What are the best SEO keyword tools? Listed below are my favorite keyword research tools, which we will explore more in-depth later on.

1. SEMRush – Favourite keyword research tool
2. Inlinks
3. Ahrefs
4. Ubersuggest
5. Moz
6. Keywords Everywhere
7. Google Keyword Planner

1. SEMRush – Best Keyword Research Tool

Hands-down the best keyword research tool I’ve used is SEMRush. It’s a paid tool, and it’s not cheap, but this tool is by far the best for heavy users. I use this tool every day, it’s the first thing I log into when I start my workday.

This tool does more than provide keyword suggestions, SEMRush takes a deep dive into related keywords, monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, keyword data, cost-per-click data, and more.

You can use more types of filters and parameters to extrapolate on your original term to find even more options and keyword data in the keyword magic tool, including:

• Broad match – Any variation of your seed keyword or keyword phrase in any order.
• Phrase match – Exact keyword or keyword phrase in various orders.
• Exact match – Exact keyword or keyword phrase in exact order.
• Related – A list of related keywords that are similar to your seed keyword.
• Questions – A list of question-based keywords that contain your seed keyword.

I love the data that SEMRush outputs and I’m just a huge fan of how their user interface functions.

SEMRush is much more than just a keyword research tool, but this post is specifically about keyword research tools, so I’ll stick with this for now and move into my next favourite keyword tool.

2. Inlinks – Semantic SEO Keyword Research Tool

Semantic SEO is the newest, most effective way to research and create keyword ideas. Semantic SEO posits that Google relies on entities and that the search engine uses a knowledge panel to identify particular entities via Artificial Intelligence. You can use this to leverage the way you conduct keyword research and build out your content.

Inlinks is a tool that identifies these entities and clusters the topics together in categories and sub-categories. Within those categories and sub-categories are keywords and questions that are all related together within those potential entities.

By writing content on a series of closely related topic clusters and linking them together, Google will view your site as more of an expert on those subjects. This would result in a better ranking for seed keywords with higher search volumes.

I find this to be a unique and very interesting way to provide solid content marketing. This is a more advanced practice, however, you can use these categories and topic clusters to create an extremely user-friendly site structure and navigation, while also appealing to search engines.

That makes Inlinks one of the best keyword research tools on the market today.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the big competitors on the block, and many blogging gurus use this keyword research tool.

I used to use it quite a bit myself but found that I could get what I needed elsewhere, and at a lower cost. Honestly, I’m not a huge fan of their new pricing tiers. They are putting limits on certain monthly spending and charging more based on usage. Which is horrible for someone who uses keyword research every day.

The keyword research portion of Ahrefs is good. It gives you a decent amount of data to work with. The issue I have is that the SERP overview isn’t as user-friendly as some of the other tools on this list and the UI is a bit old school for my test.

It’s very similar to SEMRush in terms of the data that it provides.

Ahrefs version is called the keywords explorer.

4. Ubersuggest – Limited Free Tool (3 searches per day)

UberSuggest is a paid keyword research tool, however, you only get three free searches each day to utilize as a keyword research tool. In terms of free keyword research tools, this works for a few searches and general exploration, but it isn’t ideal for bulk keyword suggestions.

The paid tool is solid, I used to use this tool exclusively on one of my old websites and I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable it was. It was affordable and also just as good quality as something like Ahrefs or SEMRush. So in the time when I couldn’t afford to pay for SEMRush, I switched to Ubersuggest.

If I was brand new to blogging or digital marketing, I would likely recommend this tool as a solid starter option.

5. Moz

Moz keyword research tool is one of the more trusted in the industry. I think this is partially due to their history in SEO and also because they have some very recognizable faces within the blogging world that use their tools. I find that more people that work as local SEO professionals use this tool and fewer bloggers/professional content marketers.

The keyword research tool itself is okay. I find it a little dated in design, but it’s user-friendly enough. I also have compared some of the data to my analytics and it seems to be less accurate than a tool like SEMRush, but I don’t have any other hard evidence to support this claim.

The issue for me is the price. It’s one of the more expensive tools on this list, especially if you want to add extra users. If you are in an agency or have multiple people working on SEO for your business, it can get rather costly.

6. Keywords Everywhere

This tool went with a different type of approach to the way their tool functions. You can use this as a chrome extension right within the google search results.

I find that the data isn’t as accurate as some of the other options on this list, but it’s a solid tool for getting quick ideas and starting points.

7. Google Keyword Planner – Best Free Keyword Research Tool

This is likely the first keyword research tool that you will come across. Google Keyword Planner is a free keyword research tool provided by, you guessed it, Google.

I find that the data tends to be a little less accurate than some of the other tools on this list but it’s still useful when starting out and getting an idea of what keywords you should be targeting.

The main issue I have with this tool is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get accurate data. Google is starting to restrict the amount of data that you can see unless you are running ads. So if you don’t want to spend money on ads, this tool isn’t going to be as useful as it once was.