17 Best Free Keyword Research Tools To Make Your Life Better

These keyword research tools guide is for you if you belong to the following categories;

• Are you struggling to rank your website on top search engines?
• Have you started a new startup and are lacking substantial financial resources to pay for popular premium tools?
• Are you a beginner and want to start by collecting free tools to smoothen your SEO journey?
• Do you feel Keyword Research is daunting and an expensive task for you?

Well, whatever the case is, I have some good news for you.

Today, I’m going to focus on the 17 best free keyword research tools you can use without spending a single dollar.

At the end of this comprehensive guide, you will be capable of 

• Choosing the best keywords according to their relevant industry. Here Keyword Relevancy comes into play.
• Understanding which tool works best for any given task thereby, choose the right keyword research tool.
• Know more about your competition and try to compete with it. Study high competition keywords your competitors are ranking with.
• Verify and analyze the SERPs to outperform the top ten competitors ranking for a particular keyword to boost your search engine rankings.

Out of all the tools below, you can rely on a combination (say 2 to 3) of free tools to compile a quality list of keywords that can deliver you results.

I urge you to take advantage of these best free keyword research tools and obtain visibility in the SERPs.

17 Best Free Keyword Research Tools

1. Google Autocomplete

Google autocomplete offers keyword suggestions for every search.

Google’s autocompleting function has got better over the years, as it offers you 10 options to autocomplete from what you are trying to type. because it tries to help you by providing keyword suggestions.

Related Questions

This feature is displayed while searching for broad terms. For example, these boxes on the first page of the search result (anywhere between 1st-5th spot). 

These are a series of questions which can be expanded, for more information.

You can collect similar ideas from Google Autocomplete and Google Related Questions.

For instance, we typed in Keyword Research where Google gave us top keywords like “keyword research tool”, “keyword research tool free”, “keyword research tool amazon”, and so on.

Google’s Related Searches

Google’s Related Questions also gives you a fair idea of the most searched and relevant keywords, according to what you have typed. Likewise, once you’ve completed your search, you can see additional suggestions at the bottom of the search results page.

These suggestions are generated based on user search information.

In conclusion for SEO professionals, this adds a lot of value while performing keyword research, just like icing on the cake.

Secret Tip: Use these suggestions to dig deeper for finding the right keywords which can boost your content’s visibility over your competitors.

2. Google Trends

The next useful tool from Google is Google Trends.

It will help you in visualizing how a search trend changes over a period of time. The dashboard is pretty simple with changeable options like country, time frame, categories, and search options.

After entering the keyword, you will be shown a simple 2D line chart of that keyword displaying interests over time, by default12 months.

We have checked Google Trends data for “keyword research” worldwide for the past two years; we can see that its relative popularity has grown from 25 to 50 (popularity is on a scale of 100).

This makes the keyword half as popular to peak popularity. 

If you scroll down, you can see a chart with the title, Interest by region. Here, Google Trends shows you the region/city your keyword was most popular during the specified time frame.

Google Trends offers an excellent feature called as ‘Related queries.’ These related queries are subdivided into two categories, ‘Top’ and ‘Rising.’ 

Related queries

The Rising Related queries

The word ‘Breakout’ mentioned here indicates that these results had tremendous growth, in terms of popularity, during the time frame specified by us.

The Top Related queries

This cool trick can get you closer to your desired keyword. Here ‘keyword research tool’ has reached peak popularity. Moreover, you can analyze our query by performing a comparison between our seed keyword, ‘keyword research’ and top related query ‘keyword research tool’.

The results are from the past 90 days, and they are pretty good. I would say this keyword, ‘keyword research tool’ has worthy popularity.

Secret Tip: Compare between your seed keyword and the most popular top related keyword to get closer to the long-tail version of your original (primary) keyword.

3. Google Correlate Keyword Research Tools

Google Correlate is a new experimental tool introduced by Google.

