KeySearch review – the affordable keyword research tool

I’ve recently written a few blog posts about keyword research and the importance of using longtail keywords, but I realise I’ve never actually done a full KeySearch review.

I’ve been using KeySearch now since around Spring 2021, so just about a year and it is transformed the way I do the SEO for my blog posts.

I knew a lot about SEO and how it worked, but there was a part of the puzzle missing and that was researching keywords. I would target keywords before, but I wouldn’t know any information about that keyword of even if it was something my blog had a chance at ranking for. And that was a big mistake.

To be honest, I was lazy. Wait, that’s not accurate. I wasn’t lazy. I was blogging every. single. day. The problem was that I wasn’t being effective in what I was doing.

Now, I blog much less but I research my keywords and I implement SEO in my content in a much smarter way thanks to KeySearch!

The Quick Verdict (2026)

Still worth it if you’re starting out, with a caveat I didn’t have back in 2022.

I’ve been using Keysearch since 2021, and five years on it’s still the first place I look before I write a post. What’s changed is that I’ve added Ahrefs’ free tools alongside it rather than swapping one for the other. Keysearch handles the everyday “is this keyword worth my time” question. Ahrefs’ free version fills in a bit of what Keysearch was never going to cover at this price, mainly backlinks.

So if you’re new to this, Keysearch on its own is genuinely enough, you don’t need anything else to start doing proper keyword research. If you’ve been blogging a few years and want a bit more depth without paying Ahrefs or Semrush full price, pairing Keysearch with a free tool is what I’d actually recommend now, not just what I said back when I wrote this.

What is keyword research?

Let’s get the basic information out of the way for those of you who are new to blogging or keyword research.

Keyword research is a process that helps you identify the most relevant keywords for your website or blog post. It also helps you determine which keywords are the most competitive and how to go about getting your keywords ranked higher in search engine results pages.

Why KeySearch?

KeySearch is a great SEO tool for bloggers because it’s affordable and easy to use.

The other top SEO tools for doing keyword research are the likes of Moz, Semrush and Ahrefs which are amazing – but they are expensive. These tools contain lots of different reports and data for your website and are better suited to a marketing agency than the lone blogger. You can get free trials of these other tools but there are more reports and functions than you’ll probably ever need.

You can read more about the free trials of these SEO tools and how to get them here.

KeySearch is a keyword research tool that is simple and easy to use and costs a fraction of the price.

About KeySearch

KeySearch was founded in 2015 by Dan Pfeffer. It was first a simple keyword research tool and has grown to include more SEO tools over time.

Is KeySearch free?

You can get a month (sometimes 14-day) Keysearch free trial, but after that, you have to pay a monthly fee.

You can sign up to KeySearch here for your Keyserch free trial.

How much does KeySearch cost?

Keysearch’s pricing hasn’t moved much, but the feature limits have shifted, so here’s what’s actually included as of June 2026 (always double-check at keysearch.co before you commit; prices do change):

Starter — $24/month (roughly £19, though check the exchange rate as it moves)

• 200 keyword searches a day
• 80 tracked keywords a month
• 2,000 audited pages a month
• 5,000 AI credits a month
• Doesn’t include Foresight (their newer AI recommendation tool)

Pro — $48/month

• 500 keyword searches a day
• 200 tracked keywords a month
• 5,000 audited pages a month
• 15,000 AI credits a month
• Includes Foresight

I’m still on Starter. I don’t search for keywords often enough to need Pro, and Foresight is one of those AI add-ons I haven’t found a proper use for yet.

There’s a 7-day free trial if you want to test it before handing over card details, and no long contract, you can cancel any time.

What is the best keyword research tool?

I’ve tried doing keyword research with Moz, Ubersuggest and Keyword Planner. I have found KeySearch to be the best one hands down. I guess because it’s mainly a keyword research tool rather than an SEO tool which also has a keyword research section, it has a lot more focus on… well, keyword research.

Though saying that, Ubersuggest is mostly a keyword research tool but I found it to be quite slow and clunky. I just could not get on with the SEO tool and I often had to come out of things and go back into them as it seemed a bit glitchy! Though it does have the potential to be good, I’m keeping an eye on updates for Ubersuggest to see how it gets better with more updates.

But for now, KeySearch is my favourite! It’s just really easy to use. It’s simple and makes sense. I’ll show you, come on!

