Our Blog

3 Free SEO Tools for More Efficient Keyword Research

Keyword research is essential to an effective content marketing strategy.

Yes, content drives potential clients to your website, giving you a chance to showcase your expertise. However, before you even begin creating content, you need to determine what people are searching for.

Only then can you write targeted content that improves search engine rankings.

Keyword research can sound daunting for beginners, but there are plenty of tools available online that can simplify the process.

In this blog post, we will discuss three free SEO tools for more efficient keyword research. All these tools are easy to use and can breathe new life into your SEO strategy.

What is keyword research?

Keyword research is the act of using strategies to determine what keywords could lead more people to your website.

Crafting a customer persona is usually the first step in the keyword research process. If you don’t know how your ideal customer thinks or talks, you won’t know what words they’ll use to find information online.

Once you’ve crafted a customer persona, you begin creating a list of keywords they will use to find information online. Write down a list of keywords during the brainstorming process. Use tools like the ones listed in this blog post to determine which ones you should target.

There are plenty of factors that will help you decide whether you should target a keyword or not. For example, the search results for a keyword could be dominated by huge corporations. It would be difficult to rank in such a competitive keyword.

There is no one size fits all solution when it comes to keyword research. It differs depending on your business, ideal customer, and long-term goals.

Answer the Public

Answer the Public is an incredibly helpful keyword research tool.

Once you open the website, all you have to do is enter your keyword of choice in the search bar and hit enter. It will then generate related keywords that are sorted into several categories. These categories include:

• keywords that start with where, when, why, and what questions
• keywords that include prepositions
• and more.

You can download the results as image or CSV files, making it easier to decide which ones you should target at a later date.

For example, you would like to write a blog post about link building. The keyword “link building” is very broad, and the results are already dominated by high domain authority websites.

Ranking for that specific keyword could be difficult, so you need more alternatives. If you enter “link building” in Answer the Public, you will discover plenty of keywords you could target instead.

Let us take a look at the results in several categories.

The results for the Questions category include:

• what is link building guide
• why use link building
• why link building is important
• how to find link building opportunities
• how can link building help SEO

The results for the Propositions category include:

• link building with images
• link building for social media
• Is link building still relevant to seo 2019
• link building for ecommerce website

The results for the Comparisons category include:

• link building and content marketing
• link building and backlinking
• link building vs content marketing
• link building quality vs quantity

Even if we’ve only taken a look at the first three categories, Answer the Public has already generated plenty of alternatives for us. These alternatives are keywords that people have used and will most likely use again.

If you think you’ve listed down too many keywords, you can narrow down the list based on how difficult it is to rank for a keyword and how much traffic it receives.

Keyword Shitter

Keyword Shitter is undoubtedly one of the easiest keyword research tools you could use. Unlike Answer the Public, it doesn’t have any charts or images.

All you have to do is enter your keyword of choice in the search field, and hit enter. Keyword Shitter will then generate keywords for you until you click on Stop Job. It can generate hundreds of keywords in less than a minute.

If you enter “link building,” the results include:

• link building and seo
• link building strategies
• link building guide 2019
• link building strategies the complete list
• link building outreach email example
• link building do’s and don’ts

Earlier, we used the same keyword in Answer the Public. If you compare the results, there are some similarities, but there are also plenty of keywords that only Keyword Shitter generated.

We are not saying you should pick and choose between both tools. Instead, they should work hand in hand during the brainstorming process. This way, you could list down keywords that you never would’ve thought of otherwise.

Keywords Everywhere

After you finish listing down keyword ideas, you should narrow down the list.

When deciding which keywords to use, keep the following factors in mind:

• Search Intent – The reason why a user is searching for something. Do they want information? Do they want to compare products? Are they ready to make a purchase?
• Search Volume – This is the amount of traffic a keyword receives during a given timeframe. The higher the search volume, the more difficult it is to rank for a keyword.
• Difficulty – This is how difficult it is to rank for a specific keyword. If the keyword difficulty is high, it usually means that websites with high domain authority are currently topping the search results for it.

Keywords Everywhere is a free Google Chrome extension that helps you select which keywords to target.

Download and install the extension. Once that’s done, open Google, enter a keyword, and click on search. Next to the search results, you will see a box with a list of related keywords, their monthly search volume, and competition scores.

You can also export the results in CSV format.

Let us say you provide link building services and would like to find more clients.

If we enter the keyword “link building,” Keywords Everywhere shows us that people also search for “link building strategies,” “link building service,” “link building tools,” and “link building jobs.”

You can decide not to target “link building jobs” right away. It’s most likely used by people who build links themselves, not people who want you to do it for them. The keyword might receive a lot of traffic, but it won’t lead potential clients to your website.

Let us try comparing keywords based on search volume and competition. “Link building tool” has a monthly search volume of 1,600 and a competition score of 0.26. “Link building tips” has the same monthly volume, but its competition score is 0.

You would choose the keyword that generates the same amount of traffic but is easier to rank for.

Conclusion

Keyword research may seem daunting at first. However, with the right tools and resources, you can accomplish it on your own.

Brainstorm keywords with Answer the Public and Keyword Shitter. Discover keywords you never would’ve thought of otherwise with these two tools.

Narrow down your list of keywords with Keywords Everywhere. It shows you the monthly search volume and competition for a set of keywords.

Need a top-class SEO strategy? Cornerstone Digital is an SEO agency in Sydney that can lead your ideal customer to your website. Call us on (02) 8211 0668 or email us at info@cornerstone-digital.com.au.

• Comments (0)
• Trackbacks (0)
• Permalink

Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.