Keyword Research

 Keyword research and keyword analysis should always be the first steps in building a successful web site. Why you ask? Well here are just a few reasons…

1. You need to know exactly what people are searching for before you can decide if your niche subject is worth considering as a website.
2. To find which keywords you should use to get you the most traffic.
3. Discovering what competition there is for your keywords.
4. Over 80% of all online transactions begin with a keyword search.

 Here are the top 5 products I personally use and recommend:

Wordtracker

Product Type: On-line monthly or annual subscription based

I’ve been a monthly subscriber to Wordtracker for the past year and I rate their service as second to none for value for money and for finding up-to-date keywords that people are using to find online products. The software is particularly good at finding long tail niche keywords that you can easily use on your web pages to rank highly in the big search engines. The interface is also the easiest to use of any other of the tools listed here. 

Keyword Discovery

Product Type: On-line monthly or annual subscription based

I used to subscribe to Keyword Discovery, but chose to cancel my subscription in favour of Wordtracker as it’s cheaper, but I still use their services via my Nichebot subscription (see below). I’d describe Keyword Discovery as more advanced service than Wordtracker, but this is reflected in their higher pricing. If you only use one service and you do lots of keyword research then maybe this is the one to go for.

Nichebot

Product Type: On-line Credit based subscription

Nichebot is a fantastic online tool that allows you buy credits that can then be used against a number of the top online keyword engines, including the Wordtracker keywords tools, Google, and Keyword Discovery keywords. If you only do keyword research on a periodic basis then could save you a considerable amount of money by using this service. I like to think of it as a pay-as-you system! Once signed up there are lots of ways to get free credits, such as doing a quick survey with them.

Keyword Elite 

Product Type: Installable Software for a one-off fee (unlimited lifetime upgrades)

This is the first Keyword tool I ever bought and the one I still use most frequently. Keyword Elite allows very extensive research of the main search engines such as Google, Ask, and Yahoo. If you have paid subscriptions to Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery then you can also enter your user id and password into the software and use those search engines as well.  The best thing about this tool is that it is so much more than just a keyword research and discovery tool, as you can do just about anything you want with the data produced (filter, sort, remove, change, export, import, etc). You can even generate Google Adwords campaigns, analyize pay-per-click listings, and check out the keyword competition.

Google Adwords Free Tools

Product Type: Free online based service.

If you sign up for a free Google Adwords account then you get access to a set of free keyword tools that are great for analysing pey-per-click data and keyword trends. This is about the quickest way to find highly popular keywords and the competition associated with them on Google.

If you only ever pay for one service, then I thoroughly recommend investing in a good keyword research and analysis tool that you feel comfortable with. Also, try and take any free trials that are on offer first as the tools listed here vary greatly in look and feel and how they work. They all do their jobs very well, but in very different ways.