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Best Keyword planners: Free and premium keyword planning tools

Sitetrail’s guide to the best free and premium keyword planning tools​.

Are you planning on starting a business online? Scale up an existing business? Do you need to know what can make your business stand out against competition? As discussed in our list of  Top 10 SEO Tools In 2022, keyword planning is super important. Let’s help you choose the best keyword planner in order to improve the accuracy of SEO efforts. Whether you’re a freelancer, e shop business owner or you just want to promote your products online, it’s always important to get noticed in the search results. How does this happen? Well, that’s when you need to look into getting a keyword planning tool.

Try Out The No.1 Choice

After comparing numerous keyword research tools, we suggest SEMRush as the most reliable solution for features and pricing.

What is a keyword planning tool?

A keyword planning tool helps you prioritize the right keywords for your page, so that when your target audience is looking for something, your page can show up in the results. By investing or playing around with a keyword planner, you’re able to understand which keywords help you stand out, monitor the most searched keywords monthly, organise the right keywords for the right categories and even manage the costs for advertising.

If you’re new to all of this, then don’t worry, since we have listed out the best keyword planners that are both free and premium, for you to choose from.

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Best Premium Keyword planners

#1 Ahrefs - $7 - $999 a month

Editors' rating:
4/5

Over 2,000 subscribers use the keyword planning tool Ahrefs, including huge brands such as Facebook and Netflix. They have trial periods for their package that start at $7 and then the most expensive monthly package is $999. This company supports over 171 countries and has multiple tools to use. 

#2 Keywordtool.io -$0 -$159 a month

Editors' rating:
4.8/5

This is a free keyword planning tool that works with the Google Autocomplete structure. This means that they find hundreds of relevant keywords for your business, by using the Google Search feature, which is Google Autocomplete. Many big brands such as Forbes are pleased with this keyword planning tool. They also help you plan keywords search terms for all platforms such as Youtube, Instagram, Amazon, Twitter and Bing.

 

 Even though they offer a free version, there’s a paid version too. The highest paid version is the business plan, which costs $159 a month.

#3 SEMrush - $99.95 - $399.95 a month

Editors' rating:
5/5

This company is ideal for freelancers, startup companies and agencies. They offer over 40 advanced tools, including checking your competitors’ traffic, monitoring social media results and analyzing historical data. Suggestion: Read the FULL SEMRush Review

#4 Google Ads - $15 - $800 month

Editors' rating:
5/5

Google Ads is the most popular Keyword planning tool and SEO tool to use. You do not pay for a plan right away, but you pay for ads per click which can be anywhere between 15 to 800 dollars a month. Google Ads is directly connected to the search engine tool itself, so there is always a guarantee for success. It’s also budget friendly and allows you to pause ads, so that way you’re not overspending.

#5 Moz - $129 - $299 a year

Editors' rating:
5/5

This company is known to have a great reputation for its Keyword Planning Tool. They’re popular for the good customer service that they offer and the easy dashboard that even beginners can use. They have over 500 million keyword suggestions, 180 million fresh ranking keywords and over 170 Google search engines. They offer free SEO tools, for a 30 day trial.  However, they offer paid plans for annual costs with advanced features.

#6 ScrapeBox - $97

Editors' rating:
4.6/5

This company is known to have one of the most powerful SEO tools and an efficient Keyword Planning Tool. It’s used by Fortune 500 companies, startup companies and freelancers worldwide. With ScrapeBox you pay $97 for a one time payment, but receive plenty of useful tools to help market and advertise your business.

#7 KeyWord Discovery - $0 to $49.95 a month

Editors' rating:
4.7/5

KeyWord discovery truly understands the importance of a successful business through powerful marketing campaigns. It’s known to have the largest database for keyword searches, with unlimited suggestions for different categories. They offer a free trial or you can choose the premium plan for $49.95 a month. Many startup companies are pleased with the results that their tools bring.

