by Jon Wuebben
Do you know which keyword phrases your customers are using to find you? What’s the best way to find out? Ask customers. The other way is to use some of the keyword research tools available on the web.
Word Tracker and Keyword Discovery
Wordtracker.com has been around since 1999 and has been the de facto standard in the industry, highly recommended by all leading search marketing firms and top SEO copywriters. As the “first mover” in the keyword analysis space, they are still highly regarded and do a very good job for thousands of companies across the globe.
Wordtracker’s KEI Analysis will tell you that certain keyword phrases are too competitive or popular and steer you away from using them. But, word to the wise: This isn’t always the best advice. Why? Because you want to be found for those super popular phrases. Sometimes it will take a while, but you may have to compete for that phrase and face your competitors head on.
Wordtracker can help determine how many competing sites are using the keywords you’re looking at and can identify the phrases that have the greatest traffic potential. Some other things that Wordtracker can help you determine are keyword variations, word variants (example: dog tags vs. dog tag), and managing keyword lists. The cost to use their service is $329/year (as of June, 2008).
Keyword Discovery has been on the scene since 2004. It’s also been adopted as the best keyword phrase analysis tool by many of the top search marketing industry gurus. At $49.95/month, it’s more expensive than Wordtracker, but again, is well worth the investment. They do offer a free trial. Make sure you do it!
How does it differ from Wordtracker? They use historical data from 32 billion searches from 180 search engines and use search logs from the engines as well. They also offer a year’s worth of data so you can spot seasonal differences in keyword use. This can be valuable information, especially if you are a clothing retailer or have a cyclical type of online business.
Free Keyword Research Tools
There are a few adequate keyword research tools that are free. These include Google Adwords Keyword Tool, Spy Fu (also has a paid option), SeoDigger, the SEO Book Keyword Tool. With the Google tool, you don’t get keyword demand. Rather, they show you an estimate of the number of clicks you may receive with an average bid. It does however support over 40 languages around the world, which appeals to an international audience, especially those interested in paid search.
The others mentioned above are all really cool and worth checking out – you can never have too much information on your keywords.
Semantically Related Phrases
What other words and phrases are similar to your main keyword phrases? Words have relationships to other words, and so when you think in terms of semantics, it could be as simple as the following:
auto, car, vehicle, motor vehicle and automobile. These are all semantically related.
Other Important Considerations
- Multiple audiences: a certain keyword phrase may apply to two totally different industries or purposes (“policing” – could be “policing the community” or “policing the Internet”)
- Related meanings: Avoid a broader term (warranties) when a more specific one will do (home warranties).
- Acronyms: Beware of double meanings in your keywords.
- Plural/singular issues: “trucks” and “truck” – there are differences.
- Multiple intents: “Hotel” and “Lodging” – they may mean the same thing to you, but the term “hotel” will have a higher conversion rate.
