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Are you using keyword tools to optimize your content and your website?
I hope you do, but even if you don’t, this blog post includes everything you need to know to get started.
As you probably know, keyword research is the very first step and the foundation of content marketing. We all want our websites and blog posts to rank as high as possible to get more exposure and to boost website traffic. In order to achieve this content marketing goal, keyword research is crucial.
Without having information on keyword search volume, competition scores, and related keyword data, you can’t know what readers are actually searching for. Basically, no matter how good your content is, without the right keywords there will be a lower chance for your work to be found by your potential audience.
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are the words that best represent the content on pages or posts. When people look for information or any products in search engines like Google, they will use certain phrases or search queries that define their intent most clearly.
Search engines allow us to access information in the web so much easier than ever before. With the use of voice search or image search, the way how users seek and access information has transformed, however, the importance of keywords remains regardless of the type of search. We are typing, uploading or speaking out “keywords” to find the best information.
For example, when we are using Google to find the best restaurant near us on Google, we simply use keywords like ‘the best restaurant near me’, or even shorter, ‘restaurant near me’. Those queries are the Keywords or Key Phrases. Very simple, isn’t it? We are all using these keywords to get answers, and most of the time, we get great information through Google.
Why Are Keywords Important For Creating Content?
Search Engines are indexing your content with the help of the keywords you used within your content. However, search engines can’t read your content like humans do. Instead, search engines use Natural Language Processing to understand what topic the content is about. To do so, they use keywords. That’s why it is important to give clues about your main topic to search engines by frequently using relevant keywords at the right places.
But, never overload the keywords, this will cause Keyword stuffing!
Using keywords isn’t only important for search engines to correctly index your content, but it’s also important for your audience. As previously mentioned, keywords do represent the queries and search intents of searchers. Hence, users will use certain keywords to find specific information and thus also expect the content to include those keywords they were looking for.
For example, if someone is using the search term ‘ black hat SEO ‘, they would probably click on content that includes the keyword or a close variant of ‘black hat SEO’.
So, you need to use the right keywords that represents your content to attract the right readers. Next to the keywords itself, it’s also important where to place those keywords. Make sure to use your keywords in your Title, H1 tag, meta description, and some image tags to give your readers and search engines a good indication about what your content is about.
Use These Best Keyword Tools
Now that we covered what keywords are and why they’re important for content marketing, it is time to find the best keywords for your content that attract readers and increase traffic.
Overall, you should consider using keywords with a higher search volume and low competition.
For example, using very specific but less competitive keywords such as long-tail keywords can increase your chance of ranking high on SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and will allow your content to get higher visibility.
To find the best keywords for your content and website, you can use keyword tools. I compiled a list of my favorite keyword tools that you can check out below.
Twinword Ideas
Twinword Ideas’ A.I. powered keyword tool helps you find related keywords fast, including LSI keywords and Long-tail keywords. This tool can filter keywords based on popular topics, user-intent, keyword and title scores, and so much more. Twinword Ideas even lets you import large lists of keywords, and you can download your entire keyword list or selected keywords in different formats.
I personally really like their user intent filters including ‘know’, ‘buy’, and ‘local’, that make it perfect for local SEO and also easy to find the right keywords for the specific content you’re creating.
Another great feature is that it supports over 200 regional settings and up to 40 languages. Twinword Ideas users especially enjoy the user intent filter to create the best content that fulfills their user’s needs.
- Special feature: A.I. Powered, Various Filters — User Intent / Search Volume / Relevance / Competition, Keywords Import, LSI Keywords, Long-tail Keywords
- Price: Limited Free / Paid (Plus: $12/m, Pro: $24/m, Agency: $59/m)
No. of keywords - suggestion: (Plus: 350 keywords, Pro and Agency: no limitation)
- Search Volume for Geographic Location: Yes
- Free Plan Limitations: 2 free searches per day
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that helps finding find keyword trends on Google. Using Google Trends, it is possible to observe whether the keyword search volume is increasing or declining. Also, they allow you to filter the search popularity by geographic location, demographic attributes, related topics or queries. This tool will give you more insight on finding trendy keywords, and is therefore great for initial keyword research or brainstorming for content ideas. For a more in depth keyword research however, you might want to try out some of the other keyword tools.
Special feature: Search Popularity Trends, Various Filters — Geographic, Demographic, Topics, etc,
Price: Free
No of keywords suggestion: N/A
Search Volume for Geographic Location: No
Free Plan Limitations: No limitation
KWFinder
KWFinder has over 1 billion keywords in its database, it supports over 40 different languages, and its possible to select from specific countries, states, and sometimes cities. This makes KWFinder especially well built for local SEO as it can recommend different keywords based on location.
Next to that, KWFinder’s Keyword Difficulty score predicts which keywords are easy to rank for which can be quite helpful when deciding on what kind of content you want to create.
