24 May 2022
14 Best Free Keyword Research Tools For SEO (2025)
The best free keyword research tools for SEO make it easier than ever to optimize your website for search engines.
Keyword research has always been a cornerstone of SEO, shaping the structure and direction of a website’s content. From uncovering high-volume keywords to analyzing competitors, targeting the right keywords at the right time is essential for driving traffic and improving rankings.
Traditionally, many believed only paid tools could deliver real value, but that’s no longer true. Today, a number of free tools offer powerful features to meet your needs, whether you’re optimizing your own site or working with clients.
In this article, we’ll explore the best free keyword research tools available. So, go ahead and find your next keyword research tool that doesn’t ask you for your money but for the next big keyword idea.
So, let’s dive in!
What is a Keyword Research Tool?
A keyword research tool helps in the discovery of topic ideas that users are searching for on search engines like Google, Bing, etc.
This helps you identify content ideas that your users are looking for. Then, you can plan your content strategy to include those topics in your blog posts.
Keyword research tools can also show you which seed and long-tail keywords your competitors are ranking for. After that, you can improve your content to target those keywords and grab their traffic.
Can Free Keyword Tools Be Effective?
If you’re concerned about the effectiveness of free keyword research tools, you’re not alone.
Free keyword tools may not work as paid SEO tools and may not provide enough data, but they are better than nothing. Some free keyword research tools are also extremely useful.
If you’re just getting started and aren’t making any money from your blog or online business, you should probably stick to free SEO keyword research tools.
That being said, let’s take a look at the best free keyword research tools for SEO that you can use.
14 Best Free Keyword Tools
While there are many keyword research tools available, many of the free options are just as excellent as or better than the paid options.
We dug deep into the available options to create this list of the top free keyword tools for SEO.
1. Google Keyword Planner
The #1 tool we have on our list of free keyword research tools is Google Keyword Planner.
It’s a popular keyword research tool among SEOs, and practically everyone has started doing keyword research with it. To use it, you will need a Google Ads account.
Even though this tool was developed for advertisers to generate PPC advertising keyword ideas, it might be a goldmine for discovering SEO keyword opportunities.
The best thing about this tool is that the keyword data comes directly from Google’s database.
As a result, it’s rather trustworthy.
However, one disadvantage of GKP is that it does not display specific keyword data.
For example, the average monthly search it displays is highly unpredictable, and the competition metric is also unreliable.
However, this tool can help you discover some cool keyword ideas based on your seed keyword, and it’s a great starting tool for beginners.
2. Google Trends
Google Trends is not a tool for keyword research.
Then why am I included in this list?
Because even though it’s not a proper keyword research tool, it can still help you to find out the trends of any keywords or keyword interest by a specific region and even provide you with some related search terms that you can include in your keyword list.
See, we usually choose keywords based on their search traffic.
However, this is a bad practice.
Instead of choosing any keyword based on its past performance, you should also have a look at the trend of that keyword.
For example, the keyword “Black Friday deals” has an estimated search volume of 550k.
However, at the same time, if you look at the trend chart for this keyword, you’ll notice that almost 99% of people search for it during November and December.
And it gets no traffic the rest of the year.
So, rather than publishing a post about Black Friday deals in March, it’s best to publish it between October to December.
This is how you can use trend data to attract more search engine traffic.
Furthermore, you can compare any keywords to see which ones are worth pursuing.
3. Google Search
You might be shocked to learn that Google Search can be a double-edged sword when it comes to keyword research.
It’s the most hidden goldmine for finding keyword ideas.
But how can you use Google Search to find keywords?
Let me show you the many ways it helps.
a) Google Autocomplete
The bolded words you see in the image are called “Autocomplete”. The search engine predicts that they are relevant to what you’re looking for and also shows you what people have already searched for.
In short, they are popular searches, search queries that have been searched by many before.
So with this search prediction, you can see what people are really into, and perhaps you can write about them.
b) Related Searches
Autocomplete is similar to related searches. It shows the most frequently searched keywords.
