Today’s search engine algorithms are complex and ever-changing. Add that to the fact that 7.5 million blog posts and 337,080 petabytes of data are uploaded to the internet each day! 🤯 Without an SEO strategy, your valuable content will get lost in cyberspace, and your prospects won’t ever find you. Talk about depressing!
The days of creating any content your heart desires and throwing it up on your blog or website are a thing of the past. But there’s good news! You can still create great content (and have a lot of fun doing it!) with a solid SEO strategy. And every effective SEO strategy begins with keyword research.
Knowledge is power. If you know how you rank on Google, you can adjust your strategy accordingly for increased exposure and better results.
If this process sounds daunting (and expensive!), don’t worry! There are some free user-friendly keyword research tools that offer a helpful swath of valuable insights. If you find a free tool you like and want to dig deeper, you can upgrade to a monthly plan. Some powerful paid tools allow you to perform more frequent and complex keyword research.
Let’s start by looking at some of our favorite free tools you can start using today!
Helpful for both pay-per-click (PPC) and organic search, Google Keyword Planner is a straightforward tool that boasts two primary features — one for exploratory keyword research and one for more in-depth research.
The exploratory feature allows you to choose a seed keyword for your research and see not only how that keyword performs but also view similar keywords and their data to inform your strategy. Often, you’ll discover the best keywords to go after are derivatives of your seed keyword…and much easier to rank for!
A pay-per-click approach can be daunting since it’s difficult to know how many clicks or impressions you can anticipate at a set rate. However, if you couple Google Keyword Planner with Google Ads, you’ll gain access to the in-depth budget forecasting feature. It will help you hone your budget based on your keywords and historical search data.
Although it’s less robust than many of its counterparts, Moz Keyword Explorer is easy to read, the data is easy to interpret, and it's incredibly user-friendly. It attracts the attention of many keyword research newbies, and for good reason!
Moz offers priority scoring, highlighting words that are worth going after based on a list of key metrics. Priority scoring also makes it easy to view top-ranking websites for each keyword so you can see who your competitors are and how they’re scoring. This is helpful when you want to create content to outrank your competition!
You can also plug your website URL or specific web page URL into Moz Keyword Explorer to know how you rank on Google! If you’re not ranking toward the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), utilize the keyword planner to prioritize keywords as part of your larger SEO strategy. Additionally, perform a gap analysis so you know what words you’re currently ranking for, what your competitors are ranking for, and where you can narrow the gap.
With the free version, you’re limited to 10 queries per month and 10 SERP analyses per query.
If you’re feeling confident and want to dive deeper into keyword research, Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is a more advanced keyword research tool that provides granular data alongside a wide range of free features.
Semrush encompasses a keyword overview, exploratory keyword research, a keyword manager/position tracker, gap analysis, and organic traffic insights.
In other words, with this tool, you can hone your current keyword list and get fresh ideas for related keywords that are easy to rank for. You can also narrow the keyword ranking gap between you and your competitors and get the insights you need to continually improve your strategy.
One unique feature within this tool is the ability to create content briefs. These briefs link your content strategy with content creation. Semrush will grade your content as you write so you can hit the bullseye with effective and strategic content that targets your keywords. Although this service is part of the paid upgrade, you can try this feature once for free!
When we perform keyword research for our clients, we use a variety of free tools, as well as Mangools — a paid tool with both breadth and depth. KWFinder provides insights into which keywords have the perfect combination of high search volume and low SEO difficulty.
Mangools also helps you easily find backlinks to improve your SEO ranking and adjust your keyword strategy in real time with interactive, up-to-date reports.
Additional tools include a SERP analysis for over 52k locations and a competitor analysis that gives you the insights you need to adjust your strategy and outrank your competition.
With plenty of free and paid tools boasting user-friendly interfaces and dozens of helpful insights, you can search for keywords you’re targeting in your content and know how you rank on Google. Then you can adjust your keyword strategy to improve your SEO — a worthwhile investment for any 21st-century business!
If you’re already feeling maxed out with all of your day-to-day business tasks, hiring a pro might be the perfect choice for you! At Wild Fig, we help clients like you clarify their messages and implement effective strategies to help them connect with their target audiences. This includes thorough keyword research as part of a robust and comprehensive SEO strategy.
Schedule an exploratory call with Kari to learn more about how we can help you rock your marketing!
And, as our gift to you, download our ebook, Key Metrics To Track For a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy here! 👇