Marketers beware: Don’t get stuck using the same keyword research tool.

Many professionals in our industry are too loyal to a single tool for their SEO research. Understandably, SEOOpens a new window is a tough beast to tame — there’s a lot to wrap your head around and it’s easy to get too comfortable once you’ve found a tool you like.

Ultimately, though, that’s a problem. SEO is complex, which means that finding a single free tool that covers all, or at least a good portion, of the most important elements of keyword research isn’t really possible.

That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t plenty of awesome specialized, free services that can do as good of a job as the paid tools. Marketers just need to know which are best for specific keyword research tasks. Indeed, they all differ in features, datasets and sources of data.

And before you assume you’re doing a fine job with a single tool, you’re likely doing an adequate job…at best.

Keyword targeting has become highly competitive, and is a driving force behind modern pay-per-click marketing and SEO practices, as well as an important component of digital content creation generally, from content marketingOpens a new window to general thought leadership.

As such, being on top of keyword targeting can go a long way to ensuring that every aspect of a digital marketing campaign is as competitive as possible.

That said, and considering there are around 200 optionsOpens a new window  on the market to sift through, let’s examine some of the top free keyword research tools.

If you have any free tools that I don’t discuss below but could be of use to the Toolbox community, please comment at the end of this article.

The Google classics

Google Ads Keyword Planner

You’re probably acquainted with the Keyword PlannerOpens a new window , a combination of Google’s old AdWords Keyword tool and the Traffic Estimator). While it’s possible to pay for a more in-depth service, the tool’s basic keyword suggestions function is free.

This tool is especially useful for marketing teams making a list of keywords to target for their search engine marketing campaign. It’s a great place to start deciding which keywords are best for PPC campaigns, and which will help with general SEO targeting.

The Keyword Planner platform reveals keyword search volumes, market competition, cost-per-click data and seasonal traffic variations. Moreover, it renders estimated PPC spends in any given niche.

Note: A similar free tool that performs the same basic functions is Neil Patel’s Uber SuggestOpens a new window .

Google Trends

This tool can break down differences in search patterns between regions and countries.

Google TrendsOpens a new window can also compare similar keywords or even long-tail phrases to help you figure out which ones are most searched globally, nationally or regionally. It even identifies related top keywords.

This free service also evaluates your keywords’ seasonal fluctuation, providing valuable insights on how a specific keyword will perform in its high and low seasons.

Google Correlate

The Google Correlate tool is best for marketers looking for new, unexpected keyword targeting angles for the service or product they’re advertising, or the content being created. It’s great for finding words and phrases whose seasonal interest fluctuations align with your principle keywords.

Although this tool is helping identify secondary and tertiary keywords, it’s important to incorporate them throughout your website and web copy to best rank for your main keywords on Google’s SERPs (search engine results pages).

Google Search Console

Don’t overlook this tool. It’s one of the few that helps marketers analyze the existing keywords their website and content already rank by looking at average Google positions for varying searches, as well as impressions and CTRs.

Among its many uses, the Google Search ConsoleOpens a new window  is particularly useful to figure out which searches made by consumers are leading to the most clicks to one of your web pages.

AnswerThePublic

There’s a pervasive shift in search technology, largely driven by the growing use of voice search, to focus on natural language. Consequently, it has become common for search queries to be composed as questions.

Knowing which specific and sometimes specialized search queries are being made in relation to a specific sector, service or type of product is crucial for marketers who want to ensure their content will have voice search success.

Enter AnswerThePublicOpens a new window . This is undoubtedly one of the fastest and simplest ways to pinpoint the most commonly searched questions linked to your business niche.

It automatically turns your top keywords into questions (by incorporating question words such as who, what, where, why) and/or ‘preposition’ keywords (by combining seed keywords with other keywords through a preposition).

Note that the top marketers at targeting question-based queries are the most likely to get their content to rank in Google’s featured answers space,Opens a new window  also known as the coveted “position 0” ranking.

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords EverywhereOpens a new window  is a free browser add-on that adds search volume, CPC and competition data when browsing the world’s top websites that users regularly conduct searches on (such as Google, Bing, YouTube, Amazon, eBay), as well as other search-heavy sites (such as AnswerThePublic and other SEO keyword research tools).

The best aspect of this tool: It turns your normal, everyday browsing into keyword research by giving you a steady flow of data related to keywords you’re searching.

How it works is simple: Once installed, search volumes are automatically presented next to all the related keywords that appear in the autocomplete suggestions dropdown when you start typing in a search box. Then, a box is embedded on each SERP, making it easy to input that information straight into your keyword list.

Note, however, that these figures won’t be perfectly accurate, and won’t be as precise as the numbers produced by a paid tool. So while these estimations are a great guide for keyword research, take the data with a grain of salt.