Top 6 Research Tools for Content Marketers

There is a plethora of tools available for you to become an exceptional content marketer, but this abundance is also the challenge. When you search for “top content marketing research tools,” you are bombarded with advertisements promoting different platforms claiming to be the best option. This can be an overwhelming and tiring process.

Regardless of whether you are dealing with information overload or limited by cost and specific research requirements, there is always a research tool available for content marketers that fits your needs and budget.

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Just because a research tool is free, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s limited in functionality. The most effective no-cost research tools are versatile, robust, and user-friendly. It’s worth familiarizing yourself with these top free tools, even if you have a larger budget and access to premium paid options, as they can complement your research stack perfectly. These are the ideal free research tools to use if you’re striving to establish yourself as an expert in a particular field.

Don’t worry about expensive subscription-based tools with convoluted user experiences and excessive amounts of data that you may never use. Instead, all you need is a single browser extension such as Keywords Everywhere to create a comprehensive and practical understanding of search intent.

Keywords Everywhere is a browser extension that works seamlessly with Chrome or Firefox. Once installed, it displays key data such as SEO difficulty, CPC, and competition metrics for a keyword you have recently searched for on the right-hand side of your search tab. This feature provides you with an immediate way to evaluate the accessibility and potential value of a specific keyword for creating content.

Although a paid version of Keywords Everywhere is available, the majority of its essential functions can be accessed through the freemium plan.

Pros

Keywords Everywhere is a user-friendly tool that can be downloaded and set up with just two clicks. It promptly shows vital SEO information every time a search is conducted, in addition to presenting search trend data and a collection of associated keywords and long-tail keywords for each search query.

The free iteration of Keywords Everywhere offers comprehensive difficulty metrics that offer a detailed breakdown of various elements, including existing content, meta-descriptions, URLs, and other beneficial metrics. These metrics provide a broader perspective of the open page rank.

Cons

Keywords Everywhere has its limitations, as it can provide significant insights about a keyword, except for the most important factor — search volume. Unless you opt for the paid version or buy credits when needed, you won’t have access to historical search volume data.

Since Keywords Everywhere is a free research tool, it may not be the best option for in-depth analysis. For instance, it does not provide a detailed analysis of competitor websites, which is a crucial aspect of content marketing research. Additionally, it is not suitable for examining the overall health of your own website.

Users who prefer browsers such as Safari and Edge may not be able to use Keywords Everywhere since it is not compatible with all browsers. Although Chrome and Firefox make up roughly 70% of the browser market share, those who use other browsers may not have access to the tool.

Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest is a top-notch SEO research tool that offers an exceptional blend of in-depth analysis and free accessibility. It is a comprehensive SEO analytics tool that has undergone substantial improvements, making it a popular choice among content marketers worldwide.

All you have to do is enter the keyword you want to research on the platform, and it will provide you with a range of crucial statistics related to it. Creating a free account can give you access to even more valuable insights.

Pros

Despite being a free research tool, Ubersuggest is exceptionally sophisticated and all-inclusive. It furnishes you with relevant information regarding the keyword you have entered, such as volume, difficulty, paid difficulty, and CPC. Moreover, it generates arrays of associated keywords that come with the same statistics attached to them.

Ubersuggest also identifies high-quality questions that are ideal for natural language search. Content marketers are increasingly interested in natural language search, but it necessitates a thorough understanding of the questions potential users might ask. Ubersuggest helps address this challenge by identifying relevant and high-quality questions.

Ubersuggest is a rare exception among free content marketing research tools, as it is suitable for deep-dives. It offers various additional views, such as traffic and backlinks, that can be valuable for content marketing professionals. It even includes a Content Ideas tab that can be beneficial if you’re struggling to come up with fresh content ideas.

Cons

Although Ubersuggest provides essential readouts related to site health, its SEO audit feature is somewhat incomplete and frustrating. It offers minimal tips on how to resolve the issues it identifies. This might not be an issue if your content marketing research is limited to articles only, but it could be a disadvantage if you’re looking to optimize your site’s overall SEO.

When it comes to conducting content research, there’s no tool quite like directly asking the public for their opinions. AnswerThePublic is an excellent tool for accomplishing this on a large scale, all from the convenience of your home office. It enables you to explore the questions that the public is asking about particular keywords.

Pros

One of the most significant benefits of using AnswerThePublic is the wealth of instant content ideas it offers. You can be confident that the questions you’re answering are relevant and important to the public. Additionally, AnswerThePublic is an excellent tool for identifying opportunities to be featured in snippets, as it helps you target popular and frequently asked questions.

AnswerThePublic boasts a fantastic user experience that is sleek, user-friendly, and loaded with personality. Furthermore, it is simple to download search results in a clear and easy-to-read CSV file.

Cons

Similar to other content marketing research tools, AnswerThePublic has some limitations that are divided between its free and paid versions. The non-paid tier offers a limited number of free credits, which means that it might not be the best tool to use when generating ideas frequently, especially during the wee hours of the night.

If you have a budget for content marketing, you can have access to a plethora of high-quality paid content research tools.

