Targeting the right keywords is important for helping your video rank in search, reach a wider audience and earn money from YouTube.
I’ve been pursuing YouTube for over a year but with so many content creator tools available, I still found it hard to know which ones to use.
So I spent a month trying, testing, and comparing all the popular YouTube SEO tools.
And this is my list of the best keyword tools for YouTube, including both free and paid options.
With the right keyword tool, you can get the insights you need to optimize your YouTube videos and reach your target audience.
I’ll also give you some tips on how to use keywords to improve your YouTube SEO.
What are the best keyword tools for YouTube?
Take care of the packaging.
It’s as important as the video itself.
If you spend hours upon hours on the production side of things such as scripting, shooting, and editing the video then do the same with the other 50% which is the packaging.
Without it – no one’s going to watch your video.
The thumbnail, title, and description are the most important factors to your CTR on YouTube.
And the right keywords are important for 2 of them – the description and the title.
While it’s possible to come up with keywords on your own, having the help of great keyword software makes the job so much easier.
And of course, there are several great keyword tools for YouTube that can help you with your video SEO.
Here are my top pics:
- VidIQ – Best overall.
- YouTube Itself – Best for beginners.
- TubeBuddy – Best for small YouTube channels.
- Keywords Everywhere
- Ahrefs
- Google Trends
Best features:
- Views per hour – this feature shows how many views per hour any video on YouTube gets.
- Keyword research tool – this is a free tool that lets you see the keyword’s overall score search volume and competition on YouTube.
- Daily content ideas – this feature generates content ideas using AI. Sometimes they’re completely useless but other times you might stumble across a great idea.
- Video tag optimization – VidIQ lets you add relevant tags to your video in seconds without having to think of them yourself.
Price:
VidIQ has a free plan or starts at $7.5/month.
What I think about it:
I use VidIQ myself.
Although it has many unnecessary features that clutter up YouTube’s interface it has many great ones like the views per hour counter and the keyword score to name a few.
And they make VidIQ worth it for every YouTuber!
The tool is also free to start with so why not try it?
Get started with VidIQ.
2. YouTube search suggested
Best features:
Whenever you type anything into the YouTube search bar, it will try to autocomplete your sentence.
This is how you can find long-tail keywords to put in your YouTube video description or title.
YouTube shows you what are the current popular search queries for that specific topic.
For example, if you type in “how to” in search it will suggest endings for this sentence based on what people search for the most on YouTube.
So you can now take this information and make a video about it (just make sure that it fits within your niche).
Price:
$0. The search bar is a built-in YouTube feature.
What I like/dislike about it:
There’s no definitive keyword or competition score when looking at keywords in the YouTube search suggested.
You have to guess.
There’s also no way to know how many large channels have already made videos on that topic and if you have the slightest chance of competing with the big dogs.
However, it’s the best place to find keywords without using a third-party SEO tool.
It’s a part of YouTube!
Get started with YouTube.
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💰 Detailed guide about finding your niche & making money
Best features:
There are a lot of features that make TubeBuddy the best tool for some YouTube creators, but here are some of my favorites:
- The ability to see which tags are being used by the top videos in your niche is invaluable for ranking your own videos.
- A keyword research tool that shows a relative keyword score based on your channel authority.
- The bulk processing tools save a ton of time by allowing you to quickly apply changes to multiple video descriptions at once.
- The A/B thumbnail testing tool. It’s essential for anyone looking to optimize their videos for maximum views and CTR.
Price:
TubeBuddy has a free plan or starts at $3.20/month.
What I like/dislike about it:
This tool is very similar to VidIQ.
So it all comes down to which one you prefer and are most comfortable with.
TubeBuddy is just as powerful as VidIQ and allows users to optimize their YouTube channel and get more out of their video content.
Get started with TubeBuddy.
4. Keywords Everywhere
Best features:
- Keyword Volume Estimates. One of the best features of Keywords Everywhere is that it provides accurate keyword volume estimates. This is crucial information for any SEO campaign. With Keywords Everywhere, you’ll know exactly how many people are searching for a particular keyword.
- Keyword Suggestions. Another great feature of Keywords Everywhere is its keyword suggestions tool. This tool provides you with a list of related keywords that you can use in your SEO campaign. This is valuable information that can help you fine-tune your keyword strategy.
