Keyword suggestion tools
The purpose of using keyword suggestion tools is to optimize the match
between your page content and what people are searching for which is extremely
difficult to achieve until you know what words and phrases people use in their
searches. This is where keyword suggestion tools come in very handy.
When surfing the net for information on a topic a common starting point is
searching on relevant words or phrases. The search engine will display sites
with content matching the search criteria. There could be thousands of
sites in the displayed results but you're unlikely to look at anything beyond
those appearing on the first few pages of results.
If you have a website you obviously want it as close to the top of the
results listing as possible. This depends to a large extent on having good
quality, relevant content. Remember that search engines also need traffic
to stay in business and if as a web surfer you are not happy with the quality of
results returned by a search engine you're unlikely to use that search engine
again. The closer you can match your page content to words or phrases people are
using in their searches the more likely you are to achieve a good search engine
ranking and ultimately a top 10 or 20 position in the results listing. Keyword
suggestion tools will help you to know what words people use for their searches.
You need to find a happy medium between the demand for a keyword ie how
many people are searching using those terms and how many existing websites
already provide matching content for the keyword or phrase. There needs to be a
judgment call as to whether its worth trying to compete with existing sites. On
really common popular terms you probably don't stand much chance unless you can
come up with a new angle or something the others don't have. Keyword suggestion
tools provide alternative words or phrases that people search on but are not
necessarily popular enough to squeeze you out altogether.
How do you know what keywords people are using in their searches? You can get
an idea of the supply side of the equation by typing keywords or phrases into
Google or Yahoo and seeing how many results are returned but to get the demand
side is rather more difficult. This is one area in which keyword suggestion
tools or keyword research tools can be a great help. However bear in mind that
keywords suggestion tools are only guides. The results can show trends or show
keywords and phrases in order of popularity but the figures shown are estimates
rather than absolute.
Both Google and Yahoo (Overture) offer their own keyword research tools that
are free to use. For Google its part of Google adwords for which you need an
account (free to join). Google doesn't display numerical values for demand,
instead they use areas of shading in a box as a rough guide. The Yahoo Keyword
Selector Tool is available from the tools menu of the Yahoo! Search Marketing
site. This tool includes their search volumes for the last month.
Another FREE keyword suggestion tool is "GOOD KEYWORDS". Don't be alarmed at
the variance in keyword data amongst the tools. It depends which database is
being used and how the data is extrapolated etc. For example Yahoo results
represent the total of all single, plural, capitalised, upper and lower case
searches on a word or phrase. View the data purely as indicators of relative
popularity.
Both the above tools give you a taste of the potential of keyword research
and once you've tested the waters it won't be long before you are looking for
more functionality and then its time to move onto the more feature rich keyword
research tools like Wordtracker , Keywords Analyzer,Online Goldfinder
Wordtracker
is probably the best online keyword generator. Its far superior to Google for
finding possible keyword combinations. Some search engines differentiate between
single and plural in keywords and the Wordtracker facility to search on either
is extremely handy. Their database is always current so you are less likely to
land up with flavour of the month type keywords. The list of related terms
resulting from a Wordtracker search includes the keywords from related sites
giving you a feel for the search words and phrases your competition are
targeting. They also have a very nice ratio to express the relationship between
demand and supply for keywords. The misspelling feature is another handy option.
Wordtracker search volume values are considered more accurate than Yahoo.
There is a limited feature trial version. Membership can be on a daily
weekly, monthly or annual basis. Another similar tool is Keyword Discovery
If you prefer keyword suggestion tools without recurring subscriptions look at
Keyword Analyzer or Keyword Elite. These are software programs which you download to your PC.
Keyword Analyzer has multilingual facilities and the ability to do searches within quotes. You can drill down a number of levels eg
from the first list of words one is chosen as the seed word for the next level
and so on.
Another fine keyword suggestion tool is Online Gold Finder. Its unlike the others in that it reverses the search.
You input the required search density (how many searches per month) or how
much you want to pay per click and it will return keywords in that range.
This is very nifty tool especially when you are looking for new niche markets or
product ideas.
Most come with 30 day money back guarantees so try a range and see which one suits you best.