If you’re looking to learn or expand your keyword research knowledge, you’ve come to the right place! In this page you’ll find the best free keyword research resources: from guides, to tools and even tips! Take a look below.
Free Keyword Research Guides
How to Do Keyword Research for SEO
Guide from Tim Soulo / Ahrefs
The SEO Keyword Research Master Guide
Guide from Moz
The 2021 Keyword Research Guide for SEO
Guide from Rob Woods / SEMrush
How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Step-by-Step Guide
Guide from Mark Traphagen / Search Engine Journal
Keyword research for SEO
Guide from Mangools
Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide (2021)
Guide from Backlinko
How To Do Keyword Research in 2020
Guide from Nick Eubanks
Keyword Research Course with Greg Gifford
Guide from Greg Gifford / SEMrush
Keyword Research for SEO Today: Guide, Steps, Tips, Tools, Mistakes and more!
Video from Crawling Mondays
Free Keyword Research Tools
Google Ads Keyword Planner
Web Based from Google
Google Trends
Web Based from Google
Bing Webmaster Tools Keyword Research
Web Based from Bing
Keyword Generator
Web Based from Ahrefs
AlsoAsked
Web Based from Candour
Answer The Public
Web Based from Answer The Public
QuestionDB
Web Based from QuestionDB
Free Keyword Tool
Web Based from Wordstream
#SuggestMrx
Web Based from Merlinox
The Reddit Keyword Research Tool
Web Based from Higher Visibility
Keyword Surfer
Browser Extension from Surfer
Topic Mojo Free Plan
Web Based from Topic Mojo
Tips when doing a Keyword Research
“Initial keyword research data can be gathered offline, by understanding the language and the needs from your ideal user. Get familiar with topics, pain points, content types and search intent before you start performing KW research using SEO tools.”
By Svetlana Stankovic
“Start with the user intent: map the user intent to a wheel of their life cycle and figure out what pieces of content you can/do offer for those phases.”
“Sort keywords by relevance and choose what makes sense. Sort keywords by volume and choose what makes sense. For GSC terms, keep an eye on search terms with many impressions ranking on page 2 or lower.”
By Yiah
“While researching for keywords always look at the intent of keyword by searching it into the search engines. Types of search results for that query tells a lot about intent behind a keyword. It’s important to know search intent to generate right kind of content.”
“Use search console to see what keywords you’re website is already ranking for and start there. Easier to get a keyword higher than start from scratch.”
By Neil Sheth
“Even if a keyword is really competitive, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create the page. Your audience still wants to know that information, and you’ll get some long tail search too. It’s not always about the number one ranking.”
“Start with a keyword gap analysis vs. competitors (what competitors are ranking for vs. what you’re ranking for, to identify the differences and opportunities). It’ll give you really valuable information.”
“Keywords are useless if you don’t understand the user intent.”
By Pecanha
“Rather than relying on search volume data, use your CTR data to calculate estimated traffic at current rank and at improved rank for a more realistic potential traffic uplift. Group keywords in categories to analyse uplift by categories rather than on a keyword by keyword basis.”
By Areej AbuAli
“Focus on long-tail keywords. They will probably have lower search volume but also less competition. You will be able to rank easily and drive quality traffic to your website.”
“Just start with Google Seach Console query data: you can check for which keyword are you already ranking for and maybe you’d just need few tweaks to rank even better.”
“There are a lot of ways to go about keyword research.
1. Start with a single term.
2. Keyword gap analysis to find what others rank for you don’t.
3. Page gap analysis. Look at successful content. This could look at traffic, traffic value, or even which pages get the most links.”
By Patrick Stox
“Don’t focus solely on search volume, keyword tools not always get the right numbers. Start by identifying what your competitors rank for, and use also this insight”
“Instead of researching keyword from scratch, do competitor analysis first to find: > What low-competition keywords they are ranking for on the 1st page > Keywords your competitors are ranking for but you aren’t Plus, never blindly rely on Keyword Difficulty of any SEO tool to create content.”
“Focus on keyword understanding. The ‘intent’ behind the 8 types of various keyword groups. Breakdown these correctly to convert better in each. Short tail, long tail, customer defining, intent targeting, long term evergreen, short term fresh, geo targeting and product defining”
By Rob May
“For niches where keyword volume is low across the industry or for top products/services, run a search ads campaign for a few weeks to discover : 1. More keyword ideas 2. Identify keywords that convert Especially for high ticket items.”
By Krinal Mehta
“Forget ABC (always be closing). Not *every* page on your site has to be pitching to clinch a sale. Match keywords to the position in your sales funnel (Top, Middle, Bottom or ToFu, MoFu, BoFu). Write content to match that intent.”
“Sometimes just put aside all the industry research tools and filter keywords directly from Google Search. Also, if you come across an issue in your own niche but the solution hasn’t been covered, well then bingo. Use keywords that haven’t been regurgitated multiple times already. People might think “oh everything has been written already,” but surprisingly it’s not always true. It’ll make your site stand out if you find those keywords and use them accordingly.”
By Clorinda