9 Best Free Keyword Research Tools ( 2024) – Better Than Paid

Tired of creating content that’s just a shot in the dark? Want to ensure your content resonates with your target audience? In today’s competitive world, creating great content isn’t enough. You need to make sure it’s discoverable. That’s where keyword research comes into play.

I’ve been in the blogging and content creation industry for many years. I’ve used dozens of free and paid keyword research tools to rank my websites. Today, we will discover some of the best free keyword research tools. 

We’ll start by understanding keyword research and why it’s important. Then we’ll discuss the Best Free Keyword Research Tools for 2024. For each tool, we will note the key features along with its pros and cons. 

So, are you ready to discover the power of keyword research tools and take your website to the next level? Let’s jump in!

What is Keyword Research? 

Keyword research is the process of finding and analyzing the words and phrases that people use to search for information on search engine platforms like Google, Bing, etc. These words are called “keywords” and are essential for improving a website’s visibility on the internet. 

This process gives an insight into the questions and problems your audience is searching for. To cater to their problems, you can create content implementing those keywords and offer them viable solutions. This will help your website rank higher on the SERP. 

9 Best Free Keyword Research Tools 2024 (At a glance)

Tool	Free Queries	Best For
Semrush	10/day	Keyword suggestions and analysis
Moz Keyword Explorer	3/day	SERP Analysis, Organic CTR
Ahrefs Keyword Generator	20 keywords/search	Keyword search volume
Ubersuggest	3/day (1 without login)	SEO Opportunities
Google Keyword Planner	Unlimited	Keyword ideas, keywords by website
Free Keyword Research Tool by Ryan Robinson	Unlimited	Keyword Idea Clusters
The Hoth	Unlimited	High-volume keyword research
Wordstream	2/day	Keyword research
Keyword Surfer by Surfer SEO	Unlimited	Basic keyword data
Keyword.io	Not specified	Long-tail keywords
Keyword Tool Dominator	2/day	Multi-platform keyword research

9 Best Free Keyword Research Tools (2024)

1. Semrush – Best All-Rounder SEO Tool

Semrush is one of the most popular SaaS tools for performing keyword research, competitor analysis, and ad campaign optimization. It is one of the best paid keyword research tools. But you can access most of its features on the free plan too. 

Features

1) Lots of Keyword Suggestions

Upon entering your primary keyword, it shows you a wide range of suggestions, ideas, and related questions around it. Besides that, you can also check related topics and subheading suggestions in the keyword strategy tab. 

2) In-depth Keyword Analysis 

The Keyword Overview tab gives you a complete analysis of the keyword you entered. You can view global data or select a specific region to view keyword performance. It also shows the keyword difficulty score, depicting how easy or difficult it is to rank for a keyword. 

Additionally, Semrush also offers advanced insights into keyword data with options like CPC, intent, trends, ads, competitive density, etc. 

3) Keyword Magic Tool

Another impressive feature of Semrush is its Keyword Magic Tool. It is available on the free plan as well. It gives you the list of the best keyword ideas for your seed keywords, along with volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, intent, and more. 

Apart from that, you also get options to filter out the results based on exact match, phrase match, broad match, related, all keywords, or questions. 

4) SERP Analysis

Semrush also helps you analyze the top-ranking pages on the SERP for a specific keyword. It will show you the page URL and the domain URL arranged in the order of their ranking. However, features like DA score, reference domains, etc are available on the paid plans.

5) Additional SEO Tools 

With Semrush, you get powerful tools for competitor research, including traffic analytics, organic research, backlink gap, keyword gap, and domain overview. 

It can also help you with backlink analysis, link building, as well as bulk analysis of backlinks. You can analyze your competitors for their backlinks profile as well. With its on-page SEO checker, you can analyze the SEO checkpoints your website is missing. 

Finally, another additional feature of Semrush is Domain Prospects. Here, you can enter the keyword you want to rank for along with competitor domains already ranking for it. Semrush will fetch a list of all the potential pages from where you can get backlinks! 

Cons

• Only 10 daily searches on the free plan.
• Some features (state-wise location, DA, reference domains, etc) are limited to paid plans. 
• Limited results on Keyword Magic Tool (free version)

2. Moz Keyword Explorer – Best for SERP Analysis

Moz is a well-known name in the SEO industry. It features 55+ SEO tools to help businesses improve their visibility online. One of those tools is Moz Keyword Explorer. If you are looking for a free tool for keyword research, you should try this tool! 

