12 Free Keyword Research Tools: Maximize SEO Strategy

Last Updated on 31/08/2025

Keyword Research is a process used by SEO professionals to identify search terms that users enter into search engines when searching for a product, service, or general query. Keywords are the queries users ask in search engines.

Queries can be of four types:

a. Navigational Search Query

b. Informational Search Query

c. Transactional Search Query

d. Commercial Search Query

SEO professionals first research keywords and then align web pages with these keywords to get good rankings in SERPs. Keyword suggestion tools aid in the research process for finding relevant keywords.

If you’re looking to improve your rankings, it’s highly beneficial to hire SEO services to ensure your strategy is tailored for success.

The main aim of keyword research is to generate, with accuracy, a large number of terms that are highly related to the given input keyword. Keyword research involves the use of keyword research tools. We have given a list of free keyword research tools below.

Here are 12 Free Keyword Research Tools:

Google Keywords Planner:

It is a free tool for conducting basic keyword analysis. It helps to research keywords for your search campaigns. You can use this tool to discover new keywords related to your business and view estimates of the search volume they receive and the cost to target them.

Features of Google Keywords Planner:

• You can get suggestions for keywords related to your products, services, or website.
• You can see estimates on your monthly searches.
• You can check the average cost for your ad to show on SERPs for a keyword.
• You can organize your keywords related to your brand.
• You can create new campaigns.

Soolve:

It is a customizable search engine aggregator that collects search suggestions from up to 15 different engines like Google, Bing, Wikipedia, Amazon, and more. It displays the top suggested searches related to your seed keyword across each search platform.

Features of Soolve:

• It collects data from over 15 search engines to provide keyword suggestions.
• It has a simple and user-friendly interface.
• You can export reports of generated keywords and you can save the suggestions offered to you by exporting them to an external document.
• It has a keyword suggestion feature.
• It also allows for image search in addition to textual search.

AnswerThePublic:

It is a keyword research tool that collects Google autocomplete suggestions to help you find long-tail keywords for a specific topic. It utilizes autocomplete data collected from Google and Bing across 191 countries.

Features of AnsweThePublic:

• You can get unlimited daily searches.
• You can monitor and receive alerts for new suggestions.
• You can easily compare changes in search behavior over time.
• You can create separate folders to organize your keyword research.
• You can export your results to a CSV file.
• You can export high-res images to present your insights.

Ubersuggest:

If you want more traffic, Ubersuggest is a great option. It shows you the ways to win the game of SEO. To get started, please type in a domain or keyword.

Features of Ubersuggest:

• Ubersuggest allows you to get an in-depth insight into the strategies that are working for others in your market so you can adopt them.
• You can get the top SEO pages report and discover which of your competitors’ pages are ranking for popular organic keyword phrases.
• You will get hundreds of keyword ideas from their free keyword tool.

QuestionDB:

QuestionDB focuses on questions that people ask on websites and forums, such as Reddit and Stack Exchange.

Features of QuestionDB:

• Find ideas that traditional keyword tools miss.
• Its huge database of questions gives you more particular insight into what your audience actually wants to know.
• You can sort your results based on popularity.

Keyword Surfer:

It is a free extension that allows you to see search volumes in SERPs.It is the fastest way to reveal search data, run keyword research, and get content guidelines directly in Google Search. For every search in Google, you can check CPC, keyword suggestions, related terms,on-page data, etc.

Features of Keyword Surfer:

• You can see the monthly search volume for your keyword and all similar keywords that you can use for your strategy.
• Discover new keyword ideas to unlock additional ranking opportunities.
• You can uncover data from the top 10 competitors, like the domain’s monthly traffic, content word count, number of exact keywords, etc.
• You can get content guidelines based on your competitor’s pages and Surfer’s NLP-powered algorithms.

Bulk Keyword Generator:

It is a free local SEO keyword tool for small marketers and businesses. It is a keyword suggestion tool designed for local keyword research.

Features of Bulk Keyword Generator:

• You can search for keywords related to your business type and it also allows you to choose the category in which your company falls.
• You can enter the addresses of your company’s various locations.
• You can export the data from keyword research in CSV format.

H-supertools:

It is one of the best free SEO and digital marketing tools you will ever need. You can find the best keywords with search volume data in a few seconds using this tool. Its keyword research tool is the best alternative to Google Keyword Planner. It will provide you with metrics such as CPCs and volumes.

Features of H-supertools:

• Using it does not require you to create an account. 
• You can customize your keyword research with options.
• Check your monthly search volume for free.
• You can explore the paid competition for a particular keyword.
• Discover the CPC to prioritize keywords and find easy-to-rank keywords.

The HOTH:

The HOTH makes it easy to enhance your business and improve your SEO. You can create a free HOTH account to get access to 22+ SEO & PPC tools, free training & DIY resources, and a personalized SEO and PPC.

Features of The Hoth:

• The Hoth Keyword Planner will give you three types of keyword research opportunities: keyword gap analysis, keyword research, and keyword volume checker.
• The keyword planner can help you estimate the traffic for a specific keyword.
• It is used to generate ideas for new content.

RankTank:

RankTank offers a collection of free SEO tools, including technical SEO information and DIY tutorials. It has a keyword rank checker SEO tool that will let you check keyword rankings relative to your domain, right inside of a spreadsheet. It automates the task of checking your domain name ranking within SERPs.The unique feature of RankTank is that it analyses live keyword ranking.

Features of RankTank:

• It shows accurate and real-time keyword rank results.
• It supports over 200 countries and 150 languages globally.
• Its keyword research tool comes with the Google Autocomplete API.

Small SEO tools:

It is a combination of multiple tools that make creating content easier. The tools include a plagiarism checker, grammar check, word counter, spell checker, paraphrasing tool, and more.

Features of Small SEO Tools:

• You can check your keyword rank in Google’s ranking by using their free keyword position checker.
• You can identify the competition for popular keywords with strong commercial potential in your niche by using a keyword competition checker. 
• Its free keyword suggestion tool will give you a list of suggested keywords for the seed keyword for your specific purpose.
• With their related keywords finder, you can get thousands of long-tail keywords.

Google’s ‘People Also Ask’:

Google’s ‘ People Also Ask’ is a feature that answers queries related to the user’s search query. Under each answer, a link to the source can be clicked to open the web page that provides the answer. Many SEOs and SEMs use the ‘people also ask’ feature for content and keyword generation ideas.

Features of ‘People Also Ask’:

• It is a rich snippet feature that provides users with additional information they may be looking for in response to their initial query.
• PAA questions are seemingly infinite and the answer formats vary.
• PAA boxes can drive traffic, as every answer contains a link to the source.
• Advertising pages, photos, videos, and PPC segments can be included based on the theme of the search query. 
• PAA questions can be synchronized with featured snippets and the same can be applied to different keywords.

Conclusion:

A good keyword research tool is crucial for SEO, as it ensures that your content reaches the right audience. We have given a list of the top 12 free keyword research tools.

Each of these tools is unique in its way and you can choose any of them based on your requirement.

Also check out our post: SERP Analysis Tools & Ranking Insights for SEO