Are you stuck in a content rut? Do you feel like you’re shooting in the dark, hoping your content will resonate with your audience? Whether you are a digital marketing agency or a social media marketing agency, a small business owner, or a marketer: you’re not alone. But there is a solution for it: “Keyword Research”.
Keyword research is the compass that guides your content creation, ensuring you’re on the right path to reach your audience. It’s the secret sauce that can transform your content from ‘meh’ to ‘wow’. Whether you’re a blogger, a small business owner, or a digital marketer, these 10 free keyword research tools is your ticket to creating content that hits the mark every time.
Discover the power to generate content ideas, boost your SEO and engage the audience with the help of these 10 free keyword research tools brought by Cosmos.
Why Keyword Research is Important
Keyword research is the cornerstone of any successful SEO strategy. It helps you understand what your audience is searching for, allowing you to tailor your content to their needs. By targeting the right keywords, you can attract more traffic to your site, increase your visibility on search engines, and ultimately, boost your conversions.
Main elements of Keyword Research
Keyword research isn’t just about finding a bunch of relevant words and phrases. It involves:
1. Identifying Relevant Topics
Start by brainstorming broad topics that are relevant to your business or industry.
2. Finding Keywords
Once you have your topics, you can start finding keywords related to them. These can be short-tail (one to two words) or long-tail (three or more words) keywords.
3. Analysing Keyword Difficulty
This refers to how hard it would be to rank for a particular keyword. It’s usually a good idea to target keywords with low competition, especially if your website is new.
4. Understanding Search Intent
This involves understanding why someone is searching for a particular keyword. Are they looking to buy something (transactional intent), find information (informational intent), or navigate to a specific website (navigational intent)?
Top Free Keyword Research Tools for PPC
1. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool by Google that helps you discover new keywords related to your business and see how they might perform. It provides insights into search volumes, competition, and even suggests bid estimates for each keyword.
2. WordStream
WordStream combines the functionality of a related keyword generator with a keyword popularity tool. It will show you not only the keywords with the highest search volume but also terms that are similar to your starting keyword that could be useful for your ad campaign or content strategy. With WordStream, businesses and digital marketers may find and evaluate valuable keywords for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and search engine marketing (SEM).
3. Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics scours the internet to find topics that are gaining traction before they take off. It’s a great tool for staying ahead of the curve and capitalising on emerging trends.
4. Seed Keywords
Seed keywords takes a unique approach to keyword research. It allows you to create a search scenario and then ask your contacts to type in the keywords they would use to solve it. It’s a great way to get into the minds of your audience and discover keywords that you might not have thought of.
Top Keyword Research Tools for Content Ideas
5. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a fantastic tool for finding question-based keywords. You simply enter a keyword, and it generates a visual map of questions people are asking about that topic. It’s a goldmine for content ideas!
6. Soovle
Soolve is an online tool that allows you to simultaneously search for suggested and related terms across many search engines. It simultaneously offers quick keyword suggestions for up to fifteen search engines. It should be applied to identify broad subjects that can be further subdivided into keyword targets. You can discover similar terms that are popular on different search results pages with the aid of Soolve.
Top Free Keyword Research Tools for SEO
7. Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is another free tool by Google that helps you understand how Google Search sees your site. It shows you the keywords your site is currently ranking for, their average positions, and how many clicks and impressions they’re getting. Navigate to the ‘performance’ section under GSC and sort the queries by impressions from highest to lowest. These are keywords that have high impressions for your website, but no clicks. Generate content around these keywords.
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8. Ahrefs Keyword Generator
Ahrefs Keyword Generator is a powerful tool that generates hundreds of keyword ideas from a seed keyword. It provides valuable data like monthly search volumes and keyword difficulty scores. It also allows you to find keywords across different search engines, including Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon.
9. Google Trends
Google Trends is a valuable tool for identifying trending topics around the world. It allows you to see what’s currently trending, explore the popularity of specific search terms over time, and even compare the popularity of multiple terms.
10. SEMrush
Similar to every other tool, SEMrush facilitates keyword research. Among SEOs worldwide, it is one of the most widely used tools for keyword research. SEMrush is an effective tool for conducting keyword research that can assist you in identifying valuable keywords for your website or company. Tracking keyword ranks, organic traffic, backlinks, and other important metrics is possible with it.
Conclusion
Keyword research is a powerful tool in your content marketing arsenal. It helps you understand your audience, create content that resonates with them, and boost your SEO efforts. With these eight free keyword research tools, you’ll never run out of content ideas again. So, start exploring, and let the power of keywords guide your content creation journey.
FAQs
1. Why is keyword research important?
Keyword research is important because it helps you understand what your audience is searching for, allowing you to tailor your content to their needs.
2. What are the main elements of keyword research?
The main elements of keyword research include identifying relevant topics, finding keywords, analysing keyword difficulty, and understanding search intent.
3. How do you do keyword research with Google Keyword Planner?
You can do keyword research with Google Keyword Planner by entering a word, phrase, or URL related to your business to get keyword ideas. The tool will provide insights into search volumes, competition, and even suggest bid estimates for each keyword.
4. Which keywords are best to target?
The best keywords to target are those that are relevant to your content, have a decent search volume, and low competition. Long-tail keywords are particularly valuable as they’re more specific and tend to have less competition than short-tail keywords.
5. How can keyword research help with content ideas?
Keyword research can help with content ideas by providing insights into what your audience is interested in and searching for. This can guide your content creation process and help you create content that resonates with your audience.
6. Can I do keyword research without any tools?
While it’s possible to do keyword research without tools by manually checking search results and using your intuition, keyword research tools make the process much more efficient and accurate. They provide valuable data that can help you make more informed decisions about which keywords to target.