Why do you need to do keyword research? If you are an experienced internet marketer, you know the absolute importance of proper keyword research. If you are new to IM, you probably read a lot about keyword research, but pretty much just ignore it because it seems too complicated and quite frankly too boring. Besides, most people know what keywords they need to target – right? Unfortunately, that is a mindset that plagues many new people in internet marketing. Keyword research is imperative for ranking your website in the search engine results, targeting the right keywords in ppc campaigns, and even puting the right keywords in your content to make sure the best paying ads are showing if you are using Adsense for revenue.
The truth is, you need to learn about keyword research and the sooner, the better – it will save you a lot of heart-ache and lost money in the long-run. There are many great paid tools out there that I use or have used that will make your life so much easier – because while some people claim they love keyword research, to me, it is tedious and boring. The paid tools (some are my affiliate links) that I can recommend all have their strengths and all offer free trials – they are:
- KeyWord Spy – Spy on your competitors – hands-down one of the best keyword tools out there.
- KeyWord Country - Great tool, great set of options, and a great price – check this one out for sure.
- Market Samurai – Best one-time payment keyword research tool in my opinion. Also, sign up for their newsletter, they give so much great free information on how to do proper keyword research.
However, when starting out in internet marketing, not everyone has the money or wants to spend money on tools because there is just so much out there to buy related to this market. While a keyword tool is probably the best spent money in internet marketing, but good thing, there are some free tools that can really help you out with your keyword research. As a matter of fact, there are a ton of tools – but I’ll try to keep it simple and give you what I think are seven six (actually eight seven – but who’s counting?) of the best tools that should be used in combination with each other.
- Google Keyword Tool – This is probably the first tool that most people get associated with – afterall, you are probably trying to rank in Google, so why not go to the source to find keywords? If you haven’t used this tool – start using it and get acquainted with the features and the filters that are available. Google supplies a lot of documentation to help you sort through the tool. Some people see this as a simplistic tool, but if you master it, you can really get some great information out of it to help you rank well – especially if used in combination with the additional tools that follow.
- WordTracker Keyword Suggestion Tool – A great tool that will give you up to 100 keywords related to the keyword you input. To get the most out of it, you should enter a broad keyword first and then dig-down through the results. Click on the resulting keywords and keyword phrases and you will get more results of long-tail keywords that you may want to target so that you can rank higher in the search engine results pages. Another great tool for digging down is Google’s Wonder Wheel found under “+Show options…” near the top of your Google search results page just under the search bar – but I think this tool is better suited for more people already very familiar with keyword research and suggest you start with the WordTracker tool for easier and more simplified results.
- SEODigger – This is a great tool to check and see what keywords your competitor is using, the number of visitors they get from those keywords, the CPC for those keywords, keyword competition, and trends. You can also see who your competitor’s competitors are – in case you want to take them on too. SEODigger is an invaluable tool and the basic search is free – they have a paid version too, but if you are just getting your feet wet in keyword research, use the free feature and get adept at utilizing the information.
- Keyword Difficulty Check Tool – Now, this isn’t what I’d call a serious tool, but something that I just use to give me an idea. From doing research, I know that it sometimes returns results that aren’t quite accurate – be aware that this is the case with all these free tools and why people pay money for more accurate results. With that being said, what this tool can do for you is give you a sense whether a particular keyword you want to target is worth your time by telling you on a scale of 0 to 100, the difficulty to rank for a particular keyword. Basically, if I get a result below 40, I know I can probably rank fairly easily. Above 40 doesn’t mean I don’t go after it, but it does require more research to make that determination. Doesn’t Seem To Work Anymore
- Microsoft adCenter Labs – This is a great tool to help you target buyer’s keywords. If you are trying to sell something, this tool will give you an idea about which keywords you are going to target are more likely to be “buyer keywords” so that you can target those keywords instead of less buyer-targeted keywords. If you are looking to sell something, don’t spin your wheels attracting the wrong kind of traffic that doesn’t convert. To use this tool, you simply click on “query” and input your keyword and click go and it will give you a numeric result. Again, not a perfect tool, but anything above a result of 85 is usually of interest to me. Try it out, and like all the tools, take a look at the associated documentation to refine the way you use the tool.
- Quantcast – This tool is something that you will use for audience intelligence to see who is visiting your main competitor’s website. Why would you want to know this information? Because you need to target your audience whether it is in your advertising (if you are using advertising that allows for demographic targeting), your website design (don’t have pictures of men doing things in your niche if the audience is predominantly women), and in how you write your content (if your predominate audience are expected to be men aged 35+ , don’t put ads or other content targeted to teenagers). Using this kind of competitive intelligence can will seperate the serious marketers from those who don’t do their research and allow you to climb the rankings. Check out Compete too – some similar features – decide which you like best, or use both.
- SeoQuake – One of my favorite tools is SEOQuake which is a plugin for the FireFox browser. If you don’t use FireFox – get it and get this plugin. You can search all kinds of results with this little tool. There really is too much to go over here, but it will tell you Google page rank, pages indexed in Google Yahoo and MSN, backlinks via Yahoo Site Explorer, Alexa ranking, and more all in one little plugin. Get it, read the SEOQuake information on their site and use it – it is a really cool little too.
Okay, that is the basic list and I know that there are a lot of other great tools out there as there are always people looking to improve the way keyword research is done. If you have tool to suggest, or a great way to use any of the above mentioned tools, please feel free to leave a comment and share you knowledge.
I’ve noticed your website a while ago, just recently did i start noticing it more and more. Very useful information, thank you and keep it coming.
I always enjoy reading quality articles by an individual who is definately up to snuff on their chosen subject. I’ll be watching this post with great interest. Keep up the great work, I will be back