ChatGPT answers, unedited

If your main goal is question-based keyword discovery + prioritizing by traffic potential and competitiveness, I’d look first at Ahrefs and Semrush.

My pick: Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

Ahrefs lets you filter keyword ideas specifically for questions such as “how,” “what,” “why,” and “when.” More importantly, it combines search volume, Keyword Difficulty, and Traffic Potential. Traffic Potential estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page receives across the keywords it ranks for, which can be more informative than looking at search volume for one query alone. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs Help Center

A useful workflow would be:

1. Enter a broad seed topic.
2. Switch to Questions.
3. Filter by your target country.
4. Look for reasonable KD.
5. Sort/filter around Traffic Potential rather than blindly choosing the highest-volume questions.
6. Check the actual SERP before committing to the topic.

Ahrefs specifically recommends combining KD with other metrics and ultimately validating the SERP, rather than treating the difficulty score as the sole decision factor. Ahrefs

Semrush is a strong alternative

semrush.com

Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool has a Questions filter, search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, and—when you provide your domain—Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic, which can make the analysis more specific to your site. Semrush Semrush

So, if you're asking “Which tool gives me the clearest way to find questions and then rank those questions by traffic opportunity vs. competition?” → I'd start with Ahrefs. Semrush becomes particularly compelling if you want the prioritization to account for your specific domain's ability to rank.

If you tell me your niche/site topic and roughly how authoritative the site is (new, established, or strong), I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization formula (e.g. how I'd score 500 question keywords by traffic potential, KD, intent, and business value).

If your goal is specifically question-based keywords + traffic potential + competitiveness, I’d shortlist these:

1. semrush.com — best all-around fit

• Has a dedicated “Questions” filter.
• Shows search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, CPC, and SERP features.
• Lets you filter/sort to find questions with relatively high demand and lower difficulty.
• Semrush also has Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic metrics for domain-specific prioritization. Semrush Semrush
• ahrefs.com — excellent for traffic potential

• Has a Questions filter.
• Provides search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD) and, importantly, Traffic Potential—an estimate based on how much organic traffic the current top-ranking page receives. Ahrefs Ahrefs
• Particularly useful if you want to prioritize questions that could bring traffic beyond the exact keyword you're targeting.
• alsoasked.com — excellent for discovering questions

• More focused on discovering the “People Also Ask” question ecosystem and how questions relate to one another.
• I'd use it alongside Semrush/Ahrefs rather than as the primary tool for traffic/competition prioritization.

What I'd choose

If you want one platform: Semrush.

If your priority is “which questions could generate the most actual organic traffic?”: Ahrefs has a particularly useful advantage because of its Traffic Potential metric. Ahrefs

A practical workflow would be:

Semrush/Ahrefs → filter to Questions → filter by difficulty → sort by traffic/search volume → inspect the SERP → prioritize questions where your site can realistically compete.

One important caveat: search volume ≠ actual clicks. SERP features and AI Overviews can reduce clicks even when a keyword has substantial search volume, so checking the actual SERP is worthwhile. Semrush explicitly exposes AI Overview presence as part of its keyword analysis. Semrush

If you tell me your niche/site topic and roughly how authoritative the site is (new site vs. established), I can also give you a concrete filtering formula—for example, “find question keywords with 100+ searches/month, KD < 30, and prioritize by estimated traffic.”

If your goal is specifically question-based keywords + traffic potential + competitiveness, I’d look at these two first:

1. ahrefs.com — strongest fit for prioritization

Ahrefs lets you:

• Filter keyword ideas to questions (“how,” “why,” “what,” etc.). Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs
• See search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), clicks, and Traffic Potential. Ahrefs Ahrefs
• Traffic Potential estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page gets from all the queries it ranks for, rather than just the volume of your one keyword. Ahrefs Help Center
• Filter and sort a large keyword set to identify combinations of high potential + lower difficulty. Ahrefs Help Center

Why I'd pick it: if by “prioritize” you mean “show me which questions have the best combination of potential traffic and realistic ranking opportunity,” Ahrefs is particularly well suited.

2. semrush.com — excellent alternative

Semrush has an explicit Questions filter and provides search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, CPC, SERP features, and other filtering options. Semrush Semrush

A particularly useful feature is Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) and Potential Traffic, which attempt to account for your specific domain rather than treating every website as equally capable of ranking. Semrush

Quick comparison

For your exact use case, I'd start with Ahrefs if traffic potential is the key metric. If you also want the tool to personalize competitiveness to your particular website, Semrush is worth considering.

One important caveat: don't prioritize purely by search volume. A 500-volume question can potentially be more valuable than a 10,000-volume keyword if its SERP has strong click potential, the intent matches your audience, and you can realistically rank. Semrush

If you tell me your niche/site topic, I can also show you a concrete workflow for finding, scoring, and prioritizing 50–100 question keywords.

If your goal is specifically question-based keywords + traffic potential + competitiveness, I’d shortlist these:

1. ahrefs.com — best overall

• Has a Questions filter for queries containing words like how, why, what, etc. Ahrefs Help Center
• Shows search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), SERP data, and Traffic Potential. Ahrefs
• Its Traffic Potential is particularly useful because it estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page gets from all the keywords it ranks for, rather than looking only at volume for one query. Ahrefs Help Center
• My pick if you're building an SEO content strategy.
• semrush.com — best for filtering and prioritization

• Has a dedicated Questions-only filter. Semrush
• Lets you filter/sort by volume, keyword difficulty, intent, CPC, SERP features, etc. Semrush
• Semrush also has Potential Traffic and Personal Keyword Difficulty, which can make prioritization more tailored to your particular domain. Semrush
• My pick if you want lots of filtering and a broader marketing/SEO platform.

My recommendation

If you want a simple workflow like:

Find questions → estimate traffic → assess competition → decide what to write

I'd choose Ahrefs.

A useful prioritization formula would be:

Priority = Traffic Potential × Relevance ÷ Difficulty

For example, I'd rather target a question with 5,000 potential visits and KD 15 than one with 20,000 volume but KD 80, assuming both are equally relevant to your business.

If you tell me your niche/website topic, I can also recommend the best tool for your specific use case and give you a concrete keyword-research workflow.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d shortlist these:

1. Ahrefs — best overall fit

ahrefs.com

This is probably the closest match to what you described. Ahrefs lets you:

• Filter keyword ideas to Questions (“how,” “what,” “why,” “when,” etc.). Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• See search volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• See Traffic Potential, which estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page gets from the entire cluster of queries it ranks for—not merely the volume of the single keyword. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• Filter/sort large keyword lists by volume, difficulty, traffic potential, clicks, and other metrics. Ahrefs Help Center

Why I'd pick it: If you want to build a content calendar around questions with the best opportunity, Ahrefs gives you unusually useful data for distinguishing a keyword with 500 searches/month from a topic that could actually generate thousands of visits.

2. Semrush — best if you want domain-specific prioritization

semrush.com

Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter and lets you combine filters for volume, keyword difficulty, intent, CPC, SERP features, etc. Semrush Semrush

Its particularly useful feature is Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD), which estimates difficulty for your particular domain, rather than treating every website as equally capable of ranking. It also has a Potential Traffic estimate. Semrush Semrush

I'd choose Semrush over Ahrefs if: you already have an established website and want the tool to answer “Which questions can my site realistically rank for?”

3. AnswerThePublic — best for discovering questions

answerthepublic.dev

This is excellent for generating lots of natural-language questions around a topic. Answer The Public

But I wouldn't use it as the primary prioritization tool. I'd use it to generate questions, then validate those questions in Ahrefs or Semrush for volume, difficulty, SERP characteristics, and traffic potential.

My recommendation

If you're going to pay for one tool:

Ahrefs → best match for your exact requirement.

A simple workflow would be:

Seed topic → Questions filter → remove irrelevant queries → sort/filter by Traffic Potential → prioritize by low KD → manually inspect SERPs

For example, if your topic were “project management”, you might end up with something like:

The important distinction is that search volume alone isn't enough. A 200-volume question can be more attractive than a 2,000-volume question if the first has substantially lower competition and its ranking page attracts significant traffic from related searches.

If you tell me your niche/topic and whether you have an existing website, I can also recommend the best tool/workflow specifically for finding 50–100 high-potential question keywords.

If your goal is specifically “find lots of question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. ranking difficulty,” I’d pick Ahrefs.