#8 Surfer - $0 -$165.80 a month

Editors' rating:
4/5

This company offers many tools such as Content Editor, SEO tools and a Keyword Planning Tool. You can take advantage of their free 7 day trial for $1, or choose their basic, Pro or business plan with the highest cost $165.80 a month. With their Keyword Planning Tool you can boost organic traffic to your page and instantly analyze new keywords.

Best Free Keyword planners

#1 Wordstream - Free

Editors' rating:
5/5

Wordstream is in partnership with Google and offers you free tools for you to use. It’s highly praised by freelancers, creators and start up businesses, since it has an easy navigation system and fast results. This company also has an award winning Google Ads Performance Grader and a budget friendly marketing strategy for per click ads.

#2 Infinite Suggest - Free

Editors' rating:
5/5

This is a straightforward and easy Keyword Planning Tool to use. It’s got a simple navigation system that allows you to search up keywords that’s suitable for your content or business. It’s linked to Google, which means that it’s efficient and can guarantee results. It’s especially suitable for freelancers who are starting out, or content creators that want their image to grow.

What should you look for in a Keyword Planning Tool?

There is no ‘best keyword planning tool’ because each company offers many different benefits. However, it’s important to choose one that’s suitable for your profile. This means that if you’re a freelancer that has a small site that you wish to grow, it’s best to try out free keyword planning tools first in order to see if it’s necessary for you to have all the advanced features or not. If you’re a start up company or an e commerce business that’s looking to expand and build a stable profit online, then it’s best to invest in a Keyword Planning Tool that offers premium plans with key features that can help you achieve your goals.

Is it worth getting a Keyword Planning Tool for a premium price?

Yes, because if you’re planning on having a healthy cash flow from your online content or business, you need the necessary tools for success. While most free Keyword Planning Tools offer the necessities for basic Keyword search and data, premium packages are tailored to your needs for business or professional freelancers. They are created by experts who understand how online marketing strategies and advertising works, meaning that they will deliver promising results.

Can I cancel or change premium plans?

This is all down to the company that you choose to sign up with. Each brand has a different terms and condition, however, there usually is the flexibility of being able to cancel, upgrade or downgrade your plan. In order to look further into this, it’s best to contact the customer support team for the company that you’ve signed up with.

Do all brands offer free trials for the Keyword Planning Tool?

Not all of the companies that we listed above offer a free trial. Some require for you to pay a small fee for a trial, whilst others offer a free trial for a week or more.

Why should I use a Keyword Planning Tool?

Online businesses are growing daily and many content creators are choosing to work as freelancers full time. This means that there’s a lot of competition out there and in order to be discovered in a pool of competitors, you need to stand out. How? You need the relevant tools that can drive you organic traffic, help you compare results against your competition and analyze the trending keywords that your readers/consumers are searching for. 

 

A Keyword Planning Tool is an important tool to use, along with other SEO Tools and great website builders in order to give a great impression to your visitors. It’s simply an ingredient to the recipe of success and there’s plenty of resources that can help you online.

Pros and cons of using a Keyword Planner Tool

The main advantages of using a Keyword Planner Tool is to help you build traffic and understand what are the relevant keywords needed in order for your content or business to become known. It’s also useful as it helps you climb to the top on search pages for search engines such as Google and Bing. Overall, it’s a great way to analyze and monitor your results, which can make you beat competition and have unlimited suggestions for useful keyword searches.

 

The disadvantages are that it can be costly depending on the plan you choose and if you’re a small freelancer or business that’s trying to keep costs to a minimum. Another disadvantage is that it’ll take a lot of time to graft and work hard towards real results. Therefore, it’s important to be patient, set realistic goals and understand that success doesn’t happen overnight. Another thing to consider is that it’ll be you as an individual that will have to learn all these necessities on how the tool functions, which means that you can only rely on yourself for true success. 

 

There are social media and marketing managers that you can hire, but if you want everything to be cost effective, it’ll have to be a new learning curve for you.

