The 9 Best Free Keyword Research Tools

Answer The Public
ChatGPT
Keyword Generator
Google Trends
Google Search Console
Google Keyword Planner
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools
SERP Checker
Keyword Difficulty Checker

Keyword research is a three-step process:

Find keyword ideas related to your niche/topic that people are searching for
Check their ranking difficulty
Figure out the best way to rank

In this post, you’ll learn how to find out these tasks with nine free keyword research tools.

The 9 best free keyword research tools which are trending for Searching Keyword Idea:

Answer The Public for finding keywords phrased as questions.
ChatGPT for finding seed keyword ideas.
Keyword Generator for finding popular keyword ideas and topic.
Google Trends for finding breakout keywords.
Google Search Console for finding declining keywords.
Google Keyword Planner for finding related keywords.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for finding low-hanging keyword opportunities.
SERP Checker for analyzing a keyword’s traffic potential.
Keyword Difficulty Checker for checking a keyword’s ranking difficulty.

1. 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". This tool is an all-around free SEO keyword research tool. It provides you with keyword suggestions, search volume data, and keyword difficulty scores

For example, search a keyword for “bitcoin” and you’ll see 100 keyword ideas split into with question :

Each category (except for alphabetical) visualizes the keyword ideas like this:

Unfortunately, it doesn’t give you idea of keyword search volumes. but, the red circles next to each keyword (Provide information) tell you whether it gets a high, average, or low number of monthly searches.

LOOKING FOR ACTUAL SEARCH VOLUMES?

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

2. ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a chatbot from OpenAI. It’s can not very useful for keyword research as a whole, but it can useful for finding seed keyword ideas.
ChatGPT is a versatile AI-powered tool that can assist in generating seed keyword ideas.
By providing a brief description or context about your niche or topic, ChatGPT can generate a list of related keywords and topics based on its training data and language capabilities.
This can be a helpful starting point for keyword research and content planning, as it offers a quick and creative way to discover new seed keywords that you might not have considered.
ChatGPT's natural language processing abilities make it a valuable resource for content creators and SEO professionals seeking fresh keyword ideas to enhance their content strategy.

For example, if you ask for a list of terms related to bitcoin, here’s we will get result idea:

Not all of these are good seed keywords because they’re too common and have multiple meanings , but some are useful.

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

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

GETTING RESULTS FROM YOUR CHATGPT PROMPTS?

Don’t ask for keyword ideas, Ask directly for terms related to a topic by starting your prompt with “give me a list of terms related to "Your Topic Nam”

3. Keyword Generator

KeywordGenerator shows up to 150 keyword ideas. Just enter a broad topic, choose your target country, and hit “Find keywords.”
A Keyword Generator is a valuable tool for finding popular keyword ideas and topics for content creation and search engine optimization (SEO).
It helps you discover relevant keywords that people frequently search for on search engines like Google.By entering a seed keyword or topic, the Keyword Generator provides a list of related keywords, their search volume, and competitiveness.
This information helps content creators and website owners identify the most relevant and high-traffic keywords to target, improving the visibility of their content in search engine results.
It's an essential tool for optimizing content, increasing organic traffic, and staying competitive in the digital landscape.

For example, search for “bitcoin,” and you’ll see the 50 most popular keywords containing that word from our database of over billion 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 10 keywords. The closer this is to 100, the harder it’ll be to rank for the keyword .

KEYWORD IDEAS TOO BROAD? FEED THEM BACK INTO THE GENERATOR

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.

4. 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.
Google Trends is a powerful tool for discovering breakout keyword ideas and trending topics. It provides insights into what people are currently searching for on Google, helping you identify rising trends and popular topics.
With Google Trends, you can track the search volume and interest over time for specific keywords or topics. This information is invaluable for content creators, marketers, and businesses looking to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, create timely and relevant content, and optimize their online presence to capture the attention of a broader audience.
It's an essential resource for staying competitive in the fast-paced world of digital content.

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.

LOOKING FOR SPECIFIC IDEAS RELATED TO TRENDING TOPICS?

Just plug a rising topic back into Google Trends.

