Oct 19 2007
Keyword Research Tools
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The question has been asked of me several times recently so I thought it justified a mutter on the blog.
“Which is the best keyword research tool?”
It is a hard question to answer because I think underlying this question is really another, which is,
“Which keyword tool is the easiest to use; is not going to take up hours of my time in research and will ultimately produce me a neat little list of excellent phrases which are going to hit the number 1 and 2 spot in Google within days.”
That underlying question is of course impossible to answer!
There is no doubt that keyword research is a chore. In another part of my working life I work with new authors and I liken keyword research to the process of writing - there is something about them both that seems to completely wipe the mind of any intelligent thought.
Ideas are - plenty until you sit down to actually work on them and then there seems to be a million reasons to discard niche after niche because they never quite stack up against ‘the numbers’ . And, just what are these numbers anyway? And, how do we know how accurate these numbers are?
It seems to me that keyword research is a process. As with all processes it is something that is subject to tweaks along the way as you find out what works and what does not. So much of the data we would need to establish definite figures, is not available to us anyway. It is all assessed and calculated by the various tools that are available.
Recently, in the Thirty Day Challenge, Ed Dale, Dan Raine and the gang came up with an innovative way to check actual search figures against known data. This is probably as accurate as anyone has ever gotten with keyword research.
The keyword tools that are available all offer some similar and some different functions, although some undoubtedly perform better than others. Some will just combine strings of words into endless permutations. Some will actually search known data sources from which they extrapolate figures for you on which you can then base future marketing decisions. Some will help with Pay per Click programmes. Some will offer long tail phrases. I understand that some will even let the cat out at night before going to bed………
No tool, in my humble opinion, can replace the human input and rationale. The tools can all make life easier in as much as they can create lists of thousands of possible keywords and keyword phrases but I remain unconvinced that the rest of the data is reliable enough for you to back it with your last dollar. You also need to apply your own thoughts and some logic.
Take for example Christmas. If you were to be planning a Christmas marketing campaign most of the keyword tools would be absolutely useless to you in your planning. The data is just too seasonal. You are going to have to take an educated guess about suitable keywords and phrases and constantly track, test and tweak along the way.
For me, the keyword tools all remove some of the drudgery of keyword research but they in no way replace your personal effort. I’m sorry that’s not want you are going to want to hear! There is no magic wand here. I wish there were. I am unconvinced that there is one tool that will guarantee success for you.
I do know that the research stage of your marketing efforts is the key piece that will bring you success or failure. However hard, tedious and dull keyword research seems to be it needs to be done!
So, for your interest I can tell you that I personally use Keyword Elite and Wordtracker and have nothing bad to say about either of them. They both do an outstanding job and there is no doubt that they make a tedious job quite a bit easier. But, neither of them remove the need for me to exercise my brain and make a judgement.
These free guides are available for download:
A Keyword Research Guide from Wordtracker
may be downloaded from the link above
and
Two books on Keywords Adsense and Adwords from Keyword Elite
will be downloaded as zip files when you click on the link above here.
I hope you find them helpful
