Keyword research tools you need

You cannot track or use every relevant keyword in your industry. Firstly, it won’t be feasible in terms of time, and secondly, not every keyword will be worthwhile. A worthwhile keyword is one that will generate business for you. Keyword research tools use data and analytics to help you determine the highest-quality keywords for your industry.

There are free and paid keyword research tool options and your selection will be based on your budget. Test a few options and find the combination that works best for you. Many paid tools also offer free trials.

What are some of the keyword research tools on the market?

There are a number of keyword reseach tools on the market which you can use to assist you in your digital marketing.

SEMRush

SEMRush has to be one of the most popular search engine marketing tools and it is particularly useful for its keyword data generation. (www.semrush.com).

Keyword.io

Keyword.io is a free keyword research tool that generates a wide range of keyword options, trends around the terms, key pages that feature the phrase, and other relevant topics. (www.keyword.io).

Google Ads Keyword Planner

Google AdWords Keyword Planner produces a list of local and global user searches per month on a particular keyword, phrase or terms as well as PPC competition and local search trends.

Another great feature is that each search can also be filtered by industry categories, areas and languages. All you need is an Ads account to access the tool.

Wordtracker Keyword Tool

Wordtracker Keyword Tool provides a number of separate tools, each with its own uses.

• The Keyword Universe tool can generate a list of 1 000 or more keywords and phrases.
• Competition Search provides KEIs and competition values for selected keywords.

In addition, Wordtracker creates Reports and Project tools which allow users to organise and store the research data. (www.wordtracker.com/find-the-best-keywords)

WordStream

WordStream offers a paid Keyword Management tool. It provides personalised keyword suggestions, keyword analytics, grouping and content authoring tools from a number of sources. (www.wordstream.com).

Other keyword research tools

Sysomos

Sysomos is a location-based tool that tells you what’s trending locally and what your customers are talking about. It gathers digital content from social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and forums) and displays insightful data in a single platform.

Sysomos filters digital conversations by keywords and demographic information, which helps if you are targeting customers within a specific age group or gender. Discover which topics, trends and brands interest your target audience, and create marketing campaigns based on these. (www.sysomos.com).

Google Trends

Google Trends is a public-facing web facility that is owned by Google Inc.. This keyword research tool shows how often a particular search term is entered relative to the entire search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. (www.trends.google.com/trends)

To find out how users are approaching your keywords and niche area, consider using custom search strings for keyword research. You will need an understanding of Google’s advanced search query operators.

• allintext: This will bring up results restricted to those containing all the query terms you specify in the text of the page.
• allintitle: Shows only the results containing all the query terms you specify in the title.
• allinurl: Restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the URL.
• insubject: Restricts articles in Google Groups to those that contain the terms you specify in the subject.

When it comes to performing keyword research, there’s a correct and an incorrect way of carrying out your analysis. As opposed to just guessing and hoping for the best, we urge you to experiment with all of these keyword research tools because doing so will go a long way in making sure that you choose the correct keywords for your website. This will guide your content strategy, increase your ranking with search engines and ultimately edge you closer to success.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

To become a whizz at keyword research, we recommend that you do our SEO and Web Analytics Course.