Top 5 YouTube Keyword Tools (Field-Tested For Growth)

The difference between getting discovered on YouTube search and being invisible?

Strategic keyword research.

By optimizing videos with the right terms, you can dramatically increase your organic traffic.

Take YouTuber Caren Magill’s ADHD coaching channel, for example.

With 4.95M lifetime views and 116K subscribers, it’s safe to say Caren has found a successful niche.

But this wasn’t luck.

Caren optimizes her video’s titles, descriptions, and tags with terms that attract her target audience.

The good news?

You can do it, too—all you need is a reliable keyword research tool.

To help you with this task, I evaluated five of the most popular YouTube keyword tools.

And gave each one a “Best for” rating based on its standout features and overall value.

Before I dive into the reviews, let’s explore why keyword research is crucial for your channel’s success.

YouTube Keyword Tools at a Glance

Why YouTube Keyword Research Matters

Keyword research reveals what your audience wants to watch and helps your videos appear in search results.

This is why it’s a vital step in growing your channel’s reach and engagement.

Decode Audience Search Intent

On YouTube (and search engines), people search with different goals in mind. They might want to learn something, compare options, or find entertainment. This is called search intent.

Keyword research lets you match your content to your audience’s search intent to attract engaged viewers that turn into subscribers.

For example, informational searches like “how to deadlift” show viewers want to learn specific skills, while commercial searches like “best home gym equipment” indicate they’re comparing different options.

Matching your content to these search patterns helps you attract more engaged viewers.

Find High-Performing Keywords

Smart keyword research helps you discover topics with high search volume but low keyword difficulty—the sweet spot for growing channels.

For example, instead of competing for overcrowded terms like “gardening tips,” more specific searches like “apartment gardening” can be easier to rank for but still drive significant traffic.

Identify Trends to Maximize Discoverability

Popular YouTubers anticipate viewer demand—and keyword tools reveal exactly when that demand is building.

Using keyword research tools helps you:

Spot rising topics before they peak Create timely content when search interest is growing Build momentum from trending searches

For example, when the TV show “Squid Game” announced its second season, keyword tools showed surging searches for “squid game season 2” and “squid game season 3″—revealing perfect opportunities to create videos before peak interest.

Now that you know why keyword research is important, let’s explore the best tools for it.

5 Best YouTube Keyword Tools (Free & Paid)

I tested the most popular YouTube keyword tools to see which ones performed best at keyword analysis, competitive intelligence, and trend spotting.

Here’s what I discovered.

1. VidIQ: Best for Deep Keyword Intelligence

VidIQ helps YouTube creators find content ideas and maximize their reach organically.

Its helpful browser extension lets you perform keyword research, audit your channel, track competitors, and more.

Conduct Keyword Research

VidIQ’s keyword analysis stands out as the most detailed of the tools I reviewed.

It provides:

An overview with key metrics Related keywords Matching terms Trending videos

For example, when I searched for “affiliate marketing,” I could see its SEO score, search volume, and competition level, along with multiple other helpful metrics.

This includes long-tail keywords, relevant questions, and variations containing my primary keyword.

This information will allow me to focus on niche topics that tend to attract smaller but highly engaged audiences.

Like “Amazon affiliate marketing,” which gets fewer searches than “affiliate marketing” but has lower competition, too.

When you search for a keyword, VidIQ highlights the top 10 trending videos for that term so you know what you’re up against.

It also tells you how many views each one has and its engagement rate.

For example, I clicked on one of these videos, and the tool revealed it was performing 15 times better than this channel’s average video engagement.

This tells me I should investigate further to find out why it’s doing so well—whether it’s niche keywords, quality content, a trending topic, eye-catching visuals, or something else.

I recommend repeating this process for five or so competitor videos to gain valuable insights you can use to improve your own video’s optimization and performance.

Create and Track Keyword Trends

Trends move fast on YouTube—what’s viral today might be forgotten tomorrow.

VidIQ’s real-time trend tracking keeps you ahead of the competition.

Set up custom trend alerts to discover hot topics in your niche before they explode.

Here’s how:

Give your alert a relevant name Add target keywords and competitors Set a views-per-hour (VPH) threshold as your benchmark Choose how often you want to receive email notifications Click “Update alert” to go live

Outperform the Competition

Use VidIQ’s competitor analysis tools to find keywords and content types that drive the highest traction in your niche.

Track your competitors’ content performance through:

Engagement rate Views per hour View velocity

For example, I noticed a competitor’s video gained over 400,000 views with a 3.9% engagement rate and over 100 views per hour.

