10 SEO Keyword Generator: Free & Paid Tools for Better Rankings

Anyone with a website needs a bit of SEO in their life to help drive more traffic and get a few extra conversions. Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can help even complete beginners get good results, and it all starts with proper keyword research. It will tell you where to focus your efforts so that you can get the most out of the extra time you put into optimizing your website and see impressive results. 

Now, if you are just starting out and don’t even have a vague idea what would work best, you can use keyword generator tools to come up with tons of useful and better-targeted options quickly. In this article, I will compare the top tools that will give you plenty of high-quality choices and show you how to use them effectively.  

Need fresh keyword ideas tailored to your niche? Try Rankioz’s free keyword generator and discover winning terms in seconds.

What Makes a Great Keyword Generator Tool?

Before we move on to the actual list, let’s first define what a proper tool must have and why. Here are the main criteria I look at when reviewing a keyword ideas generator:

• Accurate keyword volume data: You need to know the exact number of monthly searches for each suggestion, the search intent, and related terms. It will give you the kind of precision that limits guesswork and leads to more reliable results.  
• SERP analysis and competition scores: A detailed look at what the top-ranked pages are doing and how difficult a keyword is to rank for will help you narrow down your selection. You don’t want to waste time and money chasing a phrase that everyone else is gunning for.
• Long-tail keyword support: Focusing on longer variations can help identify less competitive opportunities. These may have a bit less search volume, but usually come with a clear intent, so there is a higher chance of conversion. 
• Language/location filters: Small companies do best with keywords targeting a specific district, city, or area, and may want to hone in on a specific demographic, e.g., Spanish-speaking locals. 
• Export features and integrations: In the end, you’ll need a precise report of your findings and the ability to use additional tools to analyse and present the data. This report gives you and your team a clear set of instructions on how to proceed.

There is also something to be said about comparing whether a tool offers database vs. real-time suggestions. The former are collected from search engine data over a long period of time and stored on the cloud. Using such historical data gives you a good look at how trends change and evolve, and provides useful information about seasonal and Holiday-specific searches.

The latter gives you a look at the current state of affairs based on real-time results from Google, YouTube, Social Media, etc. It’s useful if you want to relate your content to the hot cultural topics to get some extra traction, or if you are in a fast-paced niche where tastes and demand change frequently.

Now that you have a general idea of what to look out for, let’s go over the best options on the market. 

Top 10 Keyword Generator Tools for SEO 

If you want to overhaul your website content and begin your adventurous climb to the top of the SERPs, you’ll need one of these tools in your arsenal. I’ll start the list off with a basic option most people will be familiar with, then move through the more advanced and premium offers. I’ll also sprinkle in those that provide great value for money and even have free versions. 

1. Rankioz Keyword Generator

While still brand new, this affordable tool has a unique value proposition—get all the essential features you need and find the right keywords with great precision, all without breaking the bank. Rankioz’s keyword generator helps you uncover SEO opportunities your competitors miss. Try it free – no credit card required.

Best features: Super precise data from Google’s database, AI keyword clusters, streamlined UI.

Free vs Paid: Only available as paid, with a 7-day free trial that grants full access to all the metrics and advanced features. 

Best for: small business owners, beginner SEOs, and ecommerce sites.

Pros: 

• Super accurate data on key metrics like volume and competition.
• Useful semantically related keyword suggestions in “clusters”.
• Affordable plan packed with various additional SEO features.

Cons: 

• Limited brand cache and yet to build a reputation.
• Focused primarily on small businesses and beginners. 

2. Google Keyword Planner

GKP is the standard option that many people start out with. It can be integrated with AdSense to give you the most accurate keyword data, but the free version is not as precise. It’s quite easy to use and has the most basic features you need. 

Best features: Precise competitor and CPC data, streamlined PPC planning. 

Free vs Paid: Always free, but you need to run an actual paid ad campaign to get more accurate volume data. 

Best for: Advertisers, PPC marketers, and SEO beginners.

