10 Free Keyword Research Tools To Kickstart Your SEO Strategy

Keyword research is an important step if you’re looking to grow organic traffic to your site. It helps you write content that is optimized to rank higher in search results. The right keyword tool can help you research keywords easily and allows you to craft a robust SEO strategy.

But finding the right keyword research tool is no easy task. The sheer number of tools available in the market makes it even more tricky.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of 10 keyword research tools to help you kickstart your SEO strategy and compete for the right keywords, and (wait for it) are FREE to use!

Why Keyword Research Tools Are Important

Keyword research is a vital step if you are looking to establish a digital presence for your new business, reviving an old one, or just crafting your content strategy.

Keyword research helps you identify the words and phrases most frequently used by your target audience that are relevant to your business.

The purpose of performing keyword research is to find words and phrases that users are searching for on Google and other major search engines. A strong keyword research practice is the first step toward a great SEO strategy for your website.

Keyword research tools make the process of finding the right keywords a lot easier, and more efficient. These tools help you drive traffic to your website and understand how your competitors are performing.

10 Free Keyword Research Tools For Crafting Your SEO Strategy

1. KeywordBin

KeywordBin is a keyword research platform that allows you to explore the most searched phrase in Google in real-time, do comparisons, find local search phrases, and gain volume, CPC, ad competition, and trend data. In short, it allows you to improve your SEO strategy and rank higher in search results.

The best part about KeywordBin is that you can explore keyword suggestions derived from actual Google searches and find words, comparisons, local, inquiries, and even research terms in less than 60 seconds.

Features and Benefits

• You can export all of your keywords with a simple click.
• Reliable and easy to use.
• It will boost your online visibility and keep you ahead of competitors.
• All-in-one keyword research platform for phrases, comparisons, local search terms, questions, and even research terms.
• It will help you to research, manage, monitor, and report on every aspect of your campaign.
• Find out what your competitors' websites are like and where you might improve.

2. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic organizes the data into categories such as questions, prepositions, alphabetical queries, and related searches. It is an excellent place to start if you're looking for a free keyword research tool.

To help you get an idea of how AnswerThePublic works, here’s an example.

Let’s say our keyword is ‘sandwich’’. First, the queries are broken down by related questions:

• What are the main components of a sandwich?
• Which is the most popular sandwich spread?
• Where can I find the best sandwich in my area?
• Are sandwich bags waterproof?

Next, the queries are broken down into related prepositions:

• Best sandwiches for a healthy diet.
• Sandwiches without cheese
• Sandwiches with Tuna and Mayonnaise.
• Sandwich shops near me that are open now.

Then, the queries are broken down into comparisons:

• Sandwiches versus Burgers
• Sandwich or Quesadillas
• Sandwich like a Panini

Once you find the comparisons, the queries are broken down by alphabetical order. Then finally, the queries are broken down into related searches:

• Sandwich maker
• Sandwich platters
• Sandwich making ideas
• Sandwich recipes

Pretty neat, right?

Features and Benefits

• With just one search, you can get up to 150 keyword recommendations.
• This tool allows you to see complete visualization of data.
• Optimize for long-tail keywords - once you've figured out what questions your audience is asking, you can include them as subheadings in your content.
• The free edition allows you to do up to three searches each day.
• You can type any word into the search textbox, and the application will spontaneously recommend content for you.

3. SOOVLE

Soovle is a great tool for finding the most relevant terms for Google and for Wikipedia, Amazon, answers.com, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo.

Features and Benefits

• All on one page, divided into categories.
• It can make conducting research simple as it has a user-friendly interface.
• It allows you to personalize your search options.
• Keyword searches are quick and efficient.
• Your searches can be saved and downloaded for later use.
• It will help you understand your customers better. Regardless of the search engine that your audience is coming from, you can use this tool to monitor what products and services they are searching for using terms related to your business.

4. Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

Ahrefs offers a keyword research tool named Keyword Explorer, which is branded as the most complete keyword research tool on the market. Keyword Explorer is a data-driven and user-friendly tool that combines extensive keyword research with user-generated queries. This makes it much easier to streamline and manage your site's content.

Features and Benefits

• Rank tracking for your chosen keywords.
• Site audits to evaluate your site's SEO health.
• Comprehensive competitor analysis service that includes backlink research for every URL on the internet.
• Discover Google, Bing, Amazon, and YouTube keyword ideas.
• Ahrefs uses a database of nearly 8 billion keywords. That equates to nearly one keyword for every person on the planet, a degree of reach that might be quite useful for search marketers looking to micro-target their ads with highly particular keywords.
• Each term has its own search volume and keyword difficulty metrics.
• Make a list of the most effective keywords.

5. QuestionDB

According to a study, more than a quarter of all search engine requests are questions. QuestionDB is a search engine that finds the questions people are asking about a particular topic. These are taken from a Reddit-sourced collection of 48 million questions. It groups questions by filtering them by popularity or topic, making keyword hunting easier.

