Best Keyword Research Tools: 4 of Our Favorites

Google owned a 92.47% share of the search engine market in June of 2021. With such utter domination of the search engine market, it makes sense for you to start your keyword research with Google.

Google Keyword Planner provides users with two main features:

• One of them is designed for exploratory keyword research that can help you to discover new ideas for potential keywords, giving you related keyword suggestions that match high-volume Google search trends. 
• The other is focused much more on in-depth analysis that revolves around forecasting future keywords and their likely search volumes.

You’ll have to search for a seed term, and Google Keyword Planner will come back with an extensive array of information. It will automatically generate additional keyword ideas, their monthly search volume metrics, and the changes over time. You should have all the information you need to create an effective SEO strategy for your business. 

Perhaps the best thing about Google Keyword Planner is the price. This is a free keyword research tool, with no limits or paid upgrades necessary. Even if you prefer the services of another option on this list, it’s also a good idea to use Google Keyword Planner for a free version that is compatible with Google analytics, great for discerning Google trends, and useful for competitive keyword searches.

Semrush is a bit different from the other options on this list. Most of them work by providing you with a list of keyword ideas after you’ve entered in a seed keyword to get started. Instead, Semrush shows the search terms your competition is already using and how they rank in a current search engine results page (SERP) analysis. You’ll immediately be given the tools to counter competitors’ marketing, even if they’re using uncommon target keywords to generate search traffic.

You’ll need information about your competitors, such as their domain name and the country where they conduct business, for Semrush to function. The search won’t take long and will provide “Organic Research” which includes the estimated number of monthly organic visitors they receive from Google, the total number of monthly visitors, and the estimated value of the traffic they’re receiving. 

In addition to this information, you’ll also be able to see the top-ranked keywords, search queries, sites, and URLs that your competitors use. You’ll be provided with a detailed list of this information that should give you plenty of ideas for keywords and marketing strategies. 

Semrush provides an incredible amount of highly detailed information, but it will cost you. Semrush offers three plans, and each of them has its limitations:

• The Pro plan is $119.95 monthly ($99.95 annually billed) and includes five projects, 500 keywords to track, and 10,000 results per report.
• The Guru plan is $229.95 monthly ($191.62 a month when billed annually) and includes 15 projects, 1,500 keywords to track, and 30,000 results per report. 
• The Business plan is $449.95 monthly ($374.95 a month when billed annually) and includes 40 projects, 5,000 keywords to track, and 50,000 results per report.

The Moz Keyword Explorer tool is a reasonably easy-to-use option that offers uncommon and less obvious keyword recommendations. There are two features provided by Moz Keyword Explorer that land it on this list.

The first feature is the organic clickthrough rate (CTR) score which indicates the expected number of clicks that a keyword will attract on the first page. The number is a ratio of the users who click on your specific link compared to the number of people who see it. The higher the CTR, the more traffic will be heading to your website.

The second feature is the priority score, which combines several factors to determine which keywords you should focus on. The anticipated CTR, average search volume, and keyword difficulty are all considered to calculate the score. You’ll be left with a clear ranking and visualization of the most effective keywords to start your project. 

The good thing about Moz is that it offers a variety of pricing plans that can help meet your specific needs. You might want to start with the Medium plan’s free 30-day trial to see if Moz offers what you’re looking for. 

There are four pricing plans available with Moz, including:

• The Standard plan is $99 monthly ($79 a month when billed annually) and includes three campaigns and 300 keyword rankings, with up to 100,000 pages crawled each week.
• The Medium plan is $179 monthly ($143 a month when billed annually) and includes 10 campaigns and 1,500 keyword rankings, with up to 500,000 pages crawled each week.
• The Large plan is $299 monthly ($239 a month when billed annually) and includes 25 campaigns and 3,000 keyword rankings, with up to 1,250,000 pages crawled each week.
• The Premium plan is $599 monthly ($479 a month when billed annually) and includes 50 campaigns and 4,500 keyword rankings, with up to 2,000,000 pages crawled each week. 

Ahrefs is a reasonably powerful all-in-one SEO tool that can provide the most detailed information about each keyword. Entering a seed keyword into the Ahrefs keyword explorer will automatically generate thousands of potential new keywords across all major search engines. These will be specific keywords with high search volume data that will help you develop a content strategy collected via a comprehensive algorithm.

You’ll be given the standard search volume information and a thorough breakdown of the first-page competition for the keyword and how many times someone searches that keyword and clicks on a link. 

This kind of SEO keyword analysis is beneficial for choosing the right keywords across various industries and makes long-tail keyword research especially easy. For example, keyword data like this can help ecommerce sites rank among eBay and Amazon (or even above) for relevant keywords on Google or Bing.

Each keyword is also given a “difficulty rating,” which will tell you exactly how many backlinks you’ll need to reach the first page of Google. The more backlinks your keyword needs, the less likely it will reach the front page. In that case, it would be wise to consider using another keyword.

Another key feature is that Ahrefs can generate reports that find broken links on your site that need to be repaired. 

Ahrefs offers four pricing plans that provide a variety of extra features. The four pricing plans are available monthly, or you can pay annually and receive two months free.

The plans include: 

• The Lite plan starts at $99 a month and includes up to 2,500 rows per report, 750 tracked keywords, and 100,000 pages crawled each month. 
• The Standard plan starts at $199 a month and includes up to 30,000 rows per report, 2,000 tracked keywords, and 500,000 pages crawled each month.
• The Advanced plan starts at $399 monthly and includes up to 75,000 rows per report, 5,000 tracked keywords, and 1,500,000 pages crawled each month.
• The Enterprise plan starts at $999 monthly and includes up to 150,000 rows per report, 10,000 tracked keywords, and 5,000,000 pages crawled each month.