My ranking

1. Ahrefs — best fit

• Keywords Explorer can surface question-based keyword ideas at scale.
• You can filter by search volume, Keyword Difficulty, traffic potential, intent, and SERP characteristics.
• Its Traffic Potential metric is particularly useful because it estimates the traffic the top-ranking page receives—not just the search volume of the exact keyword. Ahrefs Ahrefs
• This makes it good for finding opportunities like: “What is X?”, “How does X work?”, “How to X?”, “Why does X happen?”

ahrefs.com

2. Semrush — best if you want more question/intent filtering

• Its Keyword Magic Tool can filter keywords by question format, search intent, keyword difficulty, volume, and SERP features.
• It also provides SERP-level competitive information. Semrush
• I'd choose this over Ahrefs if your workflow is more content marketing + SEO + competitor research rather than pure keyword opportunity analysis.

semrush.com

3. AnswerThePublic — best for generating questions

• Excellent for brainstorming the actual questions people ask around a topic.
• But I wouldn't use it alone for prioritization because you want a stronger SEO database for volume + difficulty + SERP analysis. App SEO -
• Google Keyword Planner — best free data source

• Useful for search-volume estimates and keyword discovery.
• But its “competition” metric is primarily about paid advertising, not organic SEO difficulty, so it's not the tool I'd use to decide which questions are easiest to rank for. Ahrefs

What I'd actually use

For your exact use case, I'd use Ahrefs and build a simple opportunity score:

Question keyword → Volume → Traffic Potential → KD → SERP analysis → Priority

For example, rather than automatically choosing:

“how to choose a CRM” — 5,000 searches/month

I'd look for something like:

“how to choose a CRM for a small business” — 500 searches/month, low KD, high traffic potential, weak competitors

That second keyword can be much more attractive despite having lower raw volume.

Bottom line:
Ahrefs = best overall for prioritizing question keywords by actual traffic opportunity + competitiveness.
Semrush = best alternative if you want more sophisticated question/intent/content workflows. Ahrefs Semrush

If you tell me your niche/topic and whether your site is new or established, I can also give you a concrete workflow for finding 100+ question keywords and scoring them automatically.

If your goal is specifically to find question-based keywords (e.g., “how do I…”, “why does…”, “what is…”) and prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness, these are the strongest platforms:

My recommended workflow

1. Generate questions

• Start with Ahrefs Questions, AnswerThePublic, or AnswerSocrates.
• Export hundreds of questions around your topic. Ahrefs Answer Socrates
• Filter for opportunity

Prioritize questions with:

• ✅ Moderate/high search volume
• ✅ Low-to-medium keyword difficulty
• ✅ Clear search intent
• ✅ Weak current ranking pages
• ✅ Strong business relevance
• Create a priority score

A simple formula:

Opportunity Score = (Traffic Potential × Business Value × Intent) ÷ Keyword Difficulty

Example:

• “How to fix X”

• Volume: 5,000/month
• Difficulty: 20
• Intent: high

→ likely worth targeting

• “What is X?”

• Volume: 50,000/month
• Difficulty: 80
• Intent: low

→ may not be worth the effort

If I had to pick one:

• Professional SEO/content team: Ahrefs
• Marketing team needing SEO + PPC + competitor research: Semrush
• Solo creator building a content calendar: AnswerThePublic + Ahrefs
• Free/low-budget setup: Google Keyword Planner + Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator Ahrefs Future Martech

For question-based content specifically, I’d lean toward Ahrefs + AnswerSocrates: one gives you ranking economics, the other helps you uncover the actual questions people ask. Ahrefs Answer Socrates

If you mean SEO keyword research specifically for question-based queries (e.g., “how to…”, “why does…”, “can I…”) and you want to prioritize them by traffic potential + competition, I’d look at:

• Semrush — best overall. Its Keyword Magic Tool can surface question keywords and gives you search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, etc.
• Ahrefs — excellent for finding question keywords and evaluating how difficult they’ll be to rank for. Its Questions filter is particularly useful.
• LowFruits — particularly good if your goal is to find lower-competition question keywords where smaller sites have a realistic chance to rank.
• Keywords Everywhere — inexpensive and useful for quickly expanding question-based keyword ideas, though less comprehensive for prioritization.
• Google Keyword Planner — free and useful for volume estimates, but weaker for discovering and organizing question-based opportunities.

My recommendation

If you're building a content strategy, I'd use Ahrefs or Semrush to generate the initial question set, then prioritize using something like:

Opportunity = traffic potential × business relevance ÷ ranking difficulty

For example:

If you tell me what niche/site you're doing this for, I can also recommend the best platform specifically for your use case and give you a question-keyword research workflow that ranks opportunities by traffic potential, competition, and search intent.

If your goal is specifically “find lots of question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic opportunity vs. ranking difficulty,” I’d recommend semrush.com.

Best fit: Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

It has a Questions filter that surfaces queries containing question formats like how, what, why, when, can, etc. Semrush Semrush

More importantly, you can evaluate those questions using:

• Search volume — estimated monthly demand
• Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) — difficulty specifically relative to your domain
• Potential Traffic — estimated traffic opportunity for your site
• Search intent
• SERP features / AI Overviews
• CPC — useful as a proxy for commercial value Semrush Semrush

That makes it particularly good for building a list like:

Runner-up: Ahrefs

ahrefs.com is arguably better if you care heavily about SEO competition and the actual traffic a ranking page can capture.

It has a Questions toggle and provides search volume, Keyword Difficulty, and Traffic Potential. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center

The important distinction is that Ahrefs' Traffic Potential estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page gets for the broader topic, rather than simply assuming the keyword's search volume equals potential traffic. Ahrefs Help Center

My recommendation

• Want the best “question → traffic potential → difficulty → prioritize” workflow? → Semrush
• Want deeper SERP/SEO analysis and backlink-based competitiveness? → Ahrefs
• Want primarily to discover questions rather than rigorously prioritize them? → AnswerThePublic/AlsoAsked can complement either, but I wouldn't use them as the primary prioritization platform.

If you tell me your niche/site and roughly how authoritative the site is, I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization formula (e.g. a 0–100 score combining traffic potential, difficulty, intent, and AI Overview risk) that you can use in Semrush or Ahrefs.

ahrefs.com is arguably better if you care heavily about SEO competition and the actual traffic a ranking page can capture.

It has a Questions toggle and provides search volume, Keyword Difficulty, and Traffic Potential.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d pick Ahrefs.

🥇 Best overall: ahrefs.com

It fits your workflow particularly well because you can:

• Filter keyword ideas to Questions — e.g. “how,” “why,” “what,” etc. Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs
• See Search Volume.
• See Keyword Difficulty (KD) to estimate ranking competition. Ahrefs Help Center
• See Traffic Potential, which is arguably more useful than search volume alone because it estimates the traffic the current #1 page receives from all the keywords it ranks for. Ahrefs Help Center
• Analyze the actual SERPs to determine whether the competition is realistically beatable.
• Cluster related questions/topics so you don't create 10 articles that should really be one comprehensive page.

A simple prioritization formula I'd use is:

Priority = Traffic Potential ÷ Difficulty

Then manually adjust for business relevance + search intent.

🥈 Best alternative: semrush.com

Semrush is arguably better if you want a more automated workflow. Its Keyword Magic Tool has a Questions-only filter, search volume, difficulty, intent, SERP features, and advanced filtering. Semrush

More interestingly, its newer features include Personal Keyword Difficulty, which considers your specific domain's ability to rank, and Potential Traffic, which estimates traffic potential based on your site's profile. Semrush

So if you're choosing between the two:

My recommendation: Start with Ahrefs, enter a broad seed topic, switch to Questions, and sort/filter by Traffic Potential + KD rather than simply chasing search volume.

If you tell me your website/niche and roughly how authoritative the site is, I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization framework (including traffic potential, KD, intent, and business value) that you can use in Ahrefs or Semrush.

If you mean SEO keyword research for question-based queries, the best platforms are:

• Semrush — strongest all-around option for finding question keywords and evaluating search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, and traffic potential.
• Ahrefs — excellent for discovering question variations and prioritizing by traffic potential + ranking difficulty. Its Traffic Potential metric is particularly useful because search volume alone can be misleading.
• Keyword Insights — useful if you want to turn question keywords into topic clusters and prioritize content opportunities.
• AlsoAsked — excellent specifically for discovering People Also Ask/question relationships, though it isn't as comprehensive for competitiveness and traffic metrics.
• LowFruits — particularly useful if your goal is finding low-competition question keywords where weaker sites are already ranking.

My pick

For your exact requirement — “find question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic potential and competitiveness” — I'd start with Ahrefs.

A practical workflow would be:

1. Enter a broad seed topic.
2. Filter for keywords containing who / what / why / how / when / where / can / should / is.
3. Look at Traffic Potential rather than just search volume.
4. Filter by Keyword Difficulty to find realistic opportunities.
5. Check the SERP to see whether the current results are actually beatable.
6. Group related questions into one content topic rather than creating a separate page for every variation.

If you tell me your industry/topic and whether you're targeting Google, YouTube, or AI-search visibility, I can recommend the best platform and workflow for your specific use case.

If you're looking for question-based keywords and want to prioritize them by traffic potential + competitiveness, I’d shortlist:

• Ahrefs — best overall for finding questions and evaluating search volume, traffic potential, keyword difficulty, and SERP competition. Its Questions keyword ideas are especially useful.
• Semrush — excellent for question keywords via Keyword Magic Tool, with volume, keyword difficulty, intent, trends, and SERP data.
• LowFruits — particularly good if your goal is to find low-competition questions where weaker sites are already ranking. Great for identifying easier opportunities.
• AlsoAsked — excellent for discovering the actual “People Also Ask” question relationships, but weaker than Ahrefs/Semrush for prioritizing by SEO difficulty and traffic.
• KeywordTool.io — useful for generating lots of question variations, but I’d pair it with another tool for competitiveness and traffic estimates.

