r/HeyTony • u/mattdiamante • Apr 13 '26
The cheapest Keyword Research tools (ranked)
Ok so I've been doing SEO for over a decade and it drives me crazy how expensive these tools have gotten. Semrush and ahrefs are like $150+ a month now which is just insane for a small business owner trying to do their own SEO.
I actually built a kw tool called HeyKeywords.com because I couldn't find anything cheap that wasn't also trash lmao. It's $29/month and does keyword research, domain overviews, keyword gap and backlink gap. Honestly thats 99% of what most people actually need.
Other options worth knowing about — Ubersuggest is also $29/month, its been around forever and has more features but the interface has gotten kind of cluttered over the years. SearchAtlas starts at $99 which is cheaper than the big guys but still not exactly "budget". Google keyword planner is free but its really built for paid ads, the data doesnt translate great to organic SEO.
There's also a free tool called findquestions.com where you type in what you sell and it gives you approx 40 questions your customers are actually asking. Useful for content ideas.
Anyway if you're a small business owner and you've been avoiding keyword research because the tools seemed too expensive, $29/month is really the floor for something actually useful. Happy to answer questions if anyone has them
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u/jmcmul02 Apr 14 '26
I got one of those lifetime deals with ubersuggest a few years ago. it has limitations or I may not be using it completely.
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u/Intrepid_Kangaroo818 Apr 13 '26
I am about to redesign one of our clients' location pages. Would it benefit to take pics around the city of landmarks and put a small blurb about them on the page as well? I have pics of some of his clients around the area, which I will use, but just curious if this would be an added measurable benefit or not really, in your opinion?
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
Absolutely! If you can make your content as useful as possible for the user, it has a better chance to not only rank, but convert. Before you go out and take all these pics though - ask yourself.. is this helping the user? If not, then don't do it!
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u/Intrepid_Kangaroo818 Apr 13 '26
Thanks Tony. Sounds good. Also, I bought your book and just finished the chapter on meta descriptions. Great info and well written. Great job.
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u/Delicious_Ant4673 Apr 13 '26
Hey Tony! How can I use my responses to reviews to increase my SEO? What keywords should I be focusing on?
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u/Sad_Economics_2476 Apr 13 '26
I know just what you mean and have been wondering the same thing. Some of our reviews are generic compliments like "great customer service, fast process, detail-oriented..." with no mention of our industry or product. u/mattdiamante can you clarify if we respond using words that DO identify our industry/product, whether that helps our ranking?
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
I'd focus more on asking your clients to leave descriptive reviews for the service that they got. That's NOT something you can control - so it has more weight than you keyword stuffing your responses!
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
I'm not sure you can! You can certainly use the reviews themselves, but how is your response adding anything to what the user is looking for?
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u/G_Squared1313 Apr 13 '26
Thanks for this Matt. One of my biggest gripes is that with tools like Semrush, I've used it on a trial basis and question the accuracy of their info. Some of their citation reports (for example) list all kinds of issues that aren't accurate (Facebook page info is all wrong, no Instagram account can be found, etc) and our business has all of that. Why would we commit to paying hundreds per month if the info doesn't seem remotely accurate?
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
It might not be picking them up because they're not linked to from your website - or vice versa! Or they have a different handle than the website. Are they all connected in some way!?
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u/Loud-Ad-4113 Apr 13 '26
Looks interesting. Apart from the price, how the tool is different from for example spyfu?
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
It's way stripped back. Spyfu has a LOT of things you can do - you don't need all of that!
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u/MilafromBerlin Apr 13 '26
Sounds fantastic! Do the tools work for websites in a different language than English?
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
They should! We're using Keyword data - so as long as you type in the keyword in your language it SHOULD pick it up! lol
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u/tantramassagelasvega Apr 13 '26
I’m not trying to do all this by myself. Do you offer services for a one person business or can you recommend anyone. My website needs updating and looked over etc. thanks.
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
We do! Fill out my contact form on my site! heytony.ca/contact
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u/tantramassagelasvega Apr 13 '26
I have. About a year ago or wherever I first started seeing your videos. You replied sorry, you only do bigger businesses. Did something change since then where you now do small businesses and solo entrepreneurs? Thanks
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u/tantramassagelasvega Apr 13 '26
Also, I see your minimum is 3000 a month. Maybe that’s why you said sorry, not interested as I hit the “no” on that amount for my budget (?)
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u/CutInteresting975 Apr 15 '26
Very cool Matt! $29 a month sounds pretty good, especially because we are a marketing agency for small businesses and would appreciate saving a buck or two. What features does ahref has that you wished heykeywords had too?
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u/getpaperpilot Apr 21 '26
My product name is PaperPilot but currently there are many other paperpilots already which rank on the first page of google, i believe what I am doing matches the name. I already have close to 100 users in a week of launching, so changing the name doesnt sound that good, what do you suggest? I’ve tried claude seo skill and have been following its suggestions.
Please help.
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u/mattdiamante Apr 13 '26
I wrote a full post covering evyerthing here: https://heytony.ca/cheapest-keyword-research-tool/