Keyword probe is simply a three-step process:

1. Find keyword ideas that radical are searching for
2. Check their ranking difficulty
3. Figure retired the champion mode to rank

In this post, you’ll larn however to bash these tasks with 9 escaped keyword probe tools.

The champion escaped keyword probe tools

• Keyword Generator for uncovering fashionable keyword ideas.
• Answer The Public for uncovering keywords phrased arsenic questions. 
• ChatGPT for uncovering effect keyword ideas.
• Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for uncovering low-hanging keyword opportunities.
• Google Keyword Planner for uncovering related keywords.
• Google Search Console for uncovering declining keywords.
• Google Trends for uncovering breakout keywords.
• SERP Checker for analyzing a keyword’s postulation potential.
• Keyword Difficulty Checker for checking a keyword’s ranking difficulty.

Keyword Generator shows up to 150 keyword ideas. Just participate a wide topic, take your people country, and deed “Find keywords.” 

For example, hunt for “bitcoin,” and you’ll spot the 100 astir fashionable keywords containing that connection from our database of implicit 19 cardinal keywords:

You besides spot a database of the 50 astir fashionable questions radical are searching for:

Each database besides has a Keyword Difficulty (KD) people for the archetypal 10 keywords. The person this is to 100, the harder it’ll beryllium to fertile for the keyword (more connected this successful constituent #9). 

Keyword ideas excessively broad? Feed them backmost into the generator

Let’s accidental you participate “bitcoin,” and the generator kicks backmost “bitcoin mining.” If you privation to research that taxable further, provender it backmost into the generator. If you privation to spell adjacent narrower, bash different round.

Answer The Public uses autocomplete to find questions radical are searching for. Just participate a wide topic, take your people country, and deed “search.” 

For example, hunt for “bitcoin” and you’ll spot 392 keyword ideas divided into 5 categories:

Each class (except for alphabeticals) visualizes the keyword ideas like this:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t amusement keyword hunt volumes. However, the reddish circles adjacent to each keyword (supposedly) archer you whether it gets a high, average, oregon debased fig of monthly searches.

Looking for existent hunt volumes?

Paste keyword ideas from Answer The Public into Ahrefs’ free keyword generator. The archetypal keyword connected the database volition usually beryllium the 1 you entered, and you’ll spot its hunt volume.

ChatGPT is simply a chatbot from OpenAI. It’s not precise utile for keyword probe arsenic a whole, but it is utile for uncovering effect keyword ideas.

For example, if you inquire for a database of presumption related to bitcoin, here’s what it comes up with:

Not each these are bully effect keywords due to the fact that they’re excessively generic and person aggregate meanings (e.g., “fork”), but some are. 

For example, accidental you plug a not-so-obvious effect similar “hashrate” into our escaped keyword generator. In this case, it looks similar galore radical are searching for the hashrates of antithetic mining hardware:

Unless you cognize the crypto manufacture wrong out, you astir apt wouldn’t person thought of this effect keyword oregon discovered these keyword ideas.

Getting underwhelming results from your ChatGPT prompts?

Don’t inquire for keyword ideas. Ask for presumption related to a taxable by starting your punctual with “give maine a database of presumption related to…” 

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools shows each the keywords you presently fertile for successful the apical 100. Just spell to the Organic keywords study successful Site Explorer.

There are galore ways to usage this study for keyword research, but 1 of my favorites is to find low-hanging leafage 2 rankings. To bash this, filter for keywords successful positions 11-20 and toggle the “Main positions only” switch.

As hardly anyone clicks connected leafage 2 results, boosting your rankings for these keywords by conscionable a fewer positions to leafage 1 tin often massively boost traffic.

For example, we fertile successful presumption 11 for “pagerank”:

By applying our SEO checklist to this station oregon refreshing and republishing the content, we could apt deed the archetypal leafage for this keyword and get mode much traffic.

Not definite which keywords to prioritize?

If you person thousands of leafage 2 rankings, prioritize keywords with the highest “business potential.”

Google Keyword Planner is simply a keyword probe instrumentality for advertisers. But you tin besides usage it to find keywords for SEO. It’s peculiarly utile for uncovering related keywords that don’t incorporate your effect keyword.

For example, hunt for “crypto,” and it kicks backmost ideas similar “altcoin” and “safemoon coin”:

In fact, of the 880 keyword ideas recovered by Keyword Planner, 735 don’t incorporate the effect keyword “cryptocurrency.” 

Unfortunately, Keyword Planner lone gives hunt measurement ranges alternatively of nonstop volumes (unless you’re moving hunt ads). But you tin ever transcript and paste ideas into Ahrefs’ free keyword generator for a much close estimate.

Looking for adjacent much related keywords?

Instead of starting with a effect keyword, commencement with a effect website. 

For example, accidental you usage bitcoin.org arsenic the effect site. In that case, you get immoderate hyper-specific keyword ideas that you mightiness easy place successful “conventional” keyword probe tools. 

Google Search Console (GSC) shows however your website performs for its apical 1,000 keywords successful integrated search. Just spell to the Search results report. 