Special feature: Competitor Keywords, Keywords Import, Long-tail Keywords, Local Keyword Research, Keyword Difficulty
Price: Limited Free / Paid (Basic: $49/m, Premium: $69/m, Agency: $129/m)
No of keywords suggestion: (Basic: 200 keywords, Premium and Agency: 700)
Search Volume for Geographic Location: Yes
Free Plan Limitations: Limited searches a day
Keywordtool.io
KeywordTool.io not only provides keyword suggestions for Google but also for YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and more. KeywordTool.io lets you filter keywords based on country or for different media like images, videos, and news. Overall, a solid option for keyword research.
Special feature: Keywords Data for Various Platforms — Google / YouTube / Bing / Amazon, etc, Long-tail Keywords
Price: Limited Free / Paid (Basic: $69/m, Plus: $79/m, Business: $159/m)
No of keywords suggestion: 7000,35000,70000
Search Volume for Geographic Location: Yes
Free Plan Limitations: Limited search volume data
Answer The Public
Answer the Public generates its keyword suggestions based on Google and Bing. It is quite unique in that it focuses on providing lists of questions and phrases related to your keyword. This makes it more suitable for brainstorming, but maybe less suitable for keyword research itself as the tool doesn’t deliver any keyword data such as search volume. However, this function is great to come up with topic, title, or section title ideas.
Special feature: Long-tail Question Phrases
Price: Limited Free / Paid (Pro: $99/m)
No of keywords searches: Free: 3 searches per day / Pro: no limitation
Search Volume for Geographic Location: No
Free Plan Limitations: Limited searches a day, Region filter not available
Ahrefs
Ahrefs offers a ton of tools and metrics to help with your keyword planning. Their Organic Search Report identifies competitors’ ranking and traffic data. They have a keyword recommendation tool called Keywords Explorer that gives information including search volume and a keyword difficulty scores.
One of the most useful functions the tool offers is that it allows you to see your current keyword rankings along with a full ranking history. Ahrefs Keyword Explorer can provide you with an estimation of keyword search volume for different platforms such as Youtube, Amazon, Bing, and Baidu for more than 150 countries.
Special feature: Keyword Difficulties, Various Platforms and Filters, Competitor Keywords, Keywords Ranking + Historical Ranking, Keywords Import
Price: Paid (Lite: $99/m, Standard: $179/m, Advanced: $399/m, Agency: $999/m)
No of keywords suggestion: 10,000
Search Volume for Geographic Location: Yes
Free Plan Limitations: No free plan available, $7 for 7 days trial version only
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz’s Keyword Explorer provides keyword suggestions with estimated search volume and helps assess the ranking difficulty for each keyword. With Moz Pro, you can track competitor rankings and it provides you search data on both a local and national scale.
Special feature: Keyword Difficulties, Local SEO Keywords — Advanced Geographical Filters, Competitor Keywords, Keywords Ranking, Long-tail Keywords
Price: Paid (Standard: $99/m, Medium: $179/m, Large: $249/m, Premiutoom: $599/m)
No of keywords queries per month: Standard: 150, Medium: 5,000, Large: 15,000, Premium: 30,000
Search Volume for Geographic Location: Yes
Free Plan Limitations: No free plan available, free 30 days trial version only
SEMrush
SEMrush’s keyword tool is another great option for your SEO needs. SEMrush gathers related keywords and phrases to help you with your PPC Campaigns. SEMrush’s keyword research reports are great for finding relevant long-tail keywords and the tool supports up to 16 languages.
Special feature: Keywords Difficulty, geographical Filters, Long-tail keywords, SERP ranking tracking
Price: Paid (Pro: $119.95/m, Guru: $299.95/m, Business: $449.95/m, Enterprise)
No of keywords results per report: Pro: 10,000, Guru: 30,000, Business: 50,000, Enterprise: Upon Request
Search Volume for Geographic Location: Yes
Free Plan Limitations: No free plan available, free 7 days trial version only
Soovle
Soovle can be a good free option for your initial keyword research. This free tool collects its keyword suggestions from 150 search engines. You can get a few different popular keywords for each platform, such as Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. If you are looking for a free and simple keyword research tool mostly for brain storming you might want to try this tool out.
The tool won’t give you many keyword suggestions or search volume data, but you can see popular keywords for each platform.
Special feature: Various Platform — Google / Amazon / Yahoo / Bing / YouTube, Popular Keywords, Export CSV Format, Save Search History
Price: Free
No of keywords results: 50+
Search Volume for Geographic Location: No
Free Plan Limitations: No limitation
Keywords Everywhere
Another free tool is ‘Keywords Everywhere’. Simply download the Chrome or Firefox extension and enter the API Key provided. You will be able to see Monthly search volume, Cost per click amount and Competition score by typing keywords on your SERP.
You can add all keywords to your target keyword list or export them in CSV format. The tool’s keyword import function was shut down, but if you really want this function, you may try ‘Keyword Keg’, the paid version of Keywords Everywhere.
Special feature: Download as Chrome / FireFox extension, Keywords Data (Vol, CPC, Competition Score) show on SERP
Price: No monthly subscriptions,1 Credit = 1 Keyword. Credits expire after one year. Pay as you go
- 100,000 credits: $10
- 500,000 credits: $50
- 1000,000 credits: $100)