Pros: 

• Get data straight from the number one search engine in the world.
• Integrates seamlessly with Google Ads. 
• Beginner-friendly UI.

Cons: 

• Not a lot of additional useful metrics.
• You have to run ads to get the precise volume numbers.
• Not as good for long-tail keywords and identifying trends. 

3. Ubersuggest

This tool was conceived as a less expensive way for bloggers and small companies to get a lot of the utility offered by the leading industry names. While it can be useful, particularly for content ideas, it lags behind in terms of accuracy. 

Best features: Varied keyword data, AI-powered content suggestions, and additional SEO tools.

Free vs Paid: You only get three searches per day with limited suggestions for free, and the higher tiers offer a more complete look at the volumes and historical data, as well as far more suggestions. 

Best for: Freelancers, bloggers, solopreneurs. 

Pros: 

• Clean interface with clear information.
• Info on traffic estimates and SEO difficulty.
• Access to competitor keyword analysis. 

Cons: 

• Quite a limited free version.
• Even premium lacks data accuracy compared to other premium tools.
• Trending keyword updates can be rather slow.  

4. Ahrefs Keyword Explorer

The gold standard when it comes to precision and functionality, Ahrefs covers all your bases and then some. That being said, you do need to pay a princely sum each month to access all these top features, which sadly makes it unsuitable for many people. 

Best features: Large database, high accuracy for keyword difficulty, and content analysis. 

Free vs. Paid: There is limited free version (20 keyword suggestions). Paid provides in-depth data on keywords and content optimization. 

Best for: SEO agencies, advanced marketers, and enterprises.

Pros: 

• The most precise keyword and competitor data available.
• Lots of useful metrics like Clicks Per Search and Traffic Potential.
• Allows you to track across different countries.   

Cons: 

• Very expensive and no free option.
• Difficult to get used to for newcomers.

5. Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

Semrush has a good amount of performance, especially when it comes to segmenting keywords by intent and getting some AI help with your topics, but the plans tend to be even pricier than with the previous entry on this list. 

Best features: Great look into keyword intent and topic clusters.

Free vs Paid: Only 10 daily searches with 10 suggestions for free. Paid tiers offer full functionality with 10,000+ results and 500 to 1500 keywords with daily rank tracking. 

Best for: Agencies and large in-house SEO teams. 

Pros: 

• Keywords are divided by search intent.
• Automated reports.
• SEO topic research and content template.

Cons: 

• Prices out smaller businesses and startups.
• Heavily limited free version.
• A busy interface that can be confusing for beginners.

6. Moz Keyword Explorer

A well-known name in the SEO industry, and one with lots of support and resources for new users. The data is not as up-to-date as with the top dogs, but it also comes at about $150 to $200 less per month for the highest tier than Ahrefs and Semrush, respectively. 

Best features: Priority Score, SERP features insights, and Keyword Lists for related suggestions. 

Free vs Paid: Just 10 queries available per month for free, while paid tiers have 75 up to 15,000 queries and 5000 to 1.25 million pages crawled each week. 

Best for: Small SEO teams and in-house marketers.

Pros: 

• Simplified scores for easy data analysis.
• Proven and reliable keyword difficulty metric.
• Lots of learning and troubleshooting resources are available.

Cons: 

• Somewhat limited international keyword data.
• Not much trending data.
• Weekly ranking updates instead of daily, like with some competitors.

7. AnswerThePublic

The ultimate resource to guide your research on user intent. It explores user queries, features an elegant design, and provides lots of useful long-tailed keywords. What makes it really stand out are the creative mind-map-style data visualizations.

Best features: Visual keyword map, comparison, and preposition categories. 

Free vs Paid: Only a couple of daily searches with the free version, but you get historical data and unlimited searches with Pro.

Best for: Content creators, bloggers.

Pros: 

• Excellent at discovering long-tail options.
• Custom data visualization that promotes creativity.
• Easy to get tons of content ideas.