Similar to Google Trends, it works in the reverse order. After entering your keyword, Google Correlate displays only those search queries whose frequency patterns match with your keyword. As this tool works on the concept of correlations, it displays unrelated keywords as well. Use the Show More feature at the bottom of the list to uncover keywords closely connected to your seed keyword.

Correlation is a statistical concept denoted by the letter ‘r.’ It is always between the ranges of +1 and -1. A correlation of 0.9475 denotes a strong and positive linear relationship between keyword research and keyword research tool.

We have written a special blog which explains 20 most important reason for the failure of SEO.

Secret Tip: Enter your seed keyword for finding a high correlating search query. Use that as your keyword. If you are looking for a long-tail version, rinse and repeat the process.

4. Google Keyword Planner

This keyword tool is from the world’s favourite search engine.

Use the, start with keywords.

Google Keyword Planner will show you Google’s gigantic keyword database. Once upon a time, this used to be every digital marketer’s favourite tool before Google decided to restrict its metrics.

Now, Google has limited it’s tool’s features for free users. In other words, providing a range of average monthly searches for a keyword, instead of the exact number.

Keywords with low ad bids are rational to purchase, for PPC marketing. Whereas others with expensive clicks should be left for SEO marketing, meaning, you will have to win those keywords organically.

Keyword Competition

Google Keyword Planner has shown us the competition for both the keywords as Medium.

A useful feature of this tool is, you can straight-away download a CSV generated report.

Furthermore, you can use this tool to grab keyword ideas from your competitor’s page.

For instance, let’s say you have entered your keywords, ‘keyword research’ and ‘keyword research tool.’ These keywords have a medium competition and now you plan to rank your content on Google, as soon as possible.

For that, you go through Google Keyword Planner’s ideas and come across a keyword which has an average monthly search from 1000 to 10000 with low competition – ‘SEO keyword research.’

Next, Google Keyword Planner gave you a ton of ideas, and you’ve decided to go with the keyword, ‘SEO keyword research’.

Now that you’ve made your decision. Go to Google Search Page and type in intitle: SEO keyword research

Bingo, 54K+ results- are all your competitors for ‘SEO keyword research.’ 

How You Can Do Competitor Analysis With Google Keyword Planner?

The top-most competitors are on page 1 of Google.

Copy their URL and paste it in the space given for, ‘enter a page’ under the section, ‘START WITH A WEBSITE.’ Make sure to select ‘Use only this page’ and press, ‘GET RESULTS.’

Google Keyword Planner will give you all the keyword ideas fetched from the given URL.

Similarly, you can use this technique on any of your competitors URL to get a glimpse of low competition ranking keywords with a decent amount of average monthly searches.

You can get tons of keyword ideas from this tool that too from the source itself, Google.

Secret Tip: The keyword ideas you get from Google Keyword Planner is the best because the data you get is highly trustworthy.

5. Soovle Keyword Research Tools

Soovle is a customizable web-based engine. It unites keyword suggestions from all the major providers like Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, etc.

An easy to use tool that picks and displays keywords (people also search for) from each provider- all at one time.

Three Facts I Like About Soovle

• It’s shockingly fast in showing you untapped keyword suggestions from all the providers at one time.
• Switch between search engines by pressing the right arrow key of your keyword.
• You can drag & drop your favorite keyword ideas with the saved suggestions feature.

Let’s Look at a New Keyword, Free Keyword Research Tool

Notice, Wikipedia, and Amazon spaces are empty. 

Whereas Google and YouTube have given some excellent keyword suggestions.

• A free keyword research tool 2019 (searched in this year), 
• The free keyword research tool for youtube (seen under Google & YouTube), 
• Free keyword research tool Reddit (trying to find direct answers from users on Reddit).

 These are good long-tail keywords, coming from ‘keyword research tool.’

Let’s look at the saved suggestions feature now.

Secret Tip: By using Soovle, you can get very close to understanding the user’s intent on every search engine, at one time.

