10 SEO Keyword Tips

Good keyword lists are the basis for successful search-marketing efforts. Webwildcatters and Website owners must continually work to find relevant search terms and understand the volume of traffic they provide -- as well as the number of competitors using the same phrases -- to shape their SEO and pay-per-click strategies.

There's a bunch of online tools to analyze new keywords, round out existing lists with related terms, and gain insight into competitive factors. Each SEO tool can influence the effectiveness of certain phrases in a PPC or SEO campaigns. Each one approaches the task differently through a range of features, analytical capabilities, data sources and cost.

Webwildcatting took information from several search marketers and search agency specialists to assemble this guide 10 popular online keyword tools and tactics. We also added it to our 25 Point SEO Checklist as a bonus. This post breaks down what to do and what each tool’s research functionality, analytical capabilities and pricing. We even took a stab at what each tool is best suited.

Number 1: There are a few things you need to consider when incorporating keyword-research tools into your list-building and bidding strategy:

A. Tools can’t replace your own work on researching keywords
B. Tool Data isn’t 100% accurate, there's a time delay, each tool has its own strengths
C. Search advertising cost estimates are just that 'estimates'
D. The 'truth' lies in the middle of 3 different points of view; Use multiple tools for best results if you can afford them;
E. Always test the keywords in your own campaigns

Number 2. Compete.com Search Analytics
http://searchanalytics.compete.com/
Database size: 19 million terms, 3 million sites.
Update frequency: Daily
Research tools:
- Site-referral tool that shows most popular terms driving traffic to a given site or an industry category.
- Keyword-destination tool that shows which sites receive the most traffic from a specific search term.
- Site comparison to show which of two sites has the traffic and engagement advantage for specific keywords.
Analytics:
• Top referring keywords for specific sites
• Site’s share of total referrals for keyword
• Keyword engagement (average amount of time people spent on the site after searching on the keyword)
• Keyword effectiveness (combination of total number of people and time spent on site)
• Site ranking for key terms
• Average monthly search referrals
Price: Free registration, but viewing complete reports cost one or two site credits. Credit packages range from $20 - $500.
Best use: Competitive research.

Number 3. Google AdWords Keyword Tool
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Database size: Unavailable.
Update frequency: Unavailable.
Research tools:
- Keyword generator that displays list of relevant and related keywords to word or phrase entered.
- Keyword list generation based on website content for URL added.
- Keyword cost estimates for PPC campaigns.
Analytics:
• Advertiser competition for keywords
• Previous month search volume
• Average search volume
• Search volume trends
• Month in which highest search volume occurs
• Estimated ad position
• Average CPC
• Estimated traffic volume for list
• Sort by match type (broad, phrase, exact, negative)
Price: Free
Best use: New keyword generation; keyword list augmentation; pricing guidance for AdWords campaigns; integrating keyword lists into AdWords campaigns.

Number 4. Keyword Discovery
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/index.html
Database size: 36 billion searches from 200 search engines worldwide.
Update frequency: Monthly.
Research tools:
- Top phrases that include search term.
- Related terms.
- Common misspellings.
- Top searches for particular industry.
- Domain researcher that identifies available domain names that contain keywords and phrases.
Analytics:
• Search volume
• Occurrence of term on sites
• Keyword Effectiveness Index
• Predicted daily volume
• Keyword density on your site or competitors’ sites
• Seasonal trends from previous 12 months
Price: Standard subscription, $69.95 monthly/$599.40 annually. Enterprise subscription, $495 monthly/$4455 annually.
Best use: Keyword list building; keyword list augmentation; global search campaign planning; competitive research.

Number 5. KeywordSpy
http://www.keywordspy.com
Database size: 1 billion keywords.
Update frequency: Every two weeks.
Research tools:
- Keyword search shows top sites ranked on a given term for paid search and organic results.
- Domain search shows top keywords bid on by that domain, along with ad variations and landing page URLs being used.
- Keyword and domain search by specific market (United States, UK, Canada, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Ireland, India, Italy, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa).
Analytics:
• Total keywords by site listed
• Ad position for keywords
• Approximate price per click on keyword
• Average clicks per day on a keyword
• Estimated ROI for keywords
• Number of competitors bidding on keywords
• Geographic breakdown of competition and keyword usage
• Historical trends for keyword usage
• Position of a given domain in organic search results
• Number of competitors using a keyword in SEO
Price: Free level limited to 20 search results per query; complete results for $89.95 monthly.
Best use: Competitive research; international campaign planning; directional data for keyword advertising selection.

