What is the best keyword research tool for Content Marketers?
To help you discover the best keyword research tools, we asked content marketers and SEO experts this question for their best insights. From Keyword Tool.io to Long Tail Pro, there are several online tools that may help you enhance your keyword research and grow your business online.
Here are 12 best keyword research tools:
- Keyword Tool.io
- Ahrefs
- Answer the Public
- Serpstat
- Google Trends
- CanIRank
- Soovle
- Buzzsumo
- Look to the Autofill
- Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
- Long Tail Pro
- Rank Tracker by SEO PowerSuite
Keyword Tool.io
Keyword tools are often limited to search engines, and many are specific to only specific ones, which is why I like the flexibility of Keyword Tool.io. With the great reliance on social media content and search queries that are inputted into YouTube, TikTok, and other social media platforms, having access to premium keywords and data that reflects those is invaluable.
Keyword Tool.io, not only allows you to track typical input into Google and Bing, but also social media platforms and even shopping and eCommerce sites such as Amazon. The expanded keyword search and analysis capabilities of this tool allows for additional data that can later enhance the content of your website, blogs, and newsletters and provide a unique SEO feature.
Yuvi Alpert, Noémie
Ahrefs
Ahrefs has many tools and stats to assist you in planning your keywords. Their Organic Search Report shows how rivals rank and their traffic. Keywords Explorer, a keyword recommendation tool, provides search traffic and term difficulty scores.
One of the essential features of the keyword tool for me is the ability to check my current term ranks and complete ranking history. For more than 150 countries, Ahrefs Keyword Explorer estimates keyword search volume for various platforms such as Youtube, Amazon, Bing, and Baidu. Other notable features are Keyword Difficulties, Filters, Competitor Keywords, Keywords Ranking many more.
Axel Hernborg, Tripplo.com
Answer the Public
The best keyword research tool for Content Marketers is Answer The Public. If you type in a root keyword, this tool will instantly generate a chart of the most popular questions people ask pertaining to the topic. This is a great way to generate topic ideas by answering what people are searching for. It’s also a fantastic way to “stretch” existing content by answering closely-related questions within the article to make it more comprehensive and potentially rank for more keywords.
Claire Westbrook, LSAT Prep Hero
Serpstat
Serpstat is a great keyword search tool to use when generating ideas for content marketing. It provides keywords that are relevant for content ideas that are currently on-trend. Planning new content and campaigns is easier with Serpstat because it provides seasonal insights into keyword popularity using trend analysis. Content marketers will find it helpful that Serpstat also shows what keywords their competitors are ranking for, which will then give an indication as to what trending content they might be missing out on. They can gauge the relevance of their competition by comparing them to other pages as well.
Mark Liu, iMarku
Google Trends
Google offers various services, and Google Trends is their tool particularly tailored for monitoring SEO initiatives. Before investing in subscription tools, a start-up can make use of Google Trends to get a grasp on keywords and topics found on the internet that they can use for their marketing efforts.
Stephen Keighery, Home Buyer Louisiana
CanIRank
Generally speaking, most every veteran content marketer is going to say that either Moz or Ahrefs is the best keyword research tool in the game. And I don’t disagree. Both are extremely powerful resources that offer insanely good keyword analysis. However, they both cost an arm and a leg.
So for those that don’t have free cash flow and are looking to do things on the cheap, I highly suggest checking out the tool CanIRank. This is a great free service that gives you analytics on the difficulty of keywords. Plug in the target keyword you’re after and see just how difficult ranking for that particular term is. Their analysis goes deep, telling you how difficult it will be for YOUR site to rank, as well as suggested alternative keywords. I don’t use it as my standalone tool, but do use it in tandem with Ahrefs to make sure their data is on point and I’m covering my butt.
John Ross, Test Prep Insight
Soovle
Soovle is the best keyword research tool because, unlike Google Keyword Planner, it scrapes the best suggest keywords from multiple sources to give you your optimal keywords for several search engines, not just Google. Soovle helps you rank better on Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, Answers.com, and plenty of other engines. Since most marketing competitors focus all their efforts on Google, you can scoop up the “easy pickings” with untapped keywords that rank well for other search engines and boost the website’s organic traffic.
John Li, Fig Loans
Buzzsumo
If you enjoy imagining yourself as a kind of Sherlock Holmes of social media popularity, the BuzzSumo tool is like Watson to your Holmes. It helps you see what content is trending in your industry by sending you alerts when your competitors post new content. This tool also goes a step further than other content trend tools by helping you identify industry influencers behind the trending content. The only difference between this and more traditional search engines is that it specializes in social rather than search.
Using this tool, you can see which content is most shared across social networks, run reports, get content ideas, and plan your content calendar accordingly. While no one would deny that more traditional SEO research will provide you with more important details, it provides backlink data. It is an excellent tool for creative and brand content inspiration.
Muskan Rai, Web Hosting Advices
Look to the Autofill
The one tactic “tool” that most marketers don’t utilize is simply looking at Google’s autofill to get an idea of what variations of a keyword or phrase people are looking for. This is helpful in not just identifying a primary keyword for a piece of content but also identifying secondary and tertiary keywords to use while writing your content. Along with this, exploring topics in the question box of the SERP for your primary keyword with help you find other topics of interest and also provide opportunities for additional content on that piece.
Sam Gallen, collystring
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
This tool provides our content marketers with a wide selection of keyword suggestions along with their associated metrics, such as search volume, keyword difficulty (how hard they are to rank for), cost per click, and how many results appear in the SERP. By entering a word or simple phrase, the keyword magic tool produces a variety of keywords that can be filtered by metric and topic, allowing you to determine which keywords to target in order to maximize impressions.
Content marketers can use the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to identify commonly searched for questions, before then creating content designed to answer said questions. It’s also a great tool to use if you want to find long-tail keywords with sizable search volumes, or export large keyword lists into Excel to easily identify potential SEO opportunities. Additionally, keyword data can be filtered by location, allowing you to understand the search habits of individual regions and tailor content to match.
Clare Jones, OfficeSpaceAU
Long Tail Pro
Most keyword research tools will look at usage as their metric, with little delineation between queries from the public or within your market space, however, if you want competition specifics, Long Tail Pro is your best option. Different industries utilize phrases and words differently, and when a word is used, most research tools will present the data, but do so in a vacuum, with little attention paid to context.
With its competition-specific tools, you can see exactly what others within your industry are doing, and the techniques they use in their content to drive SEO. In addition, Long Tail Pro provides keyword tracking over time, to check for changes in relevancy, which allows you to make changes when necessary. If the context of keywords in your industry is every bit as important as frequency, the Long Tail Pro is a great choice.
Zach Letter, Wonder Works
Rank Tracker by SEO PowerSuite
Rank Tracker is the ultimate keyword research software for SEO and content creation. After trying countless different tools, Rank Tracker is the one I use for myself and recommend to clients. Within this single tool, you can find a ton of new keywords, track your keyword positions, and discover low hanging keywords that you’re already ranking for, allowing you to tweak your content for more visitors. And all within minutes!
In two clicks, you can check your competitors’ top keywords. Not to mention, add data from GA. You can even create a tree-view keyword map for your site. Even if you use a fraction of its power, you’ll uncover enough data to build a robust keyword and content strategy.
Designed for a global user base, you can use Rank Tracker to find keywords in any language and track positions as if you were in the country you target. More than that, you can find loads of keyword ideas using special search engines, including YouTube and Amazon. So, you can find words and phrases to help your business and get ranking regardless of the place you’re planning to rank on.