Keyword research tools

Best Keyword Research Tools Compare: Free vs Paid Options

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Are you struggling to find the right keywords for your content? Well, you’re not alone! Starting from website owners to marketers, everyone searches for an effective research tool that can help them rank their businesses higher. The right keyword research can help build a successful SEO strategy for your brand.

In this blog, we will learn about some of the popular keyword research tools available today. These tools can help you conduct extensive market research and simultaneously rank higher in search results. 

Let’s explore how they can give your SEO game a serious boost!

Significance of keyword research in SEO & digital marketing

Keyword research acts as the backbone of SEO and digital marketing. It helps you boost the visibility of your website. Using the right keywords in your content will help the Google algorithm understand your page. Moreover, it will generate organic traffic to your page.

Keyword research tools enable you to understand the preferences and needs of the people. When the keywords match what people want, it will generate more traffic to your website. Therefore, market research will help you develop effective strategies.

Using the right keyword research tool is the key to understanding your competitors’ keywords. It will also enable you to make the right content strategy.

What to look for in a Keyword Research Tool?

  • The tool should provide accurate and up-to-date search volume data to understand the keyword’s popularity.
  • Look for a metric to measure the difficulty of a keyword in ranking based on its competition.
  • Find a research tool that will let you analyze the competitors’ keywords.
  • Use research tools that can generate long-tail keywords for targeting audiences.
  • Look for a research tool that allows you to research keywords in different countries and languages.
  • A clean interface and the ability to generate reports are essential.

Best Keyword Research Tools

1. Ahrefs Keyword Explorer (Paid)

Benefits:

  • Generating keyword ideas for content
  • Analysis of traffic volume
  • Analysis of the competitors
  • Organize keyword ideas into keyword lists
  • Checking Backlinks
  • Understanding the Keyword ranking difficulty
  • Analysis of the published contents.
  • Search volume analysis based on country
  • Translate your keywords into different languages.
  • Share your keyword lists with other members.

Pricing:

  • Ahrefs does not offer any free trial.
  • It has a free tool called Webmaster that offers website owners free access to some features.  
  • Ahrefs has different pricing plans for professionals, starting from $29 monthly.
  • The plan varies from $29 to $1499 monthly.

2. SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool (Paid)

Benefits:

  • Identification of short and long-tail keywords that competitors use.
  • Gaining keywords that have high search volume and less competition.
  • You can recognize the difficulty of keywords in ranking. 
  • You can get access to metrics that will help you maintain the authority and the website’s difficulty.
  • Daily optimization of your on-page SEO.
  • You can organize keywords for better planning and understanding.
  • Identify keywords that align with your business niche.
  • You can save and download the relevant keyword lists.
  • Understanding the search trend of the users.

Pricing:

  • SEMrush offers free plans but has limitations for advanced SEO work.
  • The 7-day trial pack allows you to access features like keyword research, competitor analysis, website audit, etc.
  • The SEMrush pricing plan starts at $139 and continues to $499 monthly.

3. KWFinder by Mangools (Paid)

Benefits:

  • It allows you to identify and research keywords as per your business requirements.
  • You can find long-tail keywords with low difficulties. 
  • KW Finder also helps to identify the search trend and volume.
  • You can make a practical competitor analysis to understand the strategies of your rival companies.
  • You can also organize keywords by making a keyword list.
  • Import and filter keywords in bulk.
  • Identify difficulties in relevant keywords.
  • Helps in SERP analysis.

Pricing:

  • KWFinder has a free plan for professionals, but it has access only to some extent.
  • The pricing plan of KWFinder ranges from $22 to $67.  

4. Google Keyword Planner (Non-paid)

Benefits:

Google Keyword Planner has a free version that offers several useful features to professionals.

  • It will help you discover new keywords based on business niches or websites.
  • It allows you to organize keywords into lists and export them for offline analysis.
  • You can estimate the Search Volume of relevant keywords.
  • You can check the competitive level of a keyword.
  • Analyze the performance of relevant keywords over time.
  • Research data based on country, city or specific region and identify the right keywords.
  • You can also filter your searches by excluding low-volume keywords.

The free version of this research tool requires a Google Ads account.

Pricing: It is a free research tool that runs within Google Ads.

5. Google Trends (Non-paid)

Benefits:

Google Trends is a powerful tool for analyzing search trends, and you can access its features for free.

  • Research on the trendy keywords in search.  
  • You can compare multiple keywords side by side to understand the competition.
  • Analyze the popularity of the keyword in search by country, state, or city.
  • Understand the preferences of the users in different locations.
  • It allows you to filter the data based on specific industries or topics.
  • Analyze the trends of Google’s platforms beyond the web search.
  • You can also export the data report for offline analysis.

Pricing:  Google Trends is a free research tool that allows you to explore keywords.

6. Ubersuggest (Non-paid)

Benefits:

Ubersuggest is a free keyword research and SEO tool that offers several features, including keyword planning and competitor analysis.

  • Get keyword ideas with search volume & competition levels.
  • See how competitive a keyword is for Google Ads.
  • Find trending blog topics to create relevant content.
  • Analyze a website’s organic traffic, backlinks, and top pages.
  • You can analyze the backlinks that point to a relevant domain.
  • You can also check the SEO health of your website.
  • See the best-performing pages on a competitor’s site.
  • Identify on-page SEO issues and get improvement suggestions.
  • Download keyword and competitor data for offline analysis.
  • Discover low-competition keywords to rank higher.
  • Get valuable insights without any paid subscription.

A free version of this research tool has limited features.

Pricing: 

  • Ubersuggest offers free research to users with limited access.
  • The paid version of Ubersuggest ranges from $12 to $40.

Which Keyword Research Tool Is Best For You?

For Beginners: Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, Ubersuggest

For SEO Professionals & Agencies: Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console.

For Marketers: SEMrush, Google Trends, Google Analytics, Ubersuggest

For Bloggers: Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends

For E-commerce Sites: Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Google Search Console

Conclusion

Finding the right keyword research tool is essential for building an effective SEO and digital marketing strategy.

Whether you’re a beginner, blogger, marketer, or SEO professional, each tool offers unique features tailored to specific needs. Each keyword tool has different features and benefits. Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Ubersuggest are excellent for beginners. On the other hand, such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and KWFinder are advanced research tools that provide detailed data, in-depth analysis, and competitor insights. These tools are perfect for professionals and agencies. Therefore, by using these tools, you can stay ahead of competitors and improve your visibility.

Start exploring these powerful keyword research tools today and find the one that suits your needs best! Use the right tool to elevate the position of your brand. Still confused? Contact us for more guidance. 

Don’t wait—pick a tool, dive in, and watch your content climb the search engine ladder! 

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