Features

1) In-depth Keyword Analysis

Moz makes it easy to get a complete analysis for your keyword. All you need to do is enter your primary keyword.

It will show you the monthly volume of the keyword along with the keyword difficulty score, organic CTR, questions, and top suggestions. It also shows the minimum domain authority that is needed to rank for the keyword. 

I liked the Organic CTR option included in Moz. It shows you the number of users who manually enter the primary keyword to get the relevant results. This depicts the demand for your keyword. You should ideally create content around keywords with high organic CTR. 

2) Efficient SERP Analysis

SERP analysis is one of the best features of Moz. This tool shows you the top keywords and the pages ranking for it. It also shows you the Domain Authority, Page Authority, and Page Score. 

Apart from SERP Analysis, the tool has SERP features as well. Here, you will find topics or ideas not included by other blogs. For instance, this will show you whether ranking blogs have knowledge cards, knowledge panels, related searches, etc. 

3) Additional SEO Tools

If you wish to analyze a particular domain, you can use Moz’s link analysis tool. It shows you the domain authority along with details of the linking domains, inbound links, and the number of ranking keywords. 

Similarly, you can also get a domain overview for your specified domain name. It shows you insights like domain authority, brand authority (still in beta phase), page authority, linking domains, ranking keywords, links, pages with errors, spam scores of domains, and more. 

Cons

• Features like on-page grader, rank checker, and on-demand crawl are only available for paid users. 
• Limits you to 3 queries per day.

3. Ahrefs Keyword Generator – Bestie  for Keyword Research Volume

Ahrefs is one of the most popular tools used by SEO experts. It offers a Keyword Generator tool that can help you find the right keywords from their database of over 8 billion queries! All you need to do is enter a few words or phrases and choose a relevant keyword ideas report. 

Features

1) Keyword Suggestions

For your entered search phrase, Ahrefs recommends 20 keyword ideas along with search volume over the last 12 months and keyword difficulty. You can get matching phrase keywords, as well as the questions for the keyword. 

2) Analyze Keyword Data

You can get trending keywords for over 170 countries. Ahrefs doesn’t show you the global volume for the keywords, but you can individually search for the keyword volumes for a particular country. If you need a tool specifically for search volume, Ahrefs is the one. 

3) Supports Multiple Search Engines

One of the best things about Ahrefs is that you can get keywords for Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon. You can get relevant ideas for different search engines, be it videos, blogs, or products. 

Cons

• The free version limits keyword data to just volume and keyword difficulty.
• You don’t get global data with the free version. 
• Only data of 20 keywords is displayed in one search. 

4. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool by Neil Patel. This is an all-in-one tool you can use for keyword research as well as planning your SEO strategy. 

Features

1) Keyword Research

Ubersuggest has various options for keyword research, including keyword overview, keyword ideas, keyword visualization, and content ideas. 

You can find the search volume for a particular keyword, their SEO and paid difficulty, and CPC. Ubersuggest also shows you the content ideas based on the SERP. The best part is that you will see the traffic, social shares, and backlinks for the SERP. 

2) Keyword Ideas

In Ubersuggest, you can enter 3 keywords based on which the tool will show you related keyword ideas. 

For this, you need to select the language as well as the keyword location. You can filter out the keywords based on the volume, their cost per click, and SEO difficulty. You can also set filters on Ubersuggest for what keywords to include or exclude.  

Ubersuggest also visualizes the keywords. For instance, it will visualize all the questions related to your keyword, so it’s easier for you to target a particular category of keyword.

3) SEO Opportunities

One of the interesting features of Ubersuggest is SEO Opportunities. You can enter your domain as well as the keywords you want to rank for. Once you do that, Ubersuggest will show you all the SEO opportunities that you implement for your site. 

For instance, it will show you missing meta descriptions, pages with too long or short titles, images with missing alt text, etc. You can use these opportunities for better on-page SEO. 

4) Additional Tools

Besides the tools mentioned above, Ubersuggest also features the backlink overview tool. It helps you get the backlink profile of your competitors. You get graphical representations of domain authority, referring domains (lost or gained), and backlinks. 

You can also find backlinks opportunities with Ubersuggest. Once you enter your domain and your competitor’s domain, it will show you the referring domains and which competitors it links to along with their domain authority. You can also see the top backlinks from the referring domain. 

Finally, it also features a traffic estimation tool to gain valuable insights into your competitor’s traffic. It shows you all the organic keywords the site is ranking for, its organic traffic per month, and the keyword rankings. 

