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Free Keyword Research Tool [+ How to Find High-Value Terms]

Written by Leigh McKenzie

If you’re just starting with SEO, it can be daunting to invest in expensive keyword research tools.

That’s why we created this free keyword research tool that leverages Semrush’s extensive database of 26.2 billion keywords.

Our free tool helps you:

• Find low-competition keywords your competitors are missing
• Generate fresh content ideas that actually rank
• See exactly how many monthly searches keywords get

The best part?

No technical SEO knowledge is required.

In fact, our own experience at Backlinko.com shows how powerful keyword research can be.

We rank in Google’s top 10 for over 20,000 keywords—rankings that would cost about $756K per month in Google Ads.

Pretty wild, right?

And it all starts with keyword research.

In this guide, I’ll show you how to find keywords that drive highly targeted organic traffic to your site.

You’ll also learn how to maximize the benefits of keyword analysis to help convert that traffic into sales.

Ready to master keyword research? Let’s start with the fundamentals.

What Is a Keyword?

A keyword is a word or phrase that users enter into a search engine to find relevant information online.

Keywords are crucial because search engines use them to understand webpage content and determine its relevance to search queries.

Optimizing content for relevant keywords, especially those with significant search volume, is a fundamental aspect of SEO.

It helps improve a website’s visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) , driving more organic traffic to your site.

How to Do Keyword Research in 2025

Finding great keywords isn’t complicated. You just need a system that works.

First, you’ll want to brainstorm topics related to your business.

Use various sources for this, including:

• Google’s “ Related Searches ” section
• Reddit discussions
• Niche forums
• YouTube’s auto-suggest feature

Next, it’s time to validate your keywords. This is where our free keyword research tool comes in handy.

Search your idea in the tool to gather data on these key metrics:

• Search volume : Average number of times people search for this keyword each month in Google. Provides insight into how popular certain keywords are and how much potential organic search traffic you could drive to your site by targeting them.
• Keyword difficulty (KD) : A score that indicates how hard it would be to rank on the first page for this keyword. The lower the score, the easier it should be to rank for the keyword.
• Cost per click (CPC) : The average amount advertisers pay when someone clicks their ad for this keyword in Google Ads
• Search trends : How search interest in this keyword changes over time, showing seasonal patterns or growing/declining interest

Click on any term you’re interested in to see more metrics.

This includes Intent, which is the reason behind a user’s search (more on this in the next section: Understanding Keywords ).

Beyond metrics, you’ll also want to consider the keyword’s relevance to your business.

Targeting keywords that align with your products, services, and target audience’s needs will help ensure your SEO efforts drive traffic and qualified leads who are more likely to convert.

As you do your research, pay special attention to long-tail keywords , which are especially helpful if you’re just starting out.

Long-tail keywords are highly specific phrases that tend to have lower search volumes and lower competition.

Which means they’ll also likely be easier to rank for on the SERPs.

Examples include “best content marketing tools for freelancers” and “b2b content marketing case studies.”

If you already have Google Search Console (GSC) set up, use it to find keywords you’re already ranking for but could improve.

This can help you identify quick wins, as Google is already seeing your content as somewhat relevant and you’re getting impressions and clicks.

While this was just a quick overview of keyword research, it gives you a solid foundation for finding keywords that can drive targeted traffic to your site.

Remember: The goal isn’t just to find any keywords—it’s to find the right keywords for your business.

Now, let’s dive deeper into search volume and intent.

Understanding Keywords and Their Search Volumes

Want your pages to rank in Google? You need to find keywords your target audience is actually searching for.

That’s where search volume comes in.

It shows you how popular a particular term or phrase is.

For example, “content marketing” gets searched 27.1K times per month.

But a niche phrase like “content marketing for dentists” gets just 70 monthly searches.

But here’s the thing about keywords: volume isn’t everything.

You also need to consider search intent (aka keyword intent)—or why someone is searching for that term in the first place.

There are four main types of search intent:

• Informational: Users want to learn something, such as “how to make cold brew coffee,” “what is SEO,” or “symptoms of a cold”
• Commercial: Users are researching products or services before buying. Examples include “best running shoes,” “iPhone vs Samsung,” or “coffee maker reviews”
• Navigational: Users want to find a specific website or page, such as “Facebook login,” “Gmail,” or “Nike store”
• Transactional: Users are ready to buy or take action. Examples: “buy AirPods Pro,” “book hotel in Paris,” or “order pizza delivery.”

