There are countless keyword research tools on the market. And many of them are expensive or they don’t give you the data you actually need to choose the right keywords to target.
That’s why we’ve put together this free keyword research tool, which leverages the massive 25+ billion keywords in Semrush’s database.
It lets you benefit from the same kind of data we’ve used here at Traffic Think Tank to take our site from a trickle of organic traffic to top-ten rankings for more than 1,700 keywords in less than a year.
In this guide, I’ll tell you exactly what you need to know to find keywords that’ll get results for your website. And you’ll learn how to get the most out of any keyword research tool.
What Can Keyword Research Tools Tell You?
Keyword research is the process of finding the search terms that your target audience is typing into Google. Keyword research tools help you find these keywords AND give you the data you need to prioritize them for your SEO or PPC campaigns.
For example, when you enter a seed keyword, our keyword research tool shows you:
- Search volume: How many times people search this keyword every month
- Keyword difficulty (KD %): How hard it would be to rank in the top 10 for that keyword
- Cost per click (CPC): How much advertisers pay when users click on ads for that keyword
- Number of results: The number of organic search results for that keyword
- Search trend: A visualization of how search interest has changed over the past 12 months
How to Use These Metrics to Find Keywords
You can use these metrics to identify keywords that are both:
- Viable targets to rank for with your website
- Likely to drive meaningful results for your business
If you’re using SEO, that likely means going for keywords with reasonable search volume and low keyword difficulty. This way, your website is more likely to rank for these terms and drive traffic to your pages (as long as you create high-quality content, of course).
And if you’re running a PPC campaign, CPC is an important metric to monitor.
Why?
Because this will dictate how much you’ll need to spend to get people to click through to your pages.
Monitoring the search trend is also a good idea, because it can help you find keywords that are rising in popularity—and potentially avoid those with declining search interest.
But search volume is likely to be a key metric to track for PPC too, as you want to get your ads in front of lots of potential customers.
Why Is Keyword Search Volume So Important?
Keyword search volume refers to the volume or number of searches for a particular keyword within a given timeframe, typically averaged over a month.
If nobody searches for your target keyword, you won’t get organic website traffic. (And nobody will see your ads either if you’re running PPC campaigns.)
As part of your broader content strategy, analyzing keyword search volume—in addition to the other metrics the tool shows—is essential when researching and picking keywords for your website.
This metric shows how popular your target keyword is in a particular country.
For example, a keyword search volume below 100 often indicates an insufficient demand for your keyword. This could mean that investing your efforts into creating optimized content is not worth it for that term. (This is a general rule, and we explain some exceptions in my article on keyword difficulty.)
On the other hand, discovering a keyword with decent search traffic means you should analyze it further with other SEO metrics, like search intent.
Whether you conduct keyword research on your own or have a dedicated team member for this task, it’s a good idea to keep the following facts about keyword search volume in mind.
It’s a Monthly Metric
Most keyword research tools show how many searches for your target keyword happen per month.
However:
SEO tools like Semrush or Ahrefs display the average monthly volume based on the sum of monthly search volumes for the past 12 months.
In other words, you’ll see a 880 monthly search volume for the keyword “Christmas home decoration” even though the demand for this keyword only exists for a few months.
It’s Country Specific
Keyword search volume is different for every country. Therefore, I don’t usually recommend using the global search volume metric, especially for local businesses.
Instead, conduct country-specific keyword research to understand what your target audience searches for in a specific country and at a particular moment in time.
Our keyword tool lets you choose which country to find keyword data for:
What Are Good Keywords to Target?
You might have heard that the bigger the keyword search volume, the better. However, that’s not the full story.
In fact, there is no numerical value you should rely on while assessing keyword potential. It will heavily depend on your business, goals, and the current state of your website.
Ranking for a keyword with transactional search intent and a 100+ monthly search volume in your target country is FAR more valuable for your business than an informational keyword with a 1,000+ global monthly search volume.
So, ensure you assess the following parameters along with keyword search volume to pick the most suitable choice:
- Search intent: Is the searcher looking to learn something, find a specific website, compare options, or buy a product?
- Keyword difficulty: How feasible is it for your site to rank for that keyword?
- Traffic potential in your country: Does your target market actually search for this term?
- Search term relevance: Is the keyword relevant to your business?
Once you understand the components of good keywords to target, it’s time to use keyword research tools to find them.
Choosing the Right Keyword Research Tool
Below, I’ll share a list of paid and free keyword research tools I’ve used on my SEO campaigns that you can rely on.
First: I’ve created this table to help you compare search volumes shown by different tools, just to give you an idea of how much the data can vary between them.
