Your search for the Best Keyword Research tools ends here. We have 11 excellent tools lined up for you. Keyword research is the heart and soul of any SEO campaign, you cannot just pick random trending topics and talk about them on your blog and get traffic.
You need tons of other keywords to back that one main keyword. Keyword research tools make this task of digging easy for you. Right from search volume to its difficulty, you get all the data in one single click. As a matter of fact – This topic was selected by combining data from Semrush and Ahrefs.
Any project which is done with proper research shines no matter what. So if you wish to know the best keyword research tools in the market as of 2024 to make your blog stand out, continue reading.
Top 11 Keyword Research Tools: In A Nutshell (2024)
| Sr. No. | Keyword Research Tool | Price |
| 1. | Semrush | $119.95/mo |
| 2. | Ahrefs – Keyword Explorer | $99/mo |
| 3. | KW Finder – Mangools | $49/mo |
| 4. | SE Ranking | $39/mo |
| 5. | Moz Keyword Explorer | $99/mo |
| 6. | LongTailPro | $37/mo |
| 7. | Serpstat | $69/mo |
| 7. | AnswerthePublic | Free, $99/mo |
| 8. | Soovle | Free |
| 9. | Ubersuggest | Free, $12/mo |
| 10. | Google Keyword Planner | Free |
This list has both free and paid tools. Let’s hop in!
1. Semrush
Check our in-depth review of Semrush where we also test the tool’s Keyword research abilities!
Semrush is a Saas platform with 50+ tools. One of them is their Keyword Research tool, which is arguably the best in the market. One special thing about Semrush is that Instead of generating a list of keywords, SEMrush recommends multiple keywords that your competitors are targeting. These keywords are very specific and make your further research easier.
With metrics like keyword search volume, keyword difficulty, cost per click, competition level, SERP analysis, search intent, etc. you can make the most of your campaign.
Tip: Check out our detailed guide on ‘How to use Semrush for Keyword research.’
Features:
- Monthly and Yearly search volume
- Find out the upward/downward trend for any keyword
- Keyword Magic tool allows you to generate thousands of keyword combinations in just a single click.
- Database of 21 billion keywords
- Integrates with google analytics to give the site’s organic search performance.
- The keyword gap tool gives you the keywords that you are missing out on.
Pricing:
Semrush offers three plans. Although they may seem a bit on the expensive side but trust us, this is one investment you shouldn’t miss out on if you want to launch a successful campaign. If you are planning to buy Semrush’s annual plan, then save up to 17% with our exclusive Semrush Coupon.
- Pro plan – $119.95/month and $1199.4/year (Beginners and small teams)
- Guru plan – $229.95/month and $2299.44/year (SMEs)
- Business plan – $449.95/month and $4499.4/year (Large scale enterprise)
Tip: Learn more facts and figures related to the Semrush research tool through our Semrush Statistics.
2. Ahrefs – Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs is yet another great keyword research tool that has a high reputation in the market. Rightly so, you are able to find thousands of amazing keyword ideas and examine their ranking difficulty, and traffic potential, all of this in just one single click. Ahrefs has the largest database of search queries globally.
Similar to Semrush, you can discover keywords from your competitors that you are missing to target.
Ahrefs is trusted by companies like Facebook, eBay, Pinterest, Netflix, and more.
Below are the amazing features that Ahrefs offers.
Features:
- Ahref’s keyword explorer runs on a database of 7 billion keywords which is updated each month.
- You get keyword ideas for over 170 countries
- The tool can estimate keyword volume from places like Amazon, Bing, youtube, etc.
- Keyword explorer presents metrics like search volume, the estimated number of clicks, keyword difficulty, SERP analysis, search intent, and much more.
- Metrics like return rate, click percentage, click per search, percentage of paid clicks and much more can also be viewed.
Pricing:
Ahrefs lets you choose from four different plans. This is how they are priced. If you subscribe to their plans on an annual basis, you get 2 additional months free. If you want to know more about Ahrefs free trial, then click here.
- Lite plan – $99/month and $990/year (small businesses and hobby projects.)
- Standard plan – $199/month and $1990/year (SEO professionals and in-house marketers.)
- Advanced plan – $399/month and $3990/year (Marketing agencies)
- Enterprise plan – $999/month and $9990/year (Large scale agencies)
3. KW Finder – Mangools
KW Finder is also a part of an SEO suite by Mangools. Giants like Airbnb, Adidas, Alexa, etc. trust KW Finder for their campaigns. There are a couple of ways to initiate your keyword research process using KW finder, the first is by entering a seed term and the other one is by entering a domain. Both these approaches will yield a list of hundreds and thousands of keywords.