Search intent is one of Google’s many ranking factors, so pay close attention to it if you want your pages to rank.

Determining Ideal Search Volumes for Keywords

So, how many monthly searches make a keyword worth targeting?

The truth? There’s no magic number.

It depends on factors like search intent, keyword competition, industry type, and seasonality.

What’s low in one niche could be a goldmine in another.

For instance, in the tech industry, 500 searches per month for a keyword might be considered low.

However, in the niche collectible vintage typewriter industry, 500 monthly searches might be high.

Context is key.

Factors That Influence Keyword Search Volume

Before targeting any keyword, check if these factors might affect its search volume:

• Seasonality: Search volumes naturally rise and fall throughout the year (like “gift ideas” in December)
• Trending topics: Current events and trends can temporarily boost keyword search volumes
• Industry growth: Growing industries see search volumes climb over time
• Local modifiers: Adding location-specific terms enhances local SEO by targeting regional search intent

Why Keyword Search Volume Matters in SEO

Smart content creators use keyword search volume as a tool to make better decisions about what to write.

Here’s why it matters in SEO.

1. Find High-Traffic Opportunities

Keywords with high search volumes indicate a high level of user interest.

By targeting these keywords, you give your site a good chance of receiving a significant amount of traffic.

However, simply targeting a keyword with a high search volume isn’t enough.

You need to make sure the content you create is highly relevant to the keywords you target and matches the user’s search intent.

2. Spot Growing Topics Early

Analyzing the search volume of keywords over time also helps you identify market and search trends.

In this way, it serves as a window into the evolving interests of your target audience.

If you notice the search volume for a certain keyword steadily increasing or suddenly spiking, it’s a good indicator of the topics your audience is currently interested in.

3. Create Content People Actually Want

Rather than creating content for keywords you think your audience will be interested in, search volume data enables you to write relevant content you know they’ll be interested in.

This knowledge can guide your entire content campaign and help to ensure user engagement remains high and your rankings continue to improve.

4. Uncover Hidden Gems

Some of the best keywords have relatively low search volume.

Take “ecommerce email marketing software” for example.

It might only get 110 searches in the U.S. per month, but those are likely marketing directors with buying power.

Low-volume terms can also convert better than broader keywords—so don’t leave them out of your strategy.

“I would rather have 100 readers that convert at 10% than 10,000 readers that convert 0.01%. If you’re going after a lower quantity of traffic but users are really satisfied with it and want to convert, then that’s success. It’s not all about huge volumes of traffic. Start with creating the best quality content and trying to convert it as best as possible, which will compound more over time.”

3 Ways to Use Keyword Search Volume to Drive High-Intent Traffic

Finding keywords with decent search volume isn’t enough anymore.

You need to find keywords that:

• You can actually rank for
• Bring in visitors ready to take action
• Your competitors are missing

Here’s exactly how to do that:

1. Analyze Competitor Keywords

Competitor keyword research involves analyzing and identifying the keywords your competitors target in their online content.

Like websites, blog posts, and online advertising.

But don’t just look at what keywords your competitors rank for.

Look for keywords where they’re almost ranking well.

Use a tool like Semrush to find keywords where competitors rank on page 2 or at the bottom of page 1.

These are golden opportunities—they’ve proven the keyword has value but haven’t quite cracked the code on ranking for it.

(That’s where you come in.)

2. Use Long-Tail Keywords

By identifying less competitive long-tail terms and incorporating them into your keyword strategy, you can maximize the results of your SEO efforts.

Concentrating solely on high-search-volume keywords that are highly competitive won’t yield quick and favorable rankings.

This is why it’s essential to diversify your keyword strategy by targeting a well-balanced mix of long-tail keywords and search queries with higher search volume.

This approach will significantly increase your chances of achieving success.

For example, say you run a coffee subscription business.

Your competitor might be trying to rank for “best coffee maker” (33.1K monthly searches; 62 KD), but they’re stuck on page 2.

Instead of fighting that battle, you could target terms like “best mini coffee maker” (1,300 monthly searches; 17 KD) or “best small coffee maker” (2.9K monthly searches; 43 KD).

These long-tail keywords still have decent search volume.

And they’re attracting users who are getting close to making a purchasing decision (commercial intent).

