Best Keyword Research Tools for Small Business SEO (2024)
Keywords are a great way to expand your on-page SEO factors. Helping you rank your website in search for more terms will help drive more traffic to your website from search engines. Doing your keyword research right is essential for a small business website’s SEO success.
If you don’t have the right words on your website, no one will find you on search engines, and if they do, you want the right types of keywords that reflect the searcher’s intent.
The best keyword research tools for SEO will help you find new keywords to add to your current content and help you close the keyword gap with your competitors by helping you find new topics and content ideas to create.
There are many areas of business that software for keyword research can help including, but not limited to:
- Find Website keywords for your content
- Find PPC keywords for your ads
- Find YouTube keywords for your videos
- Find Local SEO keywords for your local business
- Find Social Media keywords for FB, Twitter, Pinterest & more
- Find keywords that your competitors are using and you aren’t
How do you research keywords for SEO? You use keyword tools, of course. Typically if you’re looking for keywords around a specific topic, you enter your seed word and get a list of keyword ideas back.
If you’re looking to fill the keyword gap to your competition, simply enter their domain URL, and you’ll find how many keywords they rank for and which ones you’re missing out on, so you can focus your SEO efforts there.
Easy-to-use tools for keyword research could significantly affect your website’s SEO optimization and search engine traffic.
Here’s my pick of the best online keyword research tools:
- Semrush – best keyword tool overall
- SpyFu – best for PPC
- Ubersuggest – uses Google data
- Google Search Console – get free keyword data
- AnswerThePublic – research keywords for FAQs
1. Semrush – best keyword tool overall
When it comes to the best-paid keyword research tools, Semrush is a complete SEO platform combining SEO Audit tools, on-page SEO, link building, rank tracking, content optimization, and more.
Part of that platform includes various SEO tools that will help find new short tail, long-tail keywords, and keywords that can help convert your traffic into sales.
Semrush Keyword Magic Tool
The Semrush Keyword Magic Tool lets you search through a database of over 20 billion keywords using a single keyword or phrase, finding topics and niche ideas to help you create new content and optimize your existing content.
You’ll be able to filter the results based on search volume, intent, and CPC and narrow down your search on broad, phrase, exact match, and related terms to provide even more value to your search.
Semrush Keyword Gap Tool
The other side of the keyword equation is seeing how you perform in relation to your main competitors. Using the Keyword Gap Tool, you can analyze your competitors’ websites and identify new areas to add to your overall SEO strategy.
That might be adding new topic areas to your website content you don’t currently cover, tapping into unique keywords, or trying to rank better for existing keywords that drive more traffic to your competitors.
Semrush is a great tool to help with finding organic and paid keyword opportunities.
These tools come with the Semrush paid plan, which starts from $99.95/month when paid annually.
2. SpyFu – best for PPC
SpyFu, as the name might suggest, lets you spy on your competitors and business rivals in various areas of SEO, including keywords for PPC advertising and organic content.
Using the SpyFu keyword research tools, you’ll be able to.
- Find keyword ideas with data-based on search volume, SEO difficulty, CPC, and CTR
- Bulk upload a list of keywords and return CPC and Search Volume data
- PPC advertising keywords to see what’s currently working
- Find sites and backlinks that can help you rank for a specific keyword
- SEO SERP Analysis to find the websites that rank for a keyword so you can compare and see what they are doing right
- Research competitors’ SEO keywords and find the keywords in the backlinks that are helping them rank
With access to 7 billion search results across over 109 million domains, the SpyFu SEO Tool can help you in all aspects of your search engine keyword optimization and comes in at an affordable $33/month (billed annually).
3. Ubersuggest – uses Google data
Ubersuggest is an online SEO tool that continues to improve with time.
Using Google’s data of 6 billion keywords and 1 billion pieces of content, you’ll be able to find:
- Keyword ideas
- Keywords by traffic
- Content ideas based on keywords
- Perform a competitor analysis of their keywords to see how much traffic and new keywords you could gain.
