Howdy, welcome to my review!
Keyword Tool io not only claims to be “the” best alternative to Google’s very own keyword planner tool but also brags about beating other research tools out there.
So I took a closer look to find out whether it’s true or someone’s just full of hot air.
Quick Overview:
Name: Keyword Tool io.
Website: keywordtool.io.
Cost: Free. Pro is $48/month – $88/month.
Co-Founder: Artem Galimov.
My Score: 6/10.
But before jumping into this FULL review…
Click here for my #1 recommended keyword tool – the one I use for top search engine rankings, targeted traffic, and an income from this blog.
Table of Contents
What’s Keyword Tool .io All About?
Keyword Tool io (KTI) is a research tool that digs up long-tail keyword phrases for building a successful online business in any niche using SEO.
It’s designed as a tool for generating up to 750 ideas from each term you punch into the search bar.
See a small snippet of a random search I did for “best mountain bikes”.
What I especially like about ‘KTI’ is that you don’t need an email address to get started and it generates TONS of ideas using Google, YouTube, Bing, eBay, and App Store Autocomplete.
In addition, you can lookup keyword terms in other countries and choose from various languages too. So it basically caters for internet marketers around the globe.
However, there is one thing I dislike!
Although ‘KTI’ is 100% free to use – unfortunately, it ONLY gives you a bunch of keyword phrases and nothing more.
Yes, it provides some value when it comes to fresh ideas for your content marketing, but the “free” version isn’t very useful from an SEO standpoint, in my opinion.
To actually unlock the Search Volume, Cost Per Click, and Competition values, you must upgrade your account to a “paid” subscription. UGH.
So much for a REAL behind-the-scenes look before taking the plunge with ‘KTI’, hey?
But there’s still hope…
==> Get 30 Free Keyword Searches + “Essential Metrics” With This Tool Here!
How do The Keyword Metrics Work?
Once you purchase a paid membership plan, there are only 3 keyword metrics that the software displays:
#1: Search Volume displays the average number of times that specific terms get searched for by folks. It’s a great metric for helping you choose keywords that actually generate traffic.
#2: CPC (Cost Per Click) basically helps you to identify profitable keywords by displaying the figures that advertisers are spending on those keywords with Google Adwords to promote their businesses.
#3: Competition displays the keyword competitiveness according to how many marketers are bidding on keywords.
Metrics #2 and #3 are AWESOME…
That is, IF you’re planning on doing PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns.
Unfortunately, the only useful SEO metric is the “Search Volume” because SEO and PPC work differently in Google land.
‘KTI’ fails to display the correct competition data when it comes to SEO. You need to know how many organic competing pages there are in Google for certain search terms.
Without knowing how many marketers are blogging about a specific term, you have absolutely ZERO idea of whether you’ll be able to rank your blog content on Google page 1 or not.
Plus, there are other important SEO aspects for top rankings (shown here) that ‘KTI’ kinda forgets to include.
What Else is ‘KTI’ Capable of Doing?
In addition to what I’ve already discussed, the tool gives you a bunch of questions that folks are asking in the search engines related to your search term.
See a small example:
I think the “Questions” feature is great because you’ll have heaps of ideas for writing product reviews around.
In fact, check out ‘Answer The Public‘ – it’s an awesome free visual tool which is gonna give you TONS more question ideas you can blog about.
OK, so what about the features?
The good news is that there’s a handful of great features at your disposal:
Filter Results – This refines your results to make it quick and easy for you to find the keywords you want.
Negative Keywords – You can easily filter out unwanted terms from your results.
Sort By: Keywords (ascending or descending).
Finally, you can copy your lists to a clipboard or export to CSV and Excel files.
What’s The Cost to Go Pro?
You can begin with searching for “keywords only” for free.
But for the real data and advanced features, you must upgrade to one of the following plans:
- Pro Lite = $48/month.
- Pro Basic = $68/month.
- Pro Plus = $88/month.
However, I do think the tool’s a little pricey, especially considering the fact that it falls short where SEO is concerned.
PROS VS. CONS of ‘KTI’
PROS
- It’s free to start with
- It’s fast, easy & simple to use
- Generates literally 100s – 1,000s of long-tail ideas
- The software is web-based (nothing to download)
- Search for term ideas using multiple platforms, countries & languages
- Provides a few good features for saving time
- 30-day money back guarantee
CONS
- The free version only allows you to view the keywords
- You must upgrade to Pro to see the keyword data
- It’s not an ideal tool for SEO because essential metrics are missing
Final Thoughts: Is Keyword Tool io Worth it?…
When it comes to the actual keyword research side of things, I think ‘KTI’ is pretty impressive because it delivers a TON of results quickly.
It provides some great features and I also like the fact that it’s web-based too, which means no clunky downloaded software slowing down my computer and also landing my IP address in Google’s bad books lol.
So, I give it a big thumb’s up in that respect.
