Advanced Keyword Research Tools Every Writer Should Know

In the digital writing landscape, understanding and utilizing advanced keyword research tools is pivotal. Our topic, “Advanced Keyword Research Tools Every Writer Should Know,” delves into not only the why but primarily the how. As we transition into an era dominated by strategic SEO practices, your ability as a writer to master these tools can significantly impact your content’s visibility, reach, and success. Let’s unpack the world of advanced keyword research tools and discover how they can transform your writing skills and broaden your digital footprints.

What is Keyword Research?

Keyword research is the process of identifying popular words and phrases people enter into search engines – it forms the very basis of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This exploration aims to understand the language your potential audience uses when they’re on the hunt for the content, products, or services you provide.

However, it’s not about getting more visitors to your site but about getting the right kind of visitors. This is where advanced keyword research comes into play. The usefulness of this intelligence cannot be overstated – with keyword research, you can predict shifts in demand, respond to changing market conditions, and produce the products, services, and content web searchers are proactively seeking. In essence, keyword research is the compass guiding your content strategy, steering you to the right audience.

Understanding and leveraging advanced keyword research tools keeps writers in the loop with their audience’s ever-evolving search behavior – a crucial element in optimizing your written content and boosting your SEO performance.

Why Every Writer Should Understand Keyword Research

Knowing your way around keyword research is an indispensable tool in a writer’s digital utility kit. If you’re crafting content without targeted keywords, you’re likely missing out on significant organic search opportunities.

But why should every writer understand keyword research? Here’s why:

• Improved SEO Performance: Proper keyword research informs SEO initiatives. By embedding pertinent keywords into your content, you improve your chances of gaining higher ranks on search engine result pages (SERPs).
• Greater Audience Reach: Identifying and using the right keywords can help your written content match with user queries, expanding your organic audience reach.
• Tailored Content Strategy: With keyword research, you can understand what your target readers are searching for and tailor your content strategy to meet those needs.
• Performance Measurement: Using advanced keyword research tools lets you track and measure the performance of your chosen keywords. This can guide your future content creation or optimization of existing content.
• Higher Traffic Quality: Keyword research isn’t about attracting a high volume of traffic; it’s about attracting quality traffic. With precise keyword usage, you’ll draw readers genuinely interested in what you’re offering, leading to higher engagement rates.
• Increased Conversion: Understanding keyword research can lead to increased conversions. When your content aligns with what users are searching for, they are more likely to engage with a call to action.

Understanding and incorporating keyword research into your writing isn’t just for SEOs and marketers. Every writer aiming for their work Basics of Keyword Research Tools

Before we delve into advanced keyword research tools, understanding the basics of keyword research tools is essential. These tools assist writers in finding keywords that will help their content gain visibility.

At the core of these tools, there’s a common motive: finding the right keywords that can drive traffic towards your digital platform. Here’s how the basic ones function:

• Relevance: Tools help you identify keywords directly linked to your subject matter. These keywords should accurately represent your content and align with users’ search queries.
• Search Volume: This represents the number of times a specific keyword is searched for within a given time. Tools help identify high-volume keywords in your niche, immensely beneficial for content visibility.
• Keyword Difficulty: Some keywords are harder to rank for than others due to high competition. Tools help identify keyword difficulty to estimate how hard it’ll be to rank for those keywords.
• Long-Tail Keywords: These are longer and more specific keyword phrases that visitors are more likely to use when they’re closer to a point-of-purchase or when using voice search. Basic tools aid in finding such long-tail keywords, which often have less competition and are easier to rank for.
• Content Ideas: They can generate content ideas based on popular keywords within your niche.

However, as you grow in your writing journey, upgrade to advanced tools; a more sophisticated keyword analysis becomes necessary.

Transitioning to Advanced Keyword Research Tools

As vital as basic keyword tools are, there comes a time when you’ll need to level up – this is where advanced keyword research tools come into play. Transitioning to advanced tools is much like upgrading a car: basic successful content.

Advanced Keyword Research Tools Every Writer Should Know

Beyond the basics, as a writer, you should be abreast of more sophisticated tools in the realm of keyword research. These advanced tools provide not just keyword suggestions or search volume, but they also offer critical insights into competition, search trends, and even social media mentions. Each of these tools has its unique selling proposition, and every writer should employ the one that suits their specific needs the best.

SEMRush

SEMRush is one among those advanced keyword research tools every writer should know. It provides users with a wealth of information and robust features to optimize their content. This tool offers a keyword overview that reveals volume, keyword difficulty, and SERP features associated with each keyword. Not only this, SEMRush provides you with a phrase match report, suggesting related keywords and their volumes.