Features and Benefits

• Knowing what questions your target audience wants answers to will help you tailor your content to them.
• Clean and Intuitive UI.
• You may use it to brainstorm content ideas, discover how others are talking about a topic outside of the Google search box, and learn more about how you should talk about the topic.
• You can search through a database of over 48 million queries.
• It is useful for bloggers and businesses who want to fill in content gaps on their websites by creating relevant information that readers will find interesting and valuable.

6. WordStream Keyword Tool

WordStream allows you to conduct keyword research by just typing in a keyword or a website URL. It is a great fit for advertisers, agencies, small-to-medium-sized business owners, students, and anyone wishing to get started with keyword research.

Features and Benefits

• WordStream keeps things simple and easy to understand for the user by displaying keywords in a clear visual style.
• “Create SEO Content” browser extension lets you research variations on your target Keyword.
• The Keyword Discovery Tool provides fast access to Google Analytics terms in your keyword database.
• Relevant keywords can be filtered by industry and location.
• Helps in traffic generation via paid search advertising or Internet searches.
• Using an authentication technique, you can safely link your Google Ads account.
• WordStream's free keyword research tools will be most useful to businesses that already have a website with a large volume of content.

7. Keyword Tool Dominator

Keyword Dominator Tool allows you to find long-tail keywords that your target audience is looking for. It has keyword tools for eBay, Amazon, and other sites. Each tool provides a list of keywords, and some of them allow you to filter by region.

Keyword Tool Dominator identifies the top 10 most frequent keywords on Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Walmart, and YouTube, along with search engines like Google. This tool is perfect for creating fully optimized product descriptions for your e-commerce website, blog, or videos.

KTD helps you gain a competitive edge with 300,000 users putting their trust in it. It also lets you identify newly trending keywords before your competitors start using them in their content.

Features and Benefits

• It generates keyword ideas in real-time.
• Both seasoned SEO specialists and beginners will find it simple and valuable.
• You can find hundreds of keyword suggestions in no time.
• By searching for keywords across 16 various Amazon marketplaces, you can create an up-to-date relevant product keyword list.
• This keyword research tool predicts the outcome based on the actions of other internet users.
• It is useful for businesses seeking ultra-specific keyword searches for each search engine to assist in creating efficient product descriptions or optimizing a blog or web page.

8. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is one of the most popular free keyword research tools used for creating search network campaigns. It assists in selecting competitive bids and budgets for your business. This tool provides keyword suggestions and traffic projections for your website. The biggest advantage of this keyword searching tool is that the information comes directly from Google.

Although Google Keyword Planner is part of the Adwords PPC program, it may be used to find keywords for paid ads. It's also a great all-around solution for boosting your organic search results.

Features and Benefits

• As the data is pulled directly from Google's computers, no third-party algorithms are affecting the accuracy.
• The most suitable option for business websites.
• Clean UI and easy-to-use features. But it can take a while to get used to.
• Visualizations by platforms, locations, and search traffic trends are also available.
• You can add terms, phrases, and web page URLs.
• Gives you access to metrics such as the average monthly number of searches and the level of competition.
• It provides statistics that assist you in making decisions about whether or not to use a term in existing or new campaigns.

9. UberSuggest

Ubersuggest by Neil Patel is an amazing tool for identifying keyword opportunities, whether for SEO or content creation. It can generate a number of long-tail keyword variations, some of which are headline-worthy and can come quite handy for content marketers.

Features and Benefits

• In addition to a standard web search, this keyword research tool will allow you to look for images, shopping, news, and videos on YouTube.
• It makes use of location-based data, which is useful if you run a local business.
• This keyword searching tool provides a list of keywords based on what other people are searching for on Google.
• The user interface is simple and intuitive, featuring a word cloud to help you visualize keyword alternatives.
• It is free and it will help you to find out organic keywords on other websites.

10. Google Trends

Google Trends is another keyword research tool from Google that uses Google's real-time search data. You can look for additional information about people's search interests such as the most relevant articles, interest by location, trending inquiries, and related topics. You will also be able to see a map after you search for a phrase that indicates the locations where the term is most popular around the world.

Features and Benefits

• It allows you to see what other people are interested in at any one time and compare search rankings.
• It's quite easy to use, educational, and not overly complex.
• It gives you comparative information for your searched keywords (you may narrow it down by location or states), as well as information on recent trends.
• Provides real-time search trends which will help you to identify the correct keywords at the appropriate time to work on and get a spot in the Google SERPs' Top Stories Section.

Final Thoughts

The list that we’ve compiled for this article includes free keyword research tools that are great options for marketers getting started in SEO. But a lot of these tools are good enough to conduct keyword research tools for small and mid-sized businesses.

But if free tools aren’t cutting it for you, you can take this list as a starting point and start looking for the paid tools that suit your SEO needs. Or, you can put your trust in us to help you find revenue-driving keywords. Sign up today on KeywordBin and get started for free!