If you don’t know what topics your audience is interested in or what information they’re searching for, you could end up wasting your time creating pages that never attract any traffic.

Thankfully, keyword research for search engine optimization (SEO) can help you avoid that problem.

But how can you conduct effective keyword research?

More keyword research tools are becoming available to help even beginner-level SEOs and content writers find keywords to target.

Let’s take a look at some of the best keyword research tools for improving your SEO.

1. KeywordsFX

KeywordsFX really hits every possible keyword that you could want to consider.

When you type in a keyword at the top, this keyword research tool creates a list using that keyword in conjunction with other words and phrases users commonly search for. When you comb through these lists, you may find entirely new avenues for your starting keyword.

Plus, most of the keywords are long-tail, making them more specific and likely easier to rank for than your original keyword.

Biggest Perk: You can download a spreadsheet of all the keywords the site generated, making it easy to keep track of which ones you want to use on your site.

2. SEO Book’s Keyword Suggestion Tool

SEO Book has several free keyword research tools on their site, and one of the most useful is their Keyword Suggestion Tool. This tool pulls in data from Google and provides suggestions based on the original keyword that you entered.

It also shows you useful information such as monthly and daily search volume of that keyword. And it’s completely free, as long as you sign up for an account!

Biggest Perk: This keyword tool pulls in information from Google Trends, something that is fairly unique across search keyword generators!

3. Keyword Tool

Keyword Tool is one of the best keyword research tools you can use for free. It creates an extensive list of keywords that add terms both ahead of and after the keyword you searched, allowing for a range of different options.

In the free version of this SEO keyword research tool, you’ll be able to get a super long list of keywords that range from short-tail to long-tail. This tool is a great for generating keyword phrases that you may not have considered, due to the fact that the words placed before and after the keyword allow the topic range to extend immensely.

If you sign up for the Pro version, which costs between $69 and $199 per month depending on the plan you choose, you get even more keywords and more data about each keyword, including search volume and competition.

Biggest Perk: You can opt to include negative keywords in order to filter out terms that aren’t useful for your company.

4. Moz Keyword Explorer

Though many of Moz’s tools are only available with a subscription, their Keyword Explorer allows you to run 10 free searches per month if you sign up for a free account.

When you perform a keyword search with MOZ, you receive not only a list of keyword suggestions but also the search volume, difficulty, opportunity, and potential. You can also view SERP analysis reports for each keyword, which is extremely helpful in your search.

Your query also allows you to see the top organic results for that keyword along with each page’s page authority, domain authority, Facebook shares, and links to the page and domain respectively. This keyword planner tool also allows you to see how difficult (or easy) any given keyword will be to rank for.

Biggest Perk: Huge amount of information that you can export to a CSV file. You can also download MOZ bar, which shows up at the top of your screen, allowing you to see the page and domain authority, the spam score, and the shares of any website that you are currently viewing.

5. SEMrush

SEMrush is another paid research tool, but it’s definitely worth the cost. When you type a keyword into the keyword overview field, you receive a live update of the volume, keyword difficulty, cost-per-click, and more.

You will also see lists of keyword variations, questions, and related keywords with their volume, CPC, and other data, along with a SERP analysis.

You will pay anywhere from $99.95 to $599.95 per month for this keyword research tool, but its benefits are vast.

Biggest Perk: In the Keyword Magic Tool, you can filter your keywords list by broad match, phrase match, exact match, related, questions, and more. You can even filter phrases by the words they include. The best part is, you can export all the lists!

6. BuzzSumo

Buzzsumo is best known for providing lists of the top-ranking content for a given keyword, helping creators come up with new ideas for content. It also recently introduced a keyword research tool that provides related keywords and data about those terms, including search volume and cost-per-click.

When you search a keyword, you also get:

• An overview of how many articles were published on a given topic in the last year by month
• Content ideas
• Questions related to your keyword
• An overview of the SERP for your keyword
• The top influencers for your keyword on social media

BuzzSumo is great when you aren’t quite sure how to utilize the keywords you find because the content ideas and articles provided give you potential contexts for your keywords.

The free version of this tool provides limited search results but is still useful. Access to the full version costs $79-$499+ per month, depending on your plan.

Biggest Perk: In addition to keyword ideas, you get lots of additional information you don’t get with other tools. While the keyword tool is new and not quite as robust as some others, this extra data can help you create unique, high-performing content. Using BuzzSumo in combination with other keyword research tools can be especially beneficial.

Which SEO keyword research tools are right for you?

Looking through all of these keyword tools you may be overwhelmed with the thought of choosing the one that is best suited for you and your SEO efforts. My best advice would be to test them all!

There is no single correct choice as far as the tools that you use. One may work better for your technique than others. There are plenty of free options that work great if you are just getting started and aren’t interested in fronting any cash. You never know until you try!

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Find keywords for SEO with WebFX

At WebFX, we love helping people reach their digital marketing goals and grow their businesses. That’s why we created KeywordsFX, our free keyword research tool. We hope you try it out, along with the other tools listed in this post!

We also conduct advanced keyword research as part of some of our digital marketing services, including our SEO services. If you have questions about keyword research or are interested in working with us, contact us today!