It also provides trend data to ascertain the popularity of a keyword over time. Features like Keyword Magic Tool make it an excellent choice for those who want to dig deeper into potential keywords.

But where SEMRush excels is in the competitive analysis facet. You can uncover your competitors’ organic keywords, see their position in SERPs, and even view the copy of an ad that’s doing well. This intel can give you a strategic edge and help you fine-tune your own SEO strategy to compete better. Despite being a premium tool, SEMRush offers limited free access, making it a handy resource even if you can’t afford an upgrade yet.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs, another advanced keyword research tool, is trusted by many writers and writers looking for comprehensive SEO intelligence.

Moz Keyword Explorer

Moz Keyword Explorer stands out as one of the user-friendly advanced keyword research tools every writer should know. This tool offers thousands of keyword suggestions, question-based keywords and lets you check the ranking potential and competitiveness of your target keywords.

Special features of Moz include its proprietary keyword difficulty score, making it easier to gauge the competitiveness of a keyword. Additionally, it showcases a Priority Score, which combines all keyword metrics (like difficulty, CTR, etc.) to assist you in prioritizing your keyword strategies.

Moz also provides a SERP analysis, allowing you to check what’s currently ranking for your chosen keywords—helping you understand the type of content resonating with audiences for those keywords. This tool may be on the pricier side, but the breadth of its insights and the simplicity of its layout make it a top choice for writers focusing heavily on SEO.

KWFinder

A gem in the array of advanced keyword research tools, KWFinder shines for its ease of use and visually appealing layout. Perfect for both beginners and content targeted towards non-English audiences or for local SEO strategies. Despite being a premium tool, it offers limited daily keyword searches on a free account, making it worth testing out.

SERPStat

SERPStat is another excellent addition to the lineup of advanced keyword research tools every writer should know. It’s an all-in-one SEO platform offering a multitude of features beyond keyword research, such as rank tracking and backlink analysis.

For keyword research, it provides an abundance of valuable intel. You can identify proven and profitable keywords in your niche and explore their competition. With its Keyword Selection feature, you get detailed information about each keyword, including search volume, competition level, and cost-per-click data.

Where SERPStat shines is in its search question feature. It will give you a list of the most common questions asked with your given keyword. It supports ideation for blog topics and nurtures a deeper understanding of search intent.

Furthermore, its Content writing for SEO. Despite its advanced capabilities, it’s reasonably priced, making it accessible for most writers.

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a premium browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that saves you the hassle of copy-pasting keywords into multiple tools. This tool shows you monthly search volume, cost per click, and competition data on 16 websites, including Long Tail Pro

As the name suggests, Long Tail Pro is a keyword research tool that specializes in generating long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are those three-to-four keyword phrases specific to what you’re selling. This tool is beneficial for writers as these longer, often less competitive keywords assist in driving highly targeted traffic, and they tend to convert well.

Long Tail Pro provides a host of useful data, including keyword suggestions dependent on a seed keyword, competitiveness of those keywords, search volume, and a proprietary keyword competitiveness score.

Another noteworthy feature is its Rank Tracker. Unlike many tools that give you a snapshot of where a keyword ranks, this one tracks changes over time. You can see whether your SEO efforts bring a significant move in your ranking.

There’s also a SERP analysis function that allows you to delve into the top-ranking pages for a specific keyword. It gives you an insight into metrics like site age, page authority, and trust flow, thus helping you understand how strong the competition is.

While Long Tail Pro doesn’t offer a free version, its price point and special focus on long-tail keywords make it an essential advanced tool to consider in your writing processes.

Ubersuggest

Developed by renowned marketer Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is a free tool, but with its comprehensive features and insights, it can easily be categorized as an advanced keyword research tool every writer should know.

Ubersuggest provides you with an overview of the keyword, including its search volume, SEO difficulty, paid difficulty, and cost per click. It offers a list of keyword guide your content creation strategy and help you understand what it takes to rank for a keyword.

The icing on the cake is the tool’s backlink data and content ideas based on social shares, backlinks, and estimated visits. This suite of features makes Ubersuggest a valuable, fully-featured yet free tool in the sea of advanced keyword research tools. It provides an excellent balance of user-friendliness and depth, making it a trusted tool among writers across the globe.

Answer the Public

Answer the Public is a unique tool that visualizes search questions and queried phrases in a searchable diagram called a search cloud. While primarily a content ideation tool, its value in finding long-tail keywords is undeniable, which puts it among the advanced keyword research tools every writer should know.