The Keyword Overview tab lets you enter a keyword, choose the language and location and provide an overview of how that keyword performs in search volume, SEO difficulty, and Google Ads cost per click.
It also provides a few keyword ideas, how many people clicked on SEO results from organic, paid, and no clicks. You’ll also get an idea of the age range of the searcher and some content ideas.
To find even more opportunities, you can then drill down deeper into some of these areas using the Keyword Ideas, Keywords by Traffic, and Similar Websites tabs.
The Keyword Ideas tool does what it says on the tin. It provides you with ideas based on your seed SEO keyword. You’ll find a range of keyword suggestions with search volume, CPC data, a paid difficulty ranking from 0 – 100, and an SEO difficulty ranking from 0 – 100.
The Search Results button also provides you with the top 10 Google Search Results with estimated visits from Google, the number of backlinks the page has the domain authority and the number of social shares across social media networks like Facebook.
When it comes to finding keywords that drive traffic to a particular website, be it your own or your competitors, you can use the Keywords by Traffic tool. This will show you what keywords, pages, and ranking position with the number of estimated visits to those pages. A handy extra tool to help find content bringing in visitors can help design your overall SEO strategy.
When it comes to pricing, Ubersuggest is one of the only tools that lets you pay upfront for a lifetime deal starting from £€$290, which gives you access to the tool and future updates. You can also choose to pay monthly from £$29/month if you like.
And if SEO isn’t your primary area of expertise, you can also hire NeilPatel’s agency to do your website SEO for you.
4. Google Search Console – Get Free Keyword Data
A free way to find new keyword opportunities is by using the free Keyword Research tool that comes with the Google Search Console.
Search Console is a keyword research tool in the sense that you’ll be able to find keywords that you are already ranking for but don’t necessarily have on your site using the Performance Report.
This can provide you with ways to boost your SEO rankings for those terms by adding these keywords to your existing content.
You’ll also be able to see where you rank for keywords you already have on your site. Optimizing your content for these keywords through on-page SEO can push them from the second or third page up the rankings onto the first page, where they are more likely to get clicked, providing your website with more traffic.
A free SEO tool that’s often overlooked for more comprehensive tools but can provide valuable data and insights into the current workings of your site and SEO strategy.
5. AnswerThePublic – research keywords for FAQs
A search listening tool for content research, AnswerThePublic is a wealth of data that can help transform your SEO strategy by finding questions and keyword groups of data based on a seed word or phrase.
Enter your search term (1-2 word works best) and you’ll get 4 lists of keyword ideas based on:
- Questions
- Prepositions
- Comparisons
- Alphabeticals (A-Z keyword ideas)
The results are displayed visually around your primary keyword. It can be a little hard to view all the terms, but you can find a valuable source of questions that people are actually answering on search engines based on your initial search term.
You’ll then be able to download the terms you find in CSV format to save and work with later.
Unfortunately, you don’t get any use case data regarding search volume. Still, if you were to accompany AnswerThePublic with Semrush or Ubersuggest, you can quickly find new opportunities and content that can help your SEO strategy.
As for price, you can get 3 free searches per day or upgrade to AnswerThePublic pro with one of their monthly plans starting at $99/month. For this, you’ll get unlimited searches, be able to compare data over time and monitor keywords for new questions and emerging topics.
Which is the best Keyword Research Tool?
There are many online for you to pick from. The best one provides you with a comprehensive overview of keywords from competitors to new ideas and helps you find new or unique keyword opportunities. As well as fits your budget.
If you’re on a budget, then the free keyword tools like Google Search Console can help, or the lifetime plan from Ubersuggest can provide some decent insights without having to pay monthly fees.
Paid keyword research tools like Semrush and SpyFu are two of the best SEO optimization tools that provide you with the data you need for PPC campaigns, local SEO, and to beat your competitors.
Many of these tools come with free trials, so you can test them out and download the data within that time for use down the line if need be.
Try them out and find the best one for your business, whether you’re an SEO beginner, SEO professional, content writer, or marketer looking to see some rankings and traffic gains.
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