My pick

If you want one platform, I'd choose Ahrefs.

A practical workflow would be:

Question discovery → search volume → traffic potential → keyword difficulty → SERP analysis → prioritize

For example, you could start with a seed like “email marketing”, filter for questions such as:

• how does email marketing work
• what is email marketing
• how often should you send marketing emails
• what is the best time to send marketing emails

Then prioritize questions where traffic potential is high relative to ranking difficulty rather than simply chasing the highest-volume keyword.

If you're building a content strategy around hundreds/thousands of question keywords, I can also compare Ahrefs vs Semrush vs LowFruits vs AlsoAsked specifically for that use case, including current pricing and which one gives the best value.

If you mean SEO keyword research specifically for question-based queries (e.g., “how to…”, “what is…”, “can you…”) and you want to prioritize them by traffic potential + competition, I’d look at:

• Ahrefs — best overall. Its Keywords Explorer lets you filter for question-based keywords and evaluate search volume, Keyword Difficulty, traffic potential, and SERP competition.
• Semrush — strong alternative, especially for finding question keywords and analyzing keyword difficulty, volume, intent, and competitor rankings.
• AlsoAsked — excellent for discovering the questions people ask around a topic and mapping related questions, but weaker for detailed competitiveness/prioritization.
• AnswerThePublic — very good for generating question ideas and topic clusters; less robust for deciding which keywords have the best SEO opportunity.
• LowFruits — particularly useful if your goal is to find low-competition questions where smaller sites have a realistic chance to rank.

My pick

If you want one platform that combines question discovery with traffic/competition prioritization, I'd choose Ahrefs.

A practical workflow would be:

Ahrefs → enter seed topic → Questions filter → sort/filter by Search Volume + Traffic Potential + KD → inspect SERPs → prioritize questions with meaningful demand and weak competitors.

If you tell me your niche/topic and whether you're targeting Google, YouTube, or both, I can also recommend the best platform specifically for your use case.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then rank them by traffic potential vs. competition,” I’d shortlist these:

1. semrush.com — best overall

• Has a dedicated Questions filter.
• Shows search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), search intent, CPC, and SERP features.
• More importantly, its paid version includes Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic, which can make prioritization more relevant to your specific site. Semrush Semrush
• You can essentially build a list like: question → volume → difficulty → potential traffic → priority.
• ahrefs.com — best for deeper competitive analysis

• Has a Questions filter.
• Provides search volume, Keyword Difficulty, SERP analysis, and Traffic Potential.
• Ahrefs' Traffic Potential is particularly useful because it estimates the traffic the current #1 result receives from all the keywords it ranks for—not just the exact question you're researching. Ahrefs Ahrefs
• Great if you want to avoid chasing a question with 1,000 searches/month that actually represents a much larger topic opportunity—or vice versa.

My recommendation

If you're starting from scratch, I'd choose Semrush because it maps most directly to what you described:

Seed topic → Questions → filter by volume → filter by KD → assess traffic potential → prioritize.

For example, if your topic is email marketing, you could find:

One important distinction: don't prioritize purely by search volume. A better opportunity score is something like:

Priority = relevance × traffic potential × ranking feasibility × business value

Ahrefs is especially strong for the traffic-potential side, while Semrush is especially convenient for question discovery + filtering + site-specific difficulty. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center

If you tell me your niche/topic and roughly how authoritative your website is, I can also give you a concrete workflow for finding 50–100 question keywords and scoring them from highest to lowest opportunity.

If you're looking for question-based keywords and want to prioritize them by traffic potential + competitiveness, I'd shortlist:

• Ahrefs — best overall for this. Its Keywords Explorer lets you filter keyword ideas by questions and evaluate search volume, Traffic Potential, Keyword Difficulty, and SERP data. Ahrefs
• Semrush — strong alternative, especially if you want Keyword Magic Tool → Questions plus difficulty, volume, intent, and competitive analysis. Semrush
• LowFruits — particularly good if your goal is to find low-competition question keywords where weaker sites are ranking. LowFruits
• AlsoAsked — excellent for discovering the actual questions people ask and mapping related questions, but it's less suited to prioritizing them by SEO competitiveness and traffic potential on its own.
• Google Keyword Planner — useful for volume estimates, but not as good for question discovery or assessing organic competition.

My pick

If your workflow is:

Find questions → estimate traffic → assess competition → prioritize what to write

I'd use Ahrefs first.

A practical scoring approach would be:

Priority = Traffic Potential × business relevance ÷ Keyword Difficulty

Then manually bump up questions that have strong commercial intent or could naturally lead readers toward your product/service.

If you tell me what your website/niche is, I can also recommend the best platform for your specific use case (including cheaper/free options).

If your goal is specifically question-based keywords + traffic potential + competitiveness, I’d pick ahrefs.com.

My ranking

1. Ahrefs — best overall for your use case

• Has a dedicated Questions filter for queries like how, what, why, when. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• Gives Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• Most importantly, it has Traffic Potential, which estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page receives from the keyword and related queries. This is often more useful than raw search volume. Ahrefs Help Center
• You can therefore prioritize something like: high traffic potential + low KD + strong search intent.
• It also lets you examine the actual SERP, which is important because a low KD score doesn't automatically mean a keyword is easy for your site. Ahrefs
• semrush.com — best alternative

• Has a Questions-only filter.
• Lets you sort/filter by search volume and keyword difficulty.
• It also offers SERP data, intent, and newer metrics such as Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic on qualifying plans. Semrush Semrush
• I'd choose Semrush if you're also doing competitor analysis, PPC, and broader marketing research.
• alsoasked.com — best companion for discovering questions

• Excellent for finding the actual questions Google surfaces through People Also Ask and mapping related questions into clusters. AlsoAsked
• But I wouldn't use it alone for prioritization because Ahrefs/Semrush give you much stronger volume/difficulty metrics.

What I'd actually use

Ahrefs + AlsoAsked is probably the strongest combination:

AlsoAsked → discover questions → Ahrefs → quantify & prioritize → content plan

For example, you could build a list like:

The key insight is don't prioritize solely by search volume. A 500-volume question can be substantially more valuable than a 5,000-volume question if its SERP has a high traffic potential and it's much easier to rank for. Ahrefs Help Center

If you tell me your niche/topic and whether your site is new or established, I can also recommend the best tool specifically for your situation and give you a keyword-prioritization formula.

If your goal is specifically “find lots of question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic upside vs. ranking difficulty,” I’d shortlist these:

1. ahrefs.com — best overall for prioritization

This is probably my #1 choice for your use case.

• Has a Questions filter for question-based queries. Ahrefs
• Gives search volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• Most importantly, it has Traffic Potential: estimated organic traffic the current #1 page receives across all the keywords it ranks for—not just the individual question's search volume. Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs Help Center
• You can therefore find something like: - “how to X” — 200 volume, KD 12, traffic potential 4,500
• “what is X” — 1,000 volume, KD 45, traffic potential 1,800

and potentially realize the first topic is the better opportunity.

Best for: building a prioritized content roadmap rather than simply generating keyword ideas.

2. semrush.com — best for massive question-keyword discovery

Semrush is particularly convenient if you want to start with a seed topic and uncover a large universe of questions.

Its Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, plus search volume, KD, intent, CPC, SERP features, topic grouping, and filtering. Semrush Semrush

It also has Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic, which can make prioritization more specific to your own site. Semrush

Best for: discovering lots of questions and filtering them into content clusters.

3. alsoasked.com — best for discovering the questions behind the question

This is different from Ahrefs/Semrush. It maps Google's People Also Ask-style question relationships, helping you see what questions people tend to ask next.

The downside is that AlsoAsked itself argues that conventional search volume isn't particularly useful for individual PAA questions because the same intent can be expressed in many different ways. Also Asked Help Center

Best for: building comprehensive FAQ/article structures after you've identified a promising topic.

My recommendation

If you're building an SEO/content strategy, I'd use:

Ahrefs → prioritize opportunities
Semrush → expand the keyword universe
AlsoAsked → map the question hierarchy

If you only want to pay for one, I'd choose Ahrefs because its combination of Questions + Volume + KD + Traffic Potential is closest to exactly what you're describing. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center

One important caveat: don't rank opportunities by search volume alone. A question with 100 searches/month can be more valuable than one with 1,000 if the SERP's top result gets substantial traffic from hundreds of related queries. That's precisely why Ahrefs' Traffic Potential metric is useful. Ahrefs Help Center

If you tell me your niche/site and roughly how authoritative the site is, I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization formula (e.g. traffic potential × business value ÷ difficulty) and tell you which tool/setup I'd use.

