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As a beginner, you do not have a large source of funding to spend on blogging tools. You must be wise with how you utilize the money available while maximizing the results.
This list contains free keyword research tools and those that offer trial versions for their premium plans. You will not pay a single penny for using these tools.
The best part, the tools mentioned in this post work efficiently to help you find Winning Keywords. You will be able to find easy to rank for keywords with low competition and high search volume.
In fact, these tools if used efficiently can properly do the work done by the ‘fancy paid tools‘
Let’s dive right in!
1. Google Keyword planner
This is my favorite free keyword research tool off this list. Google keyword planner was made for publishers who making research and wish to run ad campaigns on Google. The best part? The data provided by this tool is straight from Google itself. This means that it is highly accurate.
Google keyword planner can show you various keyword metrics like search volume, competitiveness, and how much competitors are willing to pay for ad placement on the Google search engine (CPC).
Place your keyword(s) in the search volume forecaster
Tweak the location to target your results
There you are! You have all the data you need.
Follow this guide to open a free Google Keyword Planner Account
2. Google Trends
After finding your keywords, it is necessary that you check whether they are still relevant. Are people really searching for them?
Google trends will show you the level of interest the keyword has raised in respective locations around the world within the past period of time.
Trends are categorized as rising, breakthrough showing the keyword popularity.
3. Google Autosuggest
If you have been browsing the internet using Google as your search engine you have probably come across the Google Autosuggest/ autocomplete feature.
When you type keywords relevant to your search in the search bar, you notice that Google brings you suggestions before you even complete typing.
The suggestions are based on what people are mostly searching about on a given topic.
Below is a screenshot of how I used Google auto-suggest to find a topic to write about on ‘best suspenders‘. I managed to find other data variations that can be a great fit for writing about.
Once you find keywords with Google auto-suggest, you are then left with the task of finding out other relevant data like search volume with the free tools mentioned in this post.
4. Google Search Console
Head to the performance report.
Below the performance graphs, under the Queries tab, you will be able to view the keywords and pages your website is ranking for with their respective impressions and clicks.
Different variations of a single keyword you are ranking for are shown in the performance report. You can as well view other relevant data like from which countries, or devices your users are browsing your site.
Bonus tip: Pay attention to the number of clicks and impressions you have for a particular keyword.
Where the impressions are greatly higher than the clicks on your keywords then you have to take action. There’s something you have got to do to start earning all those clicks to your site.
Get back to your content and add all the relevant information you can find for that topic. Spy on your competitors’ ranking for that keyword and find out what they have in their content that you are missing.
Add images, and FAQ sections, and make your post content worth it.
5. People Also Ask
These are search queries related to your keyword. Google shows these questions amidst or at the end of the pages showing up in the search result page.
The People also ask section is relevant to be added to the FAQ section of your blog posts. FAQs are helpful in that they help your site rank for snippets.
Snippets are a great way to boost your search rankings hence something you should not ignore.
You will notice that as you click on the drop-down arrow of a given search question, more questions will keep on showing up. Follow and gather up all the relevant questions until you recognize that the questions showing up are no longer relevant to your query.
6. YouTube Suggest
Just like Google suggest, YouTube auto-suggest shows you similar searches like the one you place in the search box.
In the screenshot above, you can see that after placing the first term of the keyword I’m searching for ‘How to tie‘, YouTube has automatically suggested other options.
These are closely related search terms or other searches people are making around the specific keyword.
You can start from a broad point of search or with a more specific search. (Refer to screenshot below)
I used; ‘How to tie a bandana‘
7. Related Searches
Down below the search result page, you can view the similar or alike searches that are closely related to your main keyword and what people are searching for.
This is sure a clear way of really pumping your articles with useful content. Making an all-around article that will make the user not turn to other blogs to solve their issue.
8. Forums
Forums are online communities where internet users get to interact over various topics. Usually, users get to forums, share knowledge, and post questions searching for answers to various questions.
If used well, forums such as Quora, and Reddit are a great source of traffic to your website.
Bonus Tip: As you make your keyword research, if you ever come across a forum ranking on the first page for your keyword it is a good indicator that the keyword has less competition. You can easily outrank the forums at any time with good content.
9. Keyword Chef
This is powerful keyword research, one of the most effective ones. It filters out the results for your keywords and only shows you the relevant or closely related ones.
The tool has a simple and easy-to-use interface. Place the keyword into the tool and hit the search button.
Another feature that makes this tool outstanding is the parameters that you can choose from while making a search.
These include; Wildcard, Best, Top, How To, Ideas, Alternatives, Compare, and Questions. This definitely helpful and saves you lots of time as keywords are properly categorized. You do not want results that are going to be all over the place. When the results are properly organized, it will save you lots of time.
The tool works on a basis of credits. The free user is given 1000 credits to try out the tool. Each keyword costs 1 credit.
The only workaround you have is either creating a number of accounts or purchasing the subscription.
