Whether it is Google Adwords, blogging, content writing, SEO or any other kind of online marketing task, conducting a proper keyword research online is the best way to begin with, and actually be successful at it. Anyone with the slightest knowledge about online marketing, would know that Google Adwords provides a free keywords research tool to help you find relevant keywords for your business. But there are a lot more free and paid keyword research tools online that can help make your search more specific along with many other useful features.
I have listed down the top 5 keyword research tools that would be beneficial for startup businesses and beginners in online marketing:
I have also given a Table that Compares the Various Useful Features of these Keyword research tools at the end of this article.
1. Google Adwords Keywords Tool
Google Adwords keyword tool helps you search for relevant keyword for your business. It provides relevant information (about each keyword) on the Global and Local Monthly Searches, Approximate Cost-per-Click of the keyword, Competition, keyword trends, etc. You can use this tool to get new keyword ideas that are closely related to your search queries. It enables you to select a specific search type so as to make your research more targeted. It also gives you ad group ideas (that are relevant to your search queries) that would help you structure ad campaigns on Google for your business product or services.
Benefits of using Adwords Keywords Tools for Keyword Research:
Get access to the massive data set of Google’s own database. As it is the largest search engine on the internet, access to it’s database enables you to find the most relevant keywords out of the millions of search queries that are conducted on Google every minute.
It is absolutely free and you don’t need to create a separate account to access it.
Adwords is extremely easy to understand and work. You just have to type in your search query and hit the search button to get hundreds of new keyword ideas and important data specific to each of them.
Data are well categorized and integrated with Adwords. It means you can directly add them to your ad campaigns or ad groups and drive qualified traffic to your website.
How should a marketer use Google Adwords Keywords Tool:
When you turn to Google Adwords for keyword research, you get a chance to use its various features to make your research more relevant and targeted.
- You can look for keywords based on the following classifications:
Word or phrase: Search for keyword ideas related to a particular word or phrase that is relevant to your business.
A website: Enter a specific website here and get keyword ideas based on that information. Helps you get data about your own website or your competitors’.
A Category: Get topical keyword suggestion out of millions of pre-set categories from the Google database.
- You can further filter down your keyword research using:
Closely related to search term: Adwords keywords tool enables you to search for highly specific and relevant terms rather than broader ideas. It is beneficial to you if you wish to get very closely related keyword or ad group ideas. You may get lesser ideas and lose out on useful variations of the search terms.
Match Types: Search for keyword ideas and filter them down using the three match options- Broad match, Phrase match and Exact match.
Advanced Filters: Specify locations, languages, devices and more to filter your search results.
- Get relevant and useful information about each keyword idea (add columns).
Global and Local monthly searches
Competition of each keyword
Approximate CPC and more
- Get ad group ideas related to your seach term which would help you target ad campaigns better. You can upload your keyword ideas and ad group ideas directly to your PPC ad campaigns or groups.
Google Adwords Keyword tool provides many more advanced features and options. Check out our blog posts on Google Adwords Campaign for useful tips and tricks. To know more about Google Adwords Keywords Tool Click here.
2. Google Trends for Keyword Research
In addition to Adwords, Google Trends is another very efficient keyword research tool. As marketers you can use it to know the keyword trend (to know how much a keyword was searched in a year or a location) on internet. This will help you know which particular keyword should be used to target audiences of a specific region. You can also structure or optimize ad campaigns and contents to attract more visitors to your website or Landing Pages.
Google Trends has two very efficient features:
1. Hot Trends Feature: It shows the 100 most searched topics of the past hours. You can see all related information about each trending topic as you click on it. It also shows 24 hour graph of search volume of each keyword. These data are updated every hour and you get to see all recent and fresh search trends on the search engine.
2. Search Trends Feature: This feature helps you to enter a particular word or phrase and view search volume of it for the last five years. You also get to see the location (State, Country or Continent) where a particular keyword is searched the most. Thus, you know which keyword must be used to target audiences of a particular country or nation.
Benefits of Using Google Trends for Keyword Research:
It enables you to do a more targeted keyword research in order to drive more traffic to your website, blog or ad campaigns.
It helps you know the most popular keywords or topics that are searched online.
Like Adwords, this tool also comes free. So you can use all its features to conduct a full fledged keyword research for your online marketing tasks.
You can have a look at your website or your competitors’, to know what is trending and driving traffic to it. This will help you compare performances and improve your marketing strategies.
How should a marketer use Google Trends for Keyword Research:
Keyword Research on Google trends coupled up with Adwords can prove to be beneficial to online marketers and content writers. It can generate highly relevant and targeted keywords to structure ad campaigns and build content. You can use the following features:
Hot trends feature to know the top 100 trending topics and see where exactly (the location) are these being generated the most.
Search trends feature to search for related keyword ideas for a word or a phrase that is relevant to your business.
Get idea about the search trend for last five years for each of your word or phrase.
Enter multiple words and phrases to compare there search trends
Check out the regional interest for each keyword. You can also choose to see how a keyword performs in a particular country by specifying it in your search criteria. You can select a particular country or a state to look for the search volume.
You can also specify your search type like: Web Search, Image Search, News Search and Product search.
There are a lot more advanced feature of Google trends that can help you make your keyword research more specific and targeted. You can check out more on Google Trends here.
3. SEMrush Keywords Research Tool
SEMrush is a highly competent SEO tool for keyword research. It has over 95 million keywords in its database and covers millions of domains. It gives valuable insight into your competitors’ performance on the search engine. Paste a URL to know about its website traffic, expenditure on the Adwords ad and the expected search volume of each of its targeted keyword. You also get relevant information about the URL’s competition on organic and paid advertising.