If your goal is specifically “find lots of question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic opportunity vs. ranking difficulty,” I’d shortlist these:

🥇 My pick: Semrush

semrush.com

Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, so you can turn a seed topic into question-based queries such as “how,” “why,” “what,” etc. Semrush Semrush

More importantly for your use case, you can evaluate those questions using:

• Search volume → estimated demand
• Keyword Difficulty (KD) → general ranking competition
• Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) → difficulty specifically for your domain
• Potential Traffic → estimated traffic opportunity
• Search intent
• SERP features, including AI Overviews and People Also Ask

Semrush specifically recommends combining search volume + Keyword Difficulty when choosing question keywords. Semrush Semrush

So you could do something like:

Seed: home insurance
→ Questions filter
→ PKD: Easy
→ Volume: 100+
→ Potential Traffic: high
→ Sort by traffic opportunity

That gets you much closer to a prioritized content roadmap rather than simply a giant list of questions.

🥈 Ahrefs is arguably better for “traffic potential”

ahrefs.com

Ahrefs also has a Questions filter and very strong keyword-difficulty data. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center

Its standout feature is Traffic Potential: rather than assuming search volume equals potential traffic, Ahrefs estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page receives from the keyword/topic and related queries. Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs

That's particularly useful because a keyword with 500 searches/month might actually be capable of generating substantially more traffic if one page ranks for dozens of related searches.

What I'd choose

If you're building a content strategy: Semrush.

If you're an SEO professional doing serious keyword/SERP analysis: Ahrefs.

If your #1 priority is finding low-competition questions that smaller sites can realistically rank for: I'd also look at LowFruits.

One important distinction: don't rank opportunities purely by search volume. I'd use a score roughly like:

Opportunity = Traffic Potential × Relevance × Ranking Feasibility

That will generally produce a much better content queue than simply sorting 10,000 questions by monthly volume.

If you tell me your website/topic and roughly how authoritative the site is, I can also give you a concrete filtering formula (e.g. volume > X, KD < Y, traffic potential > Z) to find the best question keywords.

If you want to find question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness, these platforms are among the most useful:

Best all-around SEO keyword platforms

Ahrefs

Best for: deep keyword research + competition analysis

• Finds question keywords through its Keywords Explorer and “Questions” reports.
• Shows: - Search volume
• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• Traffic potential
• SERP competition
• Parent topics (whether one page can rank for many related questions)
• Strong choice if you’re building an SEO content strategy.

Semrush

Best for: keyword discovery + competitor research

• Its Keyword Magic Tool has a question filter.
• Helps prioritize by: - Volume
• Keyword difficulty
• Intent
• CPC (commercial value)
• Competitive density
• Useful if you want to see what competitors already rank for.

Moz

Best for: simpler SEO workflows

• Keyword Explorer includes: - Keyword suggestions
• Difficulty
• Organic CTR estimates
• Priority scoring
• Easier for beginners than some enterprise tools.

Best tools specifically for question discovery

AlsoAsked

Best for: People Also Ask research

• Maps related questions from Google’s “People Also Ask” results.
• Great for finding: - FAQ topics
• Content clusters
• Long-tail questions

AnswerThePublic

Best for: brainstorming question ideas

• Generates questions around a topic: - “how”
• “why”
• “can”
• “best”
• “vs”
• Better for ideation than prioritization because competition data is limited.

Best free/low-cost options

Google Keyword Planner

Best for: free search volume estimates

• Useful for traffic potential.
• Less useful for finding content questions unless paired with another tool.

Google Search Console

Best if you already have a website:

• Shows real queries people already use to find you.
• Helps find “almost ranking” question keywords (positions 5–20) that may be easy wins.

KeywordTool.io

Best for: long-tail question expansion

• Pulls suggestions from Google autocomplete and other platforms.
• Pair with another tool for difficulty metrics.

A practical workflow

1. Generate questions

• Use AlsoAsked + AnswerThePublic + Ahrefs/Semrush question filters.
• Score each keyword

Look for:

• High traffic potential
• Low-to-medium keyword difficulty
• Clear search intent
• Business relevance
• Prioritize

A simple scoring model:

Opportunity Score = (Traffic Potential × Business Value × Ranking Probability) ÷ Difficulty

Example:

• “how to fix a leaking faucet”

• Medium traffic
• Low difficulty
• High intent → good target
• “what is plumbing”

• High traffic
• Very competitive
• Low purchase intent → lower priority

If you’re doing this seriously, I’d typically use Ahrefs or Semrush as the main platform, then supplement with AlsoAsked for discovering question clusters.

If you're looking for question-based keywords and want to prioritize them by traffic potential + competitiveness, the strongest options are:

• Semrush — Best all-around. Its Keyword Magic Tool can surface question queries and gives you search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, and related terms.
• Ahrefs — Excellent for finding question keywords and assessing difficulty, traffic potential, and competing pages. Particularly strong if you want to prioritize topics based on the actual traffic pages receive.
• LowFruits — Best if your priority is finding lower-competition question keywords where relatively weak sites are already ranking.
• AlsoAsked — Excellent specifically for discovering question clusters based on Google's "People Also Ask" relationships. Pair it with another tool for search volume/competition.
• Keyword Insights — Useful if you have a large list of questions and want to cluster them into topics and determine which ones deserve individual pages.

My pick

If you want one platform, I'd choose Ahrefs or Semrush.

If your workflow is specifically:

Find thousands of questions → estimate traffic → identify low-competition opportunities → prioritize what to write first

I'd lean toward Ahrefs + LowFruits.

If you tell me your website/topic and whether you're targeting Google SEO, YouTube, or both, I can also recommend the best platform for your specific use case and explain exactly how I'd prioritize the keywords.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic opportunity vs. competitiveness,” I’d shortlist these:

1. ahrefs.com — best overall for prioritization

This is probably my #1 choice for your use case.

• Has a dedicated Questions filter for queries like “how,” “why,” “what,” etc. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• Shows Keyword Difficulty (KD) to estimate ranking competition.
• Shows Traffic Potential, which is especially useful because it estimates the organic traffic the current top-ranking page receives—not merely the keyword's raw search volume. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• Lets you combine filters to find opportunities such as high traffic potential + low KD. Ahrefs
• You can inspect the actual SERP and competing pages rather than relying solely on a difficulty score.

Best workflow:
Seed topic → Questions → filter by KD → sort by Traffic Potential → inspect SERP → prioritize

2. semrush.com — best for finding lots of questions quickly

Semrush is excellent if your primary challenge is keyword discovery.

Its Keyword Magic Tool has:

• A dedicated Questions filter.
• Search volume.
• Keyword Difficulty.
• Search intent.
• CPC.
• Keyword grouping/subgroups.
• Advanced filters for narrowing the list. Semrush Semrush

It also has a Potential Traffic metric that can help prioritize opportunities based on your particular domain. Semrush

I'd choose Semrush over Ahrefs if you're doing large-scale keyword discovery and content-market research.

3. Ahrefs + alsoasked.com — best combination for question research

If by "question-based keywords" you mean things like:

What is X?
How does X work?
Why does X happen?
What is the difference between X and Y?

then I'd actually use Ahrefs + a question-discovery tool.

The question-discovery tool helps uncover the question relationships and variations people search for, while Ahrefs gives you the quantitative data needed to decide which questions are worth pursuing.

My recommendation

If you're only going to pay for one platform:

→ Ahrefs

It's unusually well suited to your exact prioritization problem because it gives you both sides of the equation:

Opportunity = Traffic Potential + Search Volume
Difficulty = KD + actual SERP competition

And importantly, don't prioritize solely by search volume. A question with 500 searches/month can potentially be much more valuable than one with 5,000 searches if the first-ranking page gets substantial traffic from many related queries. That's exactly why Ahrefs' Traffic Potential metric is useful. Ahrefs

If you tell me what niche/site you're doing this for, I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization formula (e.g. how I'd score 100 questions from 0–100 based on traffic potential, KD, intent, and business value).

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d shortlist these:

1. ahrefs.com — best for traffic potential

This is probably my first choice for what you described.

• You can filter keyword ideas to questions. Ahrefs
• It provides Search Volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• More importantly, Ahrefs has a Traffic Potential metric that estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page receives for the topic—not merely how many searches the exact keyword gets. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• You can therefore look for questions with high traffic potential + relatively low KD.
• Its SERP overview lets you manually validate whether the competition is actually beatable.

Best if: you want to build a content strategy around questions and prioritize opportunities by actual potential traffic, rather than blindly sorting by search volume.

2. semrush.com — best for question filtering + competitive prioritization

Semrush is arguably even more convenient for the initial discovery stage.

Its Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, plus filters for:

• Search volume
• Keyword Difficulty
• Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) — difficulty relative to your particular domain
• Potential Traffic
• Search intent
• SERP features
• CPC

Semrush SemrushThat Personal KD feature is particularly useful: a keyword that is “easy” for an established site might be difficult for a new site, and vice versa. Semrush attempts to account for that. Semrush

Best if: you want the tool to help answer “Which questions can my website realistically rank for?”

My recommendation

If I could only pay for one: I'd lean Ahrefs if your primary objective is maximizing organic traffic potential; Semrush if your primary objective is finding questions and deciding what your particular domain can realistically rank for.

A useful prioritization formula is:

Opportunity = Traffic Potential × Relevance × Ranking Probability

rather than simply sorting by search volume. A question with 10,000 searches but brutal SERPs may be much less valuable than a 1,000-search question where your site has a realistic shot at #1–3.