You’ll also have a much better chance of ranking on page 1 for these terms.

3. Monitor and Analyze Your Results

Once you’ve done your keyword research and created content for your search terms, you’ll need to keep a close eye on them.

This means tracking the search volumes of your target keywords to gauge their efficiency.

Use a tool such as Semrush’s Keyword Overview to monitor increases and decreases in the search queries you’ve targeted.

Assess how these fluctuations affect your other performance metrics, such as click-through and conversion rates, as well as the ranking positions of your pages.

If your main keyword is losing steam, look for rising alternative terms people are using instead.

For example, if “best accounting software” is dropping, you might find “cloud accounting platforms” is growing.

Add these terms to the page to help regain traffic.

Selecting the Right Keyword Research Tool

Now that you’re up to speed on keyword search volume, it’s time to take a look at the seven best keyword research tools for gathering search volume data.

I included the best free tools for keyword research, along with some tools that offer free trials.

Good For: Accuracy, trending terms, database coverage

Best Feature: Keyword Magic Tool

Free Plan: Conduct up to 10 free searches in the Keyword Magic Tool or analyze up to 10 competitor domains per day with Domain Overview. (And much more.)

Semrush conducted a search volume study to see how its data stacks up against other top keyword research tools—and the results were pretty impressive.

Semrush is the most accurate tool for search volume data, and its database has much better coverage than other tools.

For example, 3.82% of the keywords in GKP’s database were “not found,” and this rose to a MASSIVE 18.22% for Serpstat.

Meanwhile, only 1.78% of the keywords in Semrush’s database were “not found.”

In my opinion, this makes it the best keyword research tool available.

Start your keyword research

Explore the largest keyword database.

2. Google Keyword Planner (GKP)

Good For: Pay-per-click (PPC) keyword research

Best Feature: Forecasts for PPC campaigns

Free Plan: The full version is completely free (but you’ll need a Google Ads account)

Google Keyword Planner is a feature that’s included within the Google Ads platform. It’s a powerful keyword research tool for paid ads, but it’s not as good for organic keyword research.

Still, in Semrush’s keyword search volume study, Google Keyword Planner achieved a 40.94% search volume accuracy score in the head-to-head with Semrush, which got 59.06%.

Although it was still behind Semrush, it did a lot better than many of the other tools.

Good For: Quick and easy (but fairly limited) search volume data

Best Feature: Keyword “Priority” score

Free Plan: The 30-day Moz Pro trial gives you access to all of the tool’s features

Moz is a good all-around SEO tool with a pretty decent keyword research tool.

But in the search volume accuracy tests in Semrush’s study, it scored 42.73% compared to Semrush’s score of 57.27%.

Good For: Keyword Difficulty rating

Best Feature: Keyword volumes for Google, Bing, YouTube, and Amazon

Free Plan: Unlimited searches with limited data

In a head-to-head comparison with Semrush, Ahrefs was WAY behind in accuracy. It was accurate 39.53% of the time compared to Semrush’s score of 60.47%.

Ahrefs’ Free Keyword Generator is easy to use and quickly gives you access to page-level keyword rankings.

However, it doesn’t provide exact search volumes or other essential details like intent, CPC, or trends.

It also only shows data for some of the results, and if you want the rest, you’ll need to pay for an Ahrefs plan.

5. Serpstat

Good For: SEO and PPC keyword research

Best Feature: Allows you to access data from 230+ regions.

Free Plan: 10 keyword searches per day

Serpstat has a wide array of features you can use for your SEO and PPC campaigns. Plus, their keyword research tool gives you data from many different regions.

And lets you research the competition so you can create higher-performing campaigns.

Good For: Finding related keywords

Best Feature: Fast keyword info without logging in

Free Plan: 10 free searches per day without signing in or 100 free searches per day with free registration

Sistrix offers a simple, free keyword research tool that provides related keywords and real user questions for each term you search.

However, it doesn’t provide search volume or any other essential keyword metrics.

7. Mangools

Good For: Getting a wide variety of data about keywords

Best Feature: Keyword “Trend” data column

Free Plan: 10 free daily searches

In terms of free keyword research tools, Mangools is pretty competitive with what it provides as part of its free plan and trials.

Still, in its head-to-head with Semrush in the previously mentioned study, Semrush’s search volume data was closer to the GSC reference data (32.39% of the time) than Mangools’ data (20.65% of the time).