Number 6. Microsoft adCenter Add-in for Excel 2007
http://advertising.microsoft.com/advertising/adcenter_addin
Database size: Unavailable.
Update frequency: Unavailable.
Research tools:
- Keyword suggestion shows terms related to a submitted keyword list.
- Keyword extraction shows popular terms contained in a submitted URL.
Analytics:
• Relevancy scores for suggested keywords
• Relevant terms contained in past search queries
• Campaign association (terms that have been bid on in adCenter)
• Top frequent keywords
• Top “spiky” keywords demonstrating recent and sudden popularity
• Suggested keyword categories
• Monthly or daily traffic forecasts
• Geographic search data
• Demographic search data (gender and age group)
• Monetization Key Performance Indicators (clicks, impressions, position, CTR, match type)
• Monetization metrics within industry verticals
Price: Free download for users with Excel 2007 and an AdCenter account.
Best use: Keyword list development and pricing guidance for MSN campaigns. Data can be extrapolated to estimate search traffic on Google and Yahoo.
Price: Free for adCenter account holders (must have Excel 2007). Still in beta.

Number 7. SEO Digger
http://seodigger.com/
Database size: 60 Million English keywords in Google; 44 million English keywords in MSN, 11 million Russian keywords in Google.
Update frequency: Approximately every two weeks.
Research tools:
- Domain search shows all the key phrases for which a given site achieves a top-20 Google ranking.
Analytics:
• Site position on search engine results page
• Keyword popularity from Wordtracker
• Keyword popularity from Overture
• Keyword popularity from Google
Price: Free. Unregistered users limited to 5 queries per hour, and can only see results for the specific link entered. Registered users can check entire domains (including internal pages), and can conduct 1,000 queries per hour, and 10 complete domain searches per hour.
Best use: Analysis of own site’s high-ranking terms; competitive research; ideas for search phrase semantics.

Number 8. SpyFu
http://www.spyfu.com
Database size: 13 million domains, 2.5 million keywords.
Update frequency: Monthly.
Research tools:
- Keyword search shows which sites and advertisers rank highly for a given term.
- Domain search shows statistics on a site’s advertising budget, top organic positions, top ad placement, and top competitors.
- Pre-assembled lists illustrate searching and advertising trends, including Top 500 Advertisers, Top 500 Organically Ranked Domains, Top 500 Most Clicked Terms, Top 1000 Most Expensive Keywords.
-SpyFu UK, which offers domain and keyword data for the UK market.
Analytics:
• Keyword cost per click
• Keyword clicks per day
• Keyword cost per day
• Number of advertisers bidding on a keyword
• Total keyword search results
• Historical trends in keyword average cost per click and clicks per day
• Top ads for a keyword
• Top search results for a keyword
• Domain advertising budget
• Domain total clicks per day
• Domain average cost per click
• Domain average clicks per day
• Domain average ad position
• Domain average number of ad competitors
• Domain average ad percentile
Price: Free registration for basic research functions. Subscription packages for full additional features -- expanded lists of domain top organic positions and ad placements -- range from $6.75 for a three-day trial; $38.50 monthly (auto renewal); $45 monthly (manual renewal); $296 annually (auto-renewal); $308 annually (manual renewal).
Best use: Competitive research, directional data for keyword advertising selection.

Number 9. Wordtracker
http://www.Wordtracker.com
Database: 330 million search terms.
Update Frequency: Daily.
Research tools:
- Keyword Universe displays popular related terms to a keyword or phrase, and how those terms are used in longer search phrases.
- Keyword Researcher allows you to import a list of up to 500 existing terms to find how those terms are used in exact searches, which terms are most popular, and how they can be re-ordered for additional coverage.
Analytics:
• Count (number of times the term appears in searches)
• Prediction of number of times the search term will appear in next 24 hours
• Keyword Effectiveness Index
• Estimated competition for keywords
Price: Free tool generates list of up to 100 related keywords. Full functionality with subscription for $59 monthly, $329 annually.
Best use: Keyword list building; keyword list augmentation.

Number 10. Wordze
http://www.wordze.com
Database size: 552 million keywords, 68 million unique search terms.
Update frequency: Monthly.
Research tools:
- Related keyword search for terms entered.
- Analysis of competing sites for a specific term.
- Download lists of top weekly or monthly search phrases.
Analytics:
• Total number of keywords found
• Estimated search volume
• Keyword Effectiveness Index
• Historical keyword data
• Keyword difficulty (Top domains for each keyword, with average links per month, total links, length at that position and other features to analyze how long it would take to rank in top 10 for a given term)
• Searcher demographics for keywords
Price: $7.95 one-day trial, $35 monthly.
Best use: Keyword list building; keyword list augmentation; SEO keyword strategies.