You can even select a region and language to display keywords from. It is so reliable that marketers like brian dean and matt Diggity vouch for it openly.
Find out what’s working for your competitor, Analyze trends, examine historical data, identify seasonal keywords and boost your organic traffic with KW finder.
Features:
- EXACT search volumes and close to accurate Keyword difficult
- Rank easily by targeting keywords with high search volume with low SEO difficulty.
- Examine your competitors and see what is working for them. Work it out for yourself too. Easy Pz.
- Get access to seasonal keywords and hot trending topics. Not only that, also access to historical data and long-term trends.
- Explore long-tail keywords from over 50,000 locations
- 2.5 billion related keywords.
Pricing:
You get 3 plans to choose from and get 40% off on your annual subscriptions.
- Basic plan – $49/month and $358.80/year (Beginners and small teams)
- Premium plan – $69/month and $478.80/year (Small/Medium-sized business)
- Agency plan – $129/month and $958.80/year (Large scale agencies)
4. SE Ranking
SE ranking has a plethora of features that make it the ideal keyword research tool for those who are serious about SEO. It easily monitors rankings across Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Youtube.
Its website audit tool will help you identify the flaws in your blog and suggest you optimize strategies to perform better. You can even specify locations to get region-specific keywords. Talking about locations, Russia is a very big market and many people use Yandex as their search engine, SE ranking tool allows you to switch between Google and Yandex seamlessly while researching.
Moreover, its backlink checker assists you in developing a long-term link-building strategy. Below are more features offered by SE ranking.
Features:
- Check how your site stands up against your competition
- Prevent keyword cannibalization
- Examine website rankings on a national scale, or narrow your search to a specific zip code.
- Find keywords on various search engines other than Google.
- Avoid ranking drops and loss in traffic
- And much more
Pricing:
SE Ranking has a different pricing structure that charges you as per the following factors.
- Site ranking check frequency
- The subscription period, and
- the number of keywords to track.
Visit their pricing page to get a better idea of the same.
5. Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz has long been regarded as the industry standard for SEO resources. Their Keyword Explorer tool is a part of that very SEO suite. Just like other keyword research tools in this list, you have to enter your search term in the search box and Moz will present you with metrics like
Search volume for the month, the keyword difficulty, and a rough calculation of organic click-through possibilities. The only downside about Moz is that it falls short of keyword suggestions with an average rate of 1000 keywords per search.
Note: Check how Moz’s keyword explorer compares to Semrush’s keyword explorer tool in our Semrush vs Moz comparison.
Features:
- Target your keywords strategically with metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty
- Save the list of keywords offline in an excel sheet.
- Track local and nationwide searches
- With their Search Visibility score, users can get a complete overview of how they can rank for specific keywords.
- Optimize your page so that google’s crawlers love it and give you a higher rank
- Make your site more crawlable
Pricing:
- Standard Plan – $99/month and $950/year
- Medium – $179/month and $1719/year
- Large plan – $299/month and $2868/year
- Premium plan – $599/month and $5750/year
6. LongTailPro
LongTailPro is a cloud-based keyword research tool. As you can imagine, if its cloud-based, it’s lightning-fast. It lets you find amazing keywords for your website. Enter a seed term and instantly get up to 400 long-tail keywords.
LongTailPro shows you the average Keyword Competition column, this gives you an idea about whether you should target a specific keyword or not. If the “avg KC” is between 1-10, go all guns blazing for it as it has the least competition.
30 to 40 = moderate competition
if the score is between 70-100, don’t even think of pursuing the niche.
You can check the ranking on search engines other than google too. Let us take a look at its features below
Features:
- Filter out keywords based on Average Cost Per Click, Search Volume, Rank Value, etc.
- Enter the competitor’s domain in the search bar to see what is working for them.
- Import up to 10k keywords in a single click
- Backlink analysis
- Enter upto 200 keywords manually in one go and initiate the SERP analysis on them
Pricing:
LTP lets you choose from three different plans, and if you pay annually, you get additional 4 months free.
- Starter plan – $37/month and $297/year
- Pro plan – $67/month and $537/year
- Agency plan – $147/month and $1177/year
7. Serpstat
Serpstat is another SEO tool that comes with a fully-fledged tool for finding keyword opportunities. With Serpstat, you can find the profitable keywords to rank for that your competitors are using to rank higher on search engines. Their keyword research tool gives you metrics like keyword difficulty, popularity, volume, and competition. You will also get related keyword suggestions for any keyword you input.
It also gives a value of the keyword you’ve searched for based on CPC and a number of search results. Ultimately, you will find the best keywords to cover on your blog to attract organic traffic to your website. This tool also helps you see the trend of any keyword, like when people are searching for it the most and when they aren’t.