Notice that search volumes vary a lot depending on a keyword. That’s why I recommend testing these tools before picking any for your website.
| Monthly Search Volume (U.S.) | Semrush | Ahrefs | Mangools | Moz | Ubersuggest |
| Art canvas print | 390 | 40 | 5,600 | 0 – 10 | 6,600 |
| Abstract art | 110,000 | 78,000 | 136,000 | 70,800 – 118,000 | 135,000 |
| Wall art canvas | 5,400 | 2,500 | 390 | 6,500 – 9,300 | 8,100 |
| Spray paint art | 6,600 | 7,000 | 7,600 | 4,300 – 6,500 | 8,100 |
| AI art generator | 550,000 | 265,000 | 545,000 | 501 – 850 | 550,000 |
Paid Keyword Tools
I’ll start this list with the paid tools since I personally find them more accurate and suitable for various digital marketing tasks.
All five tools mentioned below have free trials or plans so that you can pick the most suitable one for your needs before handing over your money.
1. Semrush
Semrush is a tool suite for digital marketing professionals and website owners.
If you have a keyword idea, you can quickly check the search volume and review potential low competition keywords using Semrush’s Keyword Overview.
And you can use Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to generate thousands of keyword ideas from your seed keyword and see their search volumes, keyword difficulties, and more immediately—without having to analyze each keyword separately.
I also recommend trying Semrush’s Keyword Gap Tool, which will show you keywords your competitors rank for but you don’t. A full competitor website traffic analysis will reveal insights about those rankings that can help strengthen your SEO strategy.
It’s also worth mentioning that Semrush updates its keyword database monthly. So, you’ll likely see a slight difference in numbers if you check the same keywords over time. Doing so ensures you’re always relying on up-to-date information when choosing your keywords.
If you need historical data for keyword research, like for monitoring keyword trends, you can use Semrush to analyze and compare data all the way back to January 2012.
You can use a free Semrush account to perform up to 10 checks per day with Keyword Overview, Keyword Magic Tool, or Keyword Gap.
Overall, Semrush is my go-to tool for SEO projects due to its wide variety of features and reliable data. To learn more about what the tool can do, check out my detailed Semrush review.
2. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is another tech giant in the SEO tools market. Like Semrush, they offer a range of tools and reporting capabilities for website owners, but their Keyword Explorer in particular is a powerful keyword research tool you can use to analyze the potential impact of different search terms for your website.
Ahrefs also helps you find related keywords. And it’ll show you details like keyword difficulty and search volume for easy prioritization.
Ahrefs offers a very limited free keyword generator.
3. Mangools
Mangools is an SEO tool designed to help website owners, digital marketers, and SEO professionals improve their online presence and search rankings.
If you have a seed keyword, you can use Mangool’s KWFinder to quickly check keyword competitiveness, search volume, and find semantically related keywords.
Like Semrush, Mangools also shows the keyword search volume trends, which is a helpful report showing how users’ demand changes over time.
Mangools also offers a limited free account.
4. Moz
Moz was one of the first companies to create a powerful SEO toolkit to help website owners improve their visibility in organic search results.
You can use the Moz Keyword Explorer to find traffic-driving, relevant keywords to target and analyze their metrics. Moz’s free plan provides 10 free monthly searches, which is enough to occasionally check seed keywords and test the tool.
5. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool you can use to find new keyword ideas, get keyword suggestions, and analyze keyword trends. It is a popular choice for beginners because it’s easy to use.
I occasionally use the Ubersuggest free plan, which provides three free daily keyword searches. However, it’s not enough to conduct proper keyword research.
Nevertheless, you can use it to check your seed keyword potential, including keyword search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost per click (CPC).
Free Keyword Tools
Even though I’m a big fan of paid SEO tools for their accuracy and superior functionality, there are also a couple of free tools you can use to find keywords.
1. Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool developed by Google to analyze the popularity of search queries across various countries, regions, and languages.
I don’t recommend using Google Trends if you want to conduct professional keyword research for your clients, since the keyword search volume data won’t be accurate.
However, it’s a great tool to quickly understand whether people use your seed keyword and, if so, how popular it is.
2. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool to help you find the right keywords for SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. It provides data on search volume, competition, CPC, and semantically related keywords.
You can use Keyword Planner to generate new keyword ideas, check search volumes, and evaluate your competition.
Keyword Planner provides search volume ranges, which is not all that helpful for targeted keyword research. Plus, the data is tailored explicitly for paid ad campaigns and won’t be accurate for organic search. So it’s worth trying for ad campaigns, but not the most useful for SEO.
Pick Traffic-Driving Keywords for Your Website
There are lots of tools you can use for keyword research, and they each have their advantages and disadvantages.
Any of the tools I’ve mentioned above can serve as a great starting point.
But if you were to ask me which tool to use, I’d recommend Semrush.
Semrush has one of the most extensive keyword databases and some of the highest data accuracy on the market. I’ve used it for keyword research for years, and I’ve been able to help my clients improve their visibility in organic search results with its variety of tools.
Plus, your Semrush account doesn’t just give you access to one keyword research tool. Instead, you can:
- Manage your campaigns with the Keyword Strategy Builder
- Analyze individual keywords (or in bulk) with Keyword Overview
- Find thousands of keyword ideas with the Keyword Magic Tool
- Analyze your competitors’ keywords with Keyword Gap