As online marketing has grown phenomenally over the past few years, the importance of keywords and getting it right in an ever-increasing competitive environment is a multi-billion dollar business today. Let’s have an example first.
If you have a Chinese food restaurant in Washington, what keywords can get you on the first page of the Google search? Well put these inputs – Chinese Food, Washington, Restaurant – in one of the leading keyword research tools, and it would give your hundreds of keywords in a relative order that you should target through your content. Our research shows Washington Chinese Food is the most popular keyword among people are searching for Chinese food in Washington.
There are other keywords, too, that have a higher ranking: Best Chinese food in Washington, and Chinese food in Washington.
Content writing is different from creative, literary, and academic writing. Its advent can be traced to the 1990s when the internet brought in the concept of ecommerce and online marketing for the first time. Content writing is geared to driving traffic to the website and generating sales. Using relevant keywords improves the content’s discoverability on the internet. We at Content Academy provide a complete digital marketing solution for businesses.
To help you stay ahead of your competitors, you need to regularly perform keyword research. To help you in the process, there are many keyword search tools. Here we provide the list of top 7 keyword research tools.
1. SMErush
Semrush is one of the best keyword research tools available on the market. It also provides rank position and competitive analysis, and many more search-related solutions. It saves your time by quickly searching high-volume keywords for you. It also allows you to check and analyze the online marketing strategies and visibility of other companies, particularly of your competitors. It also helps you keep a tab on the SEO performance of your website on different search engines. Semrush is highly popular with digital marketers for its all-in-one and best-in-class search solutions. The company was founded in 2008 and it has over 4 million users by the end of 2020.
Keyword Research: It helps you find out popular search terms for paid search and cost-per-click bids. It also helps find out high volume keywords for organic search for them to rank well on search results. The keyword search solution of Semrush is appropriately called Keyword Magic Tool. The process is simple as you need to enter the keyword and Semrush will offer a list of related search terms with all other related data such as search volume, ranking difficulty, search trend, SERP features, and more.
Competitive Analysis: Semrush can identify the competing websites and keywords that outrank your website in an online search. This further leads to spying on the competitors’ online marketing strategies. It helps you spot the high performing keywords that make your competitor stay ahead of you. Once you know what makes your competitor win, you know how you too can win. It also offers search intelligence for paid search strategies.
Keyword Position Tracking: Once you have found out the top keywords for your niche and integrated them into your content, the next thing of your interest is to see how your website is ranking with these keywords. The position tracking tool of Semrush tells you how well your website and its pages rank for specific keyword choices. It can also tell you the shift in organic search rankings in precise terms.
How it works: As per your subscription plan, you can upload a specific number of keywords. Semrush will automatically search for these keywords on Google every day. Finally, Semrush provides you SERP ranking for all of the keywords as well as a summarized report.
Pricing: Semrush has 3 different pricing plans: Pro Plan for $99.95 per month, Guru Plan for $199.95 per month, and Business Plan for $399.95 per month. On a one-time payment for a year, customers are given a 16% discount on the monthly plan. There are 2 significant add-ons: listing management and competitive intelligence for $ 20 and $ 200 per month respectively. The company offers a 14-day trial with its Pro Plan.
Subscription plans and keyword search limits: The Pro Plan which is best used for freelancers and smaller websites offer a limit of 500 keyword searches. It doesn’t give you access to any historical data, meaning you can’t search your competitors’ search history. The Guru Plan is best used for SMBs and smaller marketing agencies. It offers tracking for a maximum of 1500 keywords. It also allows access to competitors’ historical data since 2012. The business plan is best used for large companies and digital agencies. It offers to track up to 5,000 keywords.
Pros
· Helps identify popular search terms and high-volume keywords
· Helps identify top competitors and their digital marketing strategies
· Offers rank tracking services to monitor your website’s ranking for specific keywords
Cons
· Google Ads Keyword Planner is a free tool that competes with Semrush
2. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another premium toolset for keyword research. It helps digital marketers with SEO and backlink analysis. It offers everything you need to assess and analyze your website, your competitors, and the industry and niche you are working in. So, in short, it offers you web monitoring, keyword research, content research, backlink research, and rank tracking. It offers you all the information and insights you need to get on to the first page of the Google search.