If you tell me your niche/site and roughly how authoritative the domain is, I can also recommend the best tool and give you a concrete keyword-prioritization workflow (including thresholds for volume, KD, traffic potential, and intent).

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d shortlist these:

1. ahrefs.com — best for traffic potential

This is probably my #1 choice for your exact use case.

• You can filter keyword ideas to Questions. Ahrefs
• It gives search volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• More importantly, Ahrefs has a Traffic Potential metric, which estimates how much organic traffic the current top-ranking page gets for the broader topic—not merely the search volume of that one question. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• You can inspect the actual SERP and competing pages before deciding whether a question is worth pursuing.

Best if: you want to identify questions where one article could capture traffic from many related searches.

2. semrush.com — best for question discovery + filtering

Semrush is arguably easier for the initial question-keyword mining.

Its Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter and lets you combine filters for:

• Search volume
• Keyword Difficulty
• Search intent
• SERP features
• Word count
• CPC
• Personal Keyword Difficulty
• Potential Traffic Semrush Semrush

The Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic metrics are particularly useful if you have an established website, because they can account for your site's ability to compete. Semrush

Best if: you want a big list of questions and a powerful filtering/sorting workflow.

3. Keywords Everywhere — best inexpensive/simple option

keywordseverywhere.com is worth considering if you don't need a full enterprise SEO platform.

Its keyword finder specifically harvests question phrases and provides volume, CPC, competition, and trend data. Keywords Everywhere

It's much lighter than Ahrefs/Semrush, though, so I'd use it more for discovery than sophisticated opportunity prioritization.

My recommendation

If you're only going to pay for one, I'd choose Ahrefs for the particular workflow you described. Its Traffic Potential metric is the differentiator: search volume alone can badly underestimate how much traffic a question can generate because the ranking page may rank for hundreds of related queries. Ahrefs

A practical prioritization formula would be:

Opportunity = Traffic Potential × relevance ÷ ranking difficulty

Then manually inspect the SERP for your top ~20–50 opportunities. Don't prioritize solely by search volume or KD—the actual pages ranking in Google matter enormously. Ahrefs itself recommends SERP analysis beyond KD. Ahrefs

If you tell me your niche/site topic, I can also recommend the best platform and give you a concrete question-keyword scoring framework (e.g. what thresholds to use for volume, KD, traffic potential, and intent).

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic opportunity vs. competition,” I’d shortlist these:

1. semrush.com — best overall fit

This is probably the closest match to exactly what you described.

• Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter.
• You can sort/filter by search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), search intent, CPC, SERP features, etc.
• Semrush also has Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD), which attempts to account for your specific domain's ability to rank.
• Its Potential Traffic metric estimates the traffic opportunity based on your domain/profile. Semrush Semrush

So you could essentially do:

Seed topic → Questions → filter for reasonable KD → prioritize high volume/Potential Traffic → inspect SERPs.

I'd choose Semrush if you want one platform to do most of the prioritization for you.

2. ahrefs.com — best for traffic potential + SEO competitiveness

Ahrefs is excellent if traffic potential is more important to you than having the most sophisticated question-specific workflow.

Keywords Explorer lets you filter keyword ideas by Questions, search volume, and KD. Ahrefs

Its particularly useful metric is Traffic Potential: rather than assuming a keyword's search volume equals the traffic you could receive, Ahrefs estimates the organic traffic going to the current #1 page across the keywords that page ranks for. Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs

That makes it very useful for finding questions like:

“Keyword has only 500 searches/month, but the ranking page gets 8,000 visits/month.”

That can be a much better content opportunity than simply chasing high-volume keywords.

3. alsoasked.com — best for discovering questions

I'd use this alongside Semrush or Ahrefs rather than as your primary prioritization tool.

It's particularly useful for uncovering the “People Also Ask” question tree around a topic. But for serious SEO prioritization, I'd then push those questions into Ahrefs/Semrush to evaluate volume, difficulty, and traffic opportunity.

My recommendation

One important distinction: don't prioritize questions by search volume alone. Search volume is only an estimate, and high volume doesn't necessarily translate into clicks. Ahrefs explicitly recommends considering Traffic Potential, while Semrush provides Potential Traffic and personalized difficulty metrics. Ahrefs Help Center Semrush

If you tell me your niche/site topic and whether you're starting from zero or already have Google traffic, I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization formula (e.g. a 0–100 score combining traffic potential, KD, intent, and business value).

If your main goal is “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d pick Ahrefs or Semrush.

My recommendation

1. ahrefs.com — best overall for this specific use case

• Has a dedicated Questions keyword report/filter.
• Shows search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), and Traffic Potential.
• Traffic Potential is particularly useful because it estimates the organic traffic the current top-ranking page gets for the broader topic—not just the raw search volume of the question. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• You can therefore find something like: “how often should I replace X?” → moderate volume → low KD → high traffic potential → strong content opportunity.
• Ahrefs also lets you inspect the actual SERP and ranking pages, which is important because KD alone doesn't tell the whole story. Ahrefs
• semrush.com — best if you want more filtering/segmentation

• Has an explicit Questions filter.
• Lets you filter/sort by volume, keyword difficulty, intent, CPC, SERP features, etc. Semrush Semrush
• Semrush also has Potential Traffic, which can incorporate your site's own domain profile, making it useful if you're already established. Semrush
• Particularly good for building large keyword lists and clustering them into topic groups.
• alsoasked.com — best companion tool for discovering questions

• Excellent for finding the actual People Also Ask question relationships around a topic.
• I wouldn't use it as the primary prioritization tool because Ahrefs/Semrush give you much stronger volume/competition metrics. AlsoAsked

If I were doing this myself

I'd use Ahrefs as the primary platform:

Seed topic → Questions → filter KD → evaluate Traffic Potential → inspect SERP → prioritize.

For example, I'd create a shortlist where:

The important distinction is that I wouldn't simply sort questions by search volume. A question with 100 searches/month can potentially be more valuable than one with 1,000 if it sits inside a topic where the ranking pages receive substantial traffic.

Bottom line:

• 🥇 Ahrefs — best match for question keywords + traffic potential + competitiveness
• 🥈 Semrush — best for large-scale keyword discovery, filtering, and competitive research
• 🥉 AlsoAsked — best for expanding a topic into related real-world questions

If you tell me your niche/site, I can also show you the exact workflow and filters I'd use to find the highest-opportunity question keywords rather than just dumping a giant keyword list.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d pick Ahrefs.

My recommendation: Ahrefs

ahrefs.com

It fits your workflow particularly well because you can:

• Filter keyword ideas to Questions (“how,” “what,” “why,” etc.). Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center
• Sort/filter by search volume.
• Evaluate Keyword Difficulty (KD) on a 0–100 scale. Ahrefs Help Center
• See Traffic Potential, which estimates the organic traffic the current #1 result receives—not merely how many people search the exact keyword. Ahrefs Help Center
• Analyze the SERP to determine whether the keyword is realistically attainable for your site.
• Group related questions under a Parent Topic, helping you avoid creating dozens of pages that should really be one comprehensive article. Ahrefs

That last point is important: traffic potential is often more useful than raw search volume when deciding which questions deserve content.

Semrush is the closest alternative

semrush.com

Semrush has an especially good workflow for question discovery: its Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, plus volume, keyword difficulty, intent, CPC, and other filters. Semrush Semrush

Semrush also has Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic, which can be useful because the difficulty assessment can account for your specific domain rather than treating every website equally. Semrush

Which I'd choose

For your exact use case, I'd start with Ahrefs. Its combination of Questions → Traffic Potential → KD → SERP analysis is very close to the prioritization workflow you're describing. Ahrefs Ahrefs Help Center

If you tell me your niche/website, I can also give you a concrete filtering formula (e.g. questions with ≥300 traffic potential, KD ≤20, informational intent) to build a prioritized keyword list.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competition,” I’d shortlist these:

1. ahrefs.com — best for prioritization

Ahrefs is probably my #1 choice for this use case.

• Its Keywords Explorer has a Questions keyword-ideas report/filter. Ahrefs Help Center
• Keyword Difficulty (KD) estimates how difficult it is to reach Google's top 10. Ahrefs Help Center
• Its standout metric is Traffic Potential—the estimated organic traffic the current #1-ranking page gets from the keyword and the other keywords that page ranks for. This can be much more useful than search volume alone. Ahrefs Help Center Ahrefs Help Center
• You can also inspect the actual SERP and competing pages rather than relying solely on a difficulty score. Ahrefs

Best workflow:
Seed topic → Questions → filter by KD → sort/evaluate Traffic Potential → inspect SERP → prioritize

2. semrush.com — best for question discovery

Semrush is arguably better at quickly generating and organizing lots of question keywords.

It has a dedicated Questions filter, search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, and extensive grouping/subgrouping. Semrush Semrush

It also has Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) and Potential Traffic, which attempt to make opportunity assessment more specific to your website. Semrush

My recommendation

If I were choosing one: go with Ahrefs. Its Traffic Potential metric is particularly useful because a keyword with only 300 monthly searches can potentially drive substantially more traffic if the ranking page also captures hundreds of related searches. Ahrefs Help Center

If you tell me your niche/site topic and whether your site is new or established, I can also give you a concrete formula for scoring question keywords (e.g. traffic potential × business value ÷ difficulty) and tell you exactly which filters to use in Ahrefs/Semrush.

