Less than 0.2% of the most popular keywords account for over 60% of search demand, according
to statistics from Ahrefs.
That leaves about 40% of search demand to less popular but more specific long-tail keywords.
Since these keywords are usually more descriptive, it’s easier to figure out why people are
searching for them and create content for your website that meets their needs.
So how do you find keywords that bring searchers to your website?
Use tools!
More specifically, keyword research tools!
I have a list of my seven favorite keyword tools that I’m going to break down for you.
KeywordsFX If you need keyword ideas, KeywordsFX has
plenty for you.
Yes, this is a tool developed by our team at WebFX.
Before you roll your eyes at this self-promotion, let me tell you how easy it is to use.
KeywordsFX is a free keyword suggestion tool.
You enter your starting keyword, hit search, and get a list of keywords, questions, and
modifiers you can use in your content.
You can even search for specific words or phrases within that list of keywords and export
your results to a spreadsheet for further analysis.
Within seconds, you can go from one half-baked keyword idea to hundreds of suggestions.
Now this next tool isn’t a “tool,” per se, but a Google feature that you can use
to research keywords.
Google Autocomplete When you type in a Google search, you might
notice Google trying to figure out what you’re going to type next.
This is the Google Autocomplete feature at work, and believe it or not, it’s a helpful
tool for gathering keyword information.
Autocomplete predicts your searches by showing you trending and common searches that relate
to the words you’re typing.
It also takes into account what you’ve searched for in the past and where you’re located.
So you can assume, based on how this feature works, that the list of words and phrases
appearing while you type would be great starter keywords for your research.
Of course, you might have to check the numbers through one of the other keyword tools I’ll
talk about, but Google Autocomplete is a great starting point.
KeywordTool.io KeywordTool.io offers both a free and paid
plan, each version offering a lot of details to help you find your target keywords.
What I love about this tool is that it has the option to research keywords for Google,
YouTube, Bing, Amazon, and other keyword-focused platforms.
With the free version, you can type in a keyword idea, see a list of suggested keywords, and
even add negative keywords and filter your results with certain words or phrases.
You can also toggle between keyword suggestions, questions, and prepositions, which is pretty
unique.
The paid version gives you really valuable insights such as search volume and competition,
so if you like the free version, it might be a good idea to spend a little bit of money.
LSI Graph LSI stands for latent-semantic indexing.
LSI keywords are terms related to your core keyword that give search engines more context
as to what your pages are about.
LSI Graph helps with that context by spitting out a list of LSI keywords you can use in
your content.
On its free plan, you get a limited number of searches per day but still have access
to a lot of data.
In addition to the list of keywords, you can see trend data, search volume, and even cost
per click for each term in the list.
The paid plans offer more searches, more data, and other SEO tools.
Keywords Everywhere There are literally keywords everywhere with
this tool.
I guess they chose a good name.
Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that offers both free and paid plans, and
the paid plan is pretty affordable.
This tool gives you extra information while you search.
So if you type something into Google, you’ll see trend data, related keywords, other related
search terms, and long-tail keyword ideas.
And that’s just the free version.
The paid version works on a credit system where you purchase a certain amount of credits
and redeem them to see metrics that go along with your searches.
The metrics are pretty standard: search volume, cost per click, Google Ads competition, and
of course, search trend data.
Semrush Semrush is a robust SEO research and monitoring
platform that offers so many cool tools to help boost your digital strategy.
Semrush’s platform isn’t free, but it’s a great investment.
I’m going to focus on the keyword research features, but know that you get many other
tools when you sign up for an account.
The Keyword Overview tool gives you a summary of your target keyword metrics, including
search volume, ranking difficulty, ad competition, and available search features like video carousels
and site links.
You can also see variations of your keyword, related questions, and other related keywords.
Plus—yes, I’m not done—get an analysis of the top results for that keyword.
On top of that, you can plug specific pages into the Organic Research tool to see what
you and your competitors are ranking for and use the Keyword Gap tool to see missing opportunities
for your pages.
That just scratches the surface of Semrush.
Ahrefs Last but most definitely not least is Ahrefs.
Ahrefs excels as a tool for researching linking opportunities, but it’s also an awesome
keyword research platform.
Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer can help you find keywords for all the major search engines
and keyword-focused websites, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Bing.
Type in your keyword idea and you’ll see how hard it is to rank for, search volume,
ad data, and related keywords sorted by different categories.
You can even see the ranking history of the top pages and their keywords.
You can also open up a rank position history chart and view detailed data for each keyword’s
search results page.
Just like Semrush, you can use the Content Gap tool to find keyword opportunities through
your competitors.
I think it’s safe to say you have a lot of choices to consider when looking for keyword
research tools.
Let me know what tools you use in the comments!
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