7 Best Keyword Research Tools for Small Businesses in 2023

Keyword research is essential for effective search engine optimization, also known as SEO. The best keyword research tools help you identify which keywords to use in your content to rank higher on Google, Bing, and other search engines. They provide accurate data and insights for keyword search volume, ranking difficulty, best alternatives, and competitors’ rankings. Below, we ranked the top tools based on cost, features, and ease of use.

• Best keyword research tools for small businesses overall: Semrush
• Cheapest and most beginner-friendly: SE Ranking
• Best way to see the keywords your site ranks for: Search Console
• Best keyword insights across multiple search engines: Ahrefs
• Best free artificial intelligence (AI) content planning tool: Surfer
• Best free tool for long-tail and latent search intent (LSI) keywords: Keyword Tool
• Great for trending keywords and location-based research: Google Trends

Best Keyword Research Tools at a Glance

See fullscreen table

*With annual billing

Semrush: Best Keyword Research Tool for Small Businesses Overall

Semrush has the most thorough research tools for SEO, including in-depth reports on your competitors and search volume trends. Although more expensive than SE Ranking, Semrush updates rankings more frequently and has a more extensive link index (for analyzing backlinks). It also includes much higher account limits and offers a local SEO listing feature for an additional fee.

Consequently, Semrush is ideal for marketing teams and digital marketing agencies that want an all-in-one platform. Along with an extensive keyword database, Semrush provides technical SEO tools and keyword research features for Google ads. It supports competitor and market research activities, allowing you to compare your site to five rivals in a single report. The breadth and depth of Semrush’s data and functions make it the best paid keyword research tool.

Keyword Research With Semrush

With Semrush, you can understand your ranking, view individual search term data, and find new keyword opportunities. Start by learning which words and phrases your site ranks for, including organic search positions, position changes, competitors, pages, and subdomains. Next, click on a ranking term to view:

• Keyword difficulty
• Trends
• Global volume
• Keyword variations
• Questions
• Related keywords
• Intent
• Number of keyword results
• Average cost-per-click (CPC)
• Traffic potential
• Keyword ideas

Once you’ve identified areas for improvement, use the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to generate keyword suggestions. Enter your topic to view millions of terms, then arrow your results by applying over a dozen filters, including monthly search volume, search engine results pages (SERP) features, and competitive density.

Select terms from the list and auto-generated clusters. Add them to your Keyword Manager or export them to Semrush’s Position Tracking or pay-per-click (PPC) Keyword Tools. You can also include words from the Keyword Gap tool, organic research, or a manual import.

The Keyword Manager analyzes real-time metrics for up to 5,000 terms, depending on your subscription. And you can create up to 100 lists to track individual in-house or client projects. However, other keyword research tools, such as Ahrefs, expand your search to include Bing, Amazon, and YouTube, whereas Semrush shows only Google SERP data.

Keyword Research Tools for Content Marketing

Semrush is one of the few keyword research platforms that handle your end-to-end organic SEO content marketing campaigns. When researching a topic, you can sort your ideas based on search volumes and keyword difficulty, or check for content gaps to see which subjects your competitors rank for.

Add a keyword to the SEO Content Template and Semrush will pull the top SERPs, analyze them, and provide optimization recommendations. This includes suggestions about websites you should pursue in your backlink marketing efforts. Alternatively, you can produce an SEO content brief or optimize your text in real time with WordPress, Google Docs, and MS Word plugins.

In addition, Semrush has a built-in calendar for assigning tasks, creating checklists, and monitoring performance. Together, these features help automate content audits and updates while ensuring your pages answer recent consumer search queries.

Semrush Pricing & Plan Features

*Monthly billing rate shown; annual billing is available at a reduced cost.

Our Expert Opinion

Semrush is hands-down the best keyword research software for businesses of any size. Rich features make it a breeze to optimize your website, conduct competitive research, audit your site for potential issues, and plan your content strategy. See what it can do risk-free by signing up to use the limited free version, or take advantage of the 14-day free trial offered exclusively to Fit Small Business readers.