Upon entering a seed keyword in Answer the Public, you’re presented with numerous related queries. These come in various categories: questions (what, why, how, etc.), prepositions, comparisons, alphabetical, and related searches. You can even switch between a visual or data view depending on your preference.

What makes Answer the Public really stand out is its ability to dive deep into the search intent of users. It helps a writer understand what people want to know about a topic- a treasure trove for content ideation.

Moreover, the tool supports multiple countries and languages, which makes it a fantastic tool for international SEO efforts.

It’s worth mentioning that it does not provide search volume or rank tracking, which is where pairing it with another tool like Google’s Keyword Planner or Keywords Everywhere can offer complete keyword research solutions for your writing needs.

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a classic and dependable tool in the realm of keyword research. As it’s directly from Google, the data it retrieves is both reliable and precise. Despite its seemingly simple interface, it offers robust keyword data, making it a strong contender in the lineup of advanced keyword research tools.

Upon entering your target keyword in the Google Keyword Planner, it provides a host of keyword ideas coupled with their average monthly searches, competition level, and bid ranges. What shines about this tool is its direct integration with Google Ads, making it an excellent option for those looking to optimize their Google ads.

Its extensive features also include keyword filters (like location, language, etc.), Ad group ideas, and the ability to multiply keyword lists, which combines keywords to create new ones.

While it does not have as many features as other paid tools, the data it provides is directly from the horse’s mouth (Google!). With the right techniques, Google Keyword Planner can provide advanced insights for your SERP SEO efforts. Moreover, it’s entirely free to use, making it a standard tool in a writer’s arsenal.

SpyFu

SpyFu is an all-in-one SEO tool with a robust capacity for keyword research. It specializes in competitive analysis, allowing you to ‘spy’ on your competition’s top-ranking keywords and uncovering their online marketing strategies.

When you enter a keyword into SpyFu, it returns a treasure trove of data. It shows you the monthly search volume, keyword difficulty, and ranking history for the past year. But what sets SpyFu apart is its ability to display every website that has shown up on Google’s SERPs for that keyword and every ad variation in the last 12 years.

SpyFu also offers a feature known as Kombat, where you can compare your website with those of your competitors to see overlapping keywords and unique opportunities. This tool is incredibly powerful in crafting a competitive SEO strategy, and when paired with your writing prowess, it can be instrumental in giving your content an impactful advantage in SERPs. Though SpyFu is a premium tool, it offers a reasonable pricing plan that allows you to unlock a massive amount of valuable data – definitely a worthy investment.

Soovle

If you’re looking to uncover keywords from more than just Google, Soovle is a fantastic tool for writers. It’s an easy-to-use, free keyword research tool that gathers autocomplete suggestions from multiple sources, not just Google. These sources include YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, Amazon, and more. This makes Soovle a versatile tool, especially if you’re

SECockpit

SECockpit is another all-in-one SEO tool that emphasizes speed and depth in its keyword research capabilities. It prides itself on providing more keyword ideas per search, getting you a long list of valuable keyword suggestions fast. For writers looking to find low-competition keywords quickly, this makes SECockpit a surefire choice. The tool churns out information about your keyword, like monthly search volume, CPC, and organic competition. It also features a keyword difficulty score, a trend graph, and a rank tracker.

However, SECockpit stands out in its thoroughness. It extends beyond keyword data to provide an insight into the top-ranking pages for each keyword – you will see the number of backlinks, domain authority, and even the Moz Keyword Difficulty Score for these top-ranking pages.

While SECockpit might seem complex to beginners due to its abundance of features, its ability to provide nuanced keyword data makes it one of the advanced keyword research tools every writer should know. Once you get a hang of it, it can be instrumental in finding excellent keywords for your content.

Comparing Advanced Keyword Research Tools

Now that we have dissected a myriad of advanced keyword research tools, it might seem overwhelming to choose the right one. All these tools offer their unique selling propositions, and they cater to various writers’ needs. When comparing these tools, consider their data comprehensiveness, user-friendliness, relevant features, and price points.

• SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz are all-encompassing SEO suites that offer extensive keyword research and competitor analysis capabilities. However, SEMRush stands out for its standout competitor analysis features, and Moz wins for user-friendliness.
• KWFinder and Long Tail Pro are powerhouses for finding long-tail keywords, but KWFinder outshines with its aesthetically pleasing interface and multilingual support.
• Ubersuggest and Google Keyword Planner serve well as freemium tools with reliable keyword data directly from the Google database, while Keywords Everywhere impresses with its on-the-go keyword data as you surf the web.
• For more niche functionalities, Answer the Public excels in visualizing search questions, and Soovle is unbeatable in capturing autocomplete suggestions from multiple sources.
• SpyFu and SECockpit score high in dealing with competitive SEO strategies with their robust competitive analysis features.

