Find SEO keywords with these 5 FREE tools

Hi — Mirco here.

Doing keyword research is easy:

Open Ahrefs or Semrush, insert your keyword, filter for low competition and high search volume. Done.

Simple process, right?

The caveat here: It’s only this simple with a paid keyword tool.

But hold on:

Today I'm going to show you how to find keywords for your niche with completely FREE tools.

In fact, they're the tools I often use myself most of the time.

So let's right dive in.

1. Google Suggest

One of the most powerful tools for finding long-tail keywords is built into Google Search.

Just enter a search term and see what Google spits out.

Here is an example for home gardening:

The best part?

The results are even sorted by relevance. So you can assume that the top queries are searched for more.

But it doesn’t end there:

You can check any other sub-terms with an A-Z analysis. Just begin typing “a” after your keyword:

This way you will not only find terms for a new article, but also which keywords and questions you should include in your already written article.

2. Google Trends

Another Google tool:

Google Trends shows you the trend volume of a term and other related keywords.

In this way, you can see immediately what is currently popular with the target group and which topics have SEO potential.

Here you can see what is currently hot on the topic of "WhatsApp":

But that's not all:

With Google Trends you can also check...

• which of several topics is more relevant

• which spelling of a term is more common

• which related topics are important

I can't imagine my everyday life without it!

3. MOZ Free Keyword Explorer

The MOZ Keyword Explorer also shows you keywords with search volume and difficulty.

This way you can estimate whether you can rank for a certain keyword.

Here’s an example for home gardening again:

I’d recommend to pick a few keywords and put them into search to see the difficulty score:

But of course, there’s a catch…

The free version is limited to 10 queries per month.

4. Ahrefs and Semrush Free Keyword Explorer

Ahrefs and Semrush are paid tools, but they still offer a stripped-down free version of their tools.

Unfortunately, it only reveals a few keywords, but it also shows search volume and difficulty.

One trick:

Research keywords with Google Suggest and throw them into Ahrefs or Semrush.

This way you’ll see the exact search volume and difficulty score you wouldn’t find otherwise.

5. Google Keyword Planner

What about the Google Keyword Planner?

Even if I don't really want to, I have to mention this tool.

It is one of the few free tools that shows you the actual search volume per keyword.

However, there are several catches:

1. The search volume is only shown as a range. For example 1-10k.

So you have to estimate.

2. You need a Google AdSense account for the Keyword Planner. But you can create one for free. You do not have to place an ad.

The tool is actually intended for paid keywords. And that leads us to the biggest catch:

3. You can completely forget about the competition metric in Keyword Planner for SEO. It refers to ads, not to organic rankings.

Honorable Mentions

Of course, there’re more tools out there - most of them freemium.

Here’re some suggestions:

• Ubersuggest.io

• Answer The Public

Did I forget any? Let me know!

I read every mail.

That's all for this week. Thanks for reading. 🙏

Mirco