If you’re committed to building a successful website you have to focus in finding profitable keywords. Keyword research is an often underestimated part of SEO, PPC, and Content Marketing.
The most profitable keywords are high traffic and low competition. Find the best keywords with high monthly searches and low competition will give you a fair chance to rank for the keyword.
Increase your traffic, customers, and gain more leads. Having so many options of tools out there you might not know where to start.
In this post, 23 experts reveal best tools for keyword research.
Best tools for keyword research
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Lets take a look at the experts top 3 keyword research tools. Here is the list not listed in any particular order.
#1 Kulwant Nagi (BloggingCage.com) 
#2 Randy Selzer (RandySelzer.com) 
I really only use two tools:
1.) the Google Adwords Keyword Planner …. it’s actually a pretty good source of info, although it has its limitations…. great for basic keyword research
2.) a paid program called Niche Genetics, www.nichegenetics.com , this is a great enhanced keyword tool, and provides data on long tail keywords that goes way beyond the google adwords planner..
For a third simple technique, and it’s more a strategy than a tool….I often get search query ideas from the suggestions provided by Google at the bottom of the SERPs i.e. “searches related to”… you can get great ideas for similar semantic searches from this simple technique, and then match your content to the suggested search. Once you have a related keyword idea from their suggestions, you can then check search volumes etc. using the first two tools…..
#3 Gaurav Kumar (eAskme.com) 
I am Gaurav Kumar, founder of eAskme.com. professional blogger, internet marketer and motivational speaker.
When it comes to write a blog for the purpose of promoting a business or product or service or even if you want to create awareness about any social cause, Keywords always plays an important role to grab you more readers from search engines. Keywords are the words that a user use or enter into a search engine to find the desired result. Now the question is how you can find the keywords that user actually entered into the search engine like Google.
Don`t worry here are the tools that are gonna help you:
1.) Google Analytics: No matter how many new SEO tools are available these days, nothing can beat the importance of Google Analytics. It is really easy to search for a keyword or long tail keywords on Google Analytics. You just need to enter the term or keyword, select country that you wnat to target and look for the results.
Google Analytics show you the results with volume of search, competition and estimated bid price for that keyword. So you can easily find here long tail keyword with low competition and high search to write blog posts.
2.) SEMRush: SEMRush Company was established in 2008. Within just 6 years this tool has attracted every single internet marketer because of its awesome features. SEMRush not only allows you to research for high ranking keywords with low competition but it also helps you to research on which keywords your competitors are ranking and you can analyze where you can beat your competitors. You will love to use their organic feature.
3.) Linkbird: is a hybrid tool which also helps you to research keywords and also helps you in link building, rank tracking and backlink analysis. It also helps you in content planning and content marketing.
#4 Robin Khokhar (Trickyenough.com) 
1.) SEMRush: A great piece of kit for competitive analysis. Find out exactly what your competitors are ranking for and optimise your site to beat them. The tool is also great for finding keywords you didn’t realise you rank for.
2.) Google Keyword Planner: The original tool will always have its place. Providing the most recent and accurate (you hope) data that Google has. Also great for finding additional keywords by putting in competitors landing pages.
3.) Keyword Eye: Their question finder is simply awesome. Put in any keyword you want and it will find commonly searched keywords with that keyword in. A great way to find the searches potential customers are making, as well as what answers you need to provide for your products.
#6 Evgeniy Garkaviy (HopeSpringWater)
1.) Google Keyword Planner: Is completely free and very easy in use. Using this tool you can find the trends, season queries and even see how competitive the keywords are. Probably the biggest disadvantage – not always accurate data but if you combine different keyword planner tools then it can work.
2.) SpyFu: This tool is not free but even if you are not subscribed user, you can get pretty much free data. The biggest advantage of this tool is that it allows you to analyse competitors. It can get data for organic and paid traffic. Very useful to analyse your competitor’s ads and keywords. People are not spending money on not profitable keywords, so you can just steal their keywords using SpyFu.