So, I exported its keywords to see which terms the YouTuber used to drive this impressive traffic and growth.

I also learned when the video was published and how many subscribers it attracted.

Data like this reveals exactly which topics and search terms drive the most views in your niche, giving you a clear strategy for your own videos.

VidIQ Pricing

Free: 7-day free trial Boost: $19/month Coaching: $199/month

2. Keyword Analytics for YouTube: Best for Finding Popular Seed Keywords

Keyword Analytics for YouTube is a Semrush app (available without a subscription) that lets you research seed keywords, top-ranking videos, and trends in your niche.

Fine-tune your search by time period and location to zero in on the most relevant data for your content strategy.

Identify Popular, Low-Competition Keywords

Search any term in Keyword Analytics for YouTube to learn its search volume and competition.

For example, I searched “learn Spanish.”

This keyword gets 140K monthly searches and has a 67 competitive rate in YouTube search.

Hover over the competitive rate for any term for more context.

For instance, “learn spanish” has an “average” level of competition in YouTube search.

This means it’s ideal for channels with 1M+ subscribers.

To find less-competitive keywords, scroll through the list.

This helped me find terms like:

“Learn spanish for beginners”: 13K search volume; 56 competitive rate “How to learn spanish fast”: 194 search volume; 31 competitive rate “Best free way to learn Spanish”: 65 search volume; 24 competitive rate

How can you use these lower-competition keywords?

Create a series of videos targeting these terms to improve your visibility in YouTube search Add them to your video’s description to attract more viewers

Find Top-Ranking Videos

Need a little creative inspiration?

Go to the “Most viewed videos” tab in Keyword Analytics to find the most popular YouTube videos in your preferred country.

Filter by the last 24 hours, week, or month to find trending topics you can turn into popular videos.

Want to see the top-ranking videos for a specific keyword?

Switch back to the “Top Keywords” tab and search for your desired term.

For example, I searched “spanish for beginners,” and the app revealed the top YouTube videos for this term.

Hover over the video to see its full title (take note of the keywords) and how many subscribers the channel has.

This gives you a decent idea of the competition you’ll be up against when deciding which terms to target.

Get Trending Keyword Data

If you target viewers in a particular region, you’ll find the “Fast-growing keywords” feature particularly helpful.

This is because it tells you trending topics that will help you attract a local audience.

For example, I learned the top keyword in Italy (at the time of my search) was “Sinner,” the last name of a popular Italian tennis player.

The tool also shows the overall change in keyword performance for each term.

Hover over the trend graph to see how monthly search volume fluctuates.

Use this data to create timely, relevant YouTube content when search interest is at its peak.

Keyword Analytics for YouTube Pricing

Free: 7-day free trial Monthly: $10/month; unsubscribe anytime

3. TubeBuddy: Best for in-Browser Keyword Research and Optimization

TubeBuddy is a YouTube browser extension designed to optimize and grow your channel.

Some of its key SEO features include:

Find and analyze keywords for your channel Create thumbnails and upload videos in bulk Generate optimized titles, descriptions, and tags

Even better?

The tool integrates directly into your YouTube dashboard.

So, you can take advantage of its features without leaving your channel.

Get Actionable Keyword Insights

Analyze any keyword in TubeBuddy’s Keyword Explorer to see important metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty.

For example, I searched “how to make pasta” in the tool and learned this keyword gets 782K monthly searches but is surprisingly not overly competitive.

It also revealed videos currently ranking on YouTube for this topic have “excellent” optimization.

This tells me something crucial: I’ll need to focus heavily on optimization to give my video a good shot at ranking.

Another cool feature is the overall SEO score, which factors in multiple ranking signals.

This helps you gauge the potential of a keyword.

Not sure which keyword to use? The tool lets you compare two options.

To test this out, I evaluated “how to make pasta” and “homemade pasta recipe.”

Keyword Explorer shows that “homemade pasta recipe” has an SEO score of “Good” and a “Very Good” search volume of 156K.

It’s also a fairly low-competition keyword, making this term promising.

In comparison, “how to make pasta” has a much higher search volume (782K), a “Very Good” SEO score, and a “Fair” competition level.

This indicates even stronger potential—voilà, I’ve found a winner!

Generate and Optimize Titles and Descriptions

TubeBuddy’s SEO Studio lets you instantly generate AI-powered titles and descriptions for your videos.

Improve your SEO score by following the tool’s optimization recommendations, such as “include your target keyword naturally in the title.”

Spy on Your Competitors

Next, I used TubeBuddy’s Videolytics tool to evaluate competing videos and identify keyword opportunities.

