Search engine optimization (SEO), which helps businesses become more visible online and attract natural visitors, is crucial to digital marketing. One of the most essential aspects of SEO is keyword research, which involves figuring out what phrases your target audience uses to look for products or services similar to yours. Employing the right keyword research tools may significantly boost or reduce the effectiveness of your SEO strategy. The best SEO keyword research tool for 2024 is examined in this post.
A few SEO resources for keyword research are as follows:
Here’s a quick list of the best SEO keyword research tool for 2024 for readers short on time. If you need more time to read the entire guide, check out our favorites below.
Semrush: best keyword research tool overall
SECockpit: an affordable option for all-around SEO needs
Moz Keyword Explorer: handy insights with a few phrase suggestions
Ahrefs Keyword Generator: to discover KW ideas and questions
SE Ranking: best keyword research tool on a budget
Our crew has tried and tested every alternative on this list, whether it’s free or paid. We’ll provide a quick synopsis of each tool’s features to highlight them.
Semrush
Semrush is a well-rounded digital marketing tool that is well-known for its strong keyword research skills. It provides flexible ways to carry out keyword research, such as the Keyword Magic Tool which effectively produces a wide range of keyword suggestions from a single seed term. Semrush gives customers access to a database of over two billion keywords, enabling them to find low-competition keywords and new ranking chances.
The Keyword Gap Tool allows you to swiftly pinpoint keywords where your competitors have an edge in search rankings while you do not. Picture finding a valuable transactional keyword that your competitor holds a top 10 position for, but you overlooked—this represents a significant business opportunity!
I’ve frequently relied on this tool when struggling to identify promising keywords. In my experience, analyzing two to three competitor URLs can yield thousands of keyword ideas for your site. Additionally, Semrush offers a comprehensive keyword overview report, featuring unique metrics and insights unavailable elsewhere, such as search intent and keyword clusters.
Pricing
Semrush gives you free daily keyword analysis for up to ten keywords, compared to many other keyword research tools. You can sign up for the Semrush Pro Plan, which costs $139.95 every month or $108.33 per month if paid yearly, to get insight into more in-depth keyword analysis.
Tip: A Semrush coupon that is offered from Backlink may be used to receive access to a 14-day free trial.
Best Feature: Keyword Magic Tool
In my opinion, you’ll likely agree with me once you try the Keyword Magic Tool.
Why?
If you plan to launch a niche website but only have a general topic in mind, the Keyword Magic Tool can assist you in uncovering thousands of related topics for your seed keyword across 142 countries. Furthermore, the Keyword Analytics for YouTube software can assist you in identifying search terms tailored to YouTube if you produce videos.
SECockpit
With SECockpit, you can do competitive analysis, identify keywords for bidding and optimization, and monitor your keyword ranks on Google, Bing, and Yahoo over time.
In my experience, SECockpit’s wide range of functions might be very intimidating for those new to SEO. However, SEO professionals will value its comprehensive keyword research reports.
Pricing
SECockpit offers a 7-day free trial, although you need to link your credit card when creating an account. No charges will be applied until the trial period concludes.
The Personal plan costs $39 per month, or $25 per month if billed annually, and allows for only 10 keyword searches daily. For unlimited keyword searches, the Agency plan is priced at $99 per month, or $75 per month when billed annually.
Best Feature: AI Keyword Research
SECockpit offers a distinctive feature not found in other tools—AI integration within the keyword research tool to enhance your keyword research experience.
Rather than conducting manual keyword research, you can simply specify the keywords you need. The tool will then automatically research them in your selected language and target country.
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz is a popular SEO tool created to increase the visibility of your website in natural search results. It offers several tools for keyword research, rank monitoring, and backlink analysis.
Like Semrush and other options like Ahrefs, you can do 10 free keyword research queries on Moz monthly. Only the monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, organic click-through rate (CTR), SERP summary, and suggested keywords are displayed in these keyword reports, which provide minimal data.
Pricing
Although Moz is a paid product, consumers may test it completely free for thirty days before committing. There are four price tiers for Moz Pro, with the first starting at $99 per month or $79 per month for a yearly membership. The highest-tier plan, tailored for SEO agencies and marketing teams, is priced at $599 per month.
Best Feature: Keyword Lists
Moz Keyword Lists within Moz Pro enable you to efficiently organize and oversee your keywords. You can create these lists manually by inputting keywords, uploading a CSV file, or importing keywords from Moz Keyword Explorer.
These keyword lists are quite helpful for monitoring the rankings of your website over time for specific keywords. They identify areas that need improvement and offer insights on how well your SEO techniques are doing.
Ahrefs Keyword Generator
As a prominent participant in the SEO tool market, Ahrefs is well-known for its proficiency in link building and for offering Keyword Explorer, a specialized keyword research tool.
Ahrefs provides extensive metrics such as keyword difficulty, search volume relevant to target countries, worldwide search volume, traffic potential, and the number of clicks per inquiry required for efficient keyword research.
Ahrefs does not provide a tool that takes one seed term and creates hundreds of keyword suggestions, unlike Semrush. Instead, users can explore semantically related keywords through the keyword ideas report.
I previously used Ahrefs extensively until they introduced a credit system. Under this system, one credit is deducted each time a new report is opened, filters are applied, or a new search is conducted.
In my experience, the cheapest Lite plan provides only 500 monthly credits, which I find insufficient for conducting thorough keyword research, especially for larger websites.
Pricing
There’s no free trial available for Ahrefs. 500 credits are included in their starting monthly price of $99 monthly. If you go over these caps, you may buy more credits for $35 a month.
Best Feature: Top Pages Report
For me, Ahrefs’ Top Pages report—which displays the URLs with the greatest rankings besides all the keywords they are rated for—is one of its best features.
If you lack the opportunity to execute exhaustive competition research, examining the top-performing URLs of your rivals might offer insightful information about the keywords that are bringing in the most visitors to their websites.
SE Ranking
SE Ranking is an SEO tool crafted to support users in keyword research, site audits, backlink audits, and other essential SEO tasks.
From my experience, SE Ranking is widely favored among SEO professionals for its user-friendly interface, affordability, and diverse feature set.
SE Ranking allows you to monitor keyword rankings, explore new topics using the Keyword Suggestion Tool, and organize semantically related keywords with the Keyword Grouper feature.
Pricing
SE Ranking is a subscription-based tool that offers a 14-day free trial. It stands out for its affordability compared to other prominent tools in the industry.
For site owners and freelancers, the Essential plan is priced at $39 per month or $31.20 per month when billed annually. Agencies can opt for the SE Ranking Pro plan at $89 per month or $71.20 per month when billed annually.
Best Feature: Content Idea Finder
Content Idea Finder is especially advantageous for niche website owners, as it aids in analyzing keywords within your specific niche and devising a content strategy based on the gathered data
Also Read: On-Page SEO: Optimization, Benefits, Elements & Diff. b/w on page seo & Technical SEO