7th February 2022
To ensure your digital marketing campaigns are as effective as possible, you should be doing keyword research regularly. We’ve compiled a list of 5 free keyword research tools so that you can jump right in and get started today.
Keyword research can be a fairly broad term when it comes to digital marketing. Keywords themselves are used in nearly every area of online marketing and play an important role in digital performance.
Keywords help you understand your audience and provide you with the means to align what you offer with what your audience desires.
A keyword itself is a specific term or phrase that users will look for online. By performing thorough keyword research, you can include keywords that will point users in the direction of relevant content on your website and display your paid ads directly to the people whom you want to sell your products and services to.
If you run an online business, keywords play a much bigger role than you may realise.
Keyword research is important as what you offer may not be the same as what your ideal users will search for. For example, if you planned to sell a new product such as a heavy, durable jacket, designed for outdoor enthusiasts. What kind of keywords would be suitable?
From that basic description, we can determine a few keywords.
These describe your product, but are very generic and don’t take your users’ interests into consideration. By doing a little keyword research we can find slightly better targeted keywords:
Not only that, by performing keyword research, you can find other related keyword terms to include within your content based on what users may be asking. Are the jackets padded? Are they windproof? Do they have a fleece lining? By including additional relevant keywords your content is more likely to appear in front of the right people.
To find the right keywords for your online business, here are some free keyword research tools to get you started.
If you don’t yet have Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools set up on your website, you should! One function of these tools is showing you the search queries people use to reach your website organically.
You can filter queries in Search Console to find new keyword terms. In this example, we’ve looked for “pubs”.
If you have pages that generate leads better than others, find out what kind of keywords people are searching for to get there. These tools have a variety of filters available to narrow down your search to specific pages or phrases. So if you want to push a particular product or direct people to a specific page, check out which keywords your existing audience uses to get there.
If you have ever wondered what questions people ask about your product or service, Answer The Public is a fantastic resource. By providing an initial keyword or keyword phrase, you’ll be presented with a collection of questions that people have been searching for online that is gathered from existing auto-complete data used by search engines.
Answer the Public can show you questions related to a topic of your choice.
While the visualisation is pretty, it can be a little hard to read, so be sure to switch to the data representation to make the results clearer. The free version of Answer The Public does have a strict daily limitation on searches, so choose your topic wisely!
We’ve talked about Google Trends and how it can be used for keyword research before, so be sure to check out our blog post for the finer details. It can be used to understand how keywords are affected by seasonality, help you find alternative phrasing to use for existing keywords and lets you compare similar terms side by side, to find out which keywords are more popular.
Be among the first to receive tips, advice and news on all things digital performance related. From new features in Google Analytics, Data Studio and other tools, to interesting articles, videos and more! Completely Free! (Unsubscribe any time you like!)
If you search for a keyword tool online, Keyword Tool is likely one of the results that will appear. It’s a popular and frequently used keyword tool, and the free version of it is ideal for finding similar search terms for your keywords. The paid version includes additional features such as search volumes and costs, but for basic keyword research it provides adequate data.
Keyword Tool can help you research related search queries from search engines.
Not only will you find keyword terms for you to test yourself, but you will also find keyword terms that you may wish to exclude from paid search ads to make your digital marketing more efficient. Keyword Tool includes the option to narrow your search to specific platforms, including:
Different platforms will have different audiences, so you may find results vary depending on what topic or keyword term you provide. Additionally, Keyword Tool includes an option to add a negative keyword to your search.
Add negatives to exclude non-relevant terms.
Adding terms you want to exclude during your keyword research can speed up the process greatly by helping you find just the keywords that are most relevant to you.
If you ever wanted to see how different keywords can be across different platforms, then check out Soovle.
Soovle can provide you with keyword terms from a variety of sources.
It might look a bit older and lack some features of a friendly user interface, but Soovle can quickly provide you with a wealth of keyword terms and data. It can display results from a variety of platforms similar to Keyword Tool, but also includes non-traditional locations, such as:
Granted, Soovle may look a little outdated in 2022, but still provides a wealth of up to date information on keywords, making it one of longer running free keyword research tools available online.
It’s no secret that keyword research can be a bit of a slog, but it is recommended to do on a regular basis. If you’re interested in expanding your business into a new market, such as ecommerce, or launching a new service then keyword research is a great activity to help you understand your audience and potential customers.
Trends and terminology change as new products become available and change in popularity. Keeping on top of the most relevant keywords for your products and services will ensure your digital marketing performance is as best as it can be.