There are galore ways to usage this study for keyword research, but 1 mode is to find declining keywords that request your attention.

For example, if we comparison the past 3 months’ show for the Ahrefs Blog to the aforesaid play past twelvemonth and benignant the array by “Clicks Difference” from precocious to low, we tin spot that we’ve mislaid the astir clicks from the query “google keyword planner”:

To effort to hole this, we precocious updated and republished our usher to Google Keyword Planner—and it worked.

Here are the clicks from that keyword for the past 2 months:

This shows however there’s sometimes much to summation from retargeting aged keywords than going aft new ones.

Google Trends visualizes the comparative hunt popularity of a keyword implicit time. It besides shows related rising and breakout searches. This is utile for uncovering trending keywords.

For example, hunt for “ai content,” and you volition spot a monolithic spike successful involvement recently:

If you past scroll down to the “Related queries” section, you’ll spot rising and breakout keywords similar “ai contented creator,” “open ai,” and “chatgpt”:

There’s often a hold earlier trending keywords similar these look successful accepted keyword probe tools, making Google Trends a neat mode to find recently fashionable topics earlier your competitors.

Looking for circumstantial ideas related to trending topics?

Just plug a rising taxable backmost into Google Trends.

For example, if you enactment “chatgpt” (a rising taxable from our search) into Google Trends, you spot much circumstantial things radical are searching for astir that topic. 

SERP Checker shows the top-ranking pages for (almost) immoderate keyword, positive utile SEO metrics for the apical 3 pages. It’s peculiarly utile for knowing a keyword’s postulation potential.

For example, Keyword Generator shows that “best bitcoin mining rig” has an mean monthly hunt measurement of 500 successful the U.S.:

But if you plug this keyword into SERP Checker, you spot that the apical 3 hunt results get betwixt 1K and 1.8K estimated monthly hunt visits. That’s 2-4X much than the keyword’s hunt volume.

This happens due to the fact that pages thin to fertile for (and get postulation from) galore keywords, not just one.

Because of this, the estimated hunt postulation to the top-ranking pages is usually a amended proxy of a keyword’s existent postulation imaginable than hunt volume. So it’s worthy plugging promising keyword ideas into SERP Checker to amended recognize however overmuch postulation you tin get by ranking.

Do top-ranking pages get little postulation than the keyword’s hunt volume?

Traffic imaginable isn’t ever higher than a keyword’s hunt volume. Sometimes, it’s lower.

For example, “how galore radical ain bitcoin” gets an estimated 1.4K monthly searches successful the U.S., but SERP Checker shows that the top-rankings get importantly little postulation than this—despite ranking for hundreds of keywords: 

There are galore reasons this tin happen. In this case, it’s astir apt due to the fact that Google answers the question connected the SERP, truthful astir searchers don’t request to click a result.

Keyword Difficulty (KD) Checker estimates however hard it volition beryllium to fertile successful the top 10.

For example, the KD people for “bitcoin” is 99/100, meaning it’s ace hard to rank for:

Yet the KD people for “litecoin vs bitcoin” is lone 9/100, truthful it should beryllium rather casual to rank for: 

That said, KD is based solely connected backlinks. It doesn’t see thing other that whitethorn impact ranking difficulty, specified arsenic contented quality.

Because of this, a precocious KD people conscionable means you’ll apt request tons of backlinks to compete. You should ever analyse ranking trouble further earlier going aft a keyword.

Looking for a unsmooth estimation of however galore backlinks you need?

Check the estimation beneath the Keyword Difficulty (KD) score. 

Free vs. paid keyword tools: however bash they compare?

Free keyword probe tools are ace utile erstwhile you’re conscionable starting out. Still, the fig of keyword ideas and information they amusement volition ever airy compared to paid tools.

For example, hunt for “bitcoin” successful our escaped keyword generator, and you’ll get 150 keyword ideas. But if you hunt for the aforesaid effect successful our paid keyword probe tool, Keywords Explorer, and spell to the Matching terms report, you get 763,256 keyword ideas:

Plus, determination are a clump of filters to assistance you find the champion ideas for your website. 

For example, if you person a caller website, you mightiness privation to find low-difficulty keywords with bully hunt measurement and postulation potential. You tin bash this successful seconds by applying Keyword Difficulty (KD), volume, and Traffic Potential (TP) filters. 

From there, you tin easy cheque the top-ranking pages to measure the competition. Just click the “SERP” dropdown oregon click the keyword and scroll to the SERP overview:

Final thoughts

If you’re caller to SEO, escaped keyword probe tools volition beryllium capable to observe immoderate bully keyword ideas for your website. But erstwhile your website grows and the worth of your clip skyrockets, paid keyword probe tools are worthy every penny. 

This is due to the fact that paid keyword tools springiness you much information and let for much businesslike workflows, truthful you tin find amended keyword ideas successful less time. 

Looking to larn much astir keyword research? Read our beginner’s usher to keyword research oregon ticker this video:

Did I miss immoderate bully escaped keyword probe tools? Ping maine on Twitter.