What is Keywords Everywhere
I like Keywords Everywhere. It is a free (well was free) Firefox and Chrome addon. It gives you monthly volumes for any searched keyword along with related keywords and searches including volumes.
The search volume numbers are questionable but I always used them for comparison purposes and relative order of magnitude type data. When browsing I would often glance over and see related keywords as well. It was also useful for a quick look to see if the keyword I was searching was a Keyword Golden Ratio (KGR) phrase.
For those not familiar, KGR keywords are low volume, low competition, keywords that are easy to rank for. You divide the number of articles with the keyword in the title (using the Google allintitle: operator) by the number of monthly searches. If the quotient is .25 or less and the monthly search volume is less than 300 – it is a KGR keyword. We have a full writeup on the KGR technique for more details.
In addition to finding keywords in page titles with “allintitle:”, there are lots of other things you can do with Google search operators. Checkout our favorite 20 Google search operators for affiliate SEO.
Go to our affiliate SEO guide for related SEO tips..
Keywords Everywhere is No Longer Free
Well, the free party is over. Now when you search with Keywords Everywhere without credits on your account you do not get any search volumes. You do get a bit of a teaser with a list of related keywords and related searches. I was fully prepared to give the company credit. They created a product, made it free, generated a loyal user-base, and now are going to monetize that base. A modern app strategy that is effective. But interestingly the reason for charging was more complicated.
According to Kevin at Keywords Everywhere, the move to a paid model was to offset the massive amount of bot traffic issues, including the need to “constantly upgrade hardware in order to keep the software functional for our real users.”
The new pricing is reasonable. You buy search credits at a very low cost. Per Kevin, “The payment plan will cost $1 for 10,000 credits of keyword data. Basically, every time you see the volume for one keyword, one credit is used up. So, for a Google search where you see 20 related keywords and 50 people also ask for keywords, 1 (main query) + 20 + 50 = 71 credits will be used up.”
Keywords Everywhere Credit Pricing
I am not sure why they bothered to make the pricing table above. The unit price does not change with larger volume credit purchases. The price is the same $.0001 per credit whether you buy 10,000 (the minimum) or 10,000,000. I don’t think they will be selling many of the 10 million, $1000.00 credit packages.
My first concern isn’t paying $10 for 100,000 searches. That seems very reasonable. But I was concerned about wasting credits. My favorite part of Keywords Everywhere was that it was always on. If I was doing in-depth keyword research I would fire up Ahrefs. I trust their search volume numbers more and they have significantly deeper features for keyword research. There are also plenty of other keyword tools out there to consider. See our article on best keyword tools for more info on paid tools.
Again I give the folks at Keywords Everywhere credit, they have anticipated this issue and have provided info on how to manage credits (though I would not underestimate the frustration level of people who forget it is on and lose money). The best way to conserve, of course, is to simply toggle off the extension when not using it.
They also provide details on exactly how credits are consumed. Will this be enough to convince people to buy credits?
I am not sure. They will certainly lose many users. I will look for alternatives myself. I like having the ability to see search volumes as I browse. But it is not something I think about. I just occasionally glance at the numbers and make note of anything interesting. For any real keyword research, I will use a dedicated, more robust tool.
A suggestion for Keywords Everywhere. If I am a typical user, a low-cost annual plan with unlimited searches would be a more palatable option. I would certainly pay $20-$30 per year to have the access and functionality I had before. It would allow you to segment me as a “non-bot” and I think there would be more subscribers to this type of plan than the credit system. So any reduced revenue per user in an annual plan would be offset by a greater number of users. Which in and of itself is valuable. I am not sure what the calculus of this would net but it may be worth testing.
The great thing about Keywords Everywhere was that it was there all the time. If I need to think about turning Keywords Everwhere on and using credits I will likely just go to my Ahrefs dashboard or toolbar. Though it is important to note that using the toolbar will likewise use your Ahrefs accounts credit. So Ahrefs is also not an always-on solution for me.
Still an impressive first-of-category product. Very clever people and hats off to the Keywords Everywhere team — hoping they have continued success.
UPDATE
In the end I decided to be a big spender and purchased $10 worth of credits (100,000) a few days after publishing this article. My back of the envelope calculations were that it would cost $10 or so per month to just leave it on (71 x .0001 x 50 x 30 = $10.65). So I will turn it off when not in use but not sweat a “paid” search or two. If $10 last 90 days I am happy to keep buying credits until an alternative comes along.
i will update this post in a few months and see how the credits are doing.
All quotes are from the 25 September Search Engine Journal article.