Visit Semrush

SE Ranking: Cheapest Keyword Research Tools

SE Ranking is a beginner-friendly, all-in-one SEO platform. It lets you quickly find keyword suggestions, track page changes, and analyze SERPs in an intuitive, visually oriented environment. It also provides tutorials and reports written with beginners in mind, making it easy to learn how to improve your site’s SEO, even if you don’t have much prior experience or knowledge.

Although relatively new compared to Semrush and Ahrefs, SE Ranking costs less and provides similar reports and tools, making it a good choice for small businesses on a budget. It also has add-on content marketing tools similar to those offered by Surfer, so you can easily add new SEO content to your site.

Keyword Research With SE Ranking

SE Ranking’s top keyword research tools pull from a database of over 3 billion terms, including 659 million for the United States. Use this feature to find ideas and view metrics like search volume, cost-per-click, and difficulty. Simply enter a term into the search box, choose a country and search engine, and click to search.

The keyword research software shows terms and phrases under three tabs: similar, related, and low search volume. SE Ranking uses Google auto-complete terms to provide low search volume suggestions, mostly long-tail keywords and phrases.

Keyword Research Tools for Content Marketing

SE Ranking recently added content marketing tools as an add-on to its paid plans. The content features let you perform keyword research, specify brief parameters, and check text for quality. Once you select your search terms, you can write content in SE Ranking and see your SEO score change as you type.

The search term guidelines show how often you’ve used the keyword, the suggested usage range, and if competitors put the terms in headings or in bold or italics. The setup is similar to Surfer, including having an artificial intelligence (AI) writing tool with auto-generated titles, outlines, and text. However, unlike Semrush, it lacks a plagiarism checker, which is helpful since Google may flag AI-generated content if duplicated from other web pages.

Unlike Surfer, SE Ranking provides a readability score and grammar and punctuation checker, reducing the need for third-party services like Grammarly or Pro Writing Aid. It also expands your planning capabilities with keyword grouping, allowing you to cluster terms and create pillar content.

SE Ranking Pricing & Plan Features

SE Ranking pricing is customizable. You can choose the ranking check frequency (daily, three days, or weekly) and subscription period (one-month, three-month, six-month, nine-month, or annual). Prices also differ based on the number of keywords you want to track

*Higher keyword limits available with all paid plans for an additional cost

Our Expert Opinion

SE Ranking is a more affordable alternative to Semrush as the best all-in-one SEO keyword tool. It offers similar functionality, including competitive analysis, rank tracker, and pay-per-click (PPC) search features. However, the content editor requires an additional fee and lacks a built-in plagiarism checker. You can save a few dollars using Surfer if you want SEO content marketing tools.

Visit SE Ranking

Search Console: Best for Researching Your Website’s Keywords

Google Search Console is a free technical SEO and site optimization tool used by website owners, developers, and SEO professionals. It helps improve your online presence and search engine results page (SERP) visibility by focusing on Google search results. It’s not an all-in-one tool like Semrush or SE Ranking, so don’t expect to find keyword research tools for topic ideation or competitors. Instead, it analyzes your website’s performance.

You can use the Index Coverage report to find and fix errors that cause your pages to rank lower. Likewise, the Performance report identifies pages (and related keywords) with a lower click-through rate (CTR). Since the CTR metric is a Google ranking factor, optimizing keywords related to your page and enhancing your content can improve organic search traffic.

Free Keyword Research Tools in Google Search Console

You must integrate Search Console with your website before assessing your technical and on-page SEO. The Search Console setup process involves verifying site ownership, submitting a site map, and ensuring that Google can crawl and index your web pages.

Once complete, you can use the Index Coverage and Performance reports to improve your site ranking. The Index Coverage report is complex for beginners new to website building. It shows errors and pages excluded from Google’s index. Some have simple fixes, like repairing 404 errors, whereas others require more technical know-how.

The Performance report provides up to 16 months of data, including clicks, impressions, average click-through rate (CTR), and average position. It shows all ranking terms and metrics, so you can choose which search queries and associated pages to optimize. For instance, look for keywords with lower-than-average click-through rates and high impressions but lower rankings. Update the associated pages to rank higher and increase organic traffic.

