Best Free KW Research Tools for Small Businesses

You can't really pull off an SEO strategy without killer keyword research.

And a lot of small business don't have the budget to pay for an expensive keyword research tool every month.

In this post, I'm going to quickly share some of my favorite free keyword research tools for small businesses - so you can spend your SEO time effectively by targeting great keywords, without breaking the bank.

Why Free KW Tools?

Maybe you don't have the budget for an expensive tool. Maybe SEO isn't a priority for you right now but you still want to spend your time effectively.

The fact is, knowing which keywords to target is a must. If you're targeting keywords that nobody is searching for, or that your site can't rank for, you're going to be wasting your time.

So even if you can't really afford a top-tier keyword research tool, these free options will still help you loads. And you might be surprised where you'll find them!

Top Free KW Research Tools

Google Search Console - Did you know that Google allows you to claim your site and get a full suite of SEO visibility tools, including data on which keywords your website already shows up for? This is a great opportunity to find keywords you're already ranking for, that you can do a better job of targeting.

Bing Search Console - Similar to GSC, Bing also provides tools to help you research keywords for their search engine.

Google KW Planner - If you have a Google Ads account, you can use Google Keyword Planner to get keyword estimates right from the horse's mouth. The catch is that if you're not spending a certain amount on Google Ads each month, you'll only get search volume ranges instead of full estimates.

AHREFs Webmaster Tools - This is actually one of my favorite SEO tools and I recommend everyone set it up even if they don't want a paid AHREFs plan. When you sign up and verify that you own the site with your GSC integration, you'll be able to see keywords that you're already ranking for.

Google Trends - Get an idea of general topic trends using this fun tool, which can help you get an idea of interest in certain keywords over time, and even compare interest in certain topics.

Answer The Public - Want to find specific questions asked on multiple search engines? ATP is a great free tool for that.

Wordstream - Interestingly, this little-mentioned free tool by Wordstream can help you find some new keywords and get a rough idea of search volume. I like to use this when I need something super fast with a specific type of output, where I don't have to log in.

Best Paid KW Research Tools

I'm not going to get fully into the paid keyword tools, as that deserves a separate post. But I'll list them out for you quickly here: AHREFs, Keysearch, Semrush, and Mangools kw tool are some of my favorites.

• AHREFs

• SEMRush

• Keysearch

• Mangools KWFinder

• LowFruits

• RankIQ

Which of these tools are your favorite?