Top 10 Best Free Tools for Keyword Research

Every day, Google records 7 billion queries on its search engine, 7 billion keywords used by its users in order to obtain answers to their needs. These keywords are often the first step in any relationship between Internet users and companies that present their activities online. On the other side of the screen, they are therefore also the gateway to many marketing strategies. Clearly, they are at the heart of digital exchanges and therefore of digital expertise.

However, we may frequent the keywords on a daily basis in the digital world, we sometimes have the feeling of advancing blindly. This is particularly the case when clearing a new environment to initiate a Drive More Traffic. And this applies as much to natural referencing (SEO) as to paid referencing (SEA). As is also true on all types of search engines (Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

To position yourself on the most relevant queries from a business perspective, whatever the channel, you have to be able to uncover the search intentions of online consumers. The good news is that there are a whole host of tools that allow us to access data from queries logged by users or, at least, estimates. But the bad news is that these data-centric keyword research tools aren’t everything…

From this Point of View, Two Essential Realities Must be Taken into Account:

• 15% of the queries entered daily on Google are new and therefore do not appear in the existing data.
• In recent years, Google and its competitors have relied heavily on AI to improve their understanding of the search intent behind keywords.

In order to give you the best weapons in your keyword exploration actions, we have therefore decided to offer you a list of versatile tools. Thanks to them, you will be able to both:

1. Access estimates of search volumes for the keywords that interest you
2. Integrate “off-the-radar” trends and requests into your thinking
3. Shift from a query-based approach to an underlying-intent approach

1)- Your own comments

In Medical SEO Services as in SEA, we often make the mistake of starting a search for keywords directly with tools designed for this. However, the first asset of any entrepreneur in this task remains the personal knowledge of the targeted target and its uses. Before plunging headlong into the development of a data-based request file, we therefore recommend that you draw up an initial map of the semantic universe based on your own experience and your own observations.

You can thus mobilize your past exchanges with your prospects and customers, but also explore the universe of your target by browsing, for example, online customer reviews, forums, Facebook groups, etc. The goal is to appropriate the questions of your prospects and their way of formulating them, before switching later to a more quantitative approach, based on large-scale research data.

2)- Answer The Public

After clearing your keywords instinctively and before switching to a truly data-oriented approach, Answer The Public allows you to introduce an intermediate step. The principle: from a given keyword, it retrieves autosuggestions from Google searches and associates them with interrogative words and prepositions.

You thus obtain an interactive mental map of the different needs that the users concerned by this keyword can express in a specific geographical area. And, since you can extract a CSV file from it, it gives you an excellent base to work on your keywords with a more personalized method.

3)- Spy Fu

You are probably not the only one to have explored the semantic universe that interests you. Your competitors, if they are a little ahead of you, have surely already done the work you are starting. So, you would be wrong not to take inspiration from what they have put in place.

By creating a free account on Spy Fu, you can automatically scan your competitor’s (and your competitor’s competitor’s) sites to retrieve their important keywords (both paid and organic). It’s up to you, after that, to design your own strategy to position yourself on these keywords.

4)- Search Engine Autocomplete

Because it’s not just Google in life, it would be a shame to limit yourself to the autosuggestions of the No. 1 search engine. Depending on the context, other search engines will sometimes provide you with more relevant information than Google. Especially since today, for certain types of Internet user needs, sites like Amazon or YouTube have even moved ahead of Google in terms of search habits.

If you work on very transactional queries, in this case in e-commerce, Amazon’s autocomplete could be useful to better understand the expectations of your target. In SEA, this detour via the Jeff Bezos marketplace has thus become essential for certain sectors. In the same way, on themes related for example to training, DIY, tutorials, etc., the semi-automatic completion in the search bar of YouTube can come to enrich the keywords of Google.

5)- Google Trends

The advantage of Big Data is that it allows both to measure reality at the moment t and to model its evolution. Anticipating trends: this is the key in many keyword strategies. And that’s what Google Trends is all about!

The famous platform dedicated to web search trends indeed provides a fast and reliable solution to analyze the evolution of queries from Google users all over the world. With a little experience, you will quickly learn to use this tool to make it an asset in your traffic acquisition strategies.

6)- Google Keyword Planner

This is the last of Google’s in-house tools on our list and it might be a good idea to use it after the ones we’ve already mentioned. And for good reason, starting your semantic exploration with the official Google Keyword Planner tool could limit your prospects. The Google Ads Keyword Planner (you don’t need to have active Ads campaigns to use it!) is very relevant for understanding a universe of search expressions, because it provides suggestions directly extracted from the data generated daily by users. And it is for this reason that Google Ads experts are permanently connected to it…

But, like all tools, it meets specific needs and must be used in that context. If you have any doubts, do not hesitate to get a free audit of your Google Ads account to find out if you are using the platform’s Keyword Planner correctly:

7)- Dominator

After going through all the stages of keyword exploration on Google, it’s a good time to broaden your field of vision by taking a look at Dominator. This online software allows you to get an overview of keywords that interest you on some of the most frequented sites in the world: Amazon, Google Shopping, eBay, Bing, YouTube, Etsy, etc.

Admittedly, it is very e-commerce oriented, but it can also be useful in other areas. On the other hand, in free mode, you will only be entitled to 3 searches per day. So, it’s up to you to choose them well!

8)- Keyword Surfer

When you’re immersed in traffic acquisition, keywords end up becoming a prism through which you see reality. Like a pair of glasses that you would never take off. There’s a free Chrome extension that keeps you thinking “keywords” all day long: Keyword Surfer. Each time you enter a search on Google, this extension will tell you the level of competition of the keywords in your search and will suggest expressions related to the one you have used.

In practice, the data that is provided is not always the most reliable (especially in France), but it is a good exercise to question yourself with each of your own searches on what it implies in an approach by words keys.

Also Read: How to Increase Organic Traffic to your Website in 10 Steps

9)- Keyword Shitter

We come to the tool that is perhaps the most enjoyable on our list. We have little information on how it actually works, but it must be admitted, its minimalist interface, which conveys a ” hacker” spirit, has something exciting about it. The principle is simple: you enter a keyword and Keyword Shitter automatically generates a list of keywords related to it. And, this list, it generates it before your eyes, increasing it every second by dozens of suggestions, until you decide to click on the “stop” button so that it stops milling.

It is not necessarily an essential tool. But we still recommend the experience of PPC For Car Dealership, if you have a good method for dealing with the large volumes of keyword suggestions you’ll get, some suggestions might come in handy.

10)- YourText.Guru

Have you collected all the possible and imaginable keywords, organized them by theme, then ranked according to the opportunities they represent for you? You are therefore in the phase of writing your content. YourText.Guru comes in just then, to help you optimize the frequency of keywords in your texts.

Inspired by the Top 10 Google SERP sites you are targeting; This tool makes recommendations for:

• Broaden your spectrum of expressions with terms that are not in your text
• Rebalance the number of occurrences of terms that are already there

This is far from being the only function of this versatile software, which is also the only paid software that we have included in this list. But, with our first 9 tools, you already have enough to optimize your keyword targeting while waiting to take this last step.