A complete list of keyword suggestion tools
Using the best keywords for search engine optimization is a very important thing when you promote a web site. The purpose of this research is to find something that your possible clients search when they are searching to buy your product, but you should also pick some keywords that have little competition.
For example "free stuff" is a search term that gets thousands of queries every day, but most of the sites in the top results have thousands of incoming links so it would be very hard to compete them, while a search term like "free cellphones" or "free computer stuff" could be easier to chase.
With that in mind I decided to write down a list of keyword suggestion tools. These tools can help you find information on many keywords (eg. how many times a phrase is searched per day) or find you some relative keywords (eg. "free stuff" is relative to "free ipod")
Bellow is a list with all the keyword suggestion tools I found. If I missed something please let me know 
1) Google Adwords Keyword Tool
This is the official tool from google adwords. A great thing that this tool provides is the "site related keywords" which can help you see what keywords are probably used by your competitors.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
2) Overture Keyword Selector Tool
This tool provides related keywords using data from Yahoo's ppc program.
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
3) NicheBot classic
This used to be my favorite tool. It is the original nichebot.com tool which displays information from overture and wordtracker but merged.
http://www.nichebotclassic.com/
4) Trellian Free Search Term Suggestion Tool
Another good tool to get keyword suggestions.
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
5) Geoland Search Engine Queries
A keyword suggestion tool that displays data from several search engines.
http://geoland.org/tools/searchqueries/
6) 7Search Keyword Suggestion Tool
Another great tool from one of the bigger CPC companies, 7search. You can use it to get keywords and estimated prices (for the 7search network)
http://conversion.7search.com/scripts/advertisertools/keywordsuggestion.aspx
7) Wordtracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
Generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
8 ) DigitalPoint Keyword Suggestion Tool
Using data from overture and wordtracker
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/suggestion/
9) Niche Watch
A tool that displays the competition in your niche. Requires a free account to use it.
http://www.nichewatch.com/
10) CheckRankings Suggestion Tool
This tool is similar to google suggest tool (I think they use their data)
http://www.checkrankings.com/keywordsuggestion/
11) MS AdLabs Search Funnels
An interesting tool to see how people search a certain keyword and analyze the search behavior that users have.
http://adlab.microsoft.com/searchfunnel/
12) BRL Keyword Suggestion
This is one of the best tools I found. It uses data from 7 sites to display suggested keywords and estimates on them.
http://www.build-reciprocal-links.com/keyword-suggestion/
13) Submit Express Keyword Suggestion Tool
A keyword suggestion tool that uses data from wordtracker and keyword discovery
http://www.submitexpress.com/keytracker.php
14) Google Trends
Google trends is great to use after you find some good keywords. The tool will display charts on the search volume that each keyword has. The bad thing is that they don't display charts for every keyword but it still helps a lot.
http://www.google.com/trends
15) Yahoo Buzz
The same with google trends but this is using Yahoo's search engine for the results and it is categorized.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/
16) Google Zeitgeist
This is the newest tool from Google which displays top queries from the Google search engine on weekly basis.
http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
17) Lycos week's top 50
The top searches from Lycos on weekly basis
http://50.lycos.com/
18) Google Suggest
This is not really the best tool but it can help a little. While you type a search term the
http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
19) SEObook Google Suggest Keyword Suggestion Scrapper Tool
This tool is using google suggest to display results, but it also give some extra information
http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-information/
20) Keyword Lizzard
Keyword Lizard is a FREE AdWords keyword tool that explodes your keyword lists by creating every possible permutation combination of keywords.
http://www.keywordlizard.com/
21) Ontology Finder
goRank's Ontology tool displays related search terms for the keyword you are using.
http://www.gorank.com/seotools/ontology/
22) GoLexa
GoLexa displays several information on the sites that a search term returns. Great tool to monitor your competition.
http://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/GoLexa_SEO_Tool.asp
23) Seochat keyword optimizer
With seochat's keyword optimizer you can optimize your list of keywords. This tool is more useful for cpc campaigns
http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/keyword-optimizer/
24) Bulk Overture Keyword Tool
A tool that helps you do multiple queries to Overture.
http://www.quickwhois.co.uk/overture.php
If we missed any good tool, please leave a comment.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Guide to Learning Search Engine Optimization
While many people consider SEO to be complicated I believe that SEO is nothing but an extension of traditional marketing. Search engine optimization consists of 9 main steps
1. market research
2. keyword research
3. on page optimization
4. site structure
5. link building
6. brand building
7. viral marketing
8. adjusting
9. staying up to date
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Market Research
Do you have what it takes to compete in a market?
I recommend: using SEO for Firefox and searching on major search engines to get an overview of how competitive a marketplace is.
The first step is to search the major search engines to see what types of websites are ranking for words which you deem to be important. For example, if mostly colleges, media, and government institutions are ranking for your most important terms it may be difficult to rank for those types of queries. If, on the other hand, the market is dominated by fairly average websites which are not strongly established brands it may be a market worth persuing.
You can extend out the research you get from the search results by using the SEO for Firefox extension with the Firefox browser. This places many marketing data points right in the search results, and thus lets you see things like
- site age
- Google PageRank
- inbound link count
- if any governmental or educational sites link at their site
- if they are listed in major directories
- if bloggers link at their sites
Keyword Research
What keywords are people searching for?
