Top 5 Free Keyword Research Tools

If you are looking to advertise on paid search or you are just looking to build a keyword list for SEO purposes, you probably need to use some sort of tool to build your keyword list. There could be thousands of ways people can search for a product, so it would be hard for you to come up with all of those on your own. There are keyword research tools on the market that can cost a few hundred dollars per month. The reality is that there are great keyword tools that don’t cost anything. Below are our top 5 free keyword research tools.

1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – This is probably the most widely used keyword tool around and it is free of charge aside from what you end up paying Google once you begin advertising. This keyword research tool provides you estimated search volume on Google’s network for each keyword and provides many keyword suggestions. I like it because I use that search volume to prioritize what keywords I am targeting from a search optimization perspective, but was originally intended to help build pay per click advertising campaigns.
2. Open Site Explorer – Open Site Explorer is a service that SEOmoz has created. This tool is best for researching a competitor’s keywords. All you do is enter your competitor’s URL and click on the anchor text distribution tab. This will give you an idea of some of the keywords they have been targeting on the organic search side of things.
3. SEMRush – This is a good free tool that will provide you data on the top 10 keywords that your competitors are receiving traffic on for paid and organic search. SEMRush provides keyword, position, traffic percentage, estimated CPC, and other data. You can upgrade to get access beyond the top 10 keywords.
4. SEOmoz Term Extractor – The term extractor tool will let you enter a competitor’s URL and it will return 1, 2, and 3 word search phrases that the website is targeting. You do need to sign up for their free account to use this tool.
5. Alexa – The Alexa tool will let you see search queries of a competitor and the percentage of traffic it brings to the website. You enter the URL in the site info area. Once you are brought to the “Got Details” section, simply go to the “Search Analytics” tab to see the top search terms.