How to Use Semrush to Access Search Volume Data

Well, there are several different tools for this.

To begin with, let’s take a look at the Keyword Magic Tool.

First, sign up for a Semrush account , and log in.

Click “ Keyword Magic Tool ” at the left of the page.

Type in a keyword and click “ Search .”

The tool will return a list of keywords and key metrics.

• The “ Volume ” column tells you the average monthly search volume for each term in the keyword list
• The “ KD % ” column gives a score out of 100 for each term, indicating how hard it would be to rank for it

You can see that the volume for “running shoes” is really high, and the keyword difficulty percentage is 76, so it would be incredibly hard to rank for this term.

The long-tail keyword “white running shoes” has a lower difficulty score of 20 and has a relatively high search volume, so that will be a good keyword to target instead.

Next up, let’s check out Semrush’s Keyword Overview tool.

Enter your keyword, choose your location, and click “Search.”

On the next page, you’ll see the search volume for your location and the keyword difficulty percentage.

You’ll also see the volume for other locations.

Now, let’s take a look at the Keyword Gap tool, which allows you to compare your keyword profile to your competitors.

Enter your domain and up to four competing domains, and click “ Compare .”

On the next page, scroll down to view a table of keywords you share with your competitors.

You’ll see the search volume for each term and the search engine rankings that you and your competitors occupy for these terms.

This allows you to benchmark the performance of your keywords against your competitors.

You can also identify how search volume correlates to your search engine rankings.

3 Common Keyword Research Problems (and Solutions)

While anyone can learn how to conduct keyword research, you might run into some confusing situations along the way.

Problem #1: Search Volumes Don’t Match Across Tools

Here’s the deal: You plug the same keyword into different tools and get wildly different numbers.

Super frustrating, right?

But there’s an easy solution: Use one reputable tool as your “source of truth.”

And focus on relative volume trends rather than exact numbers. Cross-reference with Google Trends for validation.

Problem #2: High-Volume Keywords Are Too Competitive

You’ve found some juicy keywords, but they’re dominated by major players.

Add modifiers like “best,” “vs,” or “how to” when searching terms in a keyword research tool.

And target question-based alternatives using “People Also Ask” data.

This will help you find low-competition keywords you’ll have a better chance of ranking for on the SERPs.

Problem #3: Keywords Show Volume but Don’t Convert

Traffic without conversions is just a vanity metric.

Audit your existing content to double-check that you’ve targeted the right intent for each page—and that you’ve targeted a good mix of commercial and transactional keywords (not just informational).

Look for “buyer keywords” with modifiers like “buy,” “review,” or “best” to update existing content with or target on new pages.

This should help you attract high-intent traffic that will be more likely to convert.

Which Is the Best Keyword Research Tool?

Every keyword research tool brings something different to the table.

Some are great for finding long-tail keywords. Others excel at competitor analysis.

And a few do pretty much everything.

Here’s what matters: picking a tool that aligns with your budget and goals.

Just starting out? Google Keyword Planner is solid (and free).

Ready to level up your SEO game? Explore all-in-one platforms like Semrush that offer deeper insights with both free and paid plans.

If you still need help deciding, read our Semrush Ultimate Guide for an in-depth look at the platform’s best tools and features.

• General SEO
• Keyword Research
• On-Page SEO
• Link Building
• Technical SEO
• Enterprise SEO
• General Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing
• Paid Marketing
• Video Marketing

The 10 Best Free Keyword Research Tools in 2024

• Organic traffic 28.74K
• Linking websites 967

The number of websites linking to this post.

This post's estimated monthly organic search traffic.

• Find keyword ideas that people are searching for
• Check their ranking difficulty
• Figure out the best way to rank

In this post, I’ll share the best free keyword research tools for these tasks.

The best free keyword research tools

1. keyword generator.

Keyword Generator shows up to 150 keyword ideas. Just enter a broad topic, choose your target country, and hit “Find keywords.”

For example, search for “bitcoin,” and you’ll see the 100 most popular keywords containing that word from our database of over 12 billion filtered keywords:

You also see a list of the 50 most popular questions people are searching for:

Each list also has a Keyword Difficulty (KD) score for the first ten keywords. This is easy Easy, Medium, or Hard.

Let’s say you enter “bitcoin,” and the generator kicks back “bitcoin mining.” If you want to explore that topic further, feed it back into the generator. If you want to go even narrower, do another round.