Our Expert Opinion

Google Search Console is a free solution for seeing your exact website data. It helps you find keywords with high impressions but low CTR so you can decide which current pages to update. However, Search Console doesn’t show which sites outrank you or why. Nor does it offer a dedicated keyword research tool. Therefore, Google Search Console works best alongside a more robust platform like Semrush or SE Ranking.

Visit Search Console

Ahrefs: Best Tool for Multiple Search Engine Insights

Ahrefs is a popular free tool for researching keywords. As an all-in-one solution, Ahrefs is also a solid backlink analysis and tracking tool, and with paid plans, you can use it to research competitor keyword rankings. It’s more visually oriented and doesn’t have quite the breadth of features as Semrush, so its interface is likely easier for beginners as well.

Keyword Research With Ahrefs

Get started with Ahrefs by setting up a project and adding your domain, keywords to monitor, competitors, and alerts. Once complete, use Site Explorer to review top pages, content, PPC reports, and backlinks. This information helps you understand your ranking position and find content gaps that show terms your competitors rank for, but your site doesn’t.

Ahrefs Rank Tracker provides interactive graphs to learn about your organic search traffic, average position, and 13 SERP features. It compares your progress to your handpicked competitors. It also has a comprehensive Keywords Explorer, which provides data for 10 different search engines, including Google, Amazon, Yahoo, YouTube, and Bing.

You can find the keyword ranking difficulty, search volume, and clicks with a simple search. In the overview, you can view all keyword ideas and related keyword suggestions. The complimentary Keyword Generator filters results by metrics like global volume, SERP features, and traffic potential. Indeed, the traffic potential metric is unique to Ahrefs. It displays the estimated number of clicks you can expect if you rank for the keyword phrase or term.

Similar to Google Search Console, Ahrefs offers basic free features called Webmaster Tools. However, Ahrefs adds detailed instructions for fixing technical SEO issues and more keyword data. The free version includes:

• Data for your websites only (not competitors)
• SEO website health monitoring
• Backlink data and insights
• Ranking keywords and SERP competitors
• Metrics for search volume, keyword difficulty, and traffic value
• Automated email alerts

Ahrefs can also help you generate content ideas to optimize your small business website with its Content Explorer feature. It allows you to find opportunities like low-competition topics, subjects that generate links, and popular content. However, this feature and other capabilities require the Standard plan or above, whereas Semrush offers similar functionality in its entry tier.

Ahrefs Pricing & Plan Features

Our Expert Opinion

With Ahrefs, you get keyword research and much more to power your SEO efforts. If you’re already using another SEO tool like Semrush, however, we wouldn’t recommend Ahrefs as complementary software. However, it’s the best keyword tool for users wanting data across several different search engines (not just Google).

Visit Ahrefs

Surfer: Best Free AI Tool for Keyword Content Planning

Surfer is a lower-cost keyword search tool, SERP analyzer, and content planner. Like Semrush and many other keyword research tools, it has a free Chrome extension. When you search Google for a target keyword, a side box pops up with a list of keyword ideas and search volumes. However, while tools like Semrush have more in-depth tools and metrics, Surfer’s value lies in its free content planning and optimization tools.

Keyword Research With Surfer

Surfer provides several tools for researching search terms, including an in-depth SERP Analyzer. Depending on your needs, there are different ways to use Surfer. For example, if you have one or more keywords in mind, use the SERP Analyzer.

It offers a broad overview of the search results, in-depth details about the content structure, keyword density and frequency, and even how many words appear above the page’s fold. You can filter the results, view content quality scores, and exclude unwanted sites. From there, you can click on tabs to explore:

• Related keywords
• Questions
• Popular words and phrases
• Common words and phrases
• Prominent words and phrases
• Common backlinks

Alternatively, enter one target keyword into the Keyword Research tool. It turns your term into many content clusters, and each grouping shows the monthly search volume and keyword difficulty. View the individual words with their related metrics or click to use the clustered terms in the Content Editor.

Lastly, the SEO Audit Tool analyzes your existing page for optimization opportunities. It displays terms and phrases with suggestions to increase or decrease the frequency of use. The audit feature also considers many other metrics, such as content structure, word count, and links. Surfer provides recommendations for each category.