6. Adword & SEO Keyword Permutation Generator

If you are in the beginning stage of launching your website and need some help on keyword suggestions, use Adword & SEO Keyword Permutation Generator.

This tool is slightly different from a traditional keyword research tool. Here you can merge more words with keywords and get a list in no time at all.

A web-based tool with three empty spaces allows separately, to type in more words and keywords.

Let’s say you want to generate a list around ‘keyword research tool,’ and don’t want to type them one-by-one manually. Type in your keywords and more words separately, and hit the Generate Permutations button.

Secret Tip: Use this tool to get a ton of keywords readily available to copy and paste it in your local drive, saves time.

7. Keyword.io Keyword Research Tools

Keyword.io is a long-tail keyword tool, which can give you hundreds of keyword suggestions for free. 

By creating a free account and verifying your email, you can use this tool to get relevant options based on your primary keyword.

It can save you a lot of time by not going into each search engine or trying to brainstorm by your self. It has a list of search engines like Google, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Amazon, etc.

Provide a seed keyword and select the language from the drop-down box. Keyword.io offers you a range of keyword suggestions based upon the country of your audience.

I will show you an example – by providing the main keyword, ‘keyword research.’

This tool displays your results in alphabetical order. You can select the keywords you like.

Another Useful Feature – Filter Ideas

Filter Ideas are in a drop-down box. This Filter Tool can be used to narrow down your search. 

Every word under this filter tool has a corresponding number indicating its occurrence in the list. 

We will filter the keywords based on the word ‘tool.’

There you go. Keyword.io is a free keyword research tool which provides you good keyword suggestions.

Secret Tip: You can hit the Questions tab; it offers you 20 random ideas (questions) on how people might search for your keyword.

8. Keyword Shitter Keyword Research Tools

A tool which does exactly what it’s named as.

Keyword Shitter is a bulk keyword research generator. Type in your seed keyword and hit ‘Shit Keywords.’ Keyword Shitter will start generating keywords.

It’s a non-stop continuous process of digging Google’s Autocomplete feature and displaying the keywords in front of you.

You will get a ton of keywords in no time, that’s it.

Other additional features of this tool are positive and negative filters. 

The positive filter will list will out only those phrases that feature’s the keyword you’ve added, whereas the negative filter will do the opposite. Very straightforward. Let’s try out an example. This time we will add an adjective called FREE, to the phrase ‘keyword research tool.’

Filters Function

I used the positive filter to add a phrase ‘free keyword research tool for’ and I got two good keyword suggestions, which I copied.

From this, I can understand some audiences are interested to learn about free keyword research tool for amazon and free keyword research tool for youtube. Moreover, you and me, both know that it’s reliable since it’s mined from Google Autocomplete.

It would take a long time to understand and get to the point of reaching these two suggestions if I were to fetch it from Google Autocomplete manually directly.

Secret Tip: This tool is freely giving you Google autocomplete suggestions in no time. Combine it with another free tool which offers you metrics for those long-tail keywords.

9. Answer the Public

Answer the Public goes one step further to show you what the real public is asking for, all over the world.

It looks for questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetically-organized phrases, and related searches.

Make use of this free tool to analyze better;

• What is really required to be answered?
• What are the pain points of people – related to the questions?
• Questions of different formats, referring to the same context.
• Phrases are containing prepositions around your seed keyword.
• Comparative statements of your keyword.

After entering the seed keyword, you will see questions pertaining to what, why, who, which, where, etc., in a visual or traditional list format.

We will try an example to see what appears after entering the free keyword research tool.

Great, we got a couple of questions like – what are the free keyword research tools, and which are the best free keyword research tools.

Other Features of Answer the Public

Let’s hunt for a preposition.

Sweet. We got free keyword research tool for SEO and best free keyword research for Amazon. 

The next one is comparisons – try looking in the list under vs.

Here you can create a topic over free keyword research tool vs. paid ones or club both the years’ together, free keyword research tools 2018 vs 2019 For diverse ideas, look under alphabetically-organized phrases.