They normally appear at the bottom of the search result page. This is how it looks:
These provide you with additional keyword suggestions. By clicking on them, you can further explore and discover related searches.
c) People Also Ask
Google will frequently display some “People also ask” questions when you search for a keyword. As you click on and read some of the answers, the list of questions will expand to include even more suggestions.
Here, not only is it helpful to see the questions (and related questions) people are asking, but you can also see whose content Google is using to answer them. Are your competitors covering the majority of the market? Where should you focus your efforts to rank?
4. AnswerThePublic
AnswerThePublic is a good tool for uncovering hidden keyword ideas that are simple to rank.
It collects keyword data from Google autocomplete database and identifies the questions, prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related queries that users are looking for.
This tool is popular among SEO experts and users worldwide and is likely one of the most popular free keyword research tools.
To get started, enter a topic or seed keyword, choose your target country, and click on “search”.
Then it will create plenty of keyword suggestions based on the topic or seed keyword you entered.
For example, search for “SEO tools”, and you’ll see 524 keyword ideas split into five categories:
Each category (except for alphabetical) visualizes the keyword ideas like this:
It shows keyword metrics such as search volume, CPC, etc, next to each keyword.
Overall, AnswerThePublic is the best tool for finding long-tail keywords.
5. Soovle
Soovle collects keyword data from Google, YouTube, Amazon, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Bing, etc., And puts them together in one place.
So instead of searching for keyword terms on each of these websites, you can get all of the data in one place.
Isn’t that time-saving?
But how do you use this tool?
Let’s have a look.
Go to Soovle and enter any seed or board keyword relevant to your topic.
As an example, I’ll use the keyword “SEO tools”.
As you can see, it has created a lot of keyword suggestions relating to the term SEO tools.
You can also download these keywords as a .csv file by clicking the download button in the top left corner of the website.
6. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is another excellent free keyword tool for conducting keyword research.
It has a good keyword database and an attractive user interface.
And unlike most free keyword research tools, it includes many keyword metrics and several other useful features that will help you choose the best keyword for your business in minutes.
The best feature of this tool is that it allows you to steal your competitors’ top-performing keywords and replicate their strategy.
To use the tool, enter your seed keyword, select a country, and then click “search”.
Then it will show all of the key metrics for that keyword, from search volume to keyword difficulty, paid difficulty, and CPC.
You can see many more keyword suggestions surrounding the head keyword you entered if you scroll down a little.
You may also sort the keywords by search volume, difficulty, cost per click, questions, and related queries.
Note: you can only perform three daily searches with Ubersuggest free version.
7. Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer is a free Chrome extension that shows the search volume and cost per click for each keyword you enter.
Furthermore, it will provide the estimated search volume for Google’s autocomplete results.
Even better, it provides several related keyword suggestions with search volume, which help you to create a list of keywords for your project.
Still not enough?
Then, using this Chrome extension, you can check each website’s estimated search volume and the number of words and exact match keywords on the page.
Overall, it’s a great free Chrome extension for conducting keyword research while browsing the web.
8. QuestionDB
QuestionDB is another great tool that scrapes the web for question-based keywords.
It’s similar to AnswerThePublic, but the only difference is that it only pulls out question-based keywords.
In comparison to AnswerThePublic, the QuestionDB interface is also quite simple.
However, one advantage of this tool is that it does not have a search limit.
On the other hand, AnswerThePublic’s free plan only allows for three searches every day.
However, like most free keyword research tools, it has a disadvantage.
The free plan will not show the full keyword list. Instead, it will only provide you with 50 free keywords.
To use this tool, enter your seed keyword and click on “generate”.
Then, within a few seconds, it will generate 50 unique question-based keywords for you to target.
9. Wordtracker
Wordtracker is an excellent tool for keyword research. This tool allows you to perform 12 free searches every day.