Cons

• The free version limits you to 3 queries a day. 
• If you don’t log in to your free account, then you will only get 1 query in a day. 

5. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool by Google. It’s a part of Google AdWords and works best for ads. However, you can also use it for your blogs and websites. All you need is a Google account to access the keyword planner.

Features

1) Get Keyword Ideas

You can start by entering your seed keyword along with your target country. It gives you a long list of keyword ideas with their average monthly searches, 3-month change, year-on-year change, competition, ad impression share, and more. 

The best part about using Google Keyword Planner is that it does not restrict your queries or limit the search results. It will show you all the keywords related to the term that you enter. 

2) Add Related Terms and Search Filters

You can broaden your search by including related terms displayed on the top of the dashboard. You can also select keyword filters to get better results. 

It gives you the option to exclude adult ideas from the keyword ideas. This way, all the adult ideas will be filtered out from the list and you will get clean results. Apart from that, you can also set the negative keywords that you don’t want to see in the keyword ideas. 

3) Search Keywords By Site

Generally, most keyword research tools suggest related keywords for the seed keyword you enter. But with Google Keyword Planner, you can search for keyword ideas by entering any website. 

For this, enter your site domain and select whether you want to use the entire site or only a particular page. It’ll fetch a list of all the keywords the website is ranking for along with keyword data like monthly searches, competition, three-month change, etc. 

This way, you can target those keywords for your site and improve your rankings.

Cons

• Search volume shows a range and not a precise number. (You can run an ad campaign to activate precise search volume.)
• No advanced options like backlink analysis, SEO checker, link builder, etc. 

6. Free Keyword Research Tool by Ryan Robinson

If you need a straightforward tool for basic keyword research, check out this Free keyword research tool by Ryan Robinson. The best part is that it’s completely free to use and with no limitations. It also offers unique keyword ideas not found on other SEO platforms. 

Features

1) Explore Related Keywords

You can enter your primary keyword and choose a preferred country from their list. It will fetch all the relevant keywords with their search volume and keyword difficulty. 

You can use this keyword research tool to explore keywords for your blog, website, or your online business. I wish it also displayed advanced data like CPC, DA, etc.

2) Get Keyword Idea Clusters

Besides related keywords, it also offers keyword ideas for your website. By simply clicking on the lightbulb icon beside any keyword, you can get related questions and topic ideas. 

It offers hundreds of different keywords categorized into question clusters and general ideas. It is quite similar to the Answer the Public tool developed by Neil Patel. 

3) Additional Features

If you need additional SEO features, this innovative tool is equipped with 25+ tools like headline analyzer, title generator, outline generator, YouTube keyword research, YouTube script generator, backlink checker, and more 

These tools are especially helpful to content creators and website owners. You can use them to get better reach and improve your rankings on Google as well as YouTube. 

Cons

• Though this tool is free, you only get volume and keyword difficulty through keyword research. It hides advanced data like CPC, DA, PA, and minimum backlinks required. 

7. The Hoth

The Hoth is a search engine marketing company that offers SEO and content marketing services. Its free Google Keyword Planner tool is powered by Semrush and helps you find terms and phrases with high search volume.

Features

1) Get Keyword Data

Once you enter your primary keyword, it will show you its search volume and intent, CPC, keyword difficulty score, competition, and number of results. This is pretty good for analyzing the potential of your keyword. It imposes no limitation on keyword research as of now.

Lots of Keyword Ideas

You can browse through dozens of related keywords along with their search volume, CPC, Competition, no. of results, difficulty, and search trend.

Cons

• Only 4 countries are available – the US, UK, Australia, and Canada.

8. Wordstream

Wordstream is a free keyword generator and suggestion tool that helps you find the right keywords for your business, blogs, and ads. It fetches data from the Google keyword planner but presents it in a more easy-to-understand fashion. 

Features

1) Good Keyword Research

To begin, you need to enter your keyword or website URL, industry, and the country you are targeting. It will show you the search volume and competition fetched from Google Keyword Planner along with high and low ranges for top-of-page bids. 

2) Export Your Keywords

Wordstream lets you export all your keywords by simply specifying your email address. However, you can’t select specific keywords for downloading. 

Cons

• Only 2 queries allowed per day.
• Can’t select specific keywords for export. 

9. Keyword Surfer by Surfer SEO

Keyword Surfer is a Chrome extension offered by Surfer SEO, one of the most popular and widely used SEO tools. This extension is used by over 600k+ users and allows you to perform content and keyword research. 

