tail keywords
- Ranking improvements – KW Finder provides information on the potential to improve organic search ranking based on selected keywords.
- Competitive analysis – You can analyze your competing website and other high authority websites on a host of parameters.
LongTailPro
Description
LongTailPro is a premium keyword research tool that helps you find low competition keywords for your niche sites. The tool helps you to generate related keywords based on one specific keyword. Their search volume data has a high level of accuracy along with industry-relevant keyword competitive index.
In addition to keywords for your domain, you will also find other statistics. Using their keyword competitiveness index you can select the appropriate keywords for your site. The tool has an easy user interface and features that are easy to understand.
Features
Keywords suggestions – Using seed keywords you can get hundreds of longtail keywords. You can create filters based on criteria such as average CPC bid, search volume, rank value, and others to get a keywords list that meets your requirements.
LongTailPro makes keyword competitiveness evaluation easy with the simple metric ‘KC’ that has a scale from 1 to 100. Using a domain URL you can get the keyword competitiveness recommendation. The tool color-codes keywords according to their difficulty, with green being easy, yellow being moderately difficulty, and unshaded being the most difficult.
Competitor analysis – You can use the competitor domain URL to understand their keyword strategy and identify the long-tail keywords for which their site is ranking. Using additional metrics such as trust flow, citation flow, site age, and referring domains you can evaluate the opportunity to outrank them.
Rank tracker – The Rank Tracker allows to track the website ranking for set of keywords. You can enter the domain name or the page URL along with the target keywords for which rank has to be monitored. The tracker will update your ranking on a daily basis based on which you can assess your website performance.
Serpstat
Description
Serpstat is a full-featured SEO platform that helps you with keyword research, search engine optimization, and pay per click advertising campaign. The platform evolved from a keyword research tool to a complete SEO software suite. The tool is economically priced compared to its main competitors.
The tool has a user-friendly interface and its keyword research feature is one of the solid features.
Features
Keyword analysis – You can conduct keyword analysis for both organic and paid keywords. The organic keyword search shows search volume, competition and cost per click. It shows the competitive website ranking for the keywords along with the trend drawn from Google trends. You can get a list of related keywords and suggestion.
The tool also provides information on paid keywords with details such as position, search volume, traffic, Cost per click, competition percentage.
Website analysis – You can analysis a website at two levels. The first level is the domain and the second is on the web page level. When you enter the URL you can find keywords for which the website is getting ranked on page one of the search engine result page. The result also displays a graph that shows the rank (position) distribution of websites for different keywords.
Using Serpstat you can find the pages on a site that rank for lots of different keywords within the section of the top page. You can also use the tool to perform backlink analysis and track the site position for different keywords. The website analysis feature makes the tool most suitable for competitor’s keyword strategy assessment.
Site audit – You can perform a detailed website analysis with this feature. It will provide recommendations for on-page, off-page, and technical SEO improvement opportunities. This is one of the defining features of the tool.
Google Keyword Planner
Description
Google Keyword planner was earlier a separate tool and it has now been integrated into Google Ads. You have to create an account on Google ads to be able to use Google Keyword Planner. After you create an account in Google Ads and login then click tools and settings to get to the Keyword Planner tool. The two key functionalities that are relevant from keyword research for blogging and affiliate marketing are
- New keywords selection
- Keywords analysis
Features
Discover new keywords – You can search for phrases related to your product or services. On entering seed keyword in the tool you will be provided with a list of keywords with average monthly search volumes, competition or difficulty level, and cost per click. You can use filters to specify criteria for your specific requirements.
You can also identify new keywords by using website URL. You can also include filter to include or exclude criteria to match your requirements.
Get search volume and forecast – Using this feature you get information on specific keywords such as average monthly search volume, competition. The feature provides additional information in the context of ads campaign and includes Impressions, Clicks, CTR (Click-through rate), average position, and average CPC (Cost per click).
Get bid estimates – Keyword Planner will give you suggested bid estimates for each keyword, so you can plan your advertising budget. This is useful for business planning Google Ads campaign.
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