Content Marketing
11 of the Best Keyword Research Tools For Content Marketing and Web Publishers
We review 11 of the best keyword research tools, including Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz. Plus, get insight into how to research keywords with AI.
So you need to do keyword research for your pages, but you’re not sure where to start?
There are tons of keyword research tools on the market, ranging from beginner-friendly to tailored for advanced optimization pros. Choosing the best keyword research tool, however, can be a challenge.
Many of these tools excel at a few core things, and there’s rarely a “one size fits all” program that does it all.
In this article, we’ll highlight 11 of the best keyword research tools for content marketers and web publishers, as well as show you how to do keyword research with AI.
Originality.ai’s Content Optimizer is a free MarketMuse and SurferSEO alternative.
It’s a fantastic way to run a competitor analysis on content, review keyword density, compare content with up to 10 top competing URLs, and highlight keywords within content, making it a breeze to review content optimization opportunities.
In addition to a Content Optimizer, Originality.ai also offers a full suite of editing and publishing tools, including an AI detector, readability checker, and plagiarism checker.
One of the biggest benefits of using the Ahrefs keyword research tool is that it provides users with a detailed analysis of search engine results pages, showing which pages rank at the top for a given keyword or phrase. It also gives users country-specific search volume data, which is great to have if you’re targeting specific regions.
Additionally, Ahrefs will delve into how competitive a keyword is and how likely you are to rank for it based on the number of backlinks the top-ranking sites have. For SEO professionals who want to focus on organic growth, Ahrefs is a valuable tool to have.
Read more of our reviews on Ahrefs tools, including the Ahrefs AI text humanizer and Ahrefs AI detector.
One of the most popular keyword research tools available, SEMrush is great for more than keywords. It also offers PPC research, backlink tools, and competitor analysis. It also tells you, through a Keyword Difficulty Score, how likely you are to rank or beat the competition for a given keyword or phrase.
One of the key features that sets SEMrush apart from other keyword research tools is that it gives users keyword intent clarification, such as whether or not a keyword is informational or commercial.
Knowing the search intent of your users is crucial to choosing not only the right keywords, but those that are more likely to result in a conversion.
SEMrush excels in competitor keyword analysis and is a popular pick for SEO professionals who need an all-in-one tool that can easily swap from SEO and PPC to content marketing.
Google’s keyword planner was originally designed to help users of its paid AdWords (now Google Ads) system find the best keywords to bid on for pay-per-click. Today, it’s used by organic and paid search professionals alike.
Not only does the Google Keyword Planner give you keyword ideas, but it also gives you search volume details, letting you filter by location, search networks, and language. It shows you the average cost-per-click (CPC) for paid campaigns and organizes keywords by relevance.
It’s an excellent way to find new keyword ideas based on a specific ‘seed' keyword and can help you see what the competition is paying, in general, for paid search ads. If you want to find high-volume keywords, particularly for paid campaigns, this is a great tool to use.
Moz focuses on its user-friendly interface and beginner-friendly introduction to SEO. Like other top keyword research tools, Moz includes keyword ranking difficulty and opportunities you may not have considered in your research.
It includes a Priority Score that combines search volume, difficulty, and CTR potential, as well as the organic click-through rate which estimates how many clicks top-ranking sites will receive. For those SEO professionals who like to dive into the details, historical rank data is also available.
If you’re looking for a keyword research tool that’s easy to use for beginners but still provides you with some deeper analysis, Moz is a fantastic option.
AnswerThePublic, part of NP Digital, bases its search tool on what people are actually asking online, particularly how, what, and why-style questions. This is one of the best keyword research tools to uncover search intent while providing the details in a mind-map-style layout that shows you how each keyword is related to the other.
For content marketers who want to create content based on questions people are actually asking across Google, YouTube, TikTok, and more, AnswerThePublic is a great content strategy tool.
KW Finder is part of the Mangools platform and is well-known for long-tail keyword research. It includes historical trends for search volume data and location search details. KW Finder is user-friendly and ideal for small business owners, bloggers, and startups who need a cost-effective tool for long-tail keyword ranking opportunities.
Although Majestic SEO is mostly known for its backlink analysis tools, it also offers excellent keyword research tools that include a backlink profile and keyword performance analysis. You can use Majestic to find keywords for your research, and like many other tools, it will give you search volume and keyword difficulty.
It’s a good option if you’re a search engine professional who wants to take advantage of both a backlink analysis and keyword research platform.
KeywordTool.io is designed to help you find underutilized keywords through Google Autocomplete. It also provides suggestions from a number of other platforms, search engines, and social media sites including Bing, Amazon, Instagram, X/Twitter, TikTok and more.
This flexible tool is ideal for e-commerce businesses (thanks to its Amazon keyword suggestions) and video content creators through its YouTube, Instagram and TikTok suggestions.
Ubersuggest, created by Neil Patel, is a beginner-friendly keyword research tool that offers free basic features with premium plans that are also available. By simply typing in a domain name or keyword, Ubersuggest gives you keywords, search volume and difficulty, as well as ideas based on content that’s trending in your given niche.
It also features a basic competitor analysis with both paid and organic keyword performance. If you’re looking for quick keyword insights, give Ubersuggest a try.
SpyFu is a competitive analysis tool that approaches keyword research a bit differently. A brief search shows you the organic and paid keywords your competition is using for PPC and SEO.
So, if you’re interested in analyzing competitor SEO or PPC efforts to see how you can position your site to get ahead of the competition, it’s a good option.
Another option to complement keyword research tools is to use AI for keyword research. As an example, we asked ChatGPT to generate a list of keywords related to content marketing.
Here is the example keyword list ChatGPT provided:
The results offer an excellent starting point for building a content cluster around content marketing topics.
To rank well for topics, you have to go a step further after researching keywords with AI. You need to set up a measurable, concrete plan to use them strategically.
After an initial search with AI, the keywords could be input into tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs to determine the potential volume or difficulty of ranking with those keywords.
Next, you could use tools like Answer The Public to see what question-based keywords people are asking to further expand and build out comprehensive content topics.
Then, after drafting content, input your content or its URL, as well as the URLs of up to 10 top-ranking competitors, into the Originality.ai Content Optimizer to further refine and optimize content with a competitor analysis.
The most important step you can take when deciding on which keyword tool to use is to look for a tool that will give you unique insight that helps your content rank well. That could mean:
Start today and take advantage of keyword research tools to discover the best ways to optimize your content, improve rankings, and expand your audience.
Looking for more insight into content marketing and keyword research?