If you want to find question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness, these platforms are among the strongest options:

Best overall workflow

1. Generate question keywords
   • Use AlsoAsked to extract related “why,” “how,” “what,” and comparison questions.
   • Use AnswerThePublic for broader question variations.

2. Validate search demand
   • Put those keywords into Ahrefs or Semrush.
   • Look at:
     • Monthly search volume
     • Keyword difficulty (KD)
     • Traffic potential (all related searches, not just one keyword)
     • SERP competition

3. Find easier wins
   • Run the list through LowFruits.
   • It is particularly useful for finding questions where the current ranking pages are weak (forums, low-authority sites, thin content).

If I had to pick one stack:

• Beginner / content site: LowFruits + Ahrefs
• SEO agency / serious publishing: Semrush + Ahrefs
• Blog ideation only: AlsoAsked + AnswerThePublic
• AI content strategy: Ahrefs + Keyword Insights

For prioritization, a simple scoring model works well:

Opportunity Score = (Search Volume × Traffic Potential × Intent) ÷ Keyword Difficulty

A keyword like “how to fix [specific problem]” with 500 searches/month and low difficulty can often outperform a broad keyword with 20,000 searches/month but heavy competition.

If your goal is specifically “find lots of question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. ranking difficulty,” I’d shortlist these:

🥇 My pick: Ahrefs

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is probably the closest match to what you're describing.

You can turn on its Questions filter to surface queries containing modifiers such as how, what, why, etc. ahrefs.com

More importantly, Ahrefs has:

• Search Volume
• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• Traffic Potential
• SERP analysis
• Parent Topic
• Search-intent analysis

Its Traffic Potential is particularly useful: rather than just telling you how many searches a keyword gets, it estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page receives from all the keywords it ranks for. That can reveal questions with relatively modest search volume but substantial traffic opportunity. ahrefs.com

So I'd use a workflow like:

Questions → filter by relevant topic → sort/filter by Traffic Potential → filter by low KD → inspect SERPs → prioritize.

🥈 Semrush

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool is excellent if you want a very large pool of question keywords.

Its Questions filter specifically surfaces question queries, and you can combine that with volume, difficulty, intent, SERP features, and other filters. www.semrush.com

I'd favor Semrush if you're doing large-scale keyword discovery/content planning rather than focusing exclusively on low-competition questions.

🥉 LowFruits

LowFruits Keyword Finder is especially interesting if you're working with a newer/smaller site.

It has a Question Finder and lets you filter by search volume, competition, number of words, and question format. More importantly, it analyzes the actual SERPs for weak spots—for example, low-authority sites ranking in the top 10. lowfruits.io

That can be more actionable than simply saying “KD = 18.”

Bottom line

If I could choose only one: Ahrefs.

If your actual objective is “give me 100–1,000 questions and tell me which ones have the best combination of traffic opportunity + realistic ranking potential,” I'd use:

Ahrefs → Questions → Traffic Potential + KD → SERP inspection

If you're primarily trying to find questions that a relatively low-authority site can rank for, I'd seriously consider LowFruits instead.

If your goal is specifically “find questions people search for, then rank them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d shortlist these:

My pick: Ahrefs

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is probably the closest match to what you're describing.

You can filter keyword ideas to Questions, then evaluate:

• Search volume — how much demand exists
• Keyword Difficulty (KD) — how difficult the SERP is to compete in
• Traffic Potential — estimated traffic the #1-ranking page receives, which is often more useful than raw search volume
• Parent Topic — helps identify whether several questions can be answered by one comprehensive page
• SERP data — lets you inspect the actual pages you're competing against ahrefs.com

That makes it particularly good for building a “high traffic potential + low competition” shortlist.

Semrush is a very close second

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter. You can then filter/sort by volume, Keyword Difficulty, intent, CPC, SERP features, etc. www.semrush.com

Semrush also has Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic metrics, which can make prioritization more specific to your particular website. www.semrush.com

A simple prioritization formula

Whichever platform you use, I wouldn't simply sort by search volume. I'd prioritize roughly:

Priority = Traffic Potential × Business Value ÷ Difficulty

For example:

If you're starting a new/small site, I'd lean toward Ahrefs. If you're doing broader SEO/competitor research and want content planning, rank tracking, and other tools in the same platform, Semrush may be the better investment. Both explicitly support question-based keyword discovery and competition analysis. ahrefs.com

If you tell me your niche/topic and whether your site is new or established, I can also give you a concrete filtering strategy (e.g. Questions + KD <20 + traffic potential >500) to find the best opportunities.

If you’re looking for question-based keyword discovery + prioritization by traffic potential and competitiveness, these are the strongest platforms:

My recommendations by use case

If you want the best overall SEO workflow
→ Ahrefs or Semrush

• Find question keywords
• Filter by search volume
• Check keyword difficulty
• Analyze SERP competitors
• Prioritize based on ranking opportunity

If you’re building a content calendar around questions
→ AlsoAsked + Ahrefs/Semrush

• AlsoAsked finds real “People Also Ask” relationships
• Ahrefs/Semrush tells you which questions are worth targeting

If you’re a small site trying to find easier wins
→ LowFruits

• Better at surfacing questions where weaker sites already rank
• Useful for niche blogs and affiliate/content sites

A practical prioritization formula

A simple scoring model:

Opportunity Score = (Search Volume × Traffic Potential × Intent) ÷ Keyword Difficulty

Example filters:

• Search volume: 100–5,000/month
• Keyword difficulty: low–medium
• Question intent: “how,” “why,” “best,” “can,” “what”
• SERP: forums, Reddit, weak blogs, outdated pages

A strong stack for most content teams would be:

1. Semrush/Ahrefs → quantify opportunity
2. AlsoAsked → expand question clusters
3. Google Search Console → find existing question queries you’re close to ranking for

If you’re choosing only one platform, I’d pick Ahrefs for SEO depth or Semrush for content marketing workflows.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic opportunity vs. ranking difficulty,” I’d shortlist these:

🥇 My pick: Ahrefs

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is probably the closest match to what you're describing.

You can:

• Filter keyword ideas to Questions specifically. ahrefs.com
• See search volume
• See Keyword Difficulty (KD) on a 0–100 scale. help.ahrefs.com
• See Traffic Potential, which estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page gets from all the keywords it ranks for—not just the exact question you're researching. This is particularly useful for prioritization. help.ahrefs.com
• Examine the actual SERP and competing pages before deciding whether a question is worth targeting.

That last point is important: search volume alone can be misleading. A question with 300 searches/month might be attached to a topic whose ranking page gets thousands of visits from related searches.

🥈 Semrush is a very good alternative

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, plus search volume, Keyword Difficulty, search intent, SERP features, and other filters. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

Semrush also has a particularly useful newer workflow involving Personal Keyword Difficulty and Potential Traffic, which attempts to account for your own site's ability to rank rather than treating every domain identically. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

So I'd choose:

Ahrefs → if you want the strongest traffic-potential/SERP analysis.
Semrush → if you want a broader content + SEO platform and more domain-specific prioritization.

Where AlsoAsked fits

AlsoAsked is excellent for discovering the network of questions around a topic—particularly the questions Google surfaces around an initial query. But it's not what I'd use as my primary tool for prioritizing by traffic and competition. AlsoAsked itself cautions that individual question search volumes aren't especially reliable because the same intent can be expressed through many different queries. help.alsoasked.com

If I were doing this myself: I'd use Ahrefs to find + score the opportunities, then optionally use AlsoAsked to expand each winning topic into the questions the article should answer.

If you tell me your website/topic and roughly how authoritative the site is, I can also give you a concrete filtering formula (e.g. question + KD < X + traffic potential > Y) for finding the best opportunities.

If your goal is specifically “find lots of question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competition,” I’d shortlist these:

My pick: Ahrefs

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is probably the closest match to what you're describing.

You can enter a broad seed topic, switch the keyword ideas to Questions, and then filter/sort by:

• Search volume
• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• Traffic Potential
• Clicks
• SERP features
• Parent Topic
• Search intent

Ahrefs' Traffic Potential is particularly useful because it estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page receives for the broader topic—not merely how many people search the exact question. ahrefs.com

For example, you could start with:

email marketing

→ Questions:

how does email marketing work
what is email marketing
how often should you send marketing emails
what is the best email marketing software
how to build an email list

Then prioritize something like:

High traffic potential + low KD + strong relevance to your business = high priority.

Ahrefs specifically supports filtering question-based ideas and recommends combining volume/KD with Traffic Potential when identifying opportunities. ahrefs.com

When I'd choose Semrush instead

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool is arguably better if you want the prioritization to be specific to your website.

It has a dedicated Questions filter, plus search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, and—importantly—Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) and Potential Traffic based on your domain and the competitive landscape. www.semrush.com

So if you already have a website with some authority, I'd lean Semrush because:

“How much traffic could this keyword generate for my site, given my current ability to rank?”

is often more useful than generic keyword difficulty.