This powerful tool shows you why videos succeed or struggle by revealing:

Performance metrics: Views, likes, comments, and social shares SEO insights: Optimization scores and which tags drive traffic Competitor strategies: What top channels do differently Improvement tips: Recommendations to boost your video’s visibility

This data helps you create better content and get more views by understanding exactly what works in your niche.

TubeBuddy Pricing

Free: Limited free plan available Pro: $7.50/month Legend: $32.99/month Enterprise: Contact for pricing

4. Keywords Everywhere: Best for Analyzing Competitors’ Keywords

Keywords Everywhere is a handy browser extension and keyword tool for YouTube.

It lets you analyze every keyword through data-packed widgets like trend charts, popular tags, and engagement scores.

Get Detailed Keyword Insights

Keywords Everywhere taps into Google Keyword Planner data to show you real-time search volume, competition, and cost-per-click (CPC).

For example, when I searched “weight loss,” the tool suggested related terms like “weight loss diet” that had lower competition.

This instant insight helps you pick keywords that will rank higher and attract more views.

Keywords Everywhere also breaks down exactly what makes videos successful.

For example, I found that videos about “weight loss” have 3.35 million views on average.

60% of these videos contain “weight loss” in the title, and 50% contain the keyword in the description.

This data shows you how to optimize your content by strategically placing keywords where they matter most to boost your visibility.

Analyze Top-Ranking Competitors

Keywords Everywhere also tells you what’s working for your competitors.

I looked at an in-depth breakdown of the top 20 videos for the keyword “weight loss.”

And learned metrics like view count, views per day, ranking difficulty, and SEO score.

But the one that stood out to me the most was “Age.”

This metric tells you how long ago a video was published.

For example, most of the videos for my keyword are at least a year old (and likely outdated).

So, now I know there’s a good chance I can outrank the existing content by sharing fresh perspectives.

Besides this detailed top-20 breakdown, you’ll also find a summarized analysis of all search results for a given keyword.

This overview tells you helpful info, like how many subscribers and views each video has.

But it also analyzes video titles and descriptions for length and quality.

Generate Keywords in Bulk

I also experimented with the Bulk Keywords Data Tool to expand my initial keyword list.

A bulk keyword tool saves hours by analyzing hundreds of terms instantly instead of one by one.

Seeing all keywords together also reveals valuable patterns in viewer search behavior.

Once you add your seed keywords, the tool suggests related terms.

Use these insights to naturally weave relevant keywords into your video description and transcript—helping YouTube better understand and recommend your content to interested viewers.

Keywords Everywhere Pricing

Bronze: $2.25/month Silver: $6/month Gold: $25/month Platinum: $80/month

5. Google Trends: Best for Real-Time Keyword Trend Tracking

Google Trends reveals real-time search patterns across web, image, and YouTube searches, helping you spot opportunities others miss.

Compare keywords, track trends, and discover what’s hot in specific regions—all for free.

Find Keywords for Specific Locations

Want to know where your content will resonate the most?

Google Trends can show you.

For example, when I searched for “travel destinations,” it revealed unexpected hotspots in Idaho, Connecticut, and Kansas.

I can turn this insight into targeted content like “Best travel destinations in Idaho” to reach a local audience.

Discover Related and Trending Topics

Google Trends shows you related topics for every search, so you can add relevant keywords and subtopics to your videos.

But it doesn’t just show you what’s popular—it reveals what’s about to be big.

For example, a search for “coffee makers” uncovers emerging trends like “coffee makers that use k cups,” which recently increased in interest by 350%.

For each trending term, you’ll learn:

Search volume When the term started trending Specific queries fueling its popularity

Create content around these rising topics, and you’ll catch viewer interest at the perfect moment.

Compare Keywords to Find the Best Opportunities

Google Trends lets you compare keywords head-to-head to see which ones truly resonate with viewers.

When I compared “vegan meal prep” versus “quick vegan recipes,” the data revealed “vegan meal prep” consistently attracts more interest.

These direct comparisons help you focus your efforts on topics viewers are actively searching for rather than guessing what might work.

Google Trends Pricing

Google Trends is free to use.

Fast-Track Your YouTube Channel’s Growth

Want your YouTube channel to get more views and subscribers?

You need to target the right keywords.

And to find those keywords, you need the right Youtube keyword tools.

Whether you use TubeBuddy to optimize videos or Semrush for deeper analysis (or both), keyword research can set your channel up for long-term growth and success.

For best results, combine keyword research with a strong promotion strategy.