Building a successful website takes a lot of work, and the lion’s share of that work is writing content that keeps your visitors engaged and coming back. To do that, you have to know what they’re looking for, which means you have to invest some time in keyword research. Below is a list of keyword research tools to help you find the right topics to write about, but be careful not to rely on any single tool; you should always check several sources before making any major decisions. Ok, now on to the list:
#1. AdWords Keyword Tool
This tool is based on search queries, but for some keywords, the search volume is way off. Particularly for popular, high-volume keywords. I’ll go out on a limb and speculate that comes from SEOs and website owners obsessively checking their ranking, which inflates the search volume. In any case, the AdWords Keyword Tool gives you a great starting point and some relative data to compare, along with plenty of keywords you may not have thought of.
#2. Google Wonder Wheel
The Google Wonder Wheel tool has the potential to dig up lots of semantically connected keywords, but it also has some serious drawbacks; mainly, the fact that there is no easy way to export the keywords and there is volume data. That means you have to manually retype any keywords you want to research further, and find volume info elsewhere. In my opinion though, it’s worth the effort.
#3. Wordtracker
Unlike the keyword tools provided by the search engines, the data from Wordtracker usually more accurate since the keyword data is their core business model. In the right hands, this tool can yield amazing results, and that’s why it comes highly recommended by SEO experts like Aaron Wall.
#4. Thesaurus.com
Not all keyword research has to come from SEO tools. Thesaurus.com can provide a wealth of new ideas if you’re willing to do a bit of digging, and the best part is you may stumble onto untapped keywords. The only downside is since there’s no way to export the data, you’ll have to copy and paste.
#5. Search Suggest
All of the major search engines these days offer related suggestions when you begin typing your query into the search box, and you can and should use that information in your keyword research.
#6. SEMRush
Along with search volume and related keywords, SEMRush also gives you information on trends so you can decide if a particular keyword is worth pursuing, and unlike most of the other tools, their data is compiled from a variety of sources.
