Keyword research tool: what each one really gives you

Finding keyword ideas without spending your day on it. Illustration by Zéro Corvée.

You want to write pages Google shows, but you don’t know which words people type. A keyword research tool answers that in seconds: dozens of ideas, each with how often it’s searched. The hard part is picking a tool and reading its numbers without being fooled. This page compares the main tools, shows a real search, then points you to our seven guides.

Only our SemChat links are affiliate links. They don’t change prices or our advice.

SEO keyword research: keyword finder first, keyword analysis next

SEO keyword research has two halves. A keyword finder gives you ideas. Keyword analysis tells you which ideas are worth a page.

Finding ideas: suggestions, questions, related searches

Start with Google itself: autocomplete, “People also ask” and related searches at the bottom of the page. Then a tool expands each seed word into dozens of variations and questions.

Measuring each idea: volume, difficulty, intent

Three columns matter. The rest is a bonus.

	What it tells you	The trap
Volume	Average searches per month	Each tool has its own number
Difficulty	Your chance to rank on page one	Sometimes it's ad competition
Intent	What the searcher wants	Often missing or guessed

Keyword research or keyword clustering: two different tools

Research finds and measures keywords. Clustering groups them by need, so that one page answers one need. Some tools do both; many only do the first.

Free keyword research tool or paid: what each one shows you

What free tools give you, and where they stop

Free plans give ideas and volumes with tight limits: Ubersuggest Free, 3 searches a day; Semrush Free, 10 reports a day; Mangools Free, 5 KWFinder searches per 24 hours (fact sheets, October 29 and 30, 2026). You pay when you want SEO difficulty for every keyword, competitor data and full exports.

How accurate free keyword data really is

Free or paid, volumes are estimates. One example: “check backlinks” shows 135,000 searches a month in DataForSEO Labs, but its monthly series went from 8,100 in October 2025 to 550,000 in May 2026 (October 29, 2026). Our guide to search volume explains how to read such numbers.

Google’s free pair: Keyword Planner and Google Trends

Keyword Planner gives Google’s own volumes. It’s free, but Google’s help page says: “You must complete your account setup by entering your billing information to access basic features like ‘Get ideas for new keywords’” (read October 30, 2026). Our page is Google Keyword Planner free walks you through it. Google Trends shows interest over time, on a 0 to 100 scale.

Google Trends home page, set to the United States. Screenshot of trends.google.com, taken October 30, 2026.

The best keyword research tools compared, fact by fact

Sources: each tool’s fact sheet, from its official pages, October 29 and 30, 2026. Prices shown as read from France.

Semrush: a full suite with a limited free plan

Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool page is titled “Free Keyword Tool: Find the Right Keywords for SEO & AI Search” (read October 30, 2026). The Free plan costs $0, with no card and 10 reports a day (fact sheet, October 29, 2026). If Semrush is beyond your budget, our guide to choosing a Semrush alternative compares free plans and cheaper entry prices.

Ahrefs and its keyword difficulty score

Ahrefs says its difficulty score “helps you understand how hard it would be to rank for a particular search query” (read October 30, 2026). Its free Keyword Generator shows the first 100 ideas for a keyword. Every tool computes difficulty its own way, so never compare an Ahrefs score with a Semrush one.

Ahrefs’ free Keyword Difficulty Checker page. Screenshot of ahrefs.com/keyword-difficulty, taken October 30, 2026.

SE Ranking: a trial, no permanent free plan

In SE Ranking’s words: “There’s no permanent free plan, but you can evaluate the platform with a free 14-day trial (no card required)” (FAQ, fact sheet, October 29, 2026). Its Core plan costs €109 a month.

Ubersuggest: a free version with a few searches a day

Ubersuggest Free has no time limit: 3 searches or reports a day, 1 project and 3 lists of 30 keywords (fact sheet, October 29, 2026). The 7-day trial advertised on its home page is for paid plans, not the free account.