In essence, the ideal keyword research tool varies from writer to writer, dependent on their specific needs, their familiarity with SEO, and of course, their budget. Feel free to test out tools using their free versions or trial periods before deciding on the tool you’d want to invest in.

Common Mistakes in Using Advanced Keyword Tools

As you navigate the realm of keyword research using the advanced keyword research tools, there are certain pitfalls to avoid:

1. Overlooking Search Intent: Even the best keywords are futile if they don’t resonate with the users’ search intent. Pay attention to whether users are looking for information, a specific website, or intending to purchase something when choosing your keywords.
2. Overemphasizing High Volume Keywords: High volume keywords often have high competition. It can be more beneficial to focus on lower volume, long-tail keywords, which are easier to rank for and can drive more targeted traffic.
3. Ignoring Local Search: If your content is locally focused, remember to consider local search terms. Geographical-specific keywords can help in driving concentrated traffic and boost your content’s performance.
4. Keyword Stuffing: Google’s algorithms frown upon the overuse of keywords. While it’s essential to include keywords in your content, avoid overstuffing, and strive for a natural inclusion of keywords.
5. Not Keeping Up With Trends: Search behavior evolves, and so should your keyword research. Regularly revisit your keyword strategy to keep up with current search trends.

Even advanced tools cannot make your content perform if you’re not using them correctly. By avoiding these mistakes, you can use these tools proficiently, leading your written content to more visibility, readability, and overall success.

Final Thoughts on Advanced Keyword Research Tools

Armed with the knowledge of these advanced keyword research tools, you’re embarking on a journey to elevate your content with a well-thought-out SEO strategy, and you’ll find your words reaching a broader, more targeted audience.

As writers, let’s not forget the end goal – to create valuable digital world.

Conclusion

The dynamic world of SEO writing necessitates a deep understanding and application of advanced keyword research tools. These tools serve as stepping stones to crafting content that not only captivates readers but also ranks on search engine result pages. With an array from SEMRush, Ahrefs, Moz, to niche utilities like Answer the Public and Soovle, writers can easily augment their SEO strategies.

The crucial aspects to remember when utilizing these tools are understanding the audience’s search intent, focusing on long-tail keywords, considering local SEO, avoiding keyword stuffing, and constantly updating the keyword strategy according to trends.

While these tools do significantly aid the process, the heart of a piece lies in its content. Hence, it’s vital to create valuable content empowered by SEO and not let SEO overpower the crux of the content. Advanced keyword research tools serve as a guide, not a hard-fast rule.

Unifying potent storytelling with strategic keyword usage can lead to content that’s not just consumed, but also appreciated and shared, benefitting both the writer and the reader. Harness the power of these extraordinary tools and let your content reach the heights it deserves.

FAQs 

What is the best advanced keyword research tool for beginners?

For beginners stepping into advanced keyword research, a tool like KWFinder would be beneficial due to its user-friendly interface and robust data it offers. Ubersuggest is also an excellent choice because it offers reliable keyword data and is free.

Are free keyword research tools enough for writers?

Free keyword research tools can provide useful insights, but as your writing and SEO aptitude grow, advanced tools could offer more comprehensive data and competitive analysis.

Does using advanced keyword research tools guarantee higher rankings?

While these tools provide the insights necessary to optimize your content for SEO, they do not guarantee higher rankings. SEO comprises various factors, including backlinks, on-page optimization, user experience, site speed, and more.

How often should I conduct keyword research?

Keyword trends change over time, and search behavior evolves. While there’s no set rule, it’s advisable to revisit your keyword strategy at least quarterly.

I have found the right keywords. What’s next?

After finding the right keywords, incorporate them into your content thoughtfully. Include keywords in your title, headings, meta description, and URL. Remember, the goal is to have a natural flow of content, do not stuff your content with keywords.

Can the same keyword research tool be used for every industry?

Yes, keyword research tools focus on extracting data about keywords from search engines. They’re not industry-specific and hence can be utilized across all industries.

What is a long-tail keyword?

A long-tail keyword is a keyword phrase with three or more words. They are longer and more specific than more commonly used keywords. These types of keywords are easier to rank for and typically have a higher conversion rate. Learning this, you can bolster your understanding of advanced keyword research tools and their appropriate usage. This will further encourage your ability to create well-crafted, quality content that triggers both reader interest and search engine favorability.