- Easy to use and install. This tool is an extension so all that you have to do is go to the Chrome web store and click “Add to Chrome”.
- Integrates with Google, Amazon, YouTube, and Bing. This SEO tool is not only meant for YouTube and works well with other search engines as well.
Price:
10$ for 100 000 credits.
1 Credit = 1 Keyword.
Credits expire after one year.
You can read more about pricing options here.
What I like/dislike about it:
There are 2 things I dislike about this tool:
- Just like VidIQ, keyword everywhere also clutters up your YouTube with unnecessary metrics and features.
- It costs money to get over the barrier of only the basic features.
What I like about it is that it shows up everywhere.
For example on Google search and YouTube so you can immediately see the search volume for a any keyword.
Get started with Keywords Everywhere.
5. Ahrefs
Best features:
Ahrefs is one of the most popular SEO tools on the market and for good reason.
Here are some of the best features that Ahrefs has to offer:
- Comprehensive keyword research: Ahrefs provides detailed keyword data, including search volume, keyword difficulty, and SERP features. This data can be used to identify the best keywords to target for your SEO campaigns.
- Site audit: Ahrefs’ site audit tool analyses your website for common SEO issues that could be hindering your performance. This is a valuable tool for ensuring that your website is optimized for search engines.
- Backlink analysis: Ahrefs’ backlink analysis tool lets you see who is linking to your website, as well as the quality of those links. This is useful for identifying link-building opportunities and for monitoring your backlink profile.
- Rank tracking: Ahrefs’ rank tracking tool allows you to track your website’s progress in the search engine results pages. This is valuable for measuring your SEO progress and for identifying any potential ranking issues.
- Comprehensive API: Ahrefs’ API lets you access all of Ahrefs’ data and features from within your own software or scripts.
Price:
Starts at $89/month.
You can find more pricing details here.
What I like/dislike about it:
The things I dislike about Ahrefs are:
- It’s very expensive for someone with a low budget.
- Focused mostly on Google SEO rather than YouTube SEO.
- Is too advanced for a beginner.
What I like about it though is that it’s extremely effective in what it does.
If you learn how to use this SEO software to its fullest potential you can do a lot of damage with it.
Get started with Ahrefs.
6. Google Trends
Best features:
- Keyword comparison. Google Trends make it easy to compare two or more keywords just by typing them into the tool
- Ease of use. It’s very beginner friendly and I can’t see how someone wouldn’t understand how to use it just from the first glance.
- Keyword analytics based on location. Although this is more relevant for YouTube channels that have a location-specific audience it’s still useful to know which keywords are popular in which locations.
- Keyword analytics based on search engines. You can filter our keywords and search for their popularity on different search engines like Google Image search, News search, and of course – YouTube search.
Price:
$0. It’s free!
What I like/dislike about it:
There’s no doubt that Google is the most popular search engine out there.
In fact, it’s so popular that “to Google” has become a verb.
And so the company itself has created an easy-to-use SEO tool to help someone find out how often particular terms are being searched for.
But with ease of use sometimes come the negative aspects of it.
I think Google Trends is a very basic tool oriented towards beginners but that could also be seen as a plus rather than a minus.
I think the best part about it is that it’s very easy to use even for a complete beginner and that it also shows keyword trends over time.
Get started with Google Trends.
Was this list of YouTube keyword tools useful?
There are a lot of great keyword tools out there that can help you optimize your YouTube videos for better searchability and ranking.
I hope this list of some of the best ones out there was useful.
With that said also take a look at another list I’ve put together which highlights the best tools for content creators overall.
You’ll find screen recording software, content writing software, free online photo editors for thumbnails, and much more.
Also here are some more useful resources for growing your YouTube channel:
How To Get 1000 Subscribers On YouTube
Read More17 YouTube Video Ideas Without Showing Your Face
Read MoreHow To Make An Irresistible YouTube Thumbnail Like Mr.Beast
Read More17+ Best YouTuber Tools To Start Earning Money Faster
Read MoreGet a free Notion template with the tutorial for the game of YouTube
🚀 10+ Notion pages about how to play the YouTube game
⚙️ List of tools & gear for YouTubers
🧑⚖️ How to make your first video and get your channel off the ground
💰 Detailed guide about finding your niche & making money