SEO Now Issue 46 - Keyword Research Tools

Optimization
Keyword Research Tools

The rumour that the former Overture Keyword Research Tool, first reported earlier this month as broken and not likely to be fixed, is a rumour that has been discounted by Yahoo.

According to Yahoo the tool will stay in existence for the time being, but it seems clear

that all the indicators point to this tool being available only to Yahoo Search Marketers from within a Yahoo account.

Whilst a lot of software keyword tools could be rendered useless by the demise of the Overture Tool it has never been one of my favourites.

It is better than nothing at all, but has always grossly over estimated search results, a subject I have written about frequently.

Ranking in the Top 10

If you have a new web site be aware that it is rare to instantly get a top ranking for a competitive keyword in Google.

When it does happen, you may find it is short lived as Google takes time to adjust its view of your web site.

What you need to determine is whether you'll be able to achieve a top position within the first year of optimizing your site.

It could well be that established players are so entrenched that it'll be prohibitively expensive to ever get a spot on the first page.

That is why time spent in early research to determine your chances of gaining a top ranking can save you a lot of wasted time later on.

Whilst on-page optimization of your web pages and web site will go a long way toward improving your ranking, you must also consider many off-page factors.

With a low to moderately competitive keyword phrase on-page optimization is often enough to get you a top ranking, especially if what competitors there are have done little or no optimization.

It is also often easier to rank well on Live (MSN) than on Yahoo or Google, simply because of the different nature of each search engine.

Wordtracker a long established and respected paid service for keyword research recently rolled out their own public Wordtracker Keyword Tool

Keep in mind that keyword research is not an exact science and the results will only give you an estimate of the traffic on a particular keyword phrase.

Different keyword tools can also give you widely differing results and it pays to check different sources.

You also need to understand where these different tools get their data and the assumptions they make.

I have also written reports on comparisons between the keyword tools of Overture, Wordtracker and Google.

My advice is to choose the lower search results figure not the higher one when faced with large differences.

The number of searches on a term are also meaningless unless you consider the level of competition you face from other web pages.

Also important is how the demand for that keyword is changing over time (growing or declining). This data can be acquired using Google Trends