2. Answer The Public

Answer The Public uses autocomplete to find questions people are searching for. Just enter a broad topic, choose your target country, and hit “search.”

For example, search for “bitcoin” and you’ll see 838 keyword ideas split into six categories:

Each category (except for alphabeticals and numbers) visualizes the keyword ideas like this:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t show keyword search volumes. However, the red circles next to each keyword (supposedly) tell you whether it gets a high, average, or low number of monthly searches.

Paste keyword ideas from Answer the Public into Ahrefs’ free keyword generator . The first keyword on the list will usually be the one you entered, and you’ll see its rough search volume.

ChatGPT is a chatbot from OpenAI. It’s not very useful for keyword research as a whole, but it is useful for finding seed keyword ideas.

For example, if you ask for a list of terms related to Bitcoin, here’s what it comes up with:

Not all these are good seed keywords, as they’re too generic and have multiple meanings (e.g., “wallet”), but some are.

For example, suppose you plug a not-so-obvious seed like “hashrate” into our free keyword generator . In this case, it looks like many people are searching for the hashrates of different cryptocurrencies:

Unless you know the crypto industry inside out, you probably wouldn’t have thought of this seed keyword or discovered these keyword ideas.

Don’t ask for keyword ideas. Ask for terms related to a topic by starting your prompt with “give me a list of terms related to…”

Alternatively, try Google Gemini instead:

4. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

Ahrefs Webmaster Tools shows all the keywords you currently rank for in the top 100. Just go to the Organic Keywords report in Site Explorer .

There are many ways to use this report for keyword research, but one of my favorites is to find low-hanging fruit keywords—page-two rankings that you can easily push to page one. To do this, filter for keywords in positions 11-20 and toggle the “Main positions only” switch.

As hardly anyone clicks on page two results, boosting your rankings for these keywords by just a few positions to page one can often massively boost traffic.

For example, we rank in position 11 for “ pagerank ”:

By applying our SEO checklist to this post or refreshing and republishing the content , we could likely hit the first page for this keyword and get way more traffic.

If you have thousands of page two rankings, prioritize keywords with the highest “business potential.”

5. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a keyword research tool for advertisers. But you can also use it to find keywords for SEO. It’s particularly useful for finding related keywords that don’t contain your seed keyword.

For example, search for “crypto,” and it kicks back ideas like “cold wallet” and “hardware wallet”:

In fact, of the 1,184 keyword ideas found by Keyword Planner, 522 don’t contain the seed keyword “crypto.”

Unfortunately, Keyword Planner only gives search volume ranges instead of exact volumes (unless you’re running search ads). But you can always copy and paste ideas into Ahrefs for a more accurate estimate.

Instead of starting with a seed keyword, start with a seed website.

For example, suppose you use bitcoin.org as the seed site. In that case, you get some hyper-specific keyword ideas that you might easily overlook in “conventional” keyword research tools.

6. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) shows how your website performs for its top 1,000 keywords in organic search. Just go to the Search results report.

There are many ways to use this report for keyword research, but one way is to find declining keywords that need your attention.

For example, if we compare the last three months’ performance for the Ahrefs blog to the same period last year and sort the table by “Clicks Difference” from high to low, we can see that we’ve lost the most clicks from the query “google keyword planner”:

To try to fix this, we recently updated and republished our guide to Google Keyword Planner —and it worked.

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

This shows how there’s sometimes more to gain from re-targeting old keywords than going after new ones.

Make sure to choose a year-over-year comparison period in GSC. Otherwise, you risk seeing skewed numbers due to seasonality.

For example, our traffic always dips in December when people are off enjoying the holiday season. If we were to compare the first and last six months of the year, the numbers would be skewed and may lead us astray.

7. Google Trends

Google Trends visualizes the relative search popularity of a keyword over time. It also shows related rising and breakout searches. This is useful for finding trending keywords.

For example, search for “AI content,” and you will see a massive spike in interest recently:

If you then scroll down to the “Related queries” section, you’ll see rising and breakout keywords like “ai content creator,” “open ai,” and “chatgpt”:

There’s often a delay before trending keywords like these appear in traditional keyword research tools, making Google Trends a neat way to find newly popular topics before your competitors.

Just plug a rising topic back into Google Trends.

For example, if you put “Google AI” (a rising topic from our search) into Google Trends, you see more specific things people are searching for around that topic.