There you go, people looking for a best free keyword research tool 2019 and free keyword research tool Reddit

The last section shows us approx — 20 related suggestions.

Secret Tip: Under the related category look for new keyword suggestions – the ones which haven’t appeared in any of the above.

All the above are top free keyword research tools which can show you fantastic suggestions in no time and get you going with a decent list. Now, we will dive into some of the best free keyword research tools that offer us keyword suggestions with metrics to start with, like average monthly searches, CPC, and competition.

10. Keywords Everywhere Keyword Research Tools

Keywords Everywhere is a free add-on for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox web browsers. Just provide them your email address to get a free license key.

It adds metrics like volume, CPC, and competition from Google Keyword Planner and user’s Clickstream Data.

There is a long list of websites that it supports.

There is a long list of websites that it supports.

This is one of the most straightforward tools to use as it sits on your browser and provides you with the data.Type in your query on Google, and this is what you will get to see.

Note: Metrics from Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Ebay will be the same.

You can export a list of keywords in CSV format.

You can set the country, currency, and metrics of your choice that you want to be displayed. Furthermore, it has a highlighting feature, as well.

Secret Tip: Combine Keywords Everywhere with another keyword suggestion tool like Google Keyword Planner or Keyword Sh!tter to get a list of suggestions with the metrics you are looking for.

11. Jaaxy Keyword Research Tools

You can create a free starter account with Jaaxy limiting it to 30 searches with all the metrics you need, completely free.

From here on, you know you got to use these searches very wisely.

Well, then you can use any one of the following methods;

First Method

If you already have created a keyword list, by using any one of the above-mentioned keyword suggestions tools. 

Then simply type in your keywords, and hit search. Select your keyword and other keywords you feel might help you, and press the ‘Save to List’ button.

Create a new list with any name you desire. Click on the ‘Saved Lists’ on the top, to see your listing. From here, you can export your list of keywords with their metrics, to a CSV or a TXT file.

Let’s look at the keyword suggestion offered by the tool keyword.io- a best free keyword research tool

You are getting some useful insights.

Traffic – The amount of traffic you’d get if you were to use this keyword.

QSR (Quoted Search Results) – No. of websites ranking for this exact keyword.

KQI (Keyword Quality Indicator) – red is bad, yellow is average, green is greatSelect the keywords and add them to your Saved List, like the one below.

Export as CSV or TXT file, on to your computer.

Second Method

Start researching and brainstorming for keywords from here, like how you’ve seen in the tools mentioned above.

But, be aware as the free account only allows up to 30 searches. 

Thus, know your niche well in advance and try to select keywords which would blend well in your content, adding value to your readers.

Another cool feature from this tool is the Alphabet Soup.

Another fancy way of saying, long-tail keyword ideas. 

Put in a seed keyword and get lots of long-tail keyword ideas organized alphabetically.

With each suggestion, you get an option to dig deeper. That shows you better keywords; you think you could rank for if you were to create content around them.

Let’s dig deeper and click the ‘Search on this’ for the suggestion, what keyword research tool works alongside google keyword search.

That’s it; we found some keywords with better metrics.

Secret Tip: I would say, Jaaxy is the best free keyword research tool in the market. That not only gives you excellent keyword suggestions but also educates you with keyword metrics.

12. Ubersuggest Keyword Research Tools

Google Keyword Planner restricts its data (exact metrics) to only advertisers who pay for doing PPC campaigns’.

Therefore most of the marketers see Ubersuggest as a free tool for keyword research.

It’s the first thing you will notice on Neil Patel’s website.

Since the time Neil Patel took over it, Ubersuggest has seen many changes.

Right now, it offers keyword metrics like search volume, SEO difficulty, paid difficulty, and CPC.

It also displays a graphical illustration, showing monthly search volume of your keyword.

Following that, Ubersuggest shows you a list of keyword ideas, based on your seed keyword, in a comfortable view with two options – Suggestions and Related.

