This post originally appeared on tBL member Joshua Lyon’s blog Joshua Lyons Marketing Blog and is republished with permission. Find out how to syndicate your content with theBrokerList.
It’s very challenging to implement search engine optimization (SEO) into your marketing strategy without using an SEO keyword research tool. Because SEO is such a popular marketing tactic, many great tools have been created to help website owners. These tools all range in price and complexity. This blog post will go through the details of seven tools to use for keyword research.
1. SEMRush
1. SEMRushSEMRush is a very common keyword research tool. Rather than providing a free trial, they give users the opportunity to do a keyword analysis on up to 10 keyword phrases. Their least expensive subscription is $99.95 when billed monthly. This tool does offer some good features like backlink tracking and keyword suggestions. The suggestion of keywords is very helpful when coming up with ideas for content that will attract good traffic. SEMRush’s dashboard is very user-friendly and provides users with many charts and graphs to help visualize reports. This tool does not offer keyword management, which is something to note. However, there are a number of other bells and whistles that come along with a subscription to SEMRush.
This keyword research tool has a very broad diversity in the number of features it possesses. For example, in the Keyword Research section alone, you will notice that there are six different tools to use. One of these tools is Keyword Overview, which gives you a snapshot of a chosen keyword’s value. Other than that, volume, keyword difficulty, competition in paid search, and top-ranking pages are just some of the metrics used to evaluate the core potential of a keyword. Search volumes, trends and the number of related keyword suggestions are updated to aid your SEO campaigns. The Keyword Ad History report will help you identify advertising trends of a keyword, allowing you to see how much traffic keywords bring to your site.
2. WordStream
This SEO tool uses Google’s search data to come up with their results. WordStream’s SEO tool allows you to get started with a free trial, but will cost you upwards of $264 a month once you have to pay for the tool. At that price, it’s safe to say this tool is designed for business websites, rather than smaller websites like personal blogs. This tool gives you the ability to select keywords based on your industry, rather than the entire internet. They will also suggest keywords for you to use, so you can choose the best ones possible.
How WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool works is pretty straightforward. Enter a keyword and choose the country and industry you are in. A list of related keyword suggestions will be generated, and this includes long-tail keyword variations. A website URL can also be entered to get better contextual ideas to help you compete against any businesses in your industry. The top 25 keywords will be shown immediately, and if you need the full list of keywords from search results, just submit your email address.
The Free Keyword Tool is fast, accurate and flexible in how it filters keyword suggestions. It is compatible with many keyword search formats, such as Google Adwords, keywords for websites, and real phrases users type into search engines. It also reveals negative keywords, which are keywords that have proven to be economically unreliable in Adwords campaigns.
3. Moz
Moz SEO offers two different keyword tools for website owners. They have a general tool for website SEO, and they have an SEO business listing tool. Their general tool offers some fairly unique features like help with link building and site audits, as well as the usual features like a competition and popularity analysis. However, SEMRush also offers these same features and is considered a close competitor. The business listing tool is very unique because it helps you get more visibility specifically for your business’ listings (Google My Business, Yelp, Yellow Pages, etc.). You can start out using a free trial with their general SEO tool, but after that is done you will be paying them $179 per month. Their business listing tool is more affordable, starting at $99 a year.
Moz performs best when it finds lateral keyword ideas. For instance, if you were to enter a seed keyword such as “weight loss”, you will receive a list of closely related keywords. However, Moz pushes the envelope in a good way from here. Outside-the-box suggestions that other keyword research tools will not provide be made available by Moz. These suggestions could include “foods that help burn fat for men” and “men’s health month tips”, which tie in with your seed keyword.
4. SpyFu
SpyFu offers the ability to manage keywords (grouping, organizing, prioritizing, etc.) with its SEO tool. This is something many other tools lack. Similarly to SEMRush, SpyFu lays out reports in helpful charts with an easy-to-read overview. They also have a project management feature which is very unique and helps users stay organized. A large part of the SpyFu tool is that you can look at how your competitors are doing with their search result rankings and even check their backlinks. SpyFu’s cheapest plan is just $33, which is a great deal.
SpyFu methodically breaks down SEO competitor research in a way that can be easily understood. You will be able to better identify how strong a competitor is in your industry by using Kombat, a three-way competitor keyword research tool. Once you enter three competitors in a search, you will be shown the profitable keywords those competitors all rank on, but you don’t. On the flip side, you will also be shown all the keywords you rank on, but your competitors don’t.
Living up to its name by spying on the competition, SpyFu dissects the full scope of what competitors are doing with keywords. You are allowed to track your competitors, to learn which ones are the biggest threats to your business. Additionally, you can watch for any upstart domains that may be benefiting from your preferred keywords.
5. KWFinder
KWFinder is a name that is often mentioned in the discussion of SEO keyword tools, and for a good reason. It has been referred to as the go-to premium SEO research tool by review sites. This tool is one of the most user-friendly SEO tools out there, making it perfect for beginners. You are able to perform localized keyword searches, look at profitable keywords, and even organize keywords on a list. However, it does not have as many advanced features as other tools on this list. Their plans range from $49 to $129 depending on how many users you would like to have access. So, it is an affordable tool.
Keyword Difficulty is a shining example of a feature that tells how much work needs to be put in for a keyword. Data that is proven in a user-friendly interface is the foundation of this feature. The Link Profile Strength of a URL is evaluated. This strength is based on the profile, and metrics provided by tools like Moz. This search process should prompt you to choose keywords that your site can possibly rank for. On a scale from one to one hundred, the difficulty of a keyword will be measured. A score of 25, for example, is considered to be an easy keyword. A score of 80 is considered to be much more difficult.
