Top 15 Google Keyword Planner Tool Alternatives
For a long time, this tool was the ultimate tool (it still is if you put in a decent budget) for keyword research.
Content marketers, SEOs, web admins, and advertisers love it because it provides free data. However, this has since changed. Google now requires an AdWords account to access its Keyword Planner.
And if you're like many startups reluctant to spend their limited cash on something as basic as keyword research, you will need access to most of the tool's in-depth research features, even with an AdWords account.
However, all is not lost. Many free and paid keyword research tools offer alternative insights and exact replicas of the data you would get from Google's Keyword Planner.
In this article, you'll find 15 of the best free and premium keyword tools instead of Google Keyword Planner.
1. 7Search
7search.com is one of the least frequently mentioned keyword tools on the web. Yet it's one of the best, especially since it's free and has a simple interface.
The 7search keyword research tool provides keyword ideas and search volume for your target keywords.
2. Word Tracker
Information about your competitors can be beneficial in marketing. When it comes to keyword research, Wordtracker is the tool that gives you that information.
This free keyword tool reveals high-performing keywords quickly and through an easy-to-use interface.
The interface displays information about what people are searching for, several valuable long-tail keyword suggestions, and the level of competition for the respective keywords.
Once you've set up your free account, you can analyze your competitors' activities and access high-level keyword performance metrics to use for your SEO, pay-per-click (PPC), or content strategy.
3. Google Trends
Most people think of Google Keyword Planner when it comes to keyword research.
Unknown to many of these people, Google has several other powerful tools for keyword research, and Google Trends tops the tech giant's list of these alternative keyword tools.
With this tool, you can compare your keyword's performance (in terms of popularity) against other keywords.
More importantly, Google Trends allows you to see which keywords are gaining popularity in your niche or your target market(s). In this way, It allows you to exploit the best keywords in your region.
Google Trends provides the depth and detail you won't find with any other free keyword tool.
You can tell exactly where your main markets are. With such valuable geo-targeting data, you can run highly targeted PPC campaigns with as little data as possible.
4. Ubersuggest
This Google data-driven keyword suggestion tool is probably the best of its kind.
Ubersuggest generates many useful keyword phrases and breaks them alphabetically for easy use.
A good strategy is to use it with Google Keyword Planner, as it provides you with keyword phrases that are unavailable through Google Keyword Planner.
Note that despite recent changes that have reduced the usefulness of Google's Keyword Research Tool for non-paying customers, creating an AdWords account is still free.
Without a budget, you can still get valuable essential keyword insights in the early stages of SEO.
After getting aggregated data on what people are searching for in your niche, search volume, and competition levels for each keyword, you can take your keyword research up a notch with Ubersuggest.
Use the tool to get new guides, niche information, and topics accompanying your existing idea or product.
To use Ubersuggest, enter your keyword and click the "Suggest" tab. The simple prompt generates a list of long-tail keywords grouped under the individual letters of the alphabet.
With its organized approach, the tool makes it easier to review each keyword that might be perfect for your site or campaign goal.
Ubersuggest does not, however, give any idea of the competitiveness of the keywords in its results. This is its most significant limitation.
5. Word Flow
If you're looking for a tool that resembles Google Keyword Planner, WordStream is the tool for you.
It lets you customize your keyword research by filtering targeted keywords or getting niche-specific results. WordStream can help you identify a profitable niche or provide you with helpful tips on a place you've identified.
It offers options to find keyword groups and negative keywords in addition to its keyword niches.
6. SEO book
The SEO Book keyword research tool estimates daily traffic from the world's most significant search engines, Google, WordTracker, Bing, and Yahoo.
Although SEO Book does not list competition levels for each keyword, it does refer to other keyword tools, such as Google Keyword Planner. With this option, it is easy to use the other keyword tools to get the missing information (about the keywords' competitiveness).
SEO Book can be a valuable tool for conducting in-depth research on your target keywords. This is particularly interesting because the device is free.
Pro Tip: To access the tool, create a free account.