Additionally, you’ll also get to see pages which are ranking for that keyword.

An integrated feature called Keyword Ideas makes this a long tail keyword research tool. Let me show you how- we’ll give a seed keyword called keyword research (2-word phrase).

And, Ubersuggest returned some long-tail keyword ideas, with a list of 100 links for each keyword, on the left side.

You can either export the data to a CSV file or copy to clipboard.

Let us make use of filters to see more likely results

By analyzing your competitor’s pages for every keyword, you can easily find the potential keywords and plan your strategy.

Secret Tip: With so much to offer, I’d say Ubersuggest is a complete SEO keyword research tool and that too, it’s available for free.

13. KWFinder Keyword Research Tools

It is a freemium tool. KWFinder has a free and paid version.  For beginners, I’d say a free account is more than enough to perform keyword research.

It offers you a 10-day free trial where you can perform five keyword searches in 24 hours.

Yes, it’s an excellent tool to find low competition long-tail keywords. But, as I said, you don’t get a lot with a free account.

Then how to go about it?

Well, you can perform the basic keyword research and narrow it down to long-tail keywords from almost any of the tool mentioned above.

I have mentioned about Ubersuggest before this. Use Ubersuggest and export a list of low competition long-tail keywords.

Type the keywords from your list, into KWFinder and get your metrics, free of cost. Let’s try searching ‘free keyword research tool.’

There you go. Very similar to Ubersuggest.

You get to see all the metrics like Search Volume, CPC, PPC, and Keyword Difficulty.

KWFinder also shows you a graphical trend chart of the selected keyword, on the right side of the page so, that you don’t need to keep on going back.

Note: Most noticeable section of KWFinder is the SERP Analysis for any keyword you select from the list.

A lot of metrics are in one place. It’s a list of top-ranking pages for the keyword you have selected. 

You can see pages ranked from top to bottom (EV- Estimated Visits column) depending on the amount of traffic they receive for the keyword you have selected.

In a nutshell, this tool provides a lot of data, even for its free users.

Secret Tip: Find low competition long-tail keywords, explore the content and keywords from your top competitor’s website mentioned under the SERP overview. Create better content and optimize it for ranking.

14. Wordtracker Keyword Research Tools

Wordtracker is a powerful keyword tool that gathers data from multiple sources to give you potential keywords.

It provides keyword ideas from Google, YouTube, Amazon, and Ebay all in one place. We will try this tool by including ‘keyword research tool’

We get the long result of 607 keywords from a free account. 

I used the filters to include the word ‘free’ and exclude multiple other irrelevant words. That has trimmed down the list to two.

Out of the 2, keyword research tool free makes sense and has also got a climbing trend. 

See how Wordtracker can save you a lot of time and provide you with potential keywords which can help strategize your SEO content campaign.

You get a limited number of tries with a free account. But, that is accurate data from Google Keyword Planner, with the search trends.

Secret Tip: I like this tool because of its filters and a metric called IAAT. IAAT stands for In Anchor and In Text. This metric gives an extra level of detail telling us how many times that keyword has appeared In Anchor and In Text.

15. Moz Keyword Explorer

This freemium tool is providing you ten free keyword searches per month with all the data.

Explore your keyword one-by-one to see an excellent visualization of monthly searches, keyword difficulty, organic CTR, and priority, all in one line. We’ll start by exploring ‘keyword research tool.’

Organic CTR tells you how many clicks you will get if you were to use this keyword.

Whereas, Priority calculated by taking into account monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, and organic CTR.

It ranges from 0 to 100. A keyword with higher priority is more likely to be profitable.

Further below, you will be able to see a concise representation of Keyword Suggestions and SERP Analysis.

Open these two features in a new tab to see full details.

One of the cool features from Moz is to provide divergent keyword suggestions. Use this smartness by including some filters to narrow down the list.

You will probably find highly relevant suggestions.