One unique perk of Keyword Difficulty is that a difficulty score is automatically cached for as much as 30 days for all users after a targeted keyword is entered or clicked on a suggestions list.
Are you enjoying this post? If so, be sure to subscribe for occasional email updates from our team!
6. SEMScoop
This keyword tool has a free option that provides 50 keyword results with difficulty and competition analyses. Their different subscriptions range from $9 to $47, making SEMScoop one of the most affordable tools on this list. These small prices are worth it considering they have many different features that over 35,000 clients enjoy. One of their unique features includes analyzing keywords for specific areas. This is great if you run a business and are trying to rank well in your particular area. Another feature offered with SEMScoop is the recommended content length report. You may know that Google considers content length when they are ranking their search results, so this feature is incredibly helpful
Conducting a search on SEMScoop is an easy process. For example, if you search for “cat toys”, on the left side of the screen you will see a list of suggestions that closely relate to your submitted keyword. You can also adjust search settings so that you can target long-tail keywords. On the right side of the screen is the keyword metrics data, which reveals the Keyword Difficulty score and how much content you need to create to support a targeted keyword.
Checking out the advanced Links Profile for the domains of targeted keywords can help keep you ahead of the competition. These profiles will let you know how much link building will be required of you to appear in Google’s search results. Analyzing the strongest and weakest backlinks of your competitors with SEMScoop will help you fill the gaps in any keyword search.
7. Jaaxy
A powerful keyword research tool that gives you many ideas and suggestions is Jaaxy. This tool provides helpful data for every keyword that is generated. The data includes competition, search volume, and potential website traffic. One of the many categories Jaaxy uses to separate keywords is titled “Quoted Search Result”. This basically describes how many other websites are attempting to get ranked for specific keyword terms. So, the lower the number another website ranks, the chances of your website ranking first improve.
The SiteRank feature gives you insight into where your website ranks in Google, Bing and Yahoo. It takes only 1.8 seconds to scan for your website’s ranking on these platforms. Whether your website rankings go up or down, you will be notified by one of these platforms, allowing you to plan accordingly and modify your SEO campaign if necessary. You can keep track of how your competitors are doing with SiteRank, and you can simplify the process of your SEO testing. Additionally, you can pin SEO activities to a timeline and determine which of those activities are performing the best.
Prices for a Jaaxy membership are reasonable. It costs $49 per month for the Pro package while it costs $99 per month for the Enterprise package.
8. SECockpit
Like other keyword research tools, SECockpit will give you a list of results for your submitted keyword. However, what separates SECockpit from the rest is the amount of depth it provides you when it comes to search trends, organic competition and website traffic estimates. You can perform keyword research at warp speed as this tool can utilize impressive cloud processing power. You can freely import your long list of keywords into this tool. And, SECockpit will perform an analysis to produce the optimum amount of results that will satisfy you.
The dashboard you will access allows you to freely create projects around sets of keywords, or conducting keyword searches. To start the keyword search process, fill out the field titled “Keyword Phrase”. Then, you can check boxes to include synonyms from Google Adwords, Amazon, or YouTube. Lastly, the report you will get will be a detailed list of potential keywords that you can use to make a profit. If you have experience with other tools like the Google Keyword Planner, you will become very familiar with SECockpit’s use of data.
The great thing about SECockpit is the offer of free training, which will attempt to solve your SEO traffic problems. If you select the monthly package plan, all the prices to acquire this tool go easy on your bank account. The Personal plan is $39 per month, the Pro Plan is $59 per month, and the Agency Plan is $99 per month.
9. Keyword Tool
Proclaiming to be the best alternative to Google Keyword Planner, Keyword Tool puts emphasis on long-tail keyword searches, providing at least 750 suggestions in this category for every search. Unlike many other keyword research tools, the basic version of Keyword Tool can be used completely free by users.
Keyword Tool uses Google Autocomplete to generate many relevant long-tail keywords for any topic you desire. Autocomplete helps to speed up searches. But, the search terms suggested by Google’s autocomplete are chosen based on various factors. How often users search for a specific item in a certain amount of time is one factor. Keyword Tool enables you to pick one domain out of 192 that Google supports. And, if you understand any one of the 83 languages recognized by Google, you can broaden your searches that way.
Keyword Tool offers straightforward solutions in their search results with the help of Autocomplete. Tools like Google Keyword Planner specifically serve for advertising purposes. In comparison, Keyword Tool serves to offer more basic ideas in what you search for. Google Keyword Planner has a tendency to hide profitable long-tail keywords that can be readily added to your website’s content. Keyword Tool brings these keywords out to the forefront.
There are three subscription package plans to choose from. The Pro Basic plan offers a maximum of 7,000 keyword searches a day for $89 per month. Pro Plus offers 35,000 keywords a day for $99 per month. Pro Business offers 70,000 keywords a day with 50 API requests for $199 per month.
Conclusion
The tools above are just the highlights of each tool. So, it’s important to note that these tools have more features than the ones we list here. If you are interested in more in-depth information about each tool, please click on the links included throughout this blog post.
If you have any questions about what you should be looking for in an SEO keyword research tool, feel free to reach out to us by filling out the form below. We would love to set up a time to speak with you and answer any questions you may have.
