Are you wanting to use keyword research tools to give your content the right “oomph” you’ve been searching for? At the same time, are you not able to financially invest in said tools just yet? Hang right there. There are a handful of enlightening keyword research hacks and techniques that are both free and game-changing. Everybody wants to know how to do keyword research for free. Well, let’s get into it!
Use Google for Keyword Ideas
Autocomplete. The sweet magic of autocomplete. Google is a free search engine available for all to bear its fruit. But all do not use Google to its fullest potential, squeezing every bit of pulp out its powers. Here’s some free game, literally. It’s free. With Google, its search bar autocompletes some of the hottest longtail keywords in current demand.
We have a secret little keyword research hack on Google we like to call the “Go Back Hack”. Here’s how you do it.
- Search a keyword in Google Chrome
- Click one of the top three organic results
- Once the page loads, click back and it should give you other keywords under that same result in a “People also search for” box. Here’s a screenshot of what we’re talking about:
Everyone has access to this little trick.
Social Media Keyword Research Techniques
You won’t see a lot of marketing gurus speak on this, but Pinterest is a gold mine for learning what consumers are searching for. Pinterest is a platform designed for creatives (or anyone) to share visual ideas and content. Pinterest’s search engine is unique to that of Google, Yahoo, and etc.
Quora
The social network that slips under the radar many times is the ever-so impactful Quora. Quora is mostly a Q+A forum page with its own search engine. This helps with noting the proper phrases to be taken into account when writing your own headlines, permalinks, and meta descriptions. We dissected the platform and discussed how it could be used to generate blog topic ideas.
Quora is one of the most underrated tools for keyword research. For no money at all, you can create an account and use the community there for more insight into what questions people are asking and what topics are currently pressing. You can learn so much also by posing good questions to the public and receiving thousands of responses in an instant.
Best Free Keyword Research Tools
Moz
Moz allows you to find the keyword authority on targeted longtail keywords. And their free toolbar helps you see Domain Authority scores for the website that you’re visiting.
Moz emphasizes on organic search and simplifying the complex strategies for SEO marketers with tools like their Keyword Explorer. You can start mastering how to do keyword research for free for yourself by putting the work in on Moz – exploring and identifying the relevant keywords.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs just recently made many of their tools free with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools. Ahrefs’ coolest SEO benefits come by way of their robust backlink index. Their simple approach to their features gives their free tools praised credibility. Now, everyone can do SEO. See which keywords are bringing you the most organic traffic. Or analyze your site and find out why you’re probably not getting traffic and leads.
The new updates give a better understanding of your website’s SEO potential with the help of SEO metrics like Search Volume, Keyword Difficulty, and Traffic Value.
Answer The Public
Answer the Public is a keyword research tool that gives a visual representation of questions asked by the public based on the seed terms (one to two words) entered by you. Use the questions that Answer the Public returns for ideas for questions to answer in your blog content.
Keywords Everywhere Chrome Extension
Keywords Everywhere offers a free browser extension that’s available for Chrome and Firefox. The extension shows you keyword trend data for search engine queries, a list of related keywords, and “people also searched for” queries.
Keywords Everywhere also shows you a monthly report on a keyword’s search volume. It also helps you see whether a keyword is seasonal or recently trending.
Paid Options for Keyword Research Pros
One of our personal favorite SEO tools to use ourselves is SEMrush and for many reasons. Though there’s a free version of the tool, it’s pretty limited. But the paid tiers offer SEO tools that will take your keyword research, content writing, and content marketing abilities to the next level. Some of SEMrush’s key tools include the Keyword Magic Tool, SEO Content Templates, and SEO Writing Assistant.
As far as the paid account with Ahrefs, you’ll find all the essential keyword research tools and insights within the platform. In Ahrefs, you can use a keyword difficulty feature and set your KD to a max of 1 or even 0 to ensure the results will nearly always give a precise list of almost all longtail keywords.
If you have the budget and need for more powerful paid SEO tools, check out our Best SEO Tool article that compares Ahrefs vs SEMrush vs Moz.
This post was proofread by Grammarly Premium.
