Best Paid Keyword Research Tools,

    No scrolling straight to the free tools section just yet! 

    It’s cool if you are just starting and a paid tool isn’t in the budget, but here are some reasons to pay close attention to this section:

•   There is a free trial – if you get organized, you can find a lot of keywords and content ideas
•   Going through this process will help you get a deeper understanding of what you are trying to achieve
•   So much work goes into content creation, and it would be a shame to not find the right keywords.  Otherwise, you could effectively have your ladder up against the wrong wall.
•   The paid tools often come with in-depth training videos – you could even end up deciding to start your SEO agency with your new knowledge!
•   The top SEO professionals and top bloggers use paid tools. SEO is super-competitive – if you’re not fast, you’re last!
•    If you aspire to be as successful as those on page 1, it would be wise to do what they do.

       This we consider the best organic research tool for competitor analysis,

       The best place to start is to find out what is working for the competition. We are going to use the premium keyword research tool suite from SEMrush.

     There are many ways to slice and dice the figures – these are some of the most effective ways.

     An Overview of Competitor Keywords

         Using the golf niche as an example, I have entered a competitor’s URL for the popular blog ‘How To Break 80’. This is not one of the big golf sites, but I liked the domain name, and they rank for significant terms like golf driving tips

     This shows the Domain Authority, the monthly organic traffic, the number of backlinks, and the keywords it is currently ranking for.

     If you tab along and click on the Positions tab (see highlighted in red below), you will see a list of every keyword and its current position.

      You can then see the previous keyword positions, find similar competitor domains, and discover what pages are driving the traffic.

    Competitors Organic Ranking

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       Competitors top ranking keyword analysis

    This next step is where it gets really exciting.

     You can sort the (SERP) positions to the top 10, then sort the traffic from 100 to 1000 (as I have done below).

     You can choose whatever parameters you wish including, keyword difficulty, traffic %, CPC, etc.

     You now have a list of all the keywords that get top 10 results for this website!

      How To Find Low Competition Keywords With Keyword Magic

      To get started using this tool, enter a head term in the Keyword Magic search bar. I have used golf again. I have excluded the keyword near me, but if you have a brick-and-mortar business, include it. (This is a starting point, we will narrow it down in the next exercise.)

     As you will see below, the results include:

•    Volume
•    Trend (brilliant for checking seasonality)
•     KD  (keyword difficulty – we are ideally looking below 40, or it may be too competitive)
•    CPC (cost per click, a good indicator of demand for keywords)
•    Competitive density (important if running Google Ads)
•    SERP features
•    results – The total number of URLs displayed in the organic search results

•    The Standout Advantages Of The SEMrush Keyword Research Tool are:

  •   The grouping option enables you to create a content calendar almost into infinity easily.
  •    Using the filters, you will find tons of relevant keywords with low volume, lower competition, and specific intent.

     If you are ready to use Semrush, then Income Diary readers can take advantage of a 14-Day PRO trial. [instead of the usual 7-day trial]

    Just one word of caution about any keyword research tools – the data is a general guide and not a hard fact.

   From time to time, you will come across a keyword that appears to have zero volume – but you just know people will be searching for it.

     There is no harm in following your gut from time to time.

   The Best Free Keyword Research Tools,

     There are a lot of free keyword research tools.

      They all have their merits, but they have some limitations.

        Remember, the “free traffic” from SEO has a cost. For starters, you will need to invest time in keyword research and understanding the technicalities of SEO.

      See this article for some additional ideas on how to improve the amount of free traffic your website gets