Keyword research is at the center of SEO.
It lets you find out:
what your customers are interested in,
what you are ranking for,
what you could be ranking for, and
how to expand your existing content.
And keyword research is best done using tools that do most of the job for you.
Keyword research tools are a goldmine of information for SEOs, website owners, and content creators.
Knowing how important it is and how useful it can be, you want to be using the best tool available.
When researching this topic, all I could find were lists upon lists of different tools that didn’t really break anything down to help me choose the best keyword research tool.
That’s why I made sure this product showdown does more than present you with the 5 best keyword research tools on the market. You will be able to see exactly what is different between them.
You will know what you get from expensive options and what you are compromising when buying a subscription for a cheaper tool or using a free competitor.
The criteria I explored include the ease of use, the number, and quality of options and functionalities, as well as the price. Here we go.
Semrush
There’s barely a product showdown on the topic that doesn’t list Semrush in the top 3 positions. And for a good reason.
Semrush started as a keyword research tool. Now, it’s a complete SEO tool suite.
Why is it our #1?
Semrush comes with a ton of high-quality keyword data.
It can inform you about the keyword volume, density, difficulty (and their recently updated keyword difficulty formula is very accurate – read their blog post to find out why), Ad CPC, and more.
While there is a learning curve to using this tool, I think the User Interface is more intuitive than with other tools.
The search bar is a great example. You don’t have to find any specific tabs to perform a search. Type whatever you want, and Semrush will figure out what kind of data you are looking for, whether it be keyword analysis or a domain overview.
Top features
Keyword Overview: a quick snapshot of the most important metrics of a keyword.
Keyword Magic Tool: find both short- and long-tail keywords. The tool gives you comprehensive lists of relevant keywords related to your seed.
Phrase Match Report: type a subject you are interested in, and Semrush will provide variations of a keyword that are easier to rank for.
Keyword Analyzer: groups your targeted keywords into clusters to make planning out future posts and campaigns a breeze.
Trend Analysis: lets you know what the given keyword’s ranking was like over the last 12 months. This is very helpful when analyzing rankings over time and the impact of Google algorithm updates. Few other tools show this information.
Keyword Gap Analysis: instantly compares up to 5 domains to show which of your competitors’ keywords your site is not ranking for.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs is the other mogul in the SEO toolkit world. While it isn’t quite as praised as Semrush, the features it offers are many and of comparable accuracy. Ahrefs has its own database from which it pulls information. The tool is best known for its accurate and in-depth backlink analysis.
Why is it our #2?
Among other numerous features, Ahrefs can do all the basics like generate reports on keyword difficulty, suggested keywords, traffic, and more.
Ahrefs keyword metrics
Like SEMrush, Ahrefs makes use of Clickstream data to determine the relationship between keyword volume and the number of clicks you can actually expect from ranking for it. This is incredibly useful; many keywords have huge traffic volume but don’t generate any clicks because of featured snippets and rich results.
The tool also allows you to track the featured snippets you have and suggests which you can possibly steal from competitors.
You can even search a particular domain to see how your competitor is targeting link-building and PPC.
Ahrefs analyses the whole domain and shows referring domains and pages
You can also perform site audits to your own website to make sure no on-page issues are hurting your performance. The overview of your site will also let you know:
how many keywords you are ranking for (and what they are),
how many keywords you are tracking, and
your positions for those keywords.
In direct comparison with Semrush, Ahrefs is missing keyword data like the volume trend and number of results on SERPs. They both give the user search volume, CPC, and competition analysis. Ahrefs may arguably win the last point thanks to their in-depth backlink tracking.
A case study from 2020 shows that it provides more referring domains than Semrush. What’s more, for 2% of all the ones included in the study, Ahrefs was the only one to recognize the backlinks.
When further looking into these two top tools, many SEOs also mention the differences in data updates. Ahrefs does this regularly, so if you plan accordingly, you won’t end up with a fresh post or campaign plan that turns about to be out of date the next day.
Ahrefs outshines other tools with the sheer amount of data you can pull from it. My favorite tools within Ahrefs are the Content Gap Report with Keyword Explorer. Using these tools, you can expand your website structure and the keyword base your site is ranking for to a great level.
source: Patryk Wawok, Technical SEO Specialist at Onely
Let’s have a look at some of these notable Ahrefs features:
Rank Tracking: you can track keywords you are interested in with updates on their traffic by location and device. What’s more, Ahrefs can let you know what your progress against the competition is like for those particular keywords.
Content gap: search which keywords your competitors are ranking for that you are not (there’s even a checkbox to look up only top 10 Google SERPs)
Ahrefs lets you look up the content gap between you and your competitors
What I love about Ahrefs and Semrush are the Keyword GAP/Content gap features. Not sure which tool was the first to introduce this feature, but it’s absolutely nuts! You can easily see what keywords the competitors rank for, but you don’t. Mind the gap!
source: Tomek Rudzki, Head of R&D at Onely
Organic keywords report: among other things, it lets you know which keywords you are already ranking for, but haven’t yet reached the top 3 positions. This is very helpful when you are trying to optimize an existing page. Those are the keywords you should be prioritizing.
Ahrefs shows you the parent topic for each keyword
I appreciate Ahrefs for the quick parent topic identifiation. When I am at the beginning of keyword research and not an expert in the field, this feature allows me to explore queries in a similar way as someone familiar with the subject. This saves time, makes topic exploration faster, and keyword research more relevant.
source: Aleksandra Zarzycka, Technical SEO Specialist at Onely
Tip: especially if you are performing keyword research outside of the US, look up which tool has the largest database for your target location before purchasing a membership.
KWFinder
KWFinder is dedicated to keyword research only. It has limited functionalities when it comes to in-depth competition analysis, gathering backlink data, and the like.
Why is it our #3?
Many SEOs find KWFinder results reasonably accurate. It is a simple tool that helps you find specific keywords and lets you know about their difficulty.
There is practically no learning curve. While there are not a lot of functionalities, those it does have are easy to find and intuitive to use.
KWFinder shows keyword difficulty and search volume over time
There are filters for you to use to make the whole process more convenient and you can export lists to plan posts.
KWFinder shows you related keywords with their CPC, PPC, difficulty and more data points
KWFinder also keeps track of your searches and you can look through the last 20 or so. You can separate those into query types such as questions. It’s good quality for the price you pay.
What’s more, other than Semrush, no other tool provides data on the keyword trend.
Pricing options
There is a 10-day free trial that includes all features and a 48-hour money-back guarantee. There are three plans to choose from.
What you pay What you get
Basic: $29.99
100 keyword searches
200 keyword suggestions
25 competitor keywords
100 SERP lookups
200 tracked keywords per day
100,000 backlink rows per month
20 site lookups
1 user
Premium: $39.99
All of the above features extended
Agency: $79.99
All of the above features further extended
Biggest selling point
The user interface is very intuitive and easy to navigate. If you are a beginner or work on a small scale, this tool is perfect for you.