Cons: 

• No access to key metrics like volume.
• Not many filters are available to refine searches.
• Free tier is bare-bones and not too useful.

8. WordStream Free Keyword Tool

This one is fairly streamlined and aimed particularly at users interested in running PPC ad campaigns, particularly useful for estimating CPC. You get lots of reliable data from Google’s database, but it lacks competitor analysis and may not be well-suited to newer sites with limited existing content. 

Best features: Long-tail keyword suggestions, thematic keyword grouping, mobile-ready UI.

Free vs Paid: The full set of features is available for free, but you need the PPC platform to get more accurate results and deeper insights.  

Best for: PPC beginners, small business owners.

Pros: 

• Key data sourced from Google Ads for high accuracy.
• Find results based on industry and region.
• Automated complete reports and exports list in CSV format.

Cons: 

• Reports are sent by email, and there is no direct export option.
• Lacks a broader SEO focus and additional useful features.
• No access to trends or filtering. 

9. Keywords Everywhere

If you are looking for real-time data insights from the biggest platforms like Google, Amazon, and YouTube, this browser extension is the way to go. It also integrates with Google Trends and AnswerThePublic, but you don’t get a neat centralized dashboard, and its pay-as-you-go model may not be for everyone. 

Best features: Real-time data, related keyword suggestions. 

Free vs Paid: Only basic suggestions are available for free, while the paid version provides more detailed data on search volume, competitor analysis, and CPC. 

Best for:  Marketers, niche site creators, and ecommerce sites.

Pros: 

• Works with a wide range of platforms.
• Gives you access to “People also search for” data.
• Easy to optimize and export keyword lists.

Cons: 

• It’s just a browser extension with no traditional dashboard.
• Not much historical data and keyword trends.
• The credit system is not ideal for heavy users.

10. LowFruits

While most tools on this list look at high-ranking sites and provide information on the most popular search terms, this one takes things in a completely different direction—it finds the more esoteric options with weak competition. It’s all about long tail keywords with less volume, but a greater chance of converting. 

Best features: Finds weak SERPS and a custom difficulty score. 

Free vs Paid: Only five searches are allowed in the free version, and limited data, while paid gives you unlimited access and highly detailed information.  

Best for: Niche site builders and indie bloggers.

Pros: 

• Finds long-tail options with low competition that most other tools miss. 
• Provides very detailed SERP data.
• Precise ranking difficulty metric.

Cons: 

• Works with a fairly small database.
• No additional SEO features.
• Lacks any information on CPC and PPC.

Best Keyword Generators: Comparison Table

I’ve prepared a clear side-by-side breakdown of how all these tools stack up against each other so you can compare them at a glance. It covers the most important features and will give you enough information to make an informed decision.

How to Use a Keyword Generator Effectively

With all that information, you should be able to decide on the best choice for your needs, but you also need to understand how the keyword research process works. To get the best results, follow these simple steps:

• Start with a topic: Think of something from your niche that people gravitate toward or find useful, like “chef’s knives”, and enter it into the tool to get more suggestions. This will help you identify specific phrases that most people search for.
• Expand using long-tail variants: Get more specific to find options with less competition and better chances of conversion. Look at things like “professional Japanese steel chef’s knives” or “the best German chef’s knives.”   
• Filter by intent: Categorize your results based on whether they are informational (“Do professional chefs use Wüsthof knives?”), commercial (“best professional kitchen knives”) or navigational (“Wüsthof Classic 8-inch chef’s knife”). 
• Group and prioritize: When you have a wide enough selection, you can create little groups of similar keywords based on the topic. You can create a list of topics and come up with a content schedule for your blog. 
• Use in blog titles, H1s, meta, and internal links: Add your primary keywords in all the right places throughout your blog post and the meta title and description, and be sure to link to other blog and product pages. 

As you can see, it’s all about starting broad and vague, and honing in on just the right options, with long tail phrases, then widening to encompass similar and related terms. At this point, the content ideas will begin to emerge.  

