When it comes to keyword research, there are tons of tools out there designed to help you find the best keywords to use in your content and optimize your site’s pages for search engines. But which ones are worth using? This article lists 5 of the best keyword research tools for SEO in 2022 so you can choose the right one.
What is Keyword Research?
Before you can use keyword research to increase your website’s search engine rankings, you need to understand what keyword research is. Put simply, it’s taking a look at search volume and competition when deciding which keywords you want to target. Too often, businesses make (very expensive) mistakes by choosing keywords that aren’t highly searched or aren’t relevant to their business. And without a steady stream of visitors, your site won’t perform well on search engines like Google.
Why Is Keyword Research Important for SEO?
Over time, search engines have become better at understanding users’ intent and serving them more relevant results. Today, it’s crucial to focus on long-tail keywords (i.e., keywords with three or more words). If you want to grow your business, improve your SEO, and make sure you show up on search engine results pages (SERPs), then keyword research is important. You can rank higher by including a target keyword in your title tags, meta descriptions, and content.
5 Best Keyword Research Tools
There are several free and paid tools available online that can help you find relevant long-tail keywords—without breaking the bank. And if you don’t know how to do keyword research, you need a tool that can help.
Below are five of our favorite tools for SEO keyword research in 2022.
1) Moz
Moz’s keyword research tool is a favorite among SEO specialists, helping you discover new keyword opportunities, and see suggestions to help optimize your content. With over 4 million keywords and scores of different keyword recommendations, Moz’s tool can also help you plan your link-building strategy. After all, you never know when Google might decide to update its algorithm again—and it’s always good to be prepared.
To get started with Moz’s keyword research tool, sign up for an account and get an API key from Moz. Once you have that key, plug it into your SEO Toolbar. From there, select Moz Keyword Explorer from within SEO Toolbar to access Moz’s keyword database. Then, simply enter your keyword or phrase into Moz’s search bar. The tool will generate a list of keywords and phrases that relate to what you entered. You can then choose which keywords you want to add to your SEO toolbar (or copy them), which will give you easy access whenever you need them during future keyword research sessions.
If you don’t already use Moz’s SEO toolbar, I highly recommend installing it. It gives you quick access to SEO metrics like PageRank, keyword density, social shares, and more—all without leaving your browser window. When using Moz’s keyword research tool along with SEO Toolbar, I find myself switching between both tools frequently throughout my keyword research process. I start by using Moz’s keyword research tool to brainstorm keywords and phrases. Then, I switch over to SEO Toolbar to do some initial keyword optimization. And finally, I return to Moz’s keyword research tool to conduct further keyword research on any keywords that SEO Toolbar recommends as potentially high performers.
This two-step approach helps me come up with great keywords quickly, while also ensuring that they are optimized well enough to rank well in search engines. And since Moz updates their database every day, you can rest assured knowing that your keyword ideas are fresh and relevant each time you open their keyword explorer tool.
Moz’s keyword research tool is free to use, but if you want additional features like keyword volume and competition score information, Moz Pro offers those features at $99 per month. For SEO professionals who work with clients regularly, Moz Pro offers many valuable features that can save you a lot of time and money down the road.
2) Ahrefs
Ahrefs is one of the best keyword research tools because it not only helps you find out what your target audience is searching for but also tells you how many people are searching each month. Plus, with Ahrefs and its massive database of SEO keywords, keywords, and SEO-related data, you can keep track of your top competitors and their search rankings at all times.
The only downside?
It can be complicated to use if you’re a beginner or if it’s your first time researching keywords. But once you get past that learning curve, it will become an invaluable tool in your SEO arsenal.
I would argue that Ahrefs is essential for anyone serious about SEO. However, despite its benefits, Ahrefs isn’t cheap—but there is a trial version available. Still, unless you’re doing SEO on behalf of clients regularly (and most businesses aren’t), then it might be better to go with another keyword research tool instead—one that costs less while still getting results. That said, even though other keyword research tools may offer similar features as Ahrefs does, none have matched its user experience or popularity yet. If you want to do the keyword research right, I highly recommend using Ahrefs. Even if you don’t end up using it long-term, you’ll still learn a lot from using it. And when your SEO skills improve over time, so will your ability to use keyword research tools like Ahrefs more effectively and efficiently.
3) SEMrush
SEMrush is a great keyword research tool that enables you to find and research any keyword you want. In addition, it provides a variety of valuable SEO-related information, such as Google organic traffic, competition level, and keyword difficulty. The interface is user-friendly and allows users to easily track keywords’ changes over time. SEMrush has a 14-day free trial period with no credit card required.
This feature makes it one of the best keyword research tools available online. It also offers more than 100 reports on various aspects of your website or blog, including backlinks, social media shares, and keyword rankings. It also includes many SEO-related features such as site audit, rank tracker, and link auditing. All these features make SEMrush an excellent keyword research tool. There are other keyword research tools out there but they do not offer all these services at such affordable prices. Plus, they don’t provide adequate data on long-tail keywords as SEMrush does. Therefore, if you have just started blogging or looking to promote your blog through SEO strategies then try using SEMrush right away. You will get a ton of useful information regarding keyword research which will help you improve search engine rankings and the overall visibility of your blog or website.
4) SpyFu
SpyFu is an innovative keyword research tool that’s rapidly gaining popularity among bloggers. Not only does it provide you with a wealth of information about your target keywords, but it also gives you data on their search volume, traffic, and competition levels. Many bloggers use SpyFu to come up with blog post ideas by identifying niche topics that have relatively high search volumes and few competitors. Once they find these opportunities, they can then either create content or outreach to influencers to generate backlinks.
Although there are many free keyword research tools available online, I believe SpyFu offers one of the best solutions out there. Its features include SEO-friendly suggestions; SEO-related keyword rankings; suggestions based on blog topics; results filtered by relevance, keywords, domains, and countries; Google Trends comparisons; domain vs. domain analysis; and more.
If you’re looking for a powerful keyword research tool that can help take your blog to new heights, look no further than SpyFu!
5) Long Tail Pro
Long Tail Pro is a keyword research tool that lets you quickly find low competition keywords with high commercial value. Use it to find ideas and research terms you’d like to use in blog posts or on your website. The paid version of Long Tail Pro offers SEO analysis and even guides you through keyword research, but all of its capabilities are available for free if you choose to use the basic version instead.
Long Tail Pro offers a limited, 15-day free trial before requiring a monthly subscription fee of $97/month. If you can afford it, Long Tail Pro is one of our favorite SEO tools for small businesses. It’s not cheap, but there aren’t many other SEO tools out there that offer such an incredible return on investment (ROI).
If you have trouble affording Long Tail Pro and don’t need all of its features, consider buying just one month at a time. You can cancel anytime without penalty—the worst thing that will happen is you’ll lose access to Long Tail Pro for a few days while it resets itself. However, we recommend using Long Tail Pro as long as possible because SEO changes frequently, and knowing how to optimize your content around search trends will help keep your business relevant over time.
Conclusion
We’ve reviewed a total of 5 best keyword research tools, which will allow you to brainstorm and choose relevant keywords for your blog.
Remember that each of these tools has its limitations; test them out to see which ones work best with your content. Your success depends on how well you integrate SEO into your blog strategy, so be sure to monitor keyword usage regularly; there are endless opportunities to grow as a blogger.
SEO is here to stay – learn what it takes to excel at it!