It will provide you with a comparative analysis of your searched keyword and related keywords, including search volume, competition, and the number of web pages using those terms in the title tag and backlinks.
You can also use this tool to get answers to your topic-related questions. This tool generates keyword suggestions for all popular platforms. It beats many other keyword research tools due to its several valuable features.
It provides actual keywords, search trends, SEO competition matrix, SERP comparison, related and latest search, amazon keywords, and youtube keywords for a certain keyword in the results.
10. Keyword Sheeter
Keyword Sheeter uses Google autocomplete database to fetch hundreds and thousands of undiscovered keyword ideas that most keyword research tools normally can’t find.
It is so powerful that it can generate 1000 keyword suggestions in less than a minute.
Let’s take a look at how this tool works.
To get started, enter your seed keyword (you can enter multiple keywords at once) and click on “Sheet keywords”.
As an example, I searched for the term “SEO tools”, and as you can see, the tool generated thousands of new keyword suggestions.
You may even filter the keywords based on whether they are negative or positive.
You can also export the keyword data as a CSV file with a single click if you want.
However, one disadvantage of this tool is that it has an old look, and the search volume is not available on the free plan.
11. Zutrix
Zutrix keyword planner tool is simple to use and can help you find hundreds of undiscovered keywords.
To use the tool, enter your seed keyword, select the country, and click on “Search”.
The tool will then provide a plethora of keyword ideas for you.
For example, if we search for “SEO tools”, you can see in the image below that the tool has generated many keyword ideas based on the term “SEO tools”.
Above all, it shows the exact estimated search volume, competition, CPC (cost-per-click), and trend for each keyword.
A unique thing about Zutrix is the trend metric. Almost all free keyword research tools don’t show you the keyword trend metric except Google trends.
Aside from that, you can also use this tool to find keyword suggestions for YouTube videos.
12. YouTube Autocomplete
YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine after Google.
It also performs over 3 billion searches per month.
That’s huge!
You can use this massive search data to discover keywords that your competitors have never heard of.
But how do you do that?
Simple – by using the YouTube Autocomplete feature.
Go to YouTube, enter your seed keyword in the YouTube search field, and press space on your keyboard.
After that, YouTube will start suggesting long-tail keywords to you.
Take those keyword suggestions and put them together in a spreadsheet.
Then, based on search volume and competition, evaluate each keyword and choose the best keywords to target.
13. Keyword Discovery
The Keyword Discovery tool is a straightforward tool that shows the total number of searches for specific keywords over the previous 12 months.
You can also see search trends for each keyword over the last 12 months. The free edition is limited to 100 results; however, you must upgrade if you want the full 10,000 results.
14. Serpstat
SerpStat is an all-in-one SEO tool that includes a free keyword research tool that can provide valuable information. You may see search volume, CPC, competition, and even similar keywords without spending any money, just like other keyword tools.
Serpstat’s free account allows you to view some data, but you’ll need to upgrade to a paid account to conduct more detailed research.
Bonus: Ahrefs Keyword Generator
Keyword Generator shows up to 150 keyword ideas. Just enter a broad topic, choose your target country, and hit Find keywords.
For example, search for “SEO tools”, and you’ll see the 100 most popular keywords containing that word from the Ahrefs database of over 19 billion keywords:
Furthermore, you also see a list of the 50 most popular questions people are searching for:
Each list also has a Keyword Difficulty (KD) score for the first ten keywords.
Get Started With Free Keyword Research Tools Today
All of these tools allow you to find keywords for free. They also do it in different ways, so it’s worthwhile to use multiple tools to gain alternative viewpoints.
For example, AnswerThePublic can help you identify questions that people are asking, but Ahrefs Keyword Generator is more of a straight keyword research tool that can provide you with estimated search volumes.
All of these tools have some limitations — that’s the nature of free tools. Once your site expands, you may want to consider upgrading to one of the best keyword research tools so that you can gain even more insight.
We hope this post helps you find the best free keyword research tools for SEO.
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