The key to a successful automotive SEO campaign is great keywords.
But how do you find great keywords, especially if you do not have the budget to pay for expensive keyword research?
Do not fall into the trap of thinking that you can just guess which keywords are going to work best for your website or that you can simply use the same keywords that your competitors are using and expect to see the same results.
Neither are going to work well enough to be worth the time and effort you put into implementing those strategies. Here are nine keyword research tools that are sure to help you find great keywords, quickly:
- Google Keyword Planner
Many SEO experts are on the fence about Google Keyword Planner.
Here’s what we’ll say: it does a great job of allowing you to evaluate your keywords and can help you come up with new ideas for keywords that might have otherwise passed you by.
It will show you statistics that let you know how often people are searching that keyword and what kind of competition you are looking at if you were to choose that keyword.
While you do need an AdWords account to access Keyword Planner, you don’t actually have to make an ad to use it.
- Term Explorer
When you hear that you have to pay for Term Explorer, that might send you running in the other direction, especially considering that tools like Keyword Planner are free.
The benefits of paying a little bit, however, cannot be overstated. Instead of the basic statistics that you are going to get for keywords on Google Keyword Planner, you’ll get a very in depth analysis of that keyword, along with a multitude of keyword suggestions (over ten thousand).
- Google Trends
It’s no surprise that with so many people trying to get ranked on Google, Google itself is putting out tools to help websites do just that.
Google Trends is completely free and it essentially lets you see how often certain keywords are searched, based on their location.
It tunes you in to what might be creating buzz for that keyword and where the majority of the traffic associated with that keyword is coming from.
For automotive SEO, this can be a great way to see what people in your area are actually searching for.
- Keyword Difficulty
This tool was developed by Moz, one of the giants in the world of SEO.
It’s one of their paid tools, but if you are really interested in getting the right keywords for your automotive SEO campaign, paying a little bit might not be that big of a deal.
It tells you how competitive a keyword is and also clues you in to some of the easiest keywords to optimize and rank for.
It will even show you who else is optimizing for the keywords you are optimizing for.
- Keyword Tool
It might not have a very unique name, but Keyword Tool.io is a simple, instructive, useful tool that is great for those looking for long tail keywords.
Because more and more people are using their voice command features on mobile devices to search for things, finding low competition, high search volume long tail keywords is a great way to go.
It will use a search term that you enter and then offer suggestions using the same technology as Google’s autocomplete feature.
- Keyword Tool by HubSpot
Another giant in the world of SEO, HubSpot has developed a keyword tool that helps you find the very best keywords for your automotive SEO campaign.
It also has a unique tracking feature which essentially tells you not only which keywords are the most searched, but which ones result in the most conversions.
For dealerships who are trying to get as many people on their showroom floor as possible, being able to see which keywords are the most effective for doing just that is going to be essential.
Are you looking for ways to beat your competitors to the top of the search results?
If so, this is the tool you’ll want to use.
You will have to pay for it, but it is worth it when you realize that it shows you what keywords your competitors are optimizing for and provides you with the opportunity to knock them out of those top spots.
You can also compare your website to theirs to see where you are excelling and where you might need to work harder.
This is one of the cheaper paid services on this list, providing you very fast and accurate access to information about the keywords you want to use.
If you find that you spend a lot of time trying to research your keywords and you just want fast information about which ones are performing the best, this is the tool to use.
It will give you a look at where you rank, who is ranked above you, and how you are performing with the keywords you’ve been using, too.
This tool is similar to SEMrush, in that it allows you to compare your website to your competitors and helps you look for ways to unseat them from their rank
It looks at a huge range of factors when it comes to evaluating the efficacy of the keyword you are researching, including looking at social media
It even has a function that helps you look for places where you could potentially place and inbound link for your website.
