Keyword Tool is a Hong Kong based keyword research platform that offers a free service that, although it does have some restrictions, is probably adequate for most users, most of the time.

Finding the right keywords for your AdWords ppc campaign is something most people would use the free Google AdWords Keyword Planner for, and why not? It’s free and, well, it’s Google so it must be safe, accurate and reliable. Mustn’t it?

Well, it’s certainly safe – no doubt about that – but accurate and reliable, not necessarily so. The reason that many people look for other keyword research tools is that Google can be quite selective about what they show you in their Keyword Planner and, although its still a useful facility to have, it doesn’t suit all of the people all of the time.

When you need to find keywords for an SEO or content marketing campaign it is likely that you will need to look a little further than Google’s AdWords Planner can take you. There are often thousands of variations to a “seed” keyword but google limits the number given to 800, which is often a restriction too far.

Added to that, if you want to find keywords for use on Amazon search, or maybe YouTube, Google isn’t much help. Luckily, there are plenty of other keyword research tools available, some free, some not,  but the one we are looking at here is Keyword Tool, (keywordtool.io), and there is a totally free version for you to try it out with. Many people will find the free version to be sufficient for their needs and it is certainly worth taking it for a test drive.

Keyword Tool finds you keywords on Google, and elsewhere, using their autocomplete suggestions which provide you with a list of alternatives when you are conducting a search, based on what people are actually searching for. On Google, many of these suggestions will not appear in the Keyword Planner. But what makes Keyword Tool even more useful is its ability to show you keywords for Bing, Amazon and YouTube; now that’s really spot-on when you are running campaigns on those platforms.

We’ve used the free version of Keyword Tool for a while now and can wholeheartedly recommend it for day-to-day use. If you want more avanced features and not to be restricted in any way then one of their “Pro” plans may be worth considering but be aware, the price is a bit of a jump from the free version, starting at $48/month for the “Lite” plan.