Keysearch vs the Alternatives in 2026

Keysearch vs Ahrefs

When I first compared these, Ahrefs only really had its full-price plans, somewhere around £100+ a month. That’s changed. Ahrefs now has a Starter plan at $29/month, which is genuinely close to Keysearch on price. It’s more limited than Ahrefs’ full plans (capped at five projects and 1,000 rows per report), but it’s no longer true that Ahrefs is automatically “the expensive one”. If backlinks matter to your strategy, Ahrefs’ database is properly better than Keysearch’s. There’s also a fully free version, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which I use myself alongside Keysearch. It’s not the same as the paid product, but worth knowing it exists before you pay for anything.

Keysearch vs Semrush

Semrush hasn’t moved much. Still around $139.95 a month for Pro, which is a lot for a solo blogger. If this is your main income and SEO is central to your strategy, that price starts to make sense eventually. For most bloggers, it’s overkill.

Keysearch vs Ubersuggest

Still the closest comparison on price, still a bit clunkier in my experience than Keysearch. If you want to try something free before paying for anything, Ubersuggest’s limited free tier is a reasonable place to start.

Keysearch vs free tools (Google Search Console + Ahrefs Webmaster Tools)

If you’re just starting out, this combination costs nothing and tells you a lot. Search Console shows you what you already rank for. Ahrefs Webmaster Tools adds some backlink visibility on top. Where Keysearch earns its keep is researching keywords you don’t rank for yet, which the free tools can’t really do.

KeySearch review

I’m just going to take you through each section of KeySearch and share screenshots with you. This might be a bit boring so feel free to scroll to the section you are interested in.

Keyword Research

So on the surface, this report might look complicated but it’s really simple!

The top left is where you put your keyword. Just for the purpose of this review I’ve searched for ‘keyword research’. You can toggle down to location and different platforms/search engines next to it.

So red means it’s a difficult keyword, yellow is medium, green is easy and blue is super easy! You can see straight away that this is a difficult keyword as there are lots of red on this graph. (In the next heading, I will explain how to filter the keywords so you can find ones more suitable for you.)

SEO tip – If a keyword is too difficult for your site to rank for, try a longtail keyword instead.

The graph shows estimated monthly searches of that term over the last year and lets us see if this term is trending upwards, down or is a seasonal term. So, if you were to search something like ‘Christmas decorations’ you may see this higher in November than in June.

Under the graph, KeySearch displays the top articles that currently rank for that term and some statistics about the website. This is really useful for competitor research and seeing what others are writing about. As you can see in this example, the top 3 articles have a DA in their 90s! They are all high-authority websites and it would be difficult to rank for this term as you would have to outrank them. It’s int impossible, just very difficult!

Click here to check Moz score to aim for in keysearch. Your DA score will tell you what keywords are out of reach.

To the right is one of my favourite sections, it lists similar keywords and you can see how difficult they are. You click on them to see the difficulty rating for ranking for this. This makes it so easy to find alternative terms if your keyword is too difficult.

Below the area which shows the websites already ranking for this term, there is a section that gives you some suggested keywords and the option to click to search for them.

Filter results

Here’s a quick tip – you can filter the results to find the perfect match for you. This saves you scrolling through the hundreds of suggested keywords.

See the example below:

I have searched ‘keyword research’ and it was a difficult term to rank for, so I used the filter to narrow my search down.

I requested 4 words for a long-tail keyword, a volume of over 100 and a score between 0-40. This returned me some longtail keywords I have a better chance of ranking for without having to sift through the difficult words!

Quick difficulty

This is basically the same as the keyword research tool but it doesn’t have the long list of other keywords down the right-hand side as in the image above, this allows it to load faster. Great for searching a bunch of keywords you’ve brainstormed in a hurry.

My lists

This just allows you to save keywords to a list. So if you decide to research keywords for later use, get them saved here so you don’t forget them. I love this keysearch tool!

I like to group my lists into different categories. Sometimes if I’m not sure what to write about, I’ll check my lists for inspiration. I usually save good keywords that I can rank for and that I have a lot to say about.

Brainstorm

You know when you search in Google, and as you type the word it gives you a list of popular searches with those letters?

Well, this is what the Brainstorm function does. Another great way to get some keyword ideas and it helps you, well, brainstorm.

This is a great way to get ideas for blog posts. Simply start typing a word and it will display popular searches for that term in various search engines. If you’re not sure what keyword you should go for, this will help you get a few to pick from.

Explorer

This lets you analyse any website and gives lots of information about your searched site.

