A Comprehensive KeySearch Review | The Best Budget SEO Tool

Keysearch is a great budget keyword SEO tool and one that I use. In this Keysearch review, I explain why I have chosen it as my SEO tool and in what scenario I would choose other tools instead.

Whilst there is no doubt that aHrefs is the market-leading SEO tool, it is expensive at $99 per month for its lowest-priced plan.

If you’re on a budget and $99 a month isn’t something you want to be spending right now, then Keysearch is the best alternative.

In this comprehensive review, we’ll discuss the key features, pros and cons, and pricing of Keysearch — a powerful yet budget-friendly keyword research and competitive analysis tool. We’ll also provide our final verdict, along with how you can use Keysearch.

Keysearch Verdict

Whilst this tool is no aHrefs or SEMRush, it’s not meant to be and it would be unfair to judge KeySearch against those two tools.

Keysearch offers solid functionality at an amazing price point. Having tested the tool I have signed up for Keysearch annual plan as the Keysearch features provide me with enough insight to grow my blog.

I acknowledge that the data will not be as accurate as premium tools, but that is a sacrifice I am prepared to make whilst saving ~$900 per year.

Overview of Keysearch

Founded in 2015 by Dan Pfeffer as a niche keyword research software, the tool has grown into a fully-fledged suite of marketing and SEO tools.

Keysearch.co is a powerful keyword research and competitive analysis tool that makes it easy to find keywords with good search volume, track your keyword performance, and optimize your content. It helps you to analyze your competitors’ tactics, understand search engine trends, and gain insights into the industry.

Let’s check out the functionality provided. Here is a summary of the features.

Keyword Research

Enter a term, select the location and whether you want related keywords, to search the Keysearch Database or to use one of a number of ‘suggest’ tools and you are shown the following:

The tool gives you a quick view of search volume, CPC & PPC and categorizes the difficulty of the keyword by giving it a keyword difficulty score.

I entered Keysearch Review and it returned a 23 difficulty score, which it classified as an easy term to rank for.

You are shown the search trend over the last 12 months, which can help identify an up-and-coming product or a seasonal keyword.

SERP Analysis for the keyword is provided which includes color-coded metrics for the top ten results shown on the first page of search results.

• MOZ Page Authority
• Moz Domain Authority
• Amount of unique linking domains to the URL
• Amount of unique linking domains to the Domain
• Number of Authority Links (Do Follow) Backlinks
• Total number of links to the page
• Yes / No to whether the keyword is in the URL

The color coding makes it very easy to tell at a glance whether this will be a hard or easy keyword to rank for.

If the color-coding doesn’t & table of stats doesn’t work for you, KeySearch provides a Summed Stats table (see below) that captures the lowest and average of the data shown in the table.

The last section in the main body is a Search Engine Keyword Suggestions box that displays keywords that have been suggested including some long-tail keyword ideas.

Finally down the right-hand side of the page, KeySearch provides a list of keywords related to your main keyword and includes the Search Volume, CPC, PPC, and difficulty score for each.

Clicking on any keyword in the list refreshes the page to show the data for that search term.

You will see from the image below, that the score for the keywords is again color coded

Blue = Really Easy

Green = Easy (the lighter the easier)

Orange = Medium difficulty

Red = Very Difficult.

You can Bulk Check the keywords to show the difficulty score (these aren’t all shown straight away in order to save your credits).

You can save any keywords to a keyword list, export the data in csv format and compare the data of a number of keywords.

Deep Analysis – One feature I loved about this page is the Deep Analysis feature. Clicking this button gives you LSI Keywords of one, two, and three words long. Great for getting ideas for other articles or words to ensure you use in the article you write about the keyword.

Quick Difficulty

If you have a long list of keywords you want to do a quick check on, then this is the function to use. You can enter up to 50 keywords and Keysearch will return the difficulty score for that term.

My Lists

To make managing your keywords easier, KS provides the functionality to create lists and save your keywords to a list for later use.

You can create many lists and move words easily from one list to another and also copy them to the rank tracker tool provided.

Brainstorm

This is a novel feature that I haven’t seen before in other Google SEO tools. On entering the page you start to type in the prompt box and you are provided with autosuggestions from Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Amazon. It’s really useful when you looking for new keywords relating to a topic and are a little bit stuck.

Keysearch Explorer

Explorer lets you enter a domain and receive a wealth of key information about it. Ideal for checking your own site but also for checking out your competitors.

You are shown:

• Domain Strength – Measured from 0 to 10
• Score To Target – A recommended difficulty score to use as a guide i.e. target keywords with a difficulty level lower than the score shown.
• Organic Keywords – The top organic keywords by ranking position
• Top Competitors – The top 5 competitors
• Ranking Distribution – Graphical view of where the site ranks for its organic keywords
• Backlinks & Referring Domains
• Backlinks & Traffic Overview – Graphical representation of how the traffic and backlinks have changed over time
• Top DS Referring Domains – The top domains linking to the site shown by Domain Score
• Top Anchors – The top anchors used in linking to your site.

There is a wealth of data, all displayed using easy-to-understand graphs and or color-coding and for each data set shown, you can click for more detail.

I do not know why the team at Keysearch hasn’t set the explorer page for your own domain as the homepage. At the moment it’s just blank.

Backlink Checker

Enter any domain and Keysearch returns the Domain Score, a graph of the Top Anchors, Backlink numbers (do follow and no follow), and details on each and every backlink it has found for the site in question.