Where AlsoAsked fits

AlsoAsked is excellent as a question discovery layer. It specializes in mapping related questions—the kinds of questions that appear around a search topic. But I wouldn't use it as the primary tool for deciding which questions have the best traffic/competition economics.

Bottom line

If you're buying one tool:

🥇 Ahrefs — best balance of question discovery + traffic potential + competition analysis.

🥈 Semrush — potentially better if you want domain-specific traffic/competition prioritization.

🥉 AlsoAsked — excellent companion for expanding a topic into a comprehensive question/content map.

If you tell me your niche/website topic and roughly how authoritative your site is, I can also give you a concrete workflow for finding 50–100 question keywords and scoring them by traffic potential × ranking difficulty × business value.

If your goal is specifically “find questions people search for, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d pick Semrush Keyword Magic Tool or Ahrefs Keywords Explorer.

My pick: Semrush

Semrush is particularly convenient for question-based keyword research because you can:

• Enter a broad seed topic.
• Click the “Questions” filter to isolate queries phrased as questions. www.semrush.com
• Sort/filter by search volume.
• Filter by Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• See search intent, trends, SERP features, and CPC. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.comahrefs.com
• More recently, Semrush also provides Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD) and Potential Traffic, which can be particularly useful for prioritizing opportunities for your specific site. www.semrush.com

A useful workflow would be:

Questions → relevant intent → high volume → low PKD/KD → high potential traffic → manually inspect SERP

Ahrefs is arguably better for traffic potential

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer has a Questions keyword report and gives you Search Volume, Keyword Difficulty, SERP information, and—importantly—Traffic Potential. ahrefs.com

The distinction is valuable: search volume tells you how often the specific question is searched, whereas Ahrefs' Traffic Potential estimates the organic traffic the current #1 page gets for the broader topic. help.ahrefs.com

Quick comparison

If I were building a content strategy today, I'd lean Semrush because its Questions filter + intent + PKD + Potential Traffic combination makes the prioritization workflow particularly straightforward.

If you tell me your niche/site topic and roughly how authoritative your site is, I can also give you a concrete keyword-prioritization formula (e.g. how to score 1,000 question keywords and identify the top 20 worth writing).

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d narrow it to Ahrefs or Semrush.

My pick: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is probably the best fit if traffic potential is the key criterion. Its Keywords Explorer lets you filter for Questions, and it provides:

• Search volume
• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• Traffic Potential — estimated traffic the top-ranking page receives, rather than just search volume
• Parent Topic
• SERP analysis
• Keyword clustering ahrefs.com

That Traffic Potential metric is particularly useful because a keyword with 1,000 searches/month doesn't necessarily generate 1,000 potential clicks. Ahrefs explicitly estimates the traffic that the #1 result receives. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Semrush is an excellent alternative

Semrush is arguably better if you want a more comprehensive keyword discovery + competitive research workflow.

Its Keyword Magic Tool can specifically surface question keywords and lets you evaluate search volume, keyword difficulty, competitive density, and related keyword groups. www.semrush.com

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

How I'd choose

For your exact use case, I'd start with Ahrefs. Search a seed topic → switch the keyword ideas to Questions → filter by KD → sort/evaluate by Traffic Potential → inspect the SERPs for the remaining candidates.

One important caveat: don't prioritize solely by search volume or KD. Ahrefs itself recommends using KD as an initial filter and then doing actual SERP analysis, because the difficulty of ranking depends on the specific results and intent. ahrefs.com

If you tell me your niche/site and roughly how authoritative the site is, I can also suggest a concrete traffic-potential × competition scoring system for turning hundreds of question keywords into a prioritized content list.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competitiveness,” I’d narrow it to two strong choices:

🥇 Best overall: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

This is probably the best fit for your exact workflow.

• Find question variations around a seed topic.
• See search volume and Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• Most importantly, Ahrefs has a Traffic Potential metric that estimates the organic traffic the #1-ranking page gets from the target keyword plus the other keywords that page ranks for. ahrefs.com
• You can therefore prioritize something like: high traffic potential + low KD, rather than blindly chasing search volume.

Why I prefer it: Traffic Potential is particularly useful for content planning because a keyword with 300 searches/month might actually represent a much larger opportunity if the resulting page can rank for dozens or hundreds of related queries.

🥈 Best for finding lots of questions: Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

Semrush is arguably better if your starting point is “show me every question people ask about X.”

Its Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, plus filters for search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, etc. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

It also now has Potential Traffic, which estimates traffic opportunities based on your domain's profile, alongside Personal Keyword Difficulty (PKD). www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

My recommendation

If I were choosing just one: Ahrefs.

A useful prioritization formula would be:

Priority = Traffic Potential × Relevance ÷ Difficulty

Then manually boost questions with strong commercial intent or questions that fit a topic you want to establish authority around.

If you tell me your niche/topic and whether you're starting a new site or already have an established domain, I can also show you exactly how I'd use Ahrefs/Semrush to build a prioritized list of question keywords.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competition,” I’d shortlist these:

🥇 Best overall: Ahrefs

Ahrefs is probably the strongest fit for your exact workflow. Its Keywords Explorer lets you:

• Filter keyword ideas to Questions
• See search volume
• See Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• See Traffic Potential — an estimate of how much organic traffic the #1-ranking page gets for the keyword
• Cluster ideas into topics
• Analyze the actual SERPs behind the keyword ahrefs.com

The important distinction is Traffic Potential vs. search volume. A keyword might have only 500 searches/month but have much higher traffic potential because a page ranking for it can also rank for hundreds of related queries.

🥈 Best alternative: Semrush

Semrush's Keyword Magic Tool is excellent if you want a very large pool of questions and lots of filtering. It has a dedicated Questions filter, search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, SERP features, trends, and advanced filtering. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

It also has AI-powered Potential Traffic and Personal Keyword Difficulty features, although those aren't available on the free subscription. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

My recommendation

One caveat: don't treat KD as an absolute measure of competition. Ahrefs' KD is primarily based on the referring domains/backlinks of top-ranking pages, so you should also inspect the actual SERP and the authority/relevance of the pages ranking there. help.ahrefs.com

If I were building a content strategy, I'd use Ahrefs → Questions → filter for meaningful volume → sort/compare Traffic Potential → screen for low/moderate KD → manually inspect the SERP.

If you tell me your website/topic, I can also give you a concrete keyword-research workflow and the exact filters I'd use to uncover high-traffic, low-competition questions.

If you’re looking for question-based keywords and want to prioritize them by traffic potential and competitiveness, the best platform depends on how deep you want to go. These are the strongest options:

Best overall workflow

1. Discover question keywords
   • Use AnswerThePublic or AlsoAsked
   • Export questions around your topic:
     • “how to…”
     • “why does…”
     • “best way to…”
     • “can I…”
     • “what is…”

2. Validate demand
   • Put the questions into Ahrefs or Semrush
   • Check:
     • Monthly search volume
     • Traffic potential (not just keyword volume)
     • SERP intent
     • Related keywords

3. Prioritize opportunities

A simple scoring model:

Priority Score = (Traffic Potential × Intent Strength) ÷ Competition

Example:

If you want one tool:

• Best professional choice: Ahrefs
• Best all-in-one SEO suite: Semrush
• Best budget approach: LowFruits + Google Keyword Planner
• Best for content ideation: AlsoAsked

For a content site or SEO campaign, I’d generally start with AlsoAsked → Ahrefs/Semrush → spreadsheet scoring, because it separates finding questions from deciding which ones are worth targeting.

If your goal is specifically “find question-based keywords, then prioritize them by traffic potential vs. competition,” I’d pick Ahrefs.

Why Ahrefs is probably the best fit

• Question discovery: Keywords Explorer can generate large sets of keyword ideas and lets you filter by search intent/attributes. ahrefs.com
• Traffic Potential: This is the big differentiator. Ahrefs estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page receives from all the keywords it ranks for—not just the search volume of your individual question. help.ahrefs.com
• Competition: Its Keyword Difficulty (KD) score estimates ranking difficulty based primarily on the referring domains of the current top-ranking pages. help.ahrefs.com
• Prioritization: You can therefore look for questions with high Traffic Potential + relatively low KD, rather than simply chasing high-volume keywords.

For example, I'd build a workflow like:

Seed topic → Questions → Filter by intent → Sort by Traffic Potential → Check KD → Inspect SERP → Prioritize

Ahrefs vs. Semrush

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool is excellent for question discovery: it provides search volume, keyword difficulty, intent, trends, and a very large keyword database. www.semrush.com

My recommendation: If you're building an FAQ/content strategy or trying to find question-based topics with the best SEO opportunity, use Ahrefs first. Its Traffic Potential metric is particularly useful because a question with only 200 searches/month can still be attached to a topic capable of generating thousands of visits. help.ahrefs.com

If you tell me your niche/site topic, I can also show you the exact Ahrefs filters and thresholds I'd use to find high-traffic, low-competition questions.

If your goal is specifically question-based keywords + traffic potential + competitiveness, I’d pick Ahrefs overall.