Keyword Research Tools for Content Marketing

Surfer’s Keyword Research Tool doubles as a content marketing planner. It works well for companies creating lengthy pillar pages that link to shorter blog posts. In this case, each cluster represents a standalone article that relates to your target keyword and pillar page.

The Content Editor is easily the most valuable feature of Surfer. It’s similar to SE Ranking’s content marketing tools, but Surfer includes this tool with all subscriptions, whereas SE Ranking charges an add-on fee, starting at $29 per month.

With the content editor, you can type and optimize content as you go or paste content from your word processor. It shows all keywords related to your target term, including natural language processing (NLP) words and keywords to include in headings. The Content Editor keeps a running tally of your structure, showing the number of words, headings, paragraphs, and images. Plus, it has a content score that updates as you type.

Click on the Outline Builder to view AI-generated titles, headings, subheadings, and questions, or click Brief to see competitor links or notes for writers. However, in our experience, the auto-generated AI content isn’t very helpful. Many times it doesn’t make sense or refers to competitors. Although Surfer says the content is unique, there are concerns about duplicate content. Fortunately, Surfer provides a plagiarism checker in the Content Editor, which can help you avoid being dinged by Google.

Surfer Pricing & Plan Features

Our Expert Opinion

Surfer is a great keyword research platform for writers and small business owners who want to optimize their content on a limited budget. It can help you create content briefs for in-house or contractors. However, although it offers some white-label options, Semrush works better for digital agencies providing comprehensive competitor and keyword research reports.

Visit Surfer

Keyword Tool: Best for Identifying Long-tail & LSI Keywords

Keyword Tool is software that uses auto-fill data to generate keyword ideas across several different search engines and languages. Like Surfer, it lacks in-depth competitor and PPC analysis, but like Ahrefs, it works across multiple search engines.

As such, it’s the best free keyword research tool for eBay, Amazon, Apple App Store, and Google Play Store sellers who want to optimize listings. YouTube video content producers can use it to identify popular search terms to infuse into descriptions and titles.

And any small business can leverage Keyword Tool to generate keyword ideas for organic search content planning or enrich content with semantic keyword variants (e.g., LSI keywords). In fact, it is excellent for finding long-tail phrases and LSI terms in particular.

Long-tail keywords are very specific or narrow, as relates to search intent, compared to broad keywords. Using them in your content helps search engines accurately index your web pages and blog posts to align with search intent. LSI (latent search intent) keywords are semantic variations of your primary keyword.

Keyword Research With Keyword Tool

Whether you go pro or use the free tools, Keyword Tool is incredibly easy to use. Simply choose the platform, input your term, and hit enter. From there, the Keyword Tool provides hundreds of long-tail keywords plus questions. However, the free service only offers metrics for the first five terms. Paid plans show the search volume, trend data, average CPC, and ad competition data for all keywords.

Keyword Tool Pricing & Plan Features

Our Expert Opinion

Keyword Tool is very basic and focused solely on research vs technical SEO, reports, or content generation. It’s best for use in conjunction with a more robust platform like Semrush or SE Ranking, mainly because it sources data from multiple search engines, including Google, Pinterest, YouTube, Amazon, and eBay.

Visit Keyword Tool

Google Trends: Best Free Tools for Locale-based Keyword Trends

Google Trends is a free keyword research tool that looks at the popularity of your term in the selected geographic region and time frame. It supports your local SEO strategy and helps you find trending topics and seasonal search habits.

Since it’s free and easy to use, Google Trends is an excellent option for small business owners and content marketing planners focusing on local search engine optimization. As it lacks advanced keyword research tools, data on your site, competitors’ websites and rankings, etc., it’s best used along with all-in-one tools for keyword research like Semrush or SE Ranking.

Keyword Research With Google Trends

Simplicity is at the core of the Google Trends tool, and it’s easy to use. Just input your term in the search bar and click enter to almost instantly view keyword data, or apply filters to view results for images, web searches, news, Google Shopping, or YouTube. Conversely, you can compare two topics to see how their popularity differs. Google breaks the data down by location, and you can click on the map to view regional information.

