Been in the search engine optimization game for awhile, its 100% recommended you have or use a free or paid Keyword research tool. It helps you track and find easy long tail keywords you can rank for.

The top bloggers, marketing and online business owners use them. Will share with you the best keyword tools in my opinion.

Quick Links

–  Google Keyword Planner

–  Long Tail Pro

–  SemRush

Honorable Mentions – These are keyword tools that didn’t make the cut, but still could be useful.

–  Afrefs Paid Free Trial

–  Moz Keyword Explorer Free & Paid – Trial

–  KWFinder Free & Paid ( Feels Cluttered )

1. The Trusted Google Keyword Planner ( Free )

Google keyword planner is one of the most popular research tools, but does have its limitations compared to the others on the list.

This tools shows the user – ad group ideas, individual keyword ideas, avg.monthly searches, AdWords suggested bid & much more.

Just enter your “Keywords” for example you could enter cats, kittens. Remember to use commas to separate your keywords.

You also have the option to enter your landing page in there, but I’m not 100% sure what it does. I obviously don’t use that feature.

The next area in the above image is honestly personal preference. I personally leave it the way it is.

Google Keyword Planner is the best free keyword tool because it doesn’t limit the amount of keywords you can view…

2. Long Tail Pro ( Paid – 7 Day Free Trial )

Long Tail Pro is one of the most popular paid keyword research tools out their. Not only does this tool do everything the google keyword planner does, but it also does a hell of a lot more.

Here are the things you can do using long tail pro.

In-depth Keyword Analyzing – This tool will show you the suggested bid, local searches, global searches, advertiser competition, num words, google title competition, domain availability, and much more.

Rank Checker – You can track your keywords and have the tool scan to see what page your ranked on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. This feature is one of the favorites as it lets me know if my seo efforts are working.

3. SemRush (  Paid – Free Trial )

If you looking for a tool that isn’t just keyword research then Semrush is right for you.

This tool can do so much beside looking at keyword metrics, you can see your backlinks and determine if you need to disavow them based on their quality.

You can go in-depth into pay per click advertising giving you the power to see metrics like volume, what’s trending, the number of results and ad copies or maybe you want to see your competitor keyword choices and backlinks to further boost your rankings.

Let me know in the comments below if I missed any good keyword tools…