When we approach SEO, we need to remember one thing – every keyword matters.
This last year, Google has decided that the keyword planner would not be available for inactive accounts so we need to reinvent the wheel.
Even if we pay Google, we won’t always get accurate numbers but only ranges without pinpoint accuracy.
There are a number of free tools, freemium ones and paid.
Each one claims to have the upper hand.
We’re going to offer you guys three keyword planning tools, each one with its advantages and disadvantages:
Ahrefs – This one is Eli Schwartz from SurveyMonkey’s favorite; a powerful tool that provides keyword ideas, alongside their field tested backlink reporting and organic traffic dashboards.
Up: if you sign up for a paid version and cancel it, you retain access to their free version.
Down: quite pricey and one needs to pay $399 to see daily updates scores.
Wordstream – Paid tool that is extremely effective for search marketers looking to optimize their PPC.
Up: Has a free keyword tool (30 free searches) that could be used, albeit one cannot see the search volume for it.
Down: No feature packages, only 6,12 and annual prepay.
UberSuggest – This is Alexander Clark from Smart Insights favorite free tool based on suggestions.
Up: It’s free.
Down: Albeit being free, it is a BB gun in machinegun world – it’s not as fast in delivering results, it doesn’t use superior technology as keyword tool and is not as reliable.
The most important aspect is that we need to decide if we are the kitten looking in the mirror, thinking he’s a lion or we are a cowardly lion thinking he’s a kitten – we need to blend different free tools with premium tools to get the upper hand, together with great content as to be ranked higher up.