Contents
If you wish to skip to a particular subject area, please click on one of the following links:
Free Keyword Tools
Paid Keyword Tools
Conclusion
Higher Search Engine Ranks
Keyword Research
Over the years many people have used the free Overture (Yahoo) Inventory tool, the best free keyword research tool on the Internet. However, Yahoo announced late in January 2007 that Overture's search term suggestion tool was no longer being supported. Within days It became clear that the server and/or bandwidth resources were well below demand.
So what do we do to get those elusive higher search engine ranks and find those low-competition niches now that Overture is "dead"?
Well the good news is that you can still do good keyword analysis research and I'm going to give you some options.
Free Keyword Tools
I reckon the best keyword research tool on the Internet is Wordtracker. I personally use the Wordtracker paid option (see Paid keyword Tools below). Now though, yo u can use their new Free Keyword Tool as well.
Wordtracker Free Tool
The Wordtracker free tool gives you up to 100 related keywords for any keyword that you type in. Also, to save your blushes, any adult terms are removed from the results. The results have the estimated number of searches, just like the Overture tool. In fact, the output format looks a lot like Overture's search term suggestion tool.
This tool doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the paid version, for example it won't tell you how competitive a term is, but as a tool to generate a list of keywords it does the job.
You can get access to the Wordtracker free keyword tool here:
Wordtracker Free Keyword Tool
Google Keyword Tool
The Google tool gives a graphical representation of the popularity of the results and also shows how much AdWords competition there is. This has nothing to do with the level of competition in the Google search results, but if you're planning an AdWords campain then it'll give you an idea of how many other advertisers you're competing against.
You can get access to the free keyword research tool from Google here:
Google Keyword tool
Paid Keyword Tools
If you're getting to the point when you need more information about your keywords then you need to start looking at the paid tools. The top two are Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery.
Wordtracker
Wordtracker is the most popular Keyword Analysis tool among Search Engine Optimisation analysts. You don't have to be a search engine expert to make use of Wordtracker though.
Wordtracker is useful for all the following:
- Article marketing
- Advertising copy
- Niche research...
- ...and of course SEO
Wordtracker compiles a huge database of all the search phrases that internet users use everyday. The system also shows you the popularity and competition for hundreds of variations of your keywords and sorts them with the best ones at the top.
You can buy access to Wordtracker on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis. If you're constantly doing keyword research then the annual option gives the best value. If you can organise your research into one concentrated burst of activity (say you only have a single site) then you can just buy access for a day for less than $10.
To learn more visit the Wordtracker site.
Keyword Discovery
Keyword Discovery is the main competition to Wordtracker and is run by Trellian, who started in the SEO software business in 1997.
Keyword Discovery has a bigger database than Wordtracker, compiled from a larger number of sources. Many experts consider the accuracy to be higher with Keyword Discovery. It also offers some other advantages such as keyword trending, language translation, eBay searches and more.
If Geographic targeting is important then Keyword Discovery definitely scores over Wordtracker.
Having set out some of the advantages of Keyword Discovery, here comes the gotcha. Keyword Discovery is more expensive. More than double the price of Wordtracker for an annual subscription.
To find out more visit the Keyword Discovery site .
Conclusion
For a quick and dirty list of keywords then Wordtracker's free tool is a great replacement for the Overture Inventory tool. Google's Keyword Tool is really best used if you want to expand a list of keywords in an AdWords campain.
For serious keyword research you're going to have to part with some cash. It really is worth it if you want to find out stuff like how competitive your keywords are. If you do keyword research a lot then an annual subscription with one of the big two - Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery - gives best value.
If speed, flexibility and greater accuracy are your thing then Keyword Discovery is the tool for you. Wordtracker though is still a great tool and often it's finding out how keywords compare to each other that's important and Wordtracker is more adequate for that.
© Russell Card - The UKITbits editorial team 2007
