Keyword Research & Suggestion Tools

Overview: These are free and paid tools which will help you find which keywords to target and how competitive they are. Here is a video offering an introduction to keyword research

At the bottom of this page are a link to a free keyword research PDF and a few more free background videos about understanding keyword research and using keyword research tools.

Variety is the Spice of Life

SEO Toolbar - Free toolbar that adds a dozen cool keyword research tools right in your browser. :) Pick your favorites amongst them and search all of them with 1 click whenever you want to do keyword research.

Traditional Keyword Suggestion Tools

• SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool - tool shows top keyword phrases from Wordtracker.
• Wordtracker Free Keywords - free keyword suggestions from Wordtracker. Wordtracker also has a more advanced paid version, and sells top keyword reports.
• Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool - recommends keywords based on a keyword you enter or a URL you have the tool analyze
• Google Suggest Tool - shows frequently search for phrases starting with the words and letters in your query.
• WordStream Keyword Tool - allows you to export a list of thousands of keywords for free.
• Keyword Discovery - free keyword tool from Trellian. Trellian also has a more advanced paid version of Keyword Discovery.
• Microsoft Keyword Forecast - shows predicted Microsoft search impression count and historical trends.
• Wordze - nice for generating decently large keyword lists quickly and inserting them into paid search campaigns.
• Yahoo! Search Marketing - Yahoo! has a keyword research tool inside their platform. It is really bad marketing of them to only have the new tool accessible inside their platform, while neglecting their old keyword tool.

Keyword Valuation Tools

• Google Traffic Estimator - shows the estimated bids prices and ad clicks for the top ranked AdWords ad. Allows you to check for [exact match], "phrase match", or broad match.
• Google Search Based Keyword Tool - shows keyword search volume estimates and keyword values...by keyword, site, or category.

Keyword Extensions

• SEO Book Keyword & Competitive Research Gadget - use almost any and every useful keyword tool from our free gadget that you can put on your site or on iGoogle.

More Abstract Keyword Sources

• adCenter Labs tools - Microsoft offers a wide array of keyword tools like demographic prediction and content categorization tools.
• eBay Marketplace Research - this paid tool allows you to see what items are selling on eBay and for how much
• Dependency-based Word Similarity - shows words which are often found in the same documents in a corpus of news articles.
• Google Sets - creates a set of keywords based on a keyword you enter
• Google Related Keywords - highlights words that Google considers as being related to a keyword, as displayed when you search Google for ~keyword
• Keyword Density Analysis Tool - finds common words and phrases on your site.
• Page Comparison Tool - tool compares the page titles, meta information, and most common two and three word phrases between different pages.
• Quintura - visual search service which shows related modifiers clustered around your search
• Thesaurus.com - find related keywords using a traditional thesaurus
• Wordtracker Keyword Questions - shows questions people searched for that contain the root keyword you type in.
• Yahoo Mindset - let Yahoo show you how they can change results for commercial and informational queries
• Yahoo Term Extraction - delivers a list of most important keywords contained inside a piece of text.

Trend Related Keywords

• Amazon.com - offers category based best sellers, new releases, & movers & shakers
• eBay Pulse - keywords that are currently hot on eBay, organized by category.
• Google Hot Trends - shows keywords that are recently hot . Also archives older hot keywords, and Google Trends shows seasonal search trends for most popular keywords.
• Google Search Insights - shows keyword trends, hot keywords by cateogry, and top geographic regions for a keyword.
• Microsoft Keyword Forecast - shows predicted Microsoft search impression count and historical trends.
• Yahoo! Buzz Index - search trends and stories about what keywords are hot right now
• SEOMoz popular searches - combines and archives results from many of the tools in this section and a few others

Bulk Keyword Editing Tools

• Keyword List Generator - allows you to quickly create large lists of keyword phrases using keywords and modifiers
• Keyword List Cleaner - allows you to quickly create a functional keyword list from most any publicly available keyword source try it now
• Keyword Misspelling Generator - allows you to generate various misspellings of a keyword or phrase to match common typing errors. Useful for creating keyword lists around your most important keywords to bid on.
• Microsoft Ad Intelligence Excel plug in - a suite of highly useful and easy to recommend keyword tools that interface with Microsoft Excel.

Keyword Modifiers

• Keyword Modifiers - Spreadsheet showing common keyword modifiers organized by categories such as price, location, and other common variables.
• keyword tools review post - a couple year old blog post offering a free comparison of different keyword research tools, also showing how keyword modifiers work in a real world example

Background Information on Keywords

50 minute Keyword research video by me...a bit long, but hopefully you find it useful :)

• Dan Thies video on keyword strategy
• Dan Thies video on using my keyword permutation generator tool
• emarketingperformance.com keyword research [PDF]

Related Categories

• Analytics Tools - track what keywords you are ranking for and how well they are performing
• Competitive Research Tools - compare your marketing strategies and progress to competitors
• PPC Tools - tools to build your pay per click marketing campaigns
• Rank Checkers - track your rankings

Know Any Other Tools Worth Suggesting?

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