Scroll down further, and you’ll see related search queries, giving you an idea of additional terms to add to your content or web page. Click on any keyword results to pull trending data for that specific term. Google Trends also has an excellent selection of time frames. Review historical data going back to 2004 or see what’s most popular within the last hour or day.

Our Expert Opinion

Google Trends definitely belongs in your SEO toolkit. It’s free to use, offers unlimited searches, shows real-time data, and supports your local SEO strategy. However, it lacks the in-depth details required for competitive analysis and site optimization. Use Google Trends to brainstorm content ideas, then input your keyword into other tools like Surfer, Semrush, or SE Ranking.

Visit Google Trends

Honorable Mention: Google Ads Keyword Planner

The Google Ads platform has a tool called Keyword Planner intended to help advertisers find the best keywords for Google Ads campaigns. Although this feature is free to use, you must create an Ads account to access it. But it’s free to set up an account and use the planner, and it provides 100% accurate data relative to Google keyword search volumes, advertiser ranking difficulty, and more.

Google Keyword Planner is basic and provides two essential functions. Generate new keyword ideas by entering one or more words or phrases related to your business. Alternatively, view the search volume and forecasts for your existing target keywords. Like Google Trends, you have unlimited searches. The results estimate the number of impressions, clicks, CTR, cost, and average CPC.

You can filter the results page by average monthly search volume or competition with both features. In addition, you can choose different locations, languages, time frames, and Google partners or properties, such as YouTube. You can narrow your search by only showing results with specific words or excluding content types, like adult ideas.

The Keyword Planner is an excellent place to double-check data gathered from other tools to ensure you are targeting the best keywords to get your site ranking higher on Google. However, it’s not a full-featured platform for keyword research as it lacks information about your site and those of competitors, and it doesn’t provide SERP-related information.

Visit Google Keyword Planner

How We Evaluated the Best Keyword Research Tools

We looked at dozens of popular tools for keyword research and narrowed the list down to our top choices based on unique use cases. The best platforms allow anyone to find relevant keywords to rank higher for both paid advertising and organic content marketing strategies. In addition, we looked at cost, ease of use, and our experience using each of these tools.

Here’s a breakdown of the criteria we considered when ranking the best tools for keyword research:

• Cost: Fortunately, many keyword tools are free or at least affordable for startups and small operations. We judged paid versions based on whether or not a typical small business could afford them.
• Features: Features analysis included how accurate they are. We also considered other SEO features offered in all-in-one solutions or as a value-add, and whether paid plans add tools for scaling businesses.
• Ease of use: We judged the tools by how simple they are to use. We also considered its interface and whether or not an absolute SEO beginner would be able to successfully navigate and analyze the data presented.
• Expert score: Our final criteria weighed each tool against our firsthand experience, platform popularity, and customer reviews to narrow the list to the tools most worth investing time and money in.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the best tool for keyword research?

Semrush is the best tool for keyword research overall due to its data accuracy and comprehensive tools for researching keywords to help your website rank higher on Google. SE Ranking is the best alternative, especially for small businesses on a budget.

Which free tool is best for keyword research?

Semrush has a free-forever plan, making it the best free tool for researching top keywords, seeing which keywords your site ranks for, and benchmarketing competitors’ keyword rankings. Google Search Console is the best free tool for seeing the exact Google rankings for your site’s keywords and tracking position changes over time. Google Ads Keyword Planner can also be used for free to get precise data on keyword search volume and ranking difficulty on Google.

What are some Google tools for keyword research?

Google provides free data in Data Studio (soon to replace Analytics), Search Console, and its Ads Keyword Planner. Google Trends is a free research platform showing current and historical search data relative to a given keyword. Think With Google is another option for gaining insights into what Google wants in your overall search engine marketing (SEM) strategy and trending topics.

Bottom Line

Keyword research is essential since keywords let both humans and search engines know the content on your site, improving online visibility. The first step to any well-grounded search engine marketing strategy is finding the right keywords to rank for, and the platforms above make it easy to do just that.

You’ll find the most robust tools for keyword research in Semrush. Try it risk-free at no cost, or take advantage of the 14-day free trial offered exclusively to Fit Small Business readers by clicking the button below.

Try Semrush