HOWEVER, there are two problems with ‘KTI’.
Firstly, the “free” version is extremely limited. You can only gather keyword ideas and that’s it. To see any numerical data, the tool forces you to pay.
In my opinion, why should you upgrade your membership when you don’t get a REAL free test drive of the entire research platform first?
Secondly, the “CPC” and “Competition” metrics are pointless when it comes to SEO because they give you very little insights into “organic” Google results.
The two metrics will only benefit marketers who are running PPC ad campaigns.
The Bottom Line: It’s a great tool for keyword ideas and also PPC. BUT it’s a big disappointment when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.
In my opinion, ‘KTI’ is NOT the best research tool (from an SEO point of view).
Wanna see a much better user-friendly option that’s designed to give you all the essential metrics and features you need to get your content organically ranked on the first pages of Google, Bing, and Yahoo?…
==> Get Access to my #1 Rated Keyword Tool – Start Free!
Your Friend, Neil 😀
If you have any questions or thoughts on ‘KTI’, that you’d like to share – We’d LOVE to hear your comments below…
I believe keywords are the most important thing about SEO content. Some people say the quality of articles but I disagree. I’ve written 3500-word high-quality articles no one will ever see because they’re indexed on page 10. I have 700 world articles on page 1 getting lots of traffic. The only difference the shorter one on page 1 had a better, less competitive keyword.
Obviously, I think a keyword tool is really important. This is really expensive though and there are other keyword tools that are cheaper and just as effective. Do you use the one you recommended?
Thanks for the article!
You’re correct because keywords enable your content to get ranked on page 1 of the main search engines. Google’s a really complex search engine that no SEO marketer will ever understand. The length of the content is also a ranking factor but it can also depend on the quality of articles too. However, if you keep plugging away at writing new blog content every day, then that page 10 article could eventually work its way to page 1! 😉
Yep, choosing a keyword with the lowest amount of competition possible also helps.
The keyword tool.io is a little expensive for sure, and especially for online business owners on shoe-string budgets. Hell Yeah, I use Jaaxy for every blog post I write, and it definitely doesn’t disappoint!
Hi there!
It seems a good keyword tool, but a little bit expensive.
I have a problem with keywords tools because most parts of those programs only work in the English language. I’m from Portugal and my website is in Portuguese language, so I never know if it works with other languages… is it the case?
Thank you for a good review.
Alex
Hey, Alex!
I agree, Keyword tool.io is expensive – especially when it doesn’t provide you with all the essential SEO metrics you need. Considering you’re from Portugal, you do speak really good English, if I do say so myself! 😀
Well, you’re in luck because the keyword tool covers your spoken language.
No problem!
Neil
I love your article about the keyword tool io. I personally use Jaxxy because it’s so user-friendly and offers many other services in one. But this sounds good so I might just go ahead and add this to my toolbox of things to help me do my keyword research…
Nelson
Thanks, Nelson!
I couldn’t agree with you more when it comes to Jaaxy because it’s pure AWESOMENESS!! Keyword Tool.io is great but it’s lacking in the SEO department.
The Keyword Tool seems very expensive. Is this similar to Jaaxy? I really like Jaaxy and the price is right.
Besides, it looks like it does all the same stuff as this one. So I am glad that your review agreed with me, not the best one to use at all. The free version doesn’t look like it gets you much of anything.
Thanks for the review, I will stick with mine 🙂
You’re not the only person who thinks the keyword tool.io is pricey!
The tool isn’t as powerful as Jaaxy because it just doesn’t provide the same metrics and features – especially when it comes to SEO.
I was definitely disappointed with Keyword tool.io’s free option. It provides ZERO numerical data (unless you upgrade).
Hi, cool post. Would you recommend this keyword-tool for professional use or would you recommend another that has more advantages? Do you use this one by the way? Not sure which one to rely on since they all pretty much do the same thing, but I’m pretty sure that one or the other is better, but who knows.
Cheers, Victor! 😀
Keyword Tool.io is a great piece of software for the “PPC” online marketer, but it’s not one I would personally use because Jaaxy is the best keyword tool you’ll ever find on the internet, in my experience.
You’ll find that a lot of keyword tools under-deliver since they don’t give you the important metrics for page 1 rankings. But I’ve discovered that Jaaxy displays every essential metric required for building a profitable blog via SEO.
The keyword tool.io is pretty expensive. The free version definitely is worth trying though. I mean, it might not work for me but might work for someone else. I will definitely try this software. Else the keyword tool that I use is Jaaxy. There also is a free version but it was so good I upgraded. Still trying to find a research tool that beats Jaaxy, haven’t found it yet.
Yep, it certainly seems like a costly tool, considering it mainly caters for PPC marketers.
It’s awesome to hear that you’re a Jaaxy user, and I don’t think you ever will find a tool that competes with Jaaxy either. 🙂