Introduction

Keyword research helps to understand what your target audience is searching for on the internet. Knowing the keywords around which to fashion your content is the first step towards creating an organic attraction of traffic to your website – and perhaps the best way out there to convince popular search engines that your website has the right information for which users are searching.

A good keyword research tool can help you nail the right keywords and the search volumes associated with them. This information is essential for creating content that has value for the users, serves a purpose and solves a problem.

In fact, in a Twitter poll conducted by the Search Engine Journal recently, it was revealed that 49% of the respondents agreed to a better ROI with the use of organic SEO. This is how important it is to research your keywords properly. Let’s now explore the best tools recommended by SEO services companies for keyword research in 2022.

Best Keyword Research Tools for 2022

Listed below are some of the most popular and effective keyword research tools of 2022.

SEMRush

SEMRush is a holistic keyword research tool that helps you gain a complete picture of the position of a selected keyword in the SEO universe. You can use this keyword research tool to gain an idea of:

• Search volumes (monthly) of a particular keyword
• The trend of that keyword – whether its search volume has been rising or falling over the past months, and what it is expected to be
• Recommendations of keywords similar to the selected keyword to get a broader picture of what customers usually search for
• The rankings of your competitors for the same selected keyword
• There is a dedicated organic search tab that helps you understand other relevant keywords.

AnswerThePublic

This is a unique keyword research tool that presents the data pertaining to keywords in a very visual way. The data is also available to download in a .csv file, though, if you prefer it that way. Primarily, it leverages the data from popular search engines’ (Google and Bing, mostly) autocomplete and auto-suggest functionalities to give you an idea of which keywords are ranking content best on the search results of these two search engines.

If you are just starting out with keyword research, this is a great tool as they have a free version for which you don’t even need to login. It gives you a fixed number of free runs after which a subscription is necessary.

Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a super tool created by Neil Patel, a famous personality on the Forbes’ top 10 marketers list. This keyword research tools gives the full cosmic view of the selected keyword:

• Related keywords to the one selected
• Top 100 pages that rank for the selected keyword
• Metrics like the total number of backlinks, visits, domain score and shares on social media
• Daily tracking of keyword rank, personalized suggestions for organic SEO
• Keyword suggestions

The best part about this tool is that you can login to it using your Google ID, and a handy extension is also available for Chrome browsers to make it simpler to access.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a tool much similar to SEMRush with certain unique features as well. For the selected keyword, Ahrefs furnishes a list of suggestions that you could be working on also. Additionally, this tool shows you keywords that your competitors are ranking well for, but your website doesn’t. This helps you position your website better in front of the competitors by leveraging such keywords.

Ahrefs also helps you see if any backlinks on your site are broken. The tool also equips you with competitive intelligence pertaining to creating new keywords, watching how the keywords move in search queries so you can plan the semantics accordingly.

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free SEO tool. It is primarily intended to use by the advertisers and marketers who also use Google Ads. As such, in order to access the functionalities of this tool, a Google Ads account is required.

This tool is a good free tool to use as long as you have a Google Ads account, and it holds good for the basic functionalities and approximated search volumes over a period of a month for the selected keyword. You can also access the related keywords on the dashboard, or download them to your computer.

Long Tail Pro

This is a premium keyword research tool that specifically focuses on your ranking for a keyword vis-à-vis your competitors, giving you an idea of the work you need to put into your website to rise above the rivals.

It also has the functionality that lets you track how your website is performing with respect to a certain keyword so that the performance can be adjusted in accordance with targets and goals. A summary of the whole data regarding the selected keyword can be viewed on the dashboard, such as search volume, ranking, featured snippets, local searches, ads, etc.

Serpstat

This keyword research tool is highly effective in positioning your website in comparison with your competitors to see which keywords you are performing better for, and which ones others are nailing better.

In addition to showing you the top search engine results for the selected keyword, Serpstat shows you featured snippets, competitor visibility for that keyword, the number of pages on a website with the selected keyword and much more.

Its tools include backlink analysis, rank tracker, PPC and SEO research, content marketing, website analysis and much more. It gives the full view of your competitors’ performance in the organic research section as well.

SpyFu

Much like its name, this keyword research tool let’s you “spy” on your competitors, in a way. You can track the performance of your competitors for any keyword, and find out the ones they are profiting from the most. Additionally, it lets you see the historical progress – whether rise or fall – of your competitor’s website for a particular keyword. This data is an important insight into planning your own website more holistically.

The best part is that this tool is completely free to use and is simple as well. Just by typing in the URL for the website you wish to track, you can see the data pertaining to that website. However, if you need to see the data for more websites, a login is required.

End Note

Keyword research is the first step in planning the content for your website. In order to gain traffic that is of high quality, it is first essential to create content that is high quality and offers your users what they are seeking.