Here are 11 keyword clustering tools to try in 2024

As the demand for effective SEO continues to grow, so does the quantity of keyword clustering tools popping up, each offering unique features.

I'm sharing this comparison of prominent clustering tools to help you in choosing one, exploring their pros, cons, and distinct characteristics.

Clustering tool #1: Surfer SEO

Surfer has a lot of features that can help both freelancers and businesses audit their content and optimize it. 

When it comes to its content-focused tools, Surfer SEO aims to help the customer create content that is keyword-optimized. 

The tool analyzes the competition, highlighting specific keywords and telling you how many times to use them in your article. This helps you create articles that are optimized without sacrificing readability.

Source: unite.ai

Among its unique features, SurferSEO offers a keyword planner, where you don’t have to upload a list of keywords from some third party, and a built-in “discovery tool”. Its groups are classified by search intent, making it easy for you to start writing your articles right away.

Thanks to its capabilities, and a great looking interface, SurferSEO is a great tool to find content clusters based on your main topic.

Blending SEO and content marketing, SurferSEO stands out as a robust platform, and becomes the evolutionary step of competitors like Ahrefs.

Clustering tool #2: MarketMuse

With a strong emphasis on the idea of topical authority, MarketMuse shows how one can use topic clustering with scientific precision, taking care of topic research, suggesting topics, and more.

Thanks to its artificial intelligence powered tool, it helps strategists identify valuable keywords and build clusters of content around them.

However, its power in content optimization comes with a cost: a not-so-friendly UI and a high price. It can be hard to understand what to do once you get your foot in the door, and the features are very scattered.

Working with MarketMuses’ tools demands a significant learning curve, but if you invest time in mastering its capabilities, it will pay off.

Source: MarketMuse Blog

When it comes to performing topic research and getting the most out of content marketing, MarketMuse is worth it overall.

Clustering tool #3: Keyword Insights

Like its competitors, Keyword Insights offers content management features, and aims to help users find thousands of keywords, organize them into topic clusters, and develop comprehensive content briefs.

Keyword Insights uses SERP data and NLP analysis to create word groups and generates thousands of keywords from a single starting point, detecting search intent and classifying keywords into broad types.

The tool pulls data on the ranking URL for every keyword you want, along with an analysis on where you rank, and allows easy exportation into a single CSV file.

Its Keyword clustering tool is a distinctive feature of the platform, distinguishing it from some of its competitors.

Keyword Insights’ clustering is not solely based on semantics, but it also runs deep analysis in google SERPs to find coherence in URLs.

Among its useful features, the tool attempts to define silos of articles that can be interlinked to each other.

Source: RankRanger

With adequate preparation, and using the “Keyword Discovery” feature of the platform, you can easily create your own clusters.

Keyword Insights also manually analyzes the keyword clusters and offers tutorials on how to create them, making the tool easy to navigate.

Clustering tool #4: Swiftbrief

Swiftbrief is a brief generator engine, aiming to make brief writing quick and efficient for writers everywhere.

After suggesting a topic and an audience to the engine, it generates titles, article outlines, content formats and sources.

To help you create a good content brief, Swiftbrief focused on its clustering capabilities, as well as a good brief generation UX.

As a keyword clustering tool, it allows you to group your keywords and suggests topics for topical authority.

Source: Originality.ai

Although the tool’s focus remains creating briefs, Swiftbrief can be an all-in-one tool for content managers, allowing them to fulfill most of their needs on one single platform.

This tool offers a user-friendly approach to content delegation.

Clustering tool #5: SEMrush

If you’re more of a “visual learner”, SEMrush might be the keyword clustering tool for you. Similarly to its competitors, SEMrush will help you identify relevant keywords, provide suggestions, and let you filter results based on location and device.

Most importantly, the website provides a visually engaging representation of clusters, making it easy for you to understand and digest complex data and helping you understand what each cluster has to offer in terms of intent, keyword difficulty, number of keywords or volume.

Source: WittySparks

Its keyword cluster “mind map” helps the user to understand information through visually appealing images, making it an intriguing option for those who value a clear and intuitive understanding of content relationships, especially less-trained users who might be tipping their toes in SEO.

Clustering tool #6: Thruuu

Thruu is a very useful and partially free SERP analyzer, a tool to “scrape” the search engine result pages (SERPs). It can help brands to check what kind of websites rank for a particular keyword.

