SEO Tools
Keyword Selection Tools
The first step in any search engine optimization or web marketing
campaign is to figure out what keywords you're going after. Without
the right keywords, your efforts and investment might do nothing
for your bottom line.
Here's a look at Overture's
Search Term Selection Tool and Wordtracker's
Keyword Suggestion Service.
Overture's
Search Term Selection Tool (STST)
The best thing going for this tool is that it's free.
The downside is that the number of searches it reports for
a keyword are vastly inflated.
There's a very good reason for this, and its not a matter of deception.
It's just that this tool isn't made for SEO research, it's made to
help you figure out what terms to buy from Overture. There are many
perfectly valid reasons for this, but the important thing is that
you are aware that the numbers are extremely inflated when
compared to actual searches by human web surfers.
However, this tool is still a good one for finding out how relatively
popular a keyword term is. For instance, I just queried
Overture's STST for the term "westchester" (I didn't use quotes).
Here are some results:
| Suggested Results |
Count for 31 days |
| westchester county |
16,782 |
| westchester |
7,256 |
| westchester ny |
1,038 |
The valuable information this gives me is that the term (without
quotes) "westchester county" is more popular
as "westchester"
alone, and as much more popular than "westchester ny."
Wordtracker
Keyword Selection Service (KSS)
The bad news is, Wordtracker isn't free. The good news?
It provides very accurate results.
Wordracker
provides what is probably the most accurate representation of
actual searches
conducted by human web surfers.
They get their numbers by polling "meta search engines," such as
Dogpile, and using complex, proprietary algorithms to predict
the number of times a keyword is searched on by human web
surfers.
Here's how the same research on "westchester" results in Wordtracker:
| Keyword |
Predicted Searches for
31 Days |
| westchester county |
3,534 |
| westchester |
2,139 |
| westchester ny |
775 |
(The Wordtracker and Overture results do NOT include "westchester"
in combination with any other words, such as "westchester mall,"
which generates an additional 2,635 searches per month over the
Wordtracker results above.)
Overture reported nearly five times as many searches
on "westchester county" - an artificially inflated number. However,
Overture was correct in demonstrating that "westchester county" is
sought more frequently than "westchester" alone. If you don't want to buy a year's subscription to
Wordtracker, they have inexpensive, short-term memberships for as
little as under
$8 for a one-day pass. Any serious SEO market research should begin
here.
Go to Overture's free Search Term Suggestion Tool
Go to Wordtracker's Keyword Selection Service
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