5 Best Free SEO Keyword Research Tools for Small Businesses in 2025
Keyword research is an important part of your content and on-page SEO strategy. Finding the right opportunities can be difficult. Luckily, there are plenty of free SEO keyword research tools to find the low competition, high volume keywords you can target to actually improve the visibility of your website.
In this article, I’ll give you the 5 best free SEO keyword research tools that I use during the keyword research phase.
1. Google Keyword Planner
Google Keyword Planner should be your first tool in your inventory. Speaking from personal experience, this is my go-to tool in the keyword research phase.
It’s a free tool in Google Ads. You have to create an account in Google Ads, which is free. Afterwards, you can access the Keyword Planner anytime.
Originally, this tool was made for advertisers, but website owners can use it for organic SEO too. You can discover keyword ideas, volume, and competition level. All the data comes straight from Google.
Benefits of Google Keyword Planner:
- Access to accurate monthly search volumes and competition level.
- Related search terms.
- The tool understands seasonal trends.
- Possibility to filter by language, region and country.
If you want to make data-driven decisions, this tool gives you the most reliable starting point.
2. Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator
Ahrefs free keyword generator is part of the Ahrefs Free Tools. This tool pulls data directly from Google, YouTube, Bing and Amazon. It’s perfect if you create multi-platform content.
You don’t need a paid account to gain access to this tool. It’s ideal for website owners who need keyword ideas. Just type in a seed keyword, and this keyword generator will provide hundreds of keyword ideas with additional difficulty scores.
Benefits of Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator:
- Additional keyword difficulty (KD) scores with each provided keyword.
- Explore phrase matches and question-based keywords for inspiration.
- Multi-platform (Google, YouTube, Bing and Amazon).
- No signup required.
What kind of data will this tool provide:
- Keyword difficulty (KD)
- Search volume
- Top 50 related and question-based keywords
- SERP overview links
When you’re in need of keyword ideas, this is a great tool to help you out.
3. Answer The Public
Answer The Public visualizes real time search queries people are asking search engines online. This way you can create content about topics people truly care about, which makes it easier to write engaging blogs and useful FAQs.
This tool is useful for website owners and bloggers who are looking to understand user intent and want to find new and relevant topics to write about that will interest their audience.
Benefits of Answer The Public:
- Discover questions and long-tail keywords users are searching for online.
- Understand what people search for before making a purchase.
- Visualization of the keywords.
What kind of data you can check:
- “Who,” “what,” “why,” and “how” keyword questions.
- Prepositions and comparisons people use.
- Search intent variations grouped by topic.
- Related search terms.
4. Keyword Surfer Extension
Keyword Surfer is an extension in Google that works right inside your Google Search Results. It’s free, and it uncovers keyword search volumes, visibility metrics and content suggestions as you browse through possible keywords.
This tool gives you quick insights while researching online, which makes it incredibly useful since you don’t need to switch tabs. Every search shows how often a word is searched, plus a list of related keywords and their volume.
Benefits of Keyword Surfer:
- Search volumes next to the search query.
- No account needed, just install the extension.
- Estimated traffic and content length for top-ranking pages.
- Provides keyword ideas.
What kind of data you can check:
- Keyword volumes
- Traffic estimates
5. ChatGPT
ChatGPT is not a traditional keyword research tool, but it can be very useful for brainstorming keyword ideas for the topic you want to write about. You can ask ChatGPT for long-tail keywords, variations og the keywords you already have or even create complete topic clusters with keywords for each article.
This way of keyword research saves busy business owners a lot of time and delivers fresh ideas.
Benefits of ChatGPT for keyword research:
- Generate keyword ideas.
- Help you with your content creation itself.
- Combine keyword suggestions with content titles and strategies.
You won’t have access to real time data. ChatGPT helps you generate ideas and optimize your content for maximum results according to your goals.
Which Free Tool is Most Recommended for Keyword Research?
In my opinion and experience, the most recommended tool is Google Keyword Planner. This tool offers direct insights straight from Google. It provides search volume, competition level and keyword ideas.
Google Keyword Planner can be the only tool you’ll need, but having some additional tools for more ideas can be useful. My advice is to start with Google Keyword Planner, and later try out some other free keyword research tools. The ones you like and that add value for you, you can keep using. The others, you can just leave out of your keyword research phase.
It’s all about trying out these tools and making the decision if they help you with your keyword research or not.
Should You Use Paid Keyword Research Tools?
No, this is definitely not necessary. You can do advanced keyword research with just the free tools above. If you have a budget to spend on SEO tools, I’d recommend investing in SEMRush or Ahrefs. These tools give you all the data you need for every SEO aspect. Only for keyword research, you don’t need to spend money on it.