Use Rankioz to cluster your keywords and build content plans with precision instantly. Explore the tool now.

Free vs Paid Tools: Which One Is Right for You?

The answer to this one depends solely on your specific needs and goals. The free keyword tools for SEO can give you that initial creative spark and nudge you in the right direction, with a few suggestions and estimates on volume and ranking difficulty. However, they don’t give you much and can even throw you off the right path by providing inaccurate information.

With the more premier solutions, you get tons of useful metrics and highly precise data on volume, keyword difficulty, and competitor analysis, along with some suggestions on related terms and even AI-driven content ideas. These can be quite expensive, though, and are better suited for larger businesses and marketing agencies. 

Of course, there is always the hybrid approach with tools like Rankioz, which has a free trial and affordable plans, but packs tons of useful features in a tight package and, most importantly, uses Google’s database to bring you the most accurate data. 

Use Case Examples

To give you a better idea of how these tools are used out in the digital wilderness, I’ll go over a couple of common scenarios and show precisely how a good tool can help. 

Solo Blogger Building Topic Clusters

You are looking at a blank page on a white screen with just the words “Topic Ideas for September” sitting cozily at the top to give away the document’s intended purpose. If only there were a magical content fairy that could sprinkle a few keywords to help you get started. 

Well, using one of the ten such “helpers” I’ve provided above, even the free keyword generator tools, our reluctant hero starts with a broad general topic like “training shoes” and gets plenty of interesting suggestions. He then focuses on the long-tail options like “best shoes for marathon runners” and “best training shoes for powerlifters”. 

These can now become part of a big cluster of topics that can all link back to a bigger, more general article about the different types of sports shoes, which can in turn be linked to from different sections of this article. 

Agency Generating Client Keyword Reports

A digital marketing professional starts their search by quickly searching for suggestions based on the core services offered by the client, e.g., “emergency plumbing services,” “leak detection and repair,” and “faucet installation.”

They can then separate the results by intent to create different types of content for different purposes, e.g., blog articles, ads, social media posts, etc. To get even more precise, they can also perform a keyword gap analysis and eventually make a list of top priorities based on the volume, relevance, and difficulty data. 

The team brainstorms different content ideas, creates a strategy, and finishes by exporting all this important information into a document that will serve as the final, actionable report presented to the client.     

FAQ About Keyword Generator Tools

Are Keyword Generators Accurate?

It really depends on the tool. Some only give ranges and broad estimates, others work with limited databases, but the best ones can be incredibly accurate, especially when drawing the data directly from Google. 

What’s the Best Free Keyword Generator?

The Google Keyword Planner is a good start, but it requires an account and is a bit convoluted to set up initially. You can also combine it with other free tools like AnswerThePublic and Ubersuggest to get some more utility out of each one, but they are all generally quite limited. 

Can I Use Keyword Tools for YouTube or Amazon SEO?

Yes, and it’s the only way to ensure steady channel growth or get more people to click on your listings. A good tool can give you some great insights into what people search for and give you plenty of suggestions that you can use to optimize your video and product descriptions. 

What’s the Difference Between Keyword Ideas and Keyword Suggestions?

The former relates to a wider set of topics that can be your initial starting point when diving deeper into long-tail keywords. They’re essentially different flavors of the same thing. The latter are focused, targeting a specific area that users need direct help with, and are usually based on autocomplete data or real-time queries. 

These get you longer phrases that are better at converting and can be used to create more effective ad campaigns. 

Turn Keyword Research Into Traffic Growth

Proper research is about more than just using SEO tools to find keywords—when approached correctly, these tools can save you a lot of time and help you find hidden SEO opportunities. It’s important to base your content strategy on precise and reliable information, though, so you need to look past the limited free options.   

Of course, you also have to consider your budget. While the top brands offer incredible features and lots of versatility, you may not need all the extra bells and whistles, especially when they come at such a high price.  If you’re tired of generic keyword lists, try Rankioz to generate focused, rank-worthy ideas and dominate search in 2025.