I recommend: Using the SEO Book Keyword research tool to search for popular and Long Tail keywords related to your industry. This tool cross references Overture, the Google Keyword Tool, Wordtracker, and other popular keyword research tools.
Keyword research tools are better at providing a qualitative measure than a quantitative measure, so don't be surprised if actual traffic volumes vary greatly from the numbers suggested by these tools. When in doubt you can also set up a Google AdWords account to test the potential size of a market.
In addition to looking up search volumes for what keywords you think are important also take the time to ask past customers how they found you, why they chose you, and what issues were important to them in chosing you.
You can also get keyword ideas by doing things like
- checking your web analytics or server logs
- looking at page contents of competing websites
- looking through topical forums and community sites to see what issues people frequently discuss
Site Structure
How should you structure your site?
I recommend: Before drafting content consider what keywords are your most important and map out how to create pages to fit each important group of keywords within your site theme and navigational structure based on
- market value
- logical breaks in market segmentation
- importance of ranking in building credibility / improving conversion rates
You may want to use an excel spreadsheet or some other program to help you visualize your site structure.
Make sure
- your most important categories or pages are linked to sitewide
- you link to every page on your site from at least one other page on your site
- you use consistant anchor text in your navigation
- you link to other content pages (and expeically to action items) from within the content area of your website
If you are uncertain how deep to make a portion of the site start by creating a few high quality pages on the topic. Based on market feedback create more pages in the sections that are most valuable to your business.
On Page Optimization
How should you structure your on page content?
I recommend: Using unique descriptive page titles play a crucial role in a successful search engine optimization campaigns. Page titles appear in the search results, and many people link to pages using the page title as their link anchor text.
If possible create hand crafted meta description tags which compliment the page title by reinforcing your offer. If the relevant keywords for a page have multiple formats it may make sense to help focus the meta description on versions you did not use in the page title.
As far as page content goes, make sure you write for humans, but also use heading tags to help break up the content into logical sections which will improve the scanability and help structure the document.
When possible, make sure your page content uses descriptive modifiers as well.
Each page also needs to be sufficiently unique from other pages on your site. Do not let search engines index printer friendly versions of your content, or other pages where content is duplicate or nearly duplicate.
Link Building
How do I build quality links?
I recommend: In this post Matt Cutts suggested that Google is getting better at understanding link quality. Search engines want to count quality editorial votes as links that help influence their relevancy algorithms.
Here are a few tips for building links
- submit your site to general directories like DMOZ, the Yahoo! Directory, and Business.com
- submit your site to relevant niche directories
- here is more background on directories and SEO
- if you have a local site submit to relevant local sites (like the local chamber of commerce)
- join trade organizations
- get links from industry hub sites
- create content people would want to link at
- here is a list of 101 useful link building strategies
Other link building tips
- try to link to your most relevant page when getting links (don't point all the links at your home page)
- mix your anchor text
- use Yahoo! Site Explorer and other tools to analyze top competing backlinks
- don't be afraid to link out to relevant high quality resources
Brand Building
How does brand relate to SEO?
I recommend: Brand related search queries tend to be some of the most targeted, best converting, and most valuable keywords. As you gain mindshare people will be more likely to search for your brand or keywords related to your brand.
A high volume of brand related search traffic may also be seen as a sign of quality by major search engines.
If you build a strong brand when people search for more information about your brand other websites will have good things to say about your brand, thus reinforcing your brand image and improving your lead quality and conversion rates.
Things like advertising and community activity are easy ways to help improve your brand exposure, but obviously branding is a lot more complicated than that. One of my favorite books about branding is Rob Frankel's The Revenge of Brand X.
Viral Marketing
How does viral marketing relate to SEO?
I recommend: Seth Godin's Purple Cow is a great book about being remarkable. Links are nothing but a remark or citation.
Link building is probably the single hardest and most time consuming part of an effective SEO campaign, largely because it requires influencing other people.
The beautiful thing about viral marketing is that creating one popular compelling idea can lead to thousands and thousands of unrequested links.
In SEO many people create content based around linking opportunities. Many of us refer to this as Link Baiting.
You can learn link baiting tips from
- SEO Book
- Stuntdubl
- Performancing
- Copyblogger
- Wolf Howl
You can search social news or social bookmarking sites like Digg or Del.icio.us to see what stories related to your topic became popular.
You can also hire Andy Hagans or SEOMoz to perform link baiting services.
Measuring Results
How can I tell if my SEO campaign is effective?
I recommend: The bottom line is what counts. Is your site generating more leads, higher quality leads, or more sales?
Search engines lag market activity though, so it may take a while for them to fully analyze how authoritative your site is after you work to target new markets and build linkage data and brand value.
You can look at your server logs and an analytics program to track traffic trends and what keywords lead to conversion.
Outside of traffic another good sign that you are on the right track is if you see more websites asking questions or talking about you. If you start picking up high quality unrequested links you might be near a Tipping Point to where your marketing really starts to build on itself.
Depending on how competitive your marketplace is it may take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple years to establish a strong market position.
In my SEO tools I also offer Google Gadgets, which make it easy for you to embed keyword, competitive, and link research tools inside any webpage.
Keeping up to date
How do you track the changes in the SEO market?
I recommend: You can track your ranking changes using this free keyword rank checker. Remember that the perspective of only one site is probably not enough to understand all the changing market dynamics though.
If you want to keep up with how the market is changing consider using any of the following resources
- SEO Conferences
- SEO Blogs
- SEO Forums