Whilst the main table that lists out all the backlinks isn’t pretty, it does include the Backlink, Anchor, Domain Strength of the linking domain, and whether it’s a Do Follow or No Follow Link.

Organic Keywords

Type in a domain and returned are all the organic ranking keywords for the domain. The term, position, monthly search volume, URL and difficulty score are all shown.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way of copying or saving the keywords to a list or looking at them in more detail. Not a big issue, but definitely a little annoying if you are searching for new words as you need to cut and paste them somewhere else before adding them to a Keyword list later.

Competitor Gap

On the $99 per month plan of aHrefs, you do not get Competitor Gap functionality. To see it included in Keysearch is amazing.

You can compare up to 3 sites to your own. Keysearch will show which words your competitor is ranking for but you are not.

This is great for finding topics to write for your site and also when proposing guest posts too.

URL Metrics

Want to know some key details for a site or many sites? Keysearch will help. Keysearch gives you key URL metrics for up to 20 sites in one go.

Page Analyzer

Have a page you want to health check? Page analyzer reviews the URL entered and provides information on:

• SEO Content
• SEO Links
• SEO Keywords
• Usability
• Document
• Mobile
• Optimization
• PageSpeed Insights

Whilst not perfect, the tool does provide some useful insights.

Youtube Research

Under the Youtube Research banner, KS provides specific Youtube tools including:

• Youtube Research Tool
• Youtube Difficulty Tool
• Youtube Lists

These provide youtube focused data for those interested in running a channel.

Rank Tracking

No SEO tools would be complete without a keyword rank tracker. You can use this tool to see movement in the ranking of keywords you have told the tool to track. Helpfully Keysearch can import the words you are ranking for, saving you time and effort.

You can manually refresh keywords or allow the tool to periodically update the ranking of the tracked term. Simple up and down arrows show the changes in placement.

Content Assistant

The Keysearch Content Assistant helps you write SEO-optimized content so that you can rank faster and higher.

The problem with the tool is that it is so basic that I wish Keysearch hadn’t of included it. It is not up to the standard of other SEO content optimization tools out there and it detracts from the great functionality provided in other areas of the tool.

It’s not something I will be using, but I also didn’t expect it to be provided, so no major loss.

KeySearch Pricing

The great thing about Keysearch is that they give you a one-month trial to test Keysearch free. Whilst you don’t get access to all the features, you get access to enough to get a feel for how good the tool is.

For $17 per month, the Keysearch Starter plan includes up to 200 daily searches which is massive when you compare that to aHrefs 500 per month for $99. If you pay annually this comes down to the equivalent of $14.09 per month which makes this a very affordable keyword research tool.

If you manage to exceed the generous allowances, then the Pro Plan at $34 per month is still ($23.34 per month if paid annually) is still super cheap given all Keysearch has to offer.

Keysearch Coupon

If you sign up for an annual plan you will get 20% off the monthly charge. If you search the web hard enough you will find discount codes to get this cheap tool, even cheaper.

Keysearch Support

As the tool is still in its infancy in terms of the number of users, there are limited tutorials on the site. There is no official Facebook group either, which is a shame.

If you search youtube you will find a number of good reviews and how-to videos by bloggers that use the tool, but nothing official.

Keysearch does offer a 9-part SEO crash course, but it’s very thin and nothing more than you will find with a quick google search.

Whilst the tool is simple to use, it would be great to have some more support.

KeySearch Alternatives

Premium Keysearch Alternatives

When it comes to KeySearch alternatives, Semrush and Ahrefs are two of the most popular SEO tools out there. Both provide keyword research tools, rank trackers, and competitive analysis so you can research keywords, find competitors and analyze their SEO strategies.

Each offers backlink analysis, niche research, and competitor analysis so you can get insights into your niche’s ranking position in the search engine and measure the effectiveness of your own SEO efforts. With these tools, you can also use seed keywords to help identify related terms that will be more effective for your keyword optimization.

Semrush and Ahrefs offer rank-tracking features to help you keep an eye on how your website is performing in the search engine results pages (SERPs). All in all, these alternatives to KeySearch provide comprehensive SEO solutions with powerful features that can help you gain valuable insights into your competitors’ SEO strategies and make sure that you stay ahead of the game.

But both of these tools cost $99+ per month, so they may not be a suitable choice.

Budget Keysearch Alternatives

If you are looking for budget alternatives to KeySearch, I recommend checking out the following:

• SE Ranking
• Keywords Everywhere
• UberSuggest

Keysearch review: affordable keyword analysis tool or waste of money?

If you have the budget and can afford $99+ per month then you should use aHrefs. If you don’t and your budget is limited then Keysearch should be your tool of choice.

Keysearch is an affordable keyword tool that offers a great way to improve your search engine rankings. It provides detailed information about your website’s keywords and can help you optimize them for better search engine optimization (SEO) results.

The tool also includes advanced features like tracking changes in rankings and analyzing competitors’ keywords, as well as providing insights into potential opportunities.

Additionally, it comes with helpful reports and graphs so you can easily track progress and make improvements to your website. With Keysearch.co, users can get a comprehensive insight into their keyword ranking performance, enabling them to take the necessary steps to improve their SEO strategy.

Therefore, this keyword analysis tool is definitely worth considering for anyone looking for an effective way to boost their SEO without breaking the bank.

FAQ

Keysearch Review: Is It a Real Ahrefs Alternative?

If you are on a budget and want a simple affordable keyword tool, yes this is a great alternative. If money was no object, then aHrefs wins hands down.