You get shown the domain strength out of 10 The score to target – so this website shows 46. That means when doing keyword research, you should try to target works that have a difficulty of 46 or less

If you get KeySearch, then you want to check what your websites ‘Score To Target’ is s you know what keywords are within your limits.

It shows how many backlinks and referring domains.

Scrolling down shows other information, such as keywords, bank link info, anchor text and competitors. If you’re nosey like me, it can be quite interesting to search other websites and find out a bit more about their stats and rankings.

Competitive analysis

This section is a great way to see what your competitors are up to, you can learn from their strategy and find new topics to blog about by seeing what is working for others.

Backlink checker

This shows you all the bank links to a website. This is very useful if you are trying to out-rank a website for an article as you can see what links are pointing to that article.

Some people use this as a way to reach out to those webmasters and ask them to place the link to their resource. You can pitch it to them as a better, more up-to-date and detailed version of what your competitor has produced and ask them to link to it.

But also remember some people may require payment for that, a link in return or just ignore you.

SEO Tip – If you decide to exchange links, returning a link from a different website is better – this is called a three-way link exchange and is better for SEO as Google identifies direct link swaps as a threat to organic rankings so often devalues them. But please note that any link swap like this is black hat’ SEO and is cheating the system. Proceed with caution!

Organic keywords

This is just what it says on the tin. You can search the organic keywords for an entire domain for a website. You can see the position, volume, ranking, CPC and URL. I always find it interesting to see how much traffic someone gets vs volume.

This is another great Keysearch SEO tool as it tells you what your competitors are ranking for and may give you ideas of what type of posts you could rank for if you have a similar niche.

Keyword gap

This shows you want keywords one site ranks for that another doesn’t. Again, a great way to find keywords of sites similar to yours that you may be able to target.

If someone in your niche is ranking for a keyword, you may be able to rank for it (or similar) also! By doing this, you might unlock a whole new topic to write about.

URL metrics

The URL metrics section just gives you the top link data for any domain.

Page Analyser

This is a bit of SEO audit took that checks things such as headings, metadata, site speed, mobile site and more. This is great for checking your own page for any quick wins! This is also a chance to check your own metadata and H1/H2 tags to see if they could be improved.

YouTube Research

I don’t use YouTube so I don’t use this feature. But you can use this to optimise your YouTube videos to get more views. It’s laid out the same as the ‘keyword research’ tool and it gives you the top videos for that keyword, as well as related keywords. You can also check keyword difficulty and make a list of keywords for reference later.

Rank Tracker

The rank tracker lets you track your keywords so you can see their current rank and if they have gone or down.

Content Assistant

Now, I love this tool! Once you have decided on your keyword, then you can run it through the content assistance opportunity finder to get some guidance on how to get the best ranking. It’s a bit like Content AI in Rank Math.

I do prefer the one in Rank Math as it updates your score live and in real-time, but in KeySearch you have to cut and paste the post into the Content Assistant which is a bit faffy.

SEO Crash Course

KeySearch also offers a free SEO crash course to get your started on your SEO journey. You don’t even need an account to use this, it’s open to anyone!

Who’s Keysearch Actually For in 2026?

Good fit if:

• You’re blogging on your own, not running an agency
• You want keyword research before you write, not enterprise-level data
• You’re not ready to pay Ahrefs or Semrush full price
• You want something that works without a steep learning curve

Probably not for you if:

• You’re managing SEO across multiple client sites, you’ll hit the ceiling fast
• Backlink analysis is central to your strategy, the data’s thinner here
• You’re tracking dozens of keywords daily, the limits will frustrate you
• You haven’t written your first post yet, start with the free tools and add Keysearch once you know you’ll actually use it

Final Thoughts

Five years in, and the honest answer hasn’t really changed: Keysearch is still genuinely good value, and I still recommend it to anyone starting out. What’s different is that I no longer think of it as the only tool I need. As the blog’s grown, I’ve added Ahrefs’ free tools alongside it, not instead of it, and Google Search Console does more of the heavy lifting on the “is this actually working” question than Keysearch ever could.

If you’re newer to this than I was in 2021, start with Keysearch. If you’ve been doing this a few years and are wondering what comes next, that’s genuinely it: add the free tools rather than upgrading to something expensive you won’t use to its full potential.

The only things I still dislike about Keysearch are the lack of 24-hour support and the Content Assistant’s slightly clunky, non-WYSIWYG formatting. Neither is a dealbreaker.

You can sign up to Keysearch here for the free trial and use the discount code KSDISC to get a 20% discount.

Keysearch Starter