Our say

So what would be the best keyword research tool in the world? The choice is not too tough: SEMRush is currently our top choice and the reasons are obvious: reliable data, good pricing and it is trusted by SEO agencies worldwide. (Try SEMRush here to see why)

It’s best to take advantage of all the useful tools out there and to take your time in order to feel confident with using them. Successful businesses grow with time and there’s unlimited resources that you can use as step by step guides as well. Most of the companies that we’ve listed above have efficient and good customer support that can tailor to your needs, as well as answer any questions that boggles your mind. Even though it may seem like a daunting challenge to take on, it’s actually rewarding and can help you achieve all your goals in a realistic timeframe. It’s most definitely a tool that you should test and see if it fits your needs.

Finally – by using the best keyword research tool on the market, you can act on the latest competitive data to get ahead of the game. 

Successful business owners, marketing professionals, or content creators looking to improve website traffic or enhance their content often use keywords to develop relevant content in order to translate a clear message to their audience. Simply put, keywords indicate ideas or topics that define any particular content. For professionals in this field, these keywords act as words and phrases that readers and searchers enter into search engines like Google or Yahoo to find the exact content they’re looking for. 

Why are Keywords Important? 

Understanding which keywords to target could likely be the core of SEO and content strategy. In today’s digital age, millions of websites and brands are available on the internet and are doubling down on SEO tactics in order to boost brand awareness as an attempt to refine their site traffic, making the digital marketplace for marketing professionals and content creators more competitive than ever before. 

 

Keywords are essential to content creators who need to improve their website traffic since they act as a missing link between a searching audience and the provided content. Aside from refining traffic, search engines depend on strong keywords and phrases to increase web page rankings since these mechanisms drive organic traffic to a web page from the search engine results page (SERPS). 

 

By doing relevant research and using keyword maps or planners, professionals may better understand the impact of their existing content and adapt it by identifying weaker links or gaps in their pieces. Since keywords can act as a mechanism to develop strategy, they also define each page of any particular website, indicating keywords have the capacity to formulate a content strategy and organize content.   

What Keywords Tools are Used for?

Since every search could be described as an expression of a reader’s interests, using keyword tools could primarily benefit professionals in the field looking to publish quality content to drive organic web page traffic. Keyword tools have the capacity to discover hundreds of new long-tail keywords related to any particular topic by automatically generating Google’s search suggestions. By employing Google Suggest, this online tool may prove to be valuable for keyword research; this means that professionals should be using words and phrases that their readers and potential audience is already searching for while also looking for similar content online. 

 

Keyword tools may aid in understanding what people are searching for online by displaying different words, phrases, products, and hashtags that are trending on various search engines in different countries surrounding a particular topic of interest. By creating content around popular and relevant keywords, professionals have the potential to deliver valuable quality content and increase their web page’s Google rankings. While keyword tools often generate keywords from a variety of different search engines like Google, Youtube, Amazon, and social media platforms, most keywords, hashtags, and products are rendered from the autocomplete data of search engines. 

How to Use a Keyword Tool?

While all keyword tools have varying user interfaces, they all serve the same function. To use this digital mechanism, users could put a keyword into their keyword tools search bar, generating several results displaying suggestions, data, and hashtags to use at the users’ discretion.  Using this content creation method could ideally result in higher site rankings and more precise content production, which readers are more likely to enjoy. 

Final Takeaway

Overall, keyword tools have the potential to provide business owners, and marketing professionals with all the information they could need in order to generate worthy high ranking content on websites and web pages. While keyword tools differ in terms of features, they all serve the same functionality purpose: optimize SEO word production and plan quality content distribution. For professionals, it is essential to understand that the tools used to gather research for development directly impact the type of data available to gather. This could especially be true when it comes to understanding keyword tools and their purpose in the digital market. Great keyword tools may likely provide actionable data in search queries and may aid in identifying opportunities that would otherwise not be considered. 



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Do check back for regular updates!

Suggested reading: SEO statistics.