In this blog, I discuss 4 free tools that help me find relevant keywords time and time again. But before we begin this, it is important to lay a foundation. Where do visitors come from? On what pages? And with what search terms?
Index
Analytics: measuring is knowing
1) Google Search Console: Keywords you are already being found on
2) Ubersuggest: Sufficient keywords with the free version
3) WMS Everywhere: A small Chrome addon but lots of keywords
4) Answer the Public: Generate lists of questions around a keyword
Afterword: How best to get started now
The foundation: measuring is knowing with google analytics.
Google analytics is the measurement tool for Web sites. Analytics collects almost all data about what visitors do on the website. There are a number of important insights you gain through analytics:
- Which pages get all the traffic.
- Where are my visitors coming from: Country, region, channel (social media, adwords, email marketing and more).
- What kind of device are they using?
- What search terms are visitors using (linking to search console is a must for complete data).
- Linking with Adwords to get this too in 1 system clear.
Not expecting to do anything with analytics right away? Even then, I recommend you link google analytics with your website so you can collect data. This data is going to be valuable in the future when you want to optimize your Web site. How to create an analytics account in 4 steps (just make sure you have a google account):
1) Logging into google analytics
2) Create account and steps to link it
3) Monster Insights (Analytics linking with wordpress made easy)
4) Need help feel free to contact us!
With this foundation, you are going to have fun for longer term analysis and research to make your website even better! On to Google Search Console, one of the free tools for new keywords.
Want to know more?
1: Google Search Console: Shows your keywords that visitors use.
This tool is officially meant to check if your pages are properly added in google. But it can also be used to optimize your visibility. This is because Google Search Console shows what people searched on to get to your website.
The search terms you are already found on are the easiest to optimize. Since google has already linked these to your website, often with a little effort/optimization your ranking can improve quickly. In addition, you already have a short list of keywords here that you can use in one of the other tools to find even more search terms.
It also shows what images or videos your visitor viewed and what keywords they used in doing so. In addition, you will often find search terms that other SEO tools (free or paid) do not display.
So in addition to analytics, I also recommend linking this tool with your website. Should have whole new website then of course there is little data yet, but in time you can get a lot of information from this!
Advantages:
- It is free and can be paired with analytics so everything is insightful there as well.
- A list of keywords that visitors actually used!
- By linking with analytics, you can see which search terms were used per page on your website (deepening on point 2).
- You have a list of search terms you can use in SEO tools
Disadvantages:
- It is not a keyword research tool.
- The tool works optimally only when the website actually has traffic (for the search terms).
1) Logging into Google Search Console
2) Linking Search Console with Analytics
If you can’t figure it out you can often ask your web administrator, or you can put the question to us!
2: Ubersuggest: The free version is often enough for good research!
Ubersuggest is a tool by Neil Patel, someone who has marketed several tools with his years of knowledge in the field of online marketing. The free version of this tool is often enough to find enough keywords to use. All you need is a google account and you’re in.
Once you have a nice list from the Google Search Console, you can get right to work finding even more keywords! Haven’t you? Then don’t worry because you can also enter terms used in your field. Or use topics/problems that customers encounter. When I myself am completely blank I use mind maps to arrive at words.
After logging in, you can enter a website or search term directly, in this example I’ll grab 1 of the words from Search Console.
You will then see the search volume (number of searches per month on google), how difficult it is to rank in google (SEO Difficulty), SEA/Adwords difficulty and the cost per click if you are going to advertise. Unfortunately, the last two details are often incomplete because of the free account. But in the case of search engine optimization, these details are not necessary!
Something I also find useful is that you can see the trend by month. This is useful if you have a product that is seasonal or to do an analysis of when people search for a certain term the most to adjust your marketing accordingly (newsletters, adwords, etc).
Want to know more?
Under general statistics, you get a list of keywords. These are suggestions based on the keyword you used. There are also a number of tabs with related terms, questions, prepositions or equations (if they are known). The most important is the questions tab. This is important because you know immediately what is on a searcher’s mind. In addition, you get a searcher’s intent from this (do they just want information, to buy something right away, do they have a problem?).
Under general statistics, you get a list of keywords. These are suggestions based on the keyword you used. There are also a number of tabs with related terms, questions, prepositions or equations (if they are known). The most important is the questions tab. This is important because you know immediately what is on a searcher’s mind. In addition, you get a searcher’s intent from this (do they just want information, to buy something right away, do they have a problem?).
From this list, extract keywords that are relevant to you. This allows you to optimize existing pages with new topics or create new pages/blogs. Keep some ground rules in mind when building a page!
Next to the list of keywords, you can see which websites are in the top 10 with this keyword. You can often learn a lot from this! For example, look at these websites to see how the pages are written and what they have in them. Can you do this better? Are they missing topics? By providing a more complete story yourself, you can often catch up with your competitors. Another tip is to use one of these websites in the tool. This will give you a list of keywords used on a competitor’s website!
Here I grabbed the top website and suddenly I have a bunch of new keywords I can use. This is often a feature not found in free tools!
Advantages:
- The free version will get you a long way
- Competitive analysis
- Combine with the terms from search console and in no time you have a whole list of keywords
Disadvantages:
- SEO Difficulty is unfortunately not accurate
- If you want to use it intensively or have more projects then unfortunately you have to pay
3: WMS Everywhere: A list of keywords in google itself!
And back at google again! Still odd that the most obvious tools can just be found with the search engine itself. WMS Everywhere is an addon in Google Chrome, so please note you need Google Chrome!
This addon makes sure that when you search for something in google you get a list of search terms on the right side of your screen. Also, a list of related search terms, this is normally at the very bottom of the page and is limited.
Want to know more?
Turn on the addon on the google search page. Click the slider, set your location at the cog icon to Netherlands and you’re done!
I mainly use this tool to quickly get a list of keywords, which I then use in one of the other tools such as Ubersuggest.
Advantages:
- Direct keywords in google itself
- Very easy
Disadvantages:
- The data is limited given it only focuses on the keyword used
1) Download and install WMS Everywhere
Above is an example of autocomplete from google. Autocomplete is unfortunately limited to what you type, and you can’t easily generate a list of all the data here. Answer the public ensures that it is converted from blocks A to Z with all variants of the keyword, this can then be exported into an excel file.
In addition, they look at questions: What, where, why, who and how. They put this in a mind map or you can choose to display this as data. Thus, the tool quickly provides many search terms that other tools often do not find or display.
Advantages:
- Automatically a whole list of keywords from google
- Quick and easy to use
- Export all data to 1 list
Disadvantages:
- Unfortunately you cannot filter, you have to do this through excel
1) Create a keyword list with questions.
Afterword: There is no one best tool 🙁
These are free tools that I use daily for my work. I often use them side by side and combine them with paid tools. Paid tools often do a few things better than free tools, such as project management, reporting, and they often give a better/completer overview in one program.
When you get to work on improving and optimizing your website, all of these tools add value. How do you optimize your website?
Are you just starting your website and don’t have dates yet?
- Turning on Analytics
- Linking Google Search Console
- Using Ubersuggest to look at competitors to see what works and what doesn’t. Based on this you will get ideas for content
- Formatting pages so that google likes them too
Do you have an existing website and everything already linked?
- First, look in Google Search Console to see what you are already being found on
- Use this list to see if you are missing certain keywords on your pages. Then complete it with the new topics.
- Not enough yet? Then you can use all the tools to come up with new ideas. Use existing words in these tools for additional supplementation.
Want to learn even more about search engine optimization? Then come to the free workshop from keyword to content. Check here for the dates.
