5 Free Keyword Research Tools

Posted on July 15, 2012 in Keyword | 9 comments

Before you even build your website you need to plan out the topic of each category and each page.  One of the first steps you need to take is keyword research.  There are numerous ways to conduct your research and below we have provided five free keyword tools to help.

Over the years I’ve used many of the tools out there.  Below are the five that I use the most in order of how much I use them.

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
In my opinion and many will agree this is the most useful keyword tool out there.  There are so many options within Google’s keyword tool you need to ensure its set up correctly for what you need.

The first step would be to make sure you have selected “exact match” on the left hand side.  Any other option will just give you unrealistic data.  I would also be sure to select the country you want to target.  No need to get data from the UK if you only ship or provide your services in the USA.

Ahrefs
This is my all around favorite SEO research tool.  Aherfs has several helpful features including backlinks, social signal and competitive analysis.  The competitive analysis is good to see how many backlinks and social mentions the top ten websites have for a particular keyword.

When I preform keyword research after I use Google Keyword Tool I then find a couple of websites that rank well in Google for my keywords.  I then plug their domain name into the Aherfs SERP Analysis tool.  This will provide me with the keywords that my competitors rank for.  I often find related keywords that I wouldn’t have found via Google’s Keyword Tool.

UberSuggest
My third favorite tool can help you find those longtail keywords.  UberSuggest provides more keyword data than you will ever need.  What I like to do is after I find a medium size keyword I look it up in UberSuggest to find related search phrases.  This will help with on-page optimization as well as give you ideas for sub-pages.

SEMRush
This tool is similar to Ahrefs as it will allow you to spy on your competitor’s keywords.  They offer both free and paid version.  The free version is limit but can still get you on the right track.  What is especially nice about this tool it will also display the PPC keywords your competitors are bidding on.

WordTracker
This has been an industry staple for years and one of the first keywords tools I’ve used.  If you want to use the free version you will need to sign up for a free account.  Another good feature is they have a competition feature as well.
Bonus Tip: Use a dictionary or a synonym tool.  You will find lots more keywords and often times synonyms will help move up your similar keywords as well.

Stuart McHenry is the President of McKremie an Internet Marketing Company that focuses on Attorney SEO Marketing.  Feel free to follow Stuart McHenry on Google+.