Even if you have a high budget, the value of a content research tool is crucial. The tools that truly justify every penny spent on them can take your content to the next level.

Ahrefs is highly praised by content marketers for good reason — it is an invaluable tool that offers insights into every aspect of a website’s SEO performance. From link profile analysis to traffic performance and individual keyword rankings, Ahrefs provides a comprehensive service for assessing a website’s overall SEO health. It’s difficult to imagine any content marketing research toolset that wouldn’t benefit from the addition of Ahrefs.

Pros

Ahrefs offers a complete and detailed overview of your website’s SEO performance, including a list of all the keywords your site ranks for. With this information, content marketers can identify areas of strength and weakness, and plan accordingly to build topical authority and refresh underperforming articles.

Ahrefs’ Content Gap feature is a great way to generate content ideas. By showing you the keywords your competitors are ranking for but you aren’t, it provides instant inspiration for new content. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, discovering that your closest competitor is ranking for three keywords that you don’t have on your site can be the start of a new and highly competitive content strategy.

Ahrefs has a highly comprehensive keyword tracker that not only provides related keywords but also offers a “Question” sub-feature, making it an excellent tool for optimizing for natural language search. This feature helps content marketers understand the questions their audience is asking and create content that addresses those queries.

Ahrefs’ interface is straightforward and easy to navigate, even with the abundance of complex data it provides. The tool is user-friendly, making it simple for new users to learn its functions quickly, while still providing a wealth of deep insights for experienced content professionals.

Cons

While Ahrefs provides a comprehensive view of your site’s SEO health, some of its tracking features may not update as quickly as you’d like. This is especially true for rank tracking and backlinks. Additionally, the organic traffic estimates provided by Ahrefs may not always align with what you see in your Google Analytics account. Despite these limitations, Ahrefs remains a top-notch content marketing research tool for those willing to invest in it.

A potential downside of Ahrefs’ comprehensiveness is that it can also result in a cluttered keyword list, with irrelevant or spammy keywords mixed in with the usable ones. This can make it challenging to quickly find the most valuable keywords for your content research.

Clearscope is a content optimization platform that can assist with drafting articles. It analyzes the competition for your chosen keyword and provides information about those articles, such as readability and average length. Additionally, Clearscope generates lists of related keywords to your main topic, including those that appear in key article headings.

Reviewing your competitors’ content can provide valuable insights when it comes to structuring your own article and identifying related keywords to include. By analyzing competitors’ articles related to your target keyword, you can identify commonly used headings and related keywords, such as “online store” and “ecommerce business” in the case of the example provided. Incorporating these headings and related keywords while gathering new research can improve the usability and interest of your own article, making it more appealing to readers.

Pros

Clearscope is a time-saving content research tool that offers insights into writing style and article length. Its “Competitors” tab showcases the top competitors for your target keyword, enabling you to review their content and plan your own accordingly. Additionally, Clearscope can inform you about the average length of articles in your niche, allowing you to attract more views by pushing your content beyond the norm. The tool also provides readability scores to help you adjust your writing style for maximum accessibility, ultimately leading to better search engine rankings.

Clearscope offers valuable insights into writing style and article length based on the competition for your chosen keyword. By analyzing the average length of competing articles, Clearscope suggests a target length that can help you attract more views. Similarly, if the readability scores of your competitors are high, Clearscope recommends making your article more accessible to improve your chances of ranking higher on Google.

Clearscope provides a graded score for your article’s overall optimization level, which considers related keywords, readability, and length. The score is dynamic, so you can see improvements as you write within Clearscope.

Cons

To clarify, while Clearscope’s graded scores can provide valuable guidance for optimizing your content, they do not guarantee a high ranking in search results. Other factors such as the competition, user intent, and search engine algorithms can also affect your content’s performance. Therefore, it’s important to use Clearscope’s recommendations in conjunction with other SEO strategies and best practices.

The lack of guarantee in Clearscope’s graded scores may be a dealbreaker for some, especially considering its high cost. Even the basic plan starts at $350 per month.

Curateit is a content curation platform that helps businesses find and share the best content from around the web. With Curateit, you can easily discover high-quality content related to your industry or niche, and quickly share it with your followers on social media or your website.

Curateit’s platform is easy to use and intuitive, even for those who are not content experts. The platform provides a comprehensive dashboard where you can see all the content you have curated, and you can easily share it across your social media channels with a single click.

One of the standout features of Curateit is its advanced filtering and search capabilities. You can easily filter content based on keywords, location, and other factors, which makes it easy to find the most relevant and useful content for your audience. Additionally, the platform’s AI-powered recommendation engine helps you find content that is likely to be well-received by your audience, based on their interests and behavior.

As a personal curation platform, Curateit can help content marketers save and organize all the gems they come across on the web. Whether it’s research articles, blog posts, or social media posts, Curateit allows content marketers to save and categorize their findings using auto-suggested tags or a single collection folder. This makes it easier to access relevant information quickly and efficiently. By using Curateit as a research tool, content marketers can streamline their research process and curate valuable insights and ideas to inform their content strategies. Additionally, the highlights feature allows content marketers to save important findings in one place, ensuring they never miss any essential information.

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