7. Keyword tool-io
Like most free keyword tools, Keywordtool-io relies on the Google Suggest API, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, and other databases to provide keyword suggestions.
This way, the tool can access a wealth of keywords from some of the primary top-level domains. You can customize the results in language and location to get the most helpful keyword suggestions.
There is a paid alternative that gives you access to estimates of search volumes. This can be a larger dataset if your research requires something more than pure keyword suggestions.
8. Keyword Eye
This tool simplifies keyword research. It displays keywords in increasing or decreasing sizes on an easy-to-read visual interface.
Keyword Eye allows ten free keyword searches per day. Each keyword report provides 100 results. This tool lets you get large amounts of data about your competitors.
9. KWFinder
This tool provides users with keyword difficulty scores in a user-friendly interface. You can filter keyword ideas by various metrics to improve the usability of keyword results.
KWFinder lets you target keyword searches in most of the world's significant languages or up to five countries. Since the tool is only partially free, the number of keyword searches you can run for free is limited.
10. SEMRush
It has the best data selection, including related keywords, search volume, phrase match keywords, paid CPC, organic search results, and ad copy for the entered keyword.
It can also put a competitor's URL in its search bar and dig into a wealth of data on the keywords the competitor ranks for.
This activity also tells you the competitor's number of backlinks, monthly search volume, and the origin of the backlinks.
With such rich information about your competitor's organic and paid campaigns, you can design a more informed keyword strategy to outperform them.
Paid options
Your keyword research should yield more affluent or in-depth data. In most cases, this data is available on paid or freemium keyword tools. Here are our top picks for paid keyword tools.
11. MOZ
Moz's Keyword Tool is a recent innovation and one of the best. The tool allows you to target virtually any location with your keyword research.
It's packed with filtering options, so you can get more ideas by choosing question phrases that contain your keyword or excluding your exact query term.
After a keyword search, Keyword Explorer returns ideas related to the search query, a keyword difficulty score, and search volume estimates.
You can also see recent mentions of the keyword and the domains currently ranking for it.
In addition to essential difficulty score and volume data, this tool lets you see an opportunity metric: a relative CTR analysis of organic results on a search engine results page (SERP). This means you can get a better rating of how difficult it is to rank on Google's first SERP with a chosen keyword.
Additionally, Keyword Explorer shows you how important a given keyword is to your campaign and combines all keyword metrics.
This means you can prioritize keywords based on the effort required to rank for them versus the potential traffic they can drive.
12. Ahrefs
Ahrefs has one of the most powerful keyword research tools on the web. It provides search volumes and keyword ideas for all match types.
If you're doing keyword research for SEO, you'll find the Keyword Difficulty Score metric particularly useful.
13. KeywordSpy
KeywordSpy is a keyword tool that tracks all advertising research activity in any industry, providing you with valuable marketing analytics and search engine optimization (SEO) insights.
Even better, the tool offers important data regarding competitors' ad copies and their keywords, as well as plenty more valuable information to inform your campaigns.
14. Keyword Discovery
This keyword tool draws its data from a large number of research resources, making it a powerful tool for identifying people's search phrases at any given time.
Keyword Discovery also provides you with related and other keywords you might be interested in. In this way, the tool is indispensable when discovering ideas you might not otherwise have the means to learn.
15. Bing Keyword Research Tool
Let's face it: Most people prefer Google over other search engines. And those who use Google will pay little attention to Bing. However, you could be missing out on a massive amount of data by skipping Bing's Keyword Tool.
You need a verified website in Bing's Webmaster Tools to use the tool. Once you do, you can dive straight into finding exact-match keywords and extensive search volume. This is what sets the device apart from others.
One of the main limitations of the Bing Keyword Research Tool is that it needs to indicate the level of competition.
Final Thoughts
With some experimentation, you'll find that each keyword tool is excellent for basic search phrase brainstorming. Some of these tools may be slightly easier for beginners than others. Therefore, it is essential to try them out to see what works best for you. Also, don't shy away from Google Keyword Planner, as it remains the most recommended tool for more in-depth keyword research, especially if you're on a budget.