8. SERP Checker

SERP Checker shows the top-ranking pages for (almost) any keyword, plus useful SEO metrics for the top three pages. It’s particularly useful for understanding a keyword’s traffic potential.

For example, Keyword Generator shows that “best bitcoin mining rig” has an average monthly search volume of >100 in the US:

But if you plug this keyword into SERP Checker, you see that the top three search results get between 228 and 2.1K estimated monthly search visits. That’s 2-20x more than the keyword’s search volume.

This happens because pages tend to rank for (and get traffic from) many keywords, not just one.

Because of this, the estimated search traffic to the top-ranking pages is usually a better proxy of a keyword’s true traffic potential than search volume. So it’s worth plugging promising keyword ideas into SERP Checker to better understand how much traffic you can get by ranking.

Traffic potential isn’t always higher than a keyword’s search volume. Sometimes it’s lower.

For example, “how many people own bitcoin” gets an estimated 600 monthly searches in the US, but SERP Checker shows that the top-rankings get less traffic than this:

There are many reasons this can happen. In this case, it’s probably because Google answers the question in the SERP, so most searchers don’t need to click a result.

Given that Google recently rolled out AI answers in search results, this is probably going to be a more frequent occurrence in the future.

9. Keyword Difficulty Checker

Keyword Difficulty (KD) Checker estimates how hard it will be to rank in the top 10.

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

Yet the KD score for “gbtc vs bitcoin” is only 9/100, so it should be quite easy to rank for:

That said, KD is based solely on backlinks. It doesn’t consider anything else that may affect ranking difficulty, such as content quality.

Because of this, a high KD score just means you’ll likely need lots of backlinks to compete. You should always investigate ranking difficulty further before going after a keyword.

• Keyword Difficulty: How to Estimate Your Chances to Rank

Check the estimate below the Keyword Difficulty (KD) score.

10. Google Gemini

Gemini is Google’s AI assistant, similar to ChatGPT.

But, unlike ChatGPT, it can pull Google search results and use them to answer questions. This makes it super useful for finding what searchers are looking for when they search for a keyword, otherwise known as their search intent .

Here’s the prompt you can use:

Run a Google search for “[your keyword]” and pull the titles of the top 10 results. Based on these, summarize the search intent of the user in 2-3 sentences.

Here’s an example output for the keyword “air purifier”:

This tells us that searchers are researching the best air purifier to buy, and want research into the best options. In other words, they want a blog post listing the best air purifiers—not a sales page.

Going a step further, we can ask Gemini to visit the top 10 results and tell us the top features they mention.

Here’s the prompt, followed by the response:

Visit those results and give me the top 5-10 features they mention

Just like that, we now know what features users care about and how we should select our blog post’s top picks.

This isn’t free, but Ahrefs users can use the “Identify intent” button in Keywords Explorer . This uses AI to do exactly the same thing as above and breaks the intent of the search results down by popularity.

Free vs. paid keyword tools: how do they compare?

Free keyword research tools are super useful when you’re just starting out. Still, the number of keyword ideas and data they show will always pale compared to paid tools.

For example, search for “bitcoin” in our free keyword generator, and you’ll get 150 keyword ideas. But if you search for the same seed in our paid keyword research tool, Keywords Explorer , and go to the Matching terms report, you get 163,999 keyword ideas:

Plus, there are a bunch of filters to help you find the best ideas for your website.

For example, you might want to find low-difficulty keywords with good search volume and traffic potential. You can do this in seconds by applying Keyword Difficulty (KD), volume, and Traffic Potential (TP):

If you have a new website, you can also add your site’s DR to the “Lowest DR” filter. This will filter for keywords that have sites with the same or less authority (Domain Rating) ranking in the top 10 or top 5:

From there, you can easily check the top-ranking pages to assess the competition. Just click the “SERP” dropdown or click the keyword and scroll to the SERP overview:

Final thoughts

If you’re new to SEO, free keyword research tools will be enough to discover some good keyword ideas for your website. But once your website grows and the value of your time skyrockets, paid keyword research tools are worth every penny.

This is because paid keyword tools give you more data and allow for more efficient workflows, so you can find better keyword ideas in less time.

Looking to learn more about keyword research? Read our beginner’s guide to keyword research , or watch this video :

Did I miss any good free keyword research tools? Ping me on Twitter .