Below are the results I managed to fetch with Keyword Chef on the keyword ‘best VPN. I was shown the words the tool filtered out with an option of choosing whether I wanted them displayed in the results I had generated.
11. Keyword Surfer
Keyword surfer saves the hustle of having to open research tools all the time. Keyword Surfer plugs all the keyword data via the Google result page i.e. on the sidebar and the search bar. This increases productivity. Everything is in one place.
Keyword surfer shows the Search Volume and the Click Per Cost which are useful insights while choosing a keyword.
Furthermore, it shows you similar keywords with an option of deciding a location which is also great for geo-targeting keywords.
Copy the keyword list into your word processor application like Google Docs and start writing content.
12. H-super tools
H-super tools is another complete SEO tool site that will be helpful to you as a beginner or one looking for a totally free solution to SEO tools. This site has a free AI content writer, keyword research tool, and YouTube keyword research tool among others which you can explore for your site growth.
11. Keywords Everywhere
This tool saves you the hustle of switching from tool to tool throughout your research process. All relevant data is displayed right on the search result page. You get data on the go.
The tool is available as a plugin installable both on Chrome and Firefox.
With the free version of Keywords Everywhere alone, you can view the Related searches, and People also ask sections of data arranged in the widgets just at the side of the search result page.
Furthermore, similar to Google Trends, Keywords Everywhere shows you the Trend data of your keywords shown in graph format. It shows other useful metrics such as traffic history, on-page analysis data, and site domain authority among others.
The tool also works via YouTube showing relevant data for video content creators such as related keywords, views, search volume (premium), and graph trends among others.
Altogether, Keywords Everywhere is a great keyword research tool that harnesses the power of the search result pages saving you the need for switching between tools all the time.
13. Answer The Public
Answer the public gives you a whole different view of topic research. Visualizations, and questions, among others, are arranged in plenty to draw you a picture of what is going on behind the scenes.
- Data visualizations
- Plenty of data
This tool is helpful in filling the necessary sections into your blog posts like the FAQ (Frequently Asked) section.
14. QuestionDB
As the name suggests, this keyword research tool focuses on giving you results from various questions users ask via Google. It is a keyword research tool that is question centered.
Below is a search I made about the keyword ‘Digital Marketing‘. I placed the term Digital marketing into the tool and it generated questions around my keyword.
Uncover the power of featured snippets by utilizing FAQ sections in your content.
15. Keyword tool.io
Based on Google Auto suggestion,
16. Moz
Moz is quite unique with the kind of metrics it offers. I like the difficulty metric that tells you whether it will be easy or not to rank for a particular keyword.
It attaches Priority level that indicates the amount of attention you should give to the keyword based on a number of factors like Organic Click Through Rate, Difficulty, and Search Volume.
17. SEMrush
With one of the most accurate data on the market and the latest up-to-date google algorithm adoptions, SEMrush is my best keyword research tool off this list. Semrush boasts of over 20 Billion keywords in its database.
The simple intuitive interface and colors make it an easy-to-use tool for me.
The tool has various powerful features that you can try out with the Semrush free version such as;
- Keyword Search Volume from various locations
- Determine how hard a Keyword will be to rank for
- Get content ideas
- Click Per Cost for Keywords
- Analyze the Top 10 ranking pages for your seed keyword
- Competitor Analysis
- Content gap research
Sign up for a free Semrush Trial and explore the features for free.
18. Ahrefs
Best website performance tools. With tracking how your website is performing, how your keywords and pages are stacking with other sites on the internet, tracking position changes and keyword research, and checking for broken links, Ahrefs never seems to disappoint.
- Powerful crawler
- All-round site analysis
- Keyword tracker
This is a freemium tool, so the most powerful features are reserved for their paid versions.
How to Use Free Keyword Research Tools
- With your keywords in place
- Place your seed keyword in the tool and hit the search button to get relevant data such as search volume, keyword difficulty, and Click Per Cost about it.
Verdict on Using Free Keyword Research Tools
I understand how much blogging can be overwhelming when you are just starting out especially finance-wise.
If you have landed on this post, chances are that you are looking for a free option that can efficiently help you with Keyword Research process with data fetched from search engines like Bing, Google, etc.
The downside with these free tools is that sometimes the data is not overly accurate. These tools used different data fetching methods and various metrics, the data they offer might differ.
The Google-related SEO tools are themselves of great use if combined and properly utilized. However, with the combination of the tools I have provided be sure to blow your keyword research out of the water!
The best free keyword tool off this list I recommend is the Google Keyword Planner. The data is backed by Google’s database itself. You rest assured that the data provided is highly accurate and with the supplement of Google trends, you can easily catch up with trending topics if your blog is a timely or seasonal one.
For a paid version, I recommend Semrush. The tool has accurate metrics and is packed with lots of useful SEO features.
Recommended: How To Start A Tech Blog (Beginner’s Guide)
I hope this list will help you. Tell me which tool is your favorite.