3.) SEMrush: This tool is a little more expensive for most SEOs but it definitely worth its money. They offer very clear and useful data. It can show the keywords that others sites in your niche are ranking for.
SEMrush can show you how difficult to rank high for the particular keywords. And also you can find the keywords you rank for but have not spotted previously.
#7 Geoff Kenyon (Geoff Kenyon) 
One of the things I do everyday is keyword research. That has helped my blog and business remarkably. Natural traffic is quite targeted and it pays. Without proper keyword research, search engine traffic will be an unconfirmed hypothesis.
There are lots of keyword research tools but I stick to these 3 for now:
1.) Google Search Console: This is the most remarkable tool that helps me scale my business. It helps me see exactly which keywords are already generating impressions for my article. Once I have these keywords, I’d tweak my articles and get better ranking.
1.) BuzzSumo: To see what’s trending online in social media in general but also on specific topics that interest me. Also to check specific websites and see what content works best for them.
2.) Quora: To see what questions people are asking about topics that interest me. It’s always best to answer questions real people have in your content.
3.) Google’s Hot Trends and trending on Twitter and Facebook: To see what people are interested in right now, what they’re searching for and talking about in social media.
1.) SEM Rush: the only paid tool I use, it allows me to easily steal competitors keywords and build our own target list with a few clicks.
I’m an old school SEO that came up last decade. Over the last six years I’ve transitioned from the day to day SEO work into content strategy and thought leadership. While my staff may have other top tools on their minds, I’m still sticking with what I know best:
1.) Google Keyword Planner: This tool’s came a long way since last decade, but still has all of the requisite information I need to make informed decisions regarding keyword targeting and competition level for phrases. I also like the fact that it suggests other similar keyword phrases, too.
2.) Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools): As much as the Keyword planner has changed, the Search Console is nothing like its former self. With this tool I can get a snap shot of both on page and off page issues with my website – from page errors and Meta tags to linking domains and internal links.
3.) SEMrush: I’ve been using this tool since late last decade. In fact, I’d use the competitor data to help close deals with prospects. It allows you to discover new organic competitors, see competitors’ keywords, and observe position changes of domains.
#15 Justin Germino (Dragonblogger.com) 
1.) My #1 keyword research tool is Google Keyword Planner, http://adwords.google.com/
2. ) I also use Google Trends https://www.google.com/trends/
3.) Finally I have started using SEOBook Keyword Tools http://tools.seobook.com/
Ironically all 3 tools are now built into the WordPress SEO by Yoast WordPress plugin. So this WordPress plugin puts all 3 of these keyword research tools at your fingertips making it even easier to jump in and get your keywords first, then start crafting your content, or simply augment and enhance your content by finding some more relevant or easier to rank for SEO terms to add to it.
1.) Google Keyword Planner: Most of us have heard of the Google keyword planner, it’s accessed through Google Adwords but still very much free to use. You get a detailed insight into search volumes and competition levels, as well as information such as cost per click, helpful for PPC campaigns. This tool will also suggest different variations and synonyms of keywords that you can target in your content.
2.) SEMrush: SEMrush keyword research gives you an in-depth report with statistics such as search volume, and seasonality trends. It goes further by adding context to the data and provides you with information such as the page that is ranking for a keyword and your current ranking on Google. SEMrush is an entire SEO tool, so the keyword research is only a part of what this tool has to offer.
4.) Keywordtool.io: This tool claims to be the best alternative to all other keyword research tools, I find it serves a different purpose when compared to the Google keyword planner or SEMrush. It’s excellent for long-tail keyword suggestions, it pulls the data from Google’s auto-suggestions to create a list of relevant phrases. It’s, therefore, ideal for content development, either for new pages or article topics.
2.) HitTail: Basically an analytics tool that works similar to Google Analytics, but HitTail only focuses on one thing – long-tail keywords that you should start writing new posts with.
3.) SEMRush: 3 things I use SEMRush for, finding keyword difficulty scores, estimated traffic data for a particular keyword and finding keywords my competition is using and ranking for.