AhrefsBot: Ahrefs has an impressive crawler bot called AhrefsBot which visits more than 6 billion pages every 24 hours. It has a base of 16 trillion links. With this kind of capability, you can imagine the relevance and accuracy of data and insights provided by Ahref.
Pricing: It offers a 7-day trial for a token price of $7. There are at least 4 different subscription plans — Lite for $99 per month, Standard for $179 per month Advanced for $399 per month, and Agency for $999 per month.
Some of the most popular Ahrefs tools include:
· Site Explorer tool
· Content Explorer tool
· Keywords Explorer tool
· Rank Tracker tool
· Site Audit tool
Pros
· It’s powerful yet simple
· Easy availability of information
· It offers intelligent keyword solution for your SEO
Cons
· Provides too much information
3. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner chooses to remain simple and unambitious. Yet, it’s one of the most authentic and reliable sources of keyword data and information on the market. The data comes from Google and integrates with the monetization scheme of Adsense.
Key features
· Helps you identify commercial keywords
· You can use top-of-range bid range
· You get accurate search data directly from Google search engine
· A great option for business website
Pricing: Google Keyword Planner is available free of cost.
4. KWFinder
KWFinder is one of the many keyword research tools developed by Mangools, known for designing some of the best tools across different categories. They have three different subscription plans — Basic for $30, Premium for $40, and Agency for $80 per month. With an annual subscription, you get a 40% discount.
Key features
· Easy user interface and navigation
· Offers keywords in any language
· Offers a list of power-packed keywords
· Offers statistics for competing keywords
· In-depth SERP report with a list of suggestions
· Filters for more refined keyword suggestions
5. GrowthBar
GrowthBar belongs to that category of tools that aims to address the most significant needs of digital marketing. It offers keyword suggestions and ranking difficulty data alongside your search results much on the lines of Google Keyword Planner. If you are in a hurry, this method can give you instant insights into keyword dynamics in your industry and niche.
GrowthBar comes with a 5-day free trial. There are two major plans on offer from the company — Pro for $29 per month and Scale for $79 per month. The higher plan gives you keyword research for an unlimited number of keywords.
Key Features
· Keyword rank tracking
· On-page word count
· Long tail keyword suggestions
· Accurate ranking difficulty
· Exportable keyword data
6. Long Tail Pro
Long-tail keywords are the newest find for SEO. Long Tail Pro offers a list of long-tail keywords with every keyword search. These are specific to your niche. It offers a free trial for 7 days. When billed annually, the subscription charges begin at as low as $25 per month. The company has 3 plans on offer — Starter for $25 per month, Pro for $45 per month, and Agency for $98 per month.
Key Features
· Power-packed, detailed keyword planner
· Offers easy suggestions for long-tail keywords
· Offers with highly-convertible organic traffic
· Offers lookups for over 2,500 SERP every 24-hour
7. Majestic
Majestic is another all-in-one tool for making your content and website SEO-friendly. It helps you keep track of your site’s performance vis-a-vis different keywords. This is a simple and cost-effective way to tackle your company’s SEO needs. Majestic is a great solution for small businesses, freelancers, and bloggers. There are 3 subscription plans – Lite for $50, Pro for $100, and API for $400 per month. After you sign up, the company offers 3 free searches for the trail. The keyword checker is available only with PRO and API plans.
Key features
· A single toolkit with all SEO features
· Identify phrases that are easy-to-target
· Intelligence on competing keywords
· Website analysis
Final Thoughts
Keyword research constitutes the basis of any digital marketing plan today. It helps you to know what keyword can drive paid and organic traffic to your site. We have presented a list of the 7 best keyword research tools. Some of them offer free trials. Use the opportunity to get an insight into what works for your site and business.