If you’re interested in driving SEO for your website, then you have to get yourself a keyword research tool. They are absolutely essential to learn how your target audience uses search engines, which is information that can help you make your website rank near the top of those results pages.

While there are many paid options out there that have both basic and advanced features, they simply are not within everyone’s budget. Fortunately, there are some decent free keyword research tools that you can use to help kickstart your SEO – 7 of them, in fact!

1. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is probably one of the most popular free keyword research tools, and for a good reason – as a Google SEO tool, it uses one of the biggest keyword databases available. Not only will it give you keywords, but it will also provide information like monthly search volume and competition.

2. Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator

Though they do offer a more complete paid option, Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator allows you to see the KD and volume for up to 100 keywords and 50 questions. They also allow you to find keyword ideas for search engines other than Google, such as Bing, YouTube and Amazon.

3. Keyword Surfer

If you use Google Chrome, consider adding on the Keyword Surfer extension. Each time you search in Google, this program will give you information on visibility metrics, search volumes, related terms, and more, all without leaving Google search.

4. Keyworddit

If you want to know what people are talking about within your niche, try Keyworddit, which is a Reddit keyword research tool. You simply enter the name of a subreddit, and it will find up to 500 keywords from the titles and comments.

5. QuestionDB

In order to use QuestionDB you just type in a broad keyword in order to generate a list of questions that have been asked on Reddit, sorted by either topic or popularity. If you then check the “Show source link” box, you can click the link next to the question to be directed straight to the associated thread. This would be a great place to post a link to your website if you decide to make content based on that question.

6. Rank Tracker

The free version of Rank Tracker ranks the most popular keywords on a competitor’s site, which can help you figure out the gaps on your site. It uses data from 30 different search engines, over 20 keyword research methods, and even has Google Analytics integration.

7. Answer the Public

When you search for a keyword on Answer the Public, it taps into the autocomplete data from search engines and gives you all the phrases and questions that are related to your keyword in the form of an infographic, ranked by popularity. This is especially great for finding long tail keywords.

If you find the free keyword research tools just aren’t getting you the results you want, take a look at the packages from Content Refined, your complete end-to-end content marketing solution.

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