Mangools, Moz and Keywords Everywhere: other names you will meet

Mangools’ KWFinder allows 5 searches per 24 hours on the Free plan. Moz offers a free account with limited access to its Keyword Explorer. Keywords Everywhere is a free browser extension, but without paid credits it shows no volume, CPC or competition (fact sheets, October 30, 2026).

Which one to pick when you are starting out

• No budget: Google, Ubersuggest Free and Ahrefs’ Keyword Generator.
• A difficulty score you can trust: Ahrefs or Semrush, paid.
• Someone to do the searching, in conversation: SemChat, with volumes cross-checked.

Our guide on how to choose keywords for SEO helps you decide what to keep.

Demo: keyword research in one sentence with SemChat

SemChat is an SEO assistant you talk to. Jérémy tested it on October 29, 2026, on his French site, in French.

The keyword research card on SemChat’s home screen

The home screen has a shortcut card, “Recherche de mots-clés : volume, difficulté, intention” in French, which means “keyword research: volume, difficulty, intent”. One click, one sentence, and it searches.

The keyword research shortcut on SemChat’s home screen. Screenshot of the SemChat app (Jérémy’s account, interface in French), October 29, 2026.

The keyword search SemChat ran on its own during a real audit

During a one-sentence audit of plugkit-avis.com, SemChat ran a keyword search on “manychat” on its own, a French keyword for a French site. It placed the site’s page at position 27 and gave a volume of 9,000 searches a month. That volume comes from SemChat alone and wasn’t cross-checked, so don’t take it as fact.

The tools SemChat ran on its own during the audit, keyword research included. Screenshot of the SemChat app (Jérémy’s account, interface in French), October 29, 2026.

Outside France: keyword data from a mix of unnamed providers

SemChat’s team told Jérémy by e-mail on October 29, 2026 that outside France its keyword data comes from a mix of providers they didn’t name. We haven’t measured its quality for the United States.

What to double-check behind its numbers

On another search, about French social media tools, its first answer listed 20 keywords, 15 of them brand names, with a difficulty drawn from ad competition.

Before correction, SemChat took its difficulty from ad competition. Screenshot of the SemChat app (Jérémy’s account, interface in French), October 29, 2026.

After correction, it gave an SEO difficulty based on the top 10 and the source of its volumes. Some volumes stayed far from DataForSEO Google Ads: “hootsuite gratuit” at 655 against 140, “swello gratuit” at 110 against 20 (France, October 29, 2026). Our SemChat review tells the whole test.

SEO keywords examples: lists by type of business, and how to build yours

Measured keyword lists for a bakery, a gardening blog and a candle shop, with the method to build your own from your customers’ words. See our SEO keywords examples.

How to choose keywords for SEO: the criteria, without jargon

Four questions per keyword: volume, difficulty, intent and relevance, with a worked example. Read the guide on how to choose keywords for SEO.

Check website keywords: the searches that already bring you visits

Your site already shows up for searches you never targeted. Search Console lists them for free; then you keep, improve or create. The steps are in our guide to check website keywords.

Is Google Keyword Planner free? How to use it, limits included

Free, with a Google Ads account set up with billing information, and a competition column that measures advertisers. The step-by-step answer to is Google Keyword Planner free.

Search volume: where the number comes from, and how to read it

Rounded, grouped with close variants, different in every tool, and often seasonal. Our guide to search volume shows real gaps and how to read them.

Competitor keyword research: find the searches where rivals beat you

Your Google rivals aren’t always your business rivals. Find who outranks you, list their searches, keep your gaps: the method is in our guide to competitor keyword research.

Keyword intent: read what the searcher wants before you write

Learn, compare, buy or find a site: every search hides a goal, and your page must answer it. Our guide to keyword intent shows how to read it from Google in three steps.

A free keyword research tool is enough to start; a paid one adds SEO difficulty and competitor data. Read three columns, volume, difficulty and intent, and cross-check volumes before you choose.