When it comes to keywords and clustering, Thruuu offers an interesting visualization of relationships between different clusters, which is more content focused and similar to Surfer SEO and Frase.

With Thruuu, you can gain an overview of the top results for any keyword you plug into Google by simply entering it and starting the SERP analysis.

This way, you know exactly who your competition is for every keyword you wish to target and compare keywords and their density through headings, titles, and page content; you can even analyze keywords which will help you when you’re writing a blog post on a competitive topic.

Source: thruuu

It's intuitive and straightforward in its UI.

Even beginner users will be able to use and understand it with ease

However it might not be designed to be a the end-all solution to your SEO, so expect to use it in with other tools to optimize your content.

Thruuu grants you 10 free “scrapes” a month and a free one-time Keyword Cluster of up to 500 keywords.

Clustering tool #7: NeuralText

Focusing heavily on keywords, NeuralText can assist you with content brief creation and optimization, aligning itself with content-focused platforms like Swiftbrief and Surfer SEO. 

It offers a great tool for keyword research, giving you extensive suggestions for every search term, helping you identify trends data.

Moreover, it detects topic clusters quickly, helping businesses to assess how many pages they need to produce to capture an entire subject area and giving them the ability to create an optimized editorial plan.

Source: NeuralText

Another pro it’s NeuralText’s straightforward approach, easy enough to understand for any user with minimal knowledge in keyword research.

Clustering tool #8: Frase

If you want an essential tool to write your content briefs, Frase might be the tool for you. Its interface is easy to use and the tool streamlines the clustering process, quickly scanning through competitors’ headlines and titles to generate good quality recommendations.

After suggesting a series of commonly asked questions related to your keyword of choice, Frase is able to create a “concept map” connecting related topics together, giving you a comprehensive look at your topic.

The tool also provides you with content optimization analyses where it extracts the most used terms from your competitors’ articles and counts the number of times it’s being used, making it easier for you to understand what your competitors are doing to please google.

Source: frase.io

Although a bit basic in features, Frase’s integration makes it possible to integrate clustering directly into content briefs in Google Docs, making it a very efficient tool for marketers and content managers alike.

Clustering tool #10: Quattr

Designed to help businesses of all kinds, Quattr’s website optimization platform can help detect trends, analyze data, and handle your SEO.

It focuses on analyzing websites, especially competitors' websites, like a search engine would do. This can help you and your business,  understanding  which areas of your website need improvement. 

The free keyword clustering tool they offer on their website is very basic, giving you the possibility to insert a list of target keywords separated by commas and then choosing a clustering option.

Quattr then shows you the average search volume and keyword difficulty.

Source: Quattr

In general, the platform seems less content-focused then others, and among all of Quattr’s extensive feature set, clustering seems to be somewhat of an afterthought, making it suitable for users who prioritize other SEO functionalities instead of content creation.

Clustering tool #10: SE Ranking

SE Ranking provides standard clustering tools without introducing groundbreaking features. Like others, they offer features to track keyword ranking, conduct audits, analyze backlinks, and monitor competitors.

Source: SERanking

Among its features, you can find the Keyword Grouper, allowing the user to group related keywords, organizing and optimizing your site's content.

While it might not be revolutionary, it offers a reliable clustering solution that is straightforward and easy to use.

Clustering tool #11: Ahrefs

Last but not least, I need to talk about Ahrefs.

Probably the most famous among SEO tools.

Ahrefs looks beyond Google, integrating YouTube, Amazon, and other search engines as well, getting data for 171 countries.

Ahrefs obviously offers tools for keyword research tools such as Keywords Explorer which is similar in options to Semrush.

However, when it comes to clustering, Ahrefs falls short, often lacking the depth and effectiveness found in specialized clustering tools. 

Source: Ahrefs

Plus, despite its design, Ahrefs has a significant number of features, which doesn’t make it so easy for less seasoned users to understand.

There is a significant learning curve to use its capabilities.

Despite its popularity, users may find more comprehensive solutions elsewhere for their content optimization needs.

Which keyword clustering tool to use?

The right clustering tool can make a substantial difference in strategizing content that makes a difference for your business.

Each tool I proposed offers a unique set of features catering to different needs and preferences—I hope it will help with your choice.

Whether you need a tool that prioritizes content-focused capabilities, scientific rigor, or seamless integration, you can now make a decision based on your needs. Good luck with your clustering!