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

5. Google Search Console

GoogleSearch Console (GSC) shows how your website performs for its top 1,000 keywords in organic search. Just go to the Search results report.
Google Search Console is a valuable tool for tracking declining keywords and optimizing your online content.
It provides insights into the performance of your website in Google's search results, allowing you to identify keywords that may have lost visibility or are declining in rankings.
By monitoring these declining keywords, you can take proactive measures to improve your content, update it, or enhance your SEO strategies to regain lost visibility and traffic.
Google Search Console is a crucial resource for webmasters, SEO professionals, and site owners looking to maintain and enhance their website's search engine presence.

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 ourguide 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 retargeting old keywords than going after new ones.

DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE OF IGNORING SEASONALITY

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 might lead us astray.

6. Google Keyword Planner

GoogleKeyword 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.
Google Keyword Planner is a powerful tool for discovering related keywords and refining your content strategy.
It is designed to help advertisers find relevant keywords for their Google Ads campaigns, but it's also valuable for content creators and SEO specialists.
By entering a seed keyword or topic, Google Keyword Planner provides a list of related keywords, along with data on their search volume, competition, and suggested bid.
This information assists in identifying relevant keywords to target in your content, ensuring that it resonates with your audience and ranks well in search engine results. It's a fundamental tool for optimizing your content and improving your website's visibility.

For example, search for “crypto,” and it kicks back ideas like “altcoin” and “safemoon coin”:

In fact, of the 880 keyword ideas found by Keyword Planner, 735 don’t contain the seed keyword “cryptocurrency.”

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’ free keyword generator for a more accurate estimate.

LOOKING FOR EVEN MORE RELATED KEYWORDS?

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.

7. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools

AhrefsWebmaster Tools shows all the keywords you currently rank for in the top 100. Just go to the Organic keywords report in Site Explorer.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is a valuable resource for identifying low-hanging keyword opportunities to improve your website's search engine rankings.
This tool provides insights into your website's performance and reveals keywords for which your site is ranking but not yet dominating search results. By identifying these low-competition keywords, you can create content and optimize existing pages to capture additional organic traffic.
Ahrefs Webmaster Tools is an essential asset for SEO professionals and website owners looking to capitalize on untapped keyword potential and enhance their online presence.

There are many ways to use this report for keyword research, but one of my favorites is to find low-hanging page two rankings. 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 refreshingand republishing the content, we could likely hit the first page for this keyword and get way more traffic.

NOT SURE WHICH KEYWORDS TO PRIORITIZE?

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

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.
A SERP Checker, or Search Engine Results Page Checker, is a tool used to analyze a keyword's traffic potential by providing insights into how specific keywords or phrases rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).
This tool typically displays which websites are currently ranking for a particular keyword, their positions, and various elements of the search results, such as featured snippets or image carousels.
Using a SERP Checker helps SEO professionals and website owners understand the competition for specific keywords, assess the ranking difficulty, and identify opportunities to optimize their content and improve their search engine visibility.
By analyzing the SERP, you can determine whether a keyword is worth targeting and what strategies may be necessary to enhance your website's performance in search results.

For example, Keyword Generator shows that “best bitcoin mining rig” has an average monthly search volume of 500 in the U.S.:

But if you plug this keyword into SERP Checker, you see that the top three search results get between 1K and 1.8K estimated monthly search visits. That’s 2-4X 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.

DO TOP-RANKING PAGES GET LESS TRAFFIC THAN THE KEYWORD’S SEARCH VOLUME?

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 1.4K monthly searches in the U.S., but SERP Checker shows that the top-rankings get significantly less traffic than this—despite ranking for hundreds of keywords:

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

9. Keyword Difficulty Checker

KeywordDifficulty (KD) Checker estimates how hard it will be to rank in the top 10.
A Keyword Difficulty Checker is a tool that assesses the level of competition and ranking difficulty for a specific keyword. It typically provides a score or metric that indicates how challenging it would be to achieve a high search engine ranking for that keyword.
This score is based on factors such as the number of websites targeting the keyword, the quality and authority of those websites, and other SEO-related elements.
Using a Keyword Difficulty Checker is essential for SEO professionals and website owners to make informed decisions about which keywords to target in their content and SEO strategies.
It helps identify keywords with lower competition, making it more achievable to improve your website's search engine ranking and visibility.

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

Yet the KD score for “litecoin 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.