Features:
- Competitor graph to analyze your competition
- Organic keyword rankings
- See rankings of keywords based on mobile and desktop devices
- Keyword trends and keyword difficulty metrics
- Search analytics, site audit, backlinks, and rank tracking APIs
Pricing:
There are four pricing options available on Serpstat.
- Lite Plan – $69/month and $660/year (SEO-Individuals & Freelancers)
- Standard Plan – $149/month and $1428/year (In-house and marketing agencies)
- Advanced Plan – $299/month and $2868/year (Large in-house and big marketing agencies)
- Enterprise Plan – $499/month and $4788/year (Industry leaders)
Free Keyword Research Tools
As we promised, we are going to include some free options for you. These tools may not be completely free for lifelong, but they work competently for the times they offer their free service.
Are our Free Tools Worth It?
While launching a new website or improving an existing one, free keyword research tools are often an important part of the SEO strategy.
While it may be inviting to start with paid tools to initiate the SEO journey powerfully, It is not a bad idea to try your hands on a few free options before shifting to the paid ones.
Below are some good freebies to try
8. Answer the Public
AnswerThePublic provides an enticing prospect of keyword research.
Begin by entering your keyword, then click on “Get Questions” to receive a graphical report on what topics internet users are searching for related to your keyword. This data can assist you in figuring out what blog topics to include and which questions to address in your blog.
The results are shown in questions forms starting with
- What
- Why
- When
- How
- Who and much more.
Features:
These features are unlocked when you update to its pro plan,
- No limit to daily searches
- Get weekly newsletters about the updations in questions around your keyword
- Export your results into an excel sheet
- Hide the unwanted suggestions to get a clearer picture
- Get access to courses worth $447
- Prioritized customer support
Pricing:
If you wish to use Ask the public without any restrictions, upgrade to its pro plan with these rates.
- Monthly plan – $99/month
- Annual Plan – $948/year
- Expert plan – $199/month
9. Soovle
Soovle is a fantastic option as a free keyword research tool.
It can provide keyword data from various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Wikipedia, Bing, answer, and even Amazon.
One great feature that soovle offers is its API. with it, you can seamlessly integrate “keywords everywhere” browser extensions and further broaden your research process.
It’s easy
- Install “keywords everywhere” from the browser extension store
- Visit soovle.com and type in your keyword in the search box
- Select your preferred API by clicking on “engines” on the top right corner of the screen and you’re done
Now whenever you will make a search, you will see keyword search volumes and cost per click data besides each keyword.
If you are a fresher and looking for topics to put out on your blog, Soovle is a great choice.
10. Ubersuggest
From the man himself. Niel Patel’s in-house tool Ubsersuggest is a great tool for keyword research. The process is simple, Enter a keyword or domain address in the search bar, select language/region, and hit the search button.
You can easily discover keywords that other freeware like Google keyword planner can miss. Ubersugges also present you with a comparison tab, it is a goldmine for finding keywords versus articles.
It has a lot more features, but they are included in its premium plan. If you wish to upgrade to Ubersuggest’s premium plan and unlock its full potential here is the pricing.
Pricing:
Ubseruggest has a monthly plan and a lifetime subscription. No in-between.
- Individual Plan – $12/month and $120/lifetime
- Business plan – $20/month and $200/lifetime
- Enterprise/Agency plan – $40/month and $400/lifetime
11. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is one of the best free keyword research tools that can help you find PPC keywords for your ad campaigns. You access this tool directly from your Google Ads account. It is considered one of the most reliable sources of keyword data available on the market. Advertisers can easily find the best keywords to place their ads on to get the best results.
You can also find keywords that have good search volume and low keyword difficulty and create content for it to rank for it organically on search engines. To search for keywords, you just need to enter a phrase in the box; it will show you a list of all the related keywords with their search volumes, CPC bids, yearly changes, and changes within three months.
Features:
- Find top-ranking keywords of your competitors.
- Use your domain as a filter to exclude keywords that are not related to your niche.
- Multiple filters are available to help you find the best keywords for your niche.
- Find commercial keywords to bid on them.
- Get accurate search volumes of keywords.
Pricing:
You can use Google Keyword Planner free of cost.
Related Read:
Conclusion: Best Keyword Research Tools (2024)
Organic traffic is a big part of any business’ SEO strategy and keyword search tools play an important role in it. While you are unlikely to use all nine of these tools at the same time, it is worthwhile to experiment with each one. Most paid tools offer free trials on their plans. You can check them and figure out which one world is the best for you.
I hope I was able to solve your confusion around keyword research tools. Let me know in the comments below if you have any suggestions.