Secret Tip: Moz offers a count for the no. of linking RDs to both, the ranking page and its domain. Useful to perform competitive analysis for the keywords you’ve saved.

16. Keyword Keg Keyword Research Tools

A tool is limiting top 10 search results with its free version. The sources on the dashboard look very similar to the settings in Keywords Everywhere.

You can set your country, language, and preferred API

Keyword Keg gives you insights, which can help you to plan your keyword research. With additional metrics like OnPage and OffPage Difficulty scores.

OnPage difficulty score analyzes the top 10 SERPs ranking for that particular keyword, by calculating that keyword’s density in the title, description, heading, and body.

Whereas, OffPage difficulty score estimates the quality of the backlink profile of the SERPs, for that particular keyword.

Let’s see what results this tool gives us by putting the keyword research tool.

We found a keyword which has some room in its OnPage difficulty with a high CTR. 

Meaning, a piece of useful comprehensive information with proper content optimization may increase your chances in the SERPs.

Note: The trend displayed is in the opposite direction – from right to left.

Keyword Keg is excellent at finding low competition keywords for ranking in Amazon.

You know that when you query for a keyword research tool, Amazon will have books on this topic.

There you go, SEO keyword research tools with a trending graph, low OnPage difficulty, and very low competition.

Cool, isn’t it!

You can even export the keyword ideas into a CSV, Excel, or PDF.

Secret Tip: Have a list full of keyword suggestions handy then use Keyword Keg to perform unlimited searches for all APIs.

17. Keyword Revealer

Keyword Revealer is a web-based free tool with features like quick keyword research and keyword brainstorming.

The Keyword Research dashboard offers options to set a search location and preferred language. With your saved searches and a special feature which records your searches from the last 24 hours.

Keyword Brainstorming option discovers long-tail keywords, pulling data from Google Autosuggest. So, you get the exact queries searched by searchers.

Note: You got only three searches and brainstorming per day with a free trial account.

I’d suggest finding keyword suggestions from any other tool offering unlimited searches. Then put keywords in Keyword Revealer to get their exact metrics.

We have written one blog on How To Do Keyword Research For Blog

Let’s start with a broad search like Keyword Research, to give you a feel of what this tool can deliver.

A broad term is with high keyword difficulty. 

Notice the number of entries with a free account.

Narrow down your search with a keyword you’ve already got from a tool mentioned above – best keyword research tool.

Additionally, filter the results based on the no. of words in a keyword phrase.

There you go — best keyword research tool with a monthly search volume of 2400 and a keyword difficulty of 48. Also, look at the increase in trend.

Always have your keyword suggestions done in advance if you’re going to use a free tool offering metrics at the cost of limited searches.

Brainstorming

Let’s uncover some long-tail results from the feature called Keyword Brainstorming, by searching the term ‘keyword research tool’.

Boom, this is good for the long tail. Plus you can save the visuals or export the data to a CSV file, for accessing later.

You can also research any term shown under Keyword Brainstorm.

Search results for keyword research tool amazon

Evaluate your result to dig deeper for that keyword.

Press ‘Evaluate’ under Difficulty.

Keyword difficulty, the search volume of the last 12 months and search trends.

For the top 10 URLs, social presence, domain authority and OnPage optimization, considering this keyword.

Cumulative average statistics for top ten ranking URLs.

Secret Tip: Analyze the average statistics to understand better how to optimize your OnPage if you were to use the selected keyword.

Conclusion

Keyword research is the most important task, and guesswork is a horrible way to do it.

We all know that creating good content will not only intrigue your readers but also create value for them.

If the content has to be so good that a reader keeps coming back to it, then I’d say that content has to optimized with the right keywords. 

That way, you can increase your chances of ranking with search engines without wasting much time and concentrating more on other relevant topics.

Doing keyword research is a very struggling activity. Thus, free keyword research tools make your keyword research task easier; in-turn makes your life better.

If you think I have missed any tool or you have a different opinion for any of the tools mentioned, leave a quick word below right now.