SEMrush provides a free trial option for 30 days. After which you may choose to take up a monthly subscription, if you thinks it is beneficial for your marketing tasks. Check out the pricing details for a monthly subscription package of SEMrush.
Benefits of using SEMrush for keyword Research:
SEMrush is a highly competitive Keyword research tool that offers various useful features to make your keyword research tasks more effective.
It helps you get a closer look at your competitors’ Adwords strategies by providing useful data related to their targeted keywords and their website traffic.
Another useful feature of SEMrush is that it provides information about other major web properties or sites that are trying to rank for your keywords. This will help you know about your rising competitors and their strategies.
How should a Marketer use SEMrush for Keyword Research:
When you sign up for a free trial, explore the following features of SEMrush and make your keyword research experience an amazing one.
Check out the keyword research data of various countries. You can make your research location specific in order to get highly relevant data for each of your keyword.
Select a particular search engine- either Google or Bing; in order to get data from their database.
Get individual data on Organic and Paid Keyword Results
Get detailed information about a domain’s competitors. It gives you information about the keywords they are bidding on and list down the ones that are common.
You can check out for kinds of ads that your competitors are running. Plus you can get more detailed reports about your competitors, ads and keywords in the reports section.
Besides doing a competitive analysis of specific domains, you can also look for specific keywords or phrases and get basic data for each of them along with relevant keyword ideas.
There are more features of SEMrush that can be useful to marketers. Click here to know more about SEMrush.
4. Spyfu Keyword Research Tool
Spyfu provides relevant keyword data for PPC and SEO purposes. It gives detailed information about keywords that are used by your competitors and other major domains to rank higher on search engines. Spyfu Keyword SmartSearch gives new keyword ideas that are related to your search queries along with its Cost-per-click, search volume and more.
Spyfu keywords tool provides various features to filter or narrow down your search results. It has a 30 days free trial option, after which you can choose out of various product packages to take up a monthly subscription. Know more about the Pricing Details of Spyfu monthly subscription packages.
Benefits of using Spyfu for Keyword Research:
Unlike many other keyword research tools, Spyfu provides beneficial information for each of your keyword or domain search.
It provides useful points for comparison of your own SEO, Blog or website to that of your competitors’.
It gives information about the number of search results Google reports for each keyword and the Search volume (number of times it has been searched on Google).
You can get information about the PPC Marketing budgets, average ad positions, daily organic traffic and paid vs organic clicks per day for a particular domain.
It lays down the important keywords that are used by a particular domain to rank among the top 50 results on Google.
How should a Marketer use Spyfu for Keyword Research:
As marketers, you can explore the following features of Spyfu for keyword research.
Enter either a keyword or a domain into the search bar to get detailed information related to it.
See lists of companies or websites that are ranking higher on search engines for those keywords.
Get detailed information about your competitors’ website or ad campaigns by entering their domain in the search bar.
Export keyword ideas and information to use it in your PPC campaigns.
Check out the PPC campaigns that your competitors have been running on the search engines for past years. Mark the important changes that have been made to rank the ads higher on search engines.
Create and explore new niches and keyword ideas for your bog, content or ad campaigns by examining those of your competitors.
There is a lot more on Spyfu that can help you make your online marketing tasks more powerful. Check out more about Spyfu here.
5. Wordtracker Keyword Tool
Wordtracker is yet another popular keyword research tool that has access to data from all major search engines databases like Google, Bing, Yahoo and more. It shows relevant data from last 365 days that are related to your search query. It has a 7 day free trial plan after which one has to pay $69.00 per month to use its service. You can check out more about it Here.
Benefits of using Wordtracker for keyword research:
Find relevant keywords for more qualified traffic on your website, to increase ROI and get better conversions.
Discover and explore new niches with higher profit potential in the online market.
Check out the keyword competition on various platforms like Google, Yahoo, MSN and more (only on the full version of Wordtracker).
100% money back guarantee lowers the risk of investing on the tool for keyword research (you can cancel the subscription with 30 days if you are dissatisfied with service and get all your money back).
How should a Marketer use Wordtracker for keyword research:
Conduct a keyword research on Wordtracker and find out the number of times a keyword has shown up.
Get estimate of searches that may occur in a day for the term on top 10 search engines and get more specific keyword ideas.
You may also check the keyword popularity(KEI analysis), daily traffic (24 hr) and its competition.
Export relevant keywords and use them to structure your website pages, landing pages and more.
Click here to know more about Wordtracker.
Here is a comparison of various features of the Top 5 Keyword Tools discussed above:
| Features | Adwords | Trends | SEMrush | Spyfu | Wordtracker |
| Free Plan | Free | Free | 30 Day Free Trial | 30 Day Free Trial | 7 Day Free Trial |
| Subscription | None | None | Monthly | Monthly | Monthly |
| Keyword Research |  | | | | |
| Domain Search | | | | | |
| Keyword Suggestion | | | | | |
| Keyword Trends | | | | | |
| Ad group Ideas | | | | | |
| Search Volume | | | | | |
| Approximate CPC | | | | | |
| Keyword Filters | | | |  | |
| Advanced Filters | | | | | |
| Export Options | | | | | |
| Competitors’ List | | | | | |
| Competitors Keyword details | | | | | |
| Add Keywords to PPC | Direct | Upload File | Upload File | Upload File | Upload File |
| View SEO rankings | | | | | |
| Data Updated | Hourly | Hourly | 30 Days | 45 Days | 60-90 Days (seasonal data) |