Features

1) Get Basic Keyword Data

When you enter a query on Google search, this tool shows you its search volume and cost per click. You can change the target country and the search volume will be updated accordingly. 

2) Explore Related Keywords

It also displays a few keyword ideas with their volume and overlap percentage with the primary keyword. However, I found their keyword data to be very limited. You may not find any relevant data even for popular keywords on this tool! 

Cons

• Limited related keyword
• Limited database

10. Keyword.io

Keyword.io is a Google autocomplete long-tail keyword tool. It helps you identify long-tail keywords that people are searching for and the terms you should use in your content. 

Features

1) Extensive List of Related Keywords

You begin by entering your primary keyword and target location. It fetches all the Google autocomplete suggestions for that term. For example, when I enter the keyword “baseball shoes”, I get a long list of 500+ long-tail keywords. 

2) Multiple Filters and Platforms

Along with the list of keywords, it also generates filters. You can select one of the terms to only view keywords from that category. Similarly, you can also perform keyword research for platforms other than Google, like YouTube, Bing, Amazon, Yandex, Fiverr, Wikipedia, etc. 

3) Easy Exports

You can mark keywords you want and they will be moved to the box on the right. If you sign up for its free plan, you can export your select keywords with one click!

Cons

• Only long-tail keywords are available.
• Doesn’t show keyword details like CPC, Search Volume, etc. 

11. Keyword Tool Dominator

Keyword Tool Dominator is a free keyword research tool for improving your presence on multiple platforms like Google, YouTube, Amazon, Bing, Walmart, eBay, etc. It can help you perform keyword research for any product, service, or topic of your choice. 

Features

1) Good Keyword Ideas

You need to specify your keyword source, country, and language to get started. Then, you can enter your primary keyword and wait for it to fetch all the results. For every keyword suggestion, you get the autocomplete position, difficulty, score, hotness, etc. 

2) Lots of Search Filters

Once the keyword list is fetched, you can filter the entries by department, search mode, word count, difficulty, country, score, source, etc. You can also enter specific terms the keyword should/ should not contain to find the exact keywords you want. 

3) Export Your Keywords

Once you pick out your favorite keywords from their list, you can export them in TSV or CSV file formats. 

Cons

• Only 2 free searches per day.
• Keywords may be inaccurate at times.
• Features like Search Volume, CPC, Trends, etc not on the free plan.

Why is Keyword Research Important?

Whether you are a blog owner or someone starting their own company, keyword research can be extremely beneficial for you. Let’s understand how. 

1) Increased Search Visibility

By performing keyword research and including relevant keywords in your content, you can improve your chances of ranking higher on the SERP. A proven method to improve your search visibility is to target easy-to-rank keywords with good search volume.

2) Advantage over Competitors

With keyword research, you can easily analyze your competitors’ content gaps or the topics they haven’t covered in their articles. You can target those areas or topics that your competitors have missed to rank higher. 

3) Improved User Experience

Through keyword research, you can better understand what your target audience is searching for. This can help you create more effective and engaging content that answers all user queries and enhances their experience on your site. 

4) Targeted Visitors

With keyword research, you can attract people who are actively looking for your products and services. Thus, you can have a focused group of potential customers. 

5) Awareness of Trends

Keyword research helps you stay updated with the latest trends and popular topics in the market. Usually, keywords with good search volume hint at the current trends. You can create content around them to garner more traffic. 

Conclusion

Finding the right keyword research tool is essential for boosting your SEO strategy and driving more traffic to your website. In this article, we explored a range of free keyword research tools, each offering unique features to suit different needs. Beginners can start with free tools! 

My top three favorite free tools are Semrush for its comprehensive and versatile features, Moz Keyword Explorer for its in-depth analysis and organic CTR insights, and Ahrefs Keyword Generator for its vast keyword database and multi-platform support.

You can also sign up using my link to get a free trial of Semrush and test it out thoroughly. But if you are an experienced blogger or website owner, paid SEO tools can help you save time and offer more accurate results. You can read more in my article on Best Surfer SEO Alternatives. 

I hope this article helped you understand more about keyword research tools and pick the right free ones for your needs. Have you used any keyword research tools? Recommend your favorite ones in the comments below. 

Anyway, this is Kripesh signing off. I’ll be back with more insightful content soon. Cheers, and keep learning. 🙂

FAQs