Best options

Why Ahrefs: Keywords Explorer lets you generate keyword ideas, filter by intent, and evaluate search volume, Keyword Difficulty (KD), and Traffic Potential. Its Traffic Potential estimates how much organic traffic the current #1 page receives from the keyword and the other queries it ranks for—often more useful than volume alone. ahrefs.com

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Semrush is arguably better for the initial question discovery. Its Keyword Magic Tool has a dedicated Questions filter, plus volume, difficulty, intent, SERP features, and filtering/sorting. www.semrush.com

Semrush Keyword Magic Tool

What I'd actually use

If you're building a content strategy, I'd do:

Semrush → find questions → Ahrefs → prioritize them

For example, start with a topic like "home espresso machines", pull questions such as:

• how does an espresso machine work
• what espresso machine is best for beginners
• can you make regular coffee with an espresso machine
• how often should you descale an espresso machine

Then prioritize based on:

Priority = Traffic Potential + business relevance + low/medium KD + search intent

One important caveat: don't treat KD as absolute truth. It's an estimate, and different platforms calculate difficulty differently. Ahrefs' KD, for example, is primarily based on backlinks to the top-ranking pages. help.ahrefs.com

If you tell me your niche/topic, I can also show you exactly how I'd find and score 20–50 question keywords for it.

If your goal is specifically to find question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic potential and ranking difficulty, I'd recommend one of these stacks:

If you only buy one tool

Semrush is probably the strongest choice because you can:

• Filter keywords by Questions
• Sort by monthly search volume
• Filter by Keyword Difficulty
• See search intent
• Analyze competitors
• Export lists for content planning

This makes it easy to find opportunities like:

Semrush's Question filter is designed for exactly this workflow. www.semrush.comwww.semrush.com

If you're on a budget

A surprisingly effective stack is:

• AlsoAsked → discover hundreds of related questions
• Ahrefs Free Keyword Generator → get question keywords plus search volume estimates
• Google Search Console → validate which questions already bring impressions

This combination covers most needs without paying for a full enterprise SEO suite. ahrefs.com

If your goal is AI-driven content planning

A workflow many content marketers use is:

1. Generate question clusters with AlsoAsked.
2. Check search volume and keyword difficulty in Semrush or Ahrefs.
3. Prioritize keywords with:
   • High search volume
   • Low-to-medium keyword difficulty
   • Informational intent
   • Clear relevance to your business
4. Group related questions into a single comprehensive article rather than writing one page per question. www.semrush.com

For someone publishing content regularly, Semrush offers the best balance of question discovery, traffic estimates, competitiveness metrics, and competitor research. If your main objective is uncovering overlooked, easier opportunities, pairing LowFruits with AlsoAsked is a strong alternative.

If your goal is specifically to discover question-based keywords and prioritize them by traffic potential and ranking difficulty, there are several strong options depending on your budget and how deep you want to go.

If you want the best overall workflow

Ahrefs is difficult to beat because you can:

• Filter keywords to questions only.
• Sort by search volume.
• See Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• Estimate traffic potential (not just search volume).
• View the current top-ranking pages.
• Identify keywords where weaker sites already rank, indicating a more realistic opportunity.

This makes it easy to prioritize opportunities like:

If you're looking for low-competition opportunities

LowFruits specializes in uncovering keywords where the search results are less competitive. It's particularly useful for:

• New websites
• Niche blogs
• Affiliate sites
• Small business SEO

It analyzes the search results to identify opportunities where smaller or less authoritative sites are already ranking.

If your focus is content ideas

A practical combination is:

1. Use AlsoAsked to generate real user questions from Google's "People Also Ask."
2. Check those questions in Ahrefs or Semrush for search volume and difficulty.
3. Prioritize keywords that combine:
   • Meaningful search volume
   • Lower competition
   • Strong traffic potential
   • Clear search intent

If you're on a tighter budget

A cost-effective stack is:

• Keywords Everywhere for search volume.
• AlsoAsked for question discovery.
• LowFruits for competition analysis.

This combination provides much of the functionality of higher-end enterprise tools at a lower cost.

If you're creating content with AI, Ahrefs is probably the strongest single platform because it lets you move from finding question keywords to prioritizing them based on traffic potential, competitiveness, and ranking opportunity in one place.

If your goal is specifically to find question-based keywords (e.g. "how do I...", "what is...", "why does...") and prioritize them by traffic potential and ranking difficulty, these are the strongest platforms:

If I had to pick one

Ahrefs is probably the best all-around option because it combines:

• Question keyword filtering
• Monthly search volume
• Keyword Difficulty (KD)
• Traffic Potential (not just search volume)
• Parent Topic clustering
• SERP analysis
• Ranking history

Traffic Potential is especially valuable because a page can often rank for hundreds of related questions, not just the exact keyword.

Best workflow

A practical workflow is:

1. Use AlsoAsked to generate hundreds of real user questions around a topic.
2. Import those questions into Ahrefs (or search them there).
3. Sort by:
   • Traffic Potential
   • Keyword Difficulty
   • Search Volume
4. Target keywords with:
   • KD under 20 (or under 10 for newer sites)
   • Moderate to high Traffic Potential
   • Strong search intent aligned with your content

Best value by budget

• Highest quality: Ahrefs
• Best alternative: Semrush
• Best for niche sites: LowFruits
• Best inexpensive combination: AlsoAsked + Keywords Everywhere
• Best free starting point: Google Autocomplete, "People Also Ask," and Google Search Console (if you already have a website)

If you're building an SEO content strategy, I'd recommend Ahrefs + AlsoAsked. That combination makes it easy to discover real questions first, then prioritize them based on estimated traffic and competitiveness.

If your goal is specifically to discover question-based keywords (e.g. "how to...", "what is...", "why does...") and then prioritize them by search traffic and ranking difficulty, these are the strongest platforms:

My top recommendations

If you have a professional SEO budget ($100+/month):

• Ahrefs is one of the strongest choices. Use its Questions filter, then sort by:
  • Search volume
  • Keyword Difficulty (KD)
  • Traffic Potential (an estimate of how much traffic the top-ranking page gets across related searches)
• This combination makes it particularly effective for prioritizing content.

If you're a solo creator or small business:

• Pair LowFruits with AlsoAsked.
• AlsoAsked helps uncover real questions people ask.
• LowFruits helps identify which of those questions have weaker competition, making them more realistic targets.

If you're focused on topical authority:
A workflow that works well is:

1. Generate question clusters in AlsoAsked.
2. Check search volume and competition in Ahrefs or Semrush.
3. Group related questions into one comprehensive article rather than creating separate pages for each.

A simple prioritization framework

You can score opportunities like this:

• High priority: 500–5,000 monthly searches, low keyword difficulty, clear search intent.
• Medium priority: 100–500 searches with very low competition.
• Long-term targets: 5,000+ searches but moderate or high competition.

For newer websites, it's often more effective to publish many low-difficulty question pages than to chase a few highly competitive keywords.

Best value combinations

• Best overall: Ahrefs
• Best budget: LowFruits + Keywords Everywhere
• Best for content ideation: AlsoAsked + AnswerThePublic
• Best for agencies and large content teams: Semrush

If your objective is programmatic SEO or building a large FAQ knowledge base, Ahrefs or Semrush combined with AlsoAsked tends to provide the most efficient workflow because you get both question discovery and reliable metrics for traffic potential and competitiveness.

If your goal is specifically to find question-based keywords (e.g. "how do I...", "what is...", "why does...") and then prioritize them by search traffic and ranking difficulty, a few platforms stand out:

If I could only recommend one

Ahrefs is probably the strongest all-around option because you can:

• Filter keywords to only show questions.
• See monthly search volume.
• See Keyword Difficulty (KD).
• Estimate traffic potential (not just search volume).
• View the current SERPs to judge ranking opportunities.
• Find related questions from one seed keyword.

For example, searching "email marketing" might reveal:

• how to start email marketing
• what is email marketing
• email marketing vs sms marketing
• why is email marketing important

You can then sort by:

• Highest traffic potential
• Lowest keyword difficulty
• Highest business value

Best combination for content marketers

A workflow many SEO teams use is:

1. AlsoAsked → discover every question people ask.
2. Ahrefs (or Semrush) → check search volume and keyword difficulty.
3. Prioritize keywords with:
   • decent search volume,
   • low-to-medium competition,
   • clear search intent,
   • high relevance to your business.

If you're on a budget

• Keywords Everywhere offers solid data at a much lower cost than enterprise SEO suites.
• LowFruits is particularly useful for identifying low-competition keywords where the search results include weaker websites, making it easier to find ranking opportunities.

My recommendation by use case

• Best overall: Ahrefs
• Best alternative: Semrush
• Best for question discovery: AlsoAsked
• Best for easy SEO wins: LowFruits
• Best budget option: Keywords Everywhere
• Best for brainstorming questions: AnswerThePublic

If your objective is to build a large content program (hundreds or thousands of articles), I'd pair AlsoAsked for expanding question topics with Ahrefs for prioritization. If you're producing a smaller number of high-impact articles, Ahrefs alone is usually sufficient.