#19 Dave Davies (beanstalkim.com) 
1.) Moz’s Keyword Explorer: The newest keyword tool to enter the race it’s fast become a favorite. Essentially it takes Google’s Keyword Planner data and adjusts it to apply to organic traffic as opposed to AdWords. The tool also does an analysis on the keywords and competition to provide a bit of competitive intelligence data to help guide the decision making process. A free Moz account gives access to 10 searches/day but it could be slow going for those without a pro account. For you there’s …
2.) Google’s Keyword Planner: Free to use with a Google AdWords account (you don’t need to spend anything … just have an account) this tool gives you the search volume data for queries or query types with a variety of filtering options from location to language and more. As long as you remember the search volumes are for paid search and not accurate for organic (they’re far lower) you’re safe and in the end you’ll likely make the same keyword decisions – you’ll just get less traffic than you might have hoped for.
3.) Google Search Console: The Search Console is not an actual keyword tool but it can provide a lot of value as one anyways. In the Search Console you have an opportunity to view the queries your site is ranking for even if it’s not getting clicks. It can be helpful to review these keywords looking for situations where you rank well but just outside the traffic points such as the ever-frustrating position 11. You’ll discover words you may not have thought to target and you’ll see where faster traffic opportunities may be.
#20 Ammar Ali (allbloggingtips.com) 
1.) Google Keyword Planner: This is a free tool that Google gives you to discover search results for particular keyword you can target.
2.) Amazon: Yes, Amazon! 
Most marketers totally overlook the power of this tool as a keyword research tool, but all you have to do is go to the Best-Selling book section and see the top selling books and that will give you a lot of insight on keywords you can be targeting based on the problems those books are solving.
Then you can take the ideas you come up with to the Google keyword planner.
3.) YouTube: Simply…go to YouTube and start typing in things in your niche and you will see the most popular videos. Take the titles to Google Keyword Planner and see what ideas it gives you. Be sure to use the top ranking videos on YouTube
#23 Cornelius Camp (corneliuscamp.com) 
1.) SEMRush: I like SEMRush because it allows me to research high ranking keywords that my competitors are using. This helps me get an advantage over my competition.
2.) Google Analytics: Extremely Important! Really easy to get results with volume of search, estimated cost, and competition for that particular keyword.
3.) Google Keyword Planner: This is the tool that I have used from the beginning. It will always be at the top of my list. I get the most recent and accurate data from Google. This has really helped me get keywords to produce more traffic.
Thank you everyone who participated in my expert post round up! Your turn, which keyword research tool you’re currently using! Comment and tell me below!
It is always good to learn from expert professionals. I have learned blogging by reading expert blogs. I am a real fan of the Kulwant Negi, and Gaurav Kumar from this list. I have learned a lot from their articles and it helped me to understand how to improve and make money from blogging.
Now I am also the follower of your blog. I believe I can learn a lot from your blogs.
I have just came to know about this awesome expert roundup. I am a great fan of easkme and Gaurav kumar. His tips really helped me to learn blogging. Money making and also gain motivation.
The tips shared by these professional bloggers are really helpful to make it understand which keyword research tools we should use. I really appreaciate your work also on nancybadillo.com
Thank you for sharing the tips from 23 popular experts about the keyword research. I am a great fan of the work of Gaurav Kumar. I have learned a lot from his blogs and Now I am learning from your blog also. Thank you for all the helpful tips you share here.
Hi Nancy,
First of all thanks for counting me in for the roundup post. And secondly it’s really a great source to get a good list of tools from the expert bloggers.
Thanks for sharing.
I just came to know about this expert roundup from the tweet of Gaurav Kumar. This is definitely a great roundup to understand the importance and use of keyword research tools. I am a great follower of work of Gaurav Kumar and It is really good to see that there are other bloggers also who are ready to help with their expert tips.
Thank you for sharing and helping me to understand these tools better.
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for this consolidated experts review on Keyword search.
Definitely, this will help the newbies to improve the content ranking.
By the views of experts, it shows how much important is keyword is.
Thank you
Thanks for sharing your amazing thoughts. Its help me to know about all the best tools & how they work. Thanks for sharing.