What keyword research tools do you recommend to help with SEO?
-
We are looking for a keyword research tool to help with our SEO efforts for our ecommerce site. We sell food gifts and are looking for a tool to help us identify which keywords we should go after. Beyond Google's free tool - what tools would you recommend? We are willing to pay for a tool.
-
Hi Adam
Here are a list of keyword tools/techniques I use for our keyword research
Google trends - monitor seasonal trends for certain search terms throughout the year
Competition sites - check out your competitors within your sector/subject areas - It's amazing how many large sites still incorporate defined keywords that appear in the meta keywords section of the site!
Hitwise - If you have enough luck/big enough budget to access this tool - this can unearth a goldmine of keywords to target as well as their clickstream report of what keywords/search terms were used before and after leaving your site
Google insights - provides alternative keywords to consider based on the keywords you add
Open Site Explorer - enter your competitor site and run an anchor text report - what key terms are included
Competitor blog sites - analyse your competitor blog sites - usually packed full of keywords they are trying to rank for that is used to point back to their main site
Analytics - Your existing analytics tool should provide you with a vast range of search terms to commence new campaigns and unearth long tail keywords, also check out your google webmaster tools
Simon
-
I'm surprised nobody mentioned WordTracker.com? I just started using WordTracker and I love it. I was a Google Keyword tool guy for a couple years, but found most of their results were on the high side. Wordtracker has provided a much more accurate estimate to a keyword's popularity.
-
Thanks for talking about Semrush. I would definitely advice you to use that. It will also help you to track your SERP.
-
with http://ubersuggest.org/ you can research google suggest data for generic keywords.
Its a good starting point if you only have a few generic keywords. Just try it, it is for free.
-
1. SemRush - SemRush is by far the best tool I have used for keyword research. You can see almost everything you can imagine about all your competitors keywords. You can also get an almost endless list of keywords almost instantly with any search. For example I searched money and instantly got a 10001 long list of keywords including the term money with incredibly useful data which you can save and keep even when you are not a member. This one offers a free trial though you need to give a credit card and cancel before its done.
2. Keyword Country - Keyword country is great. you can search and sort by almost any data types and with all sorts of ranges. You can search by CPC for keywords which is just ridiculous. This one also offers a free trial. Well worth checking out.
3. Market Samurai - From my experience market samurai was my first and favorite keyword tool for a long time and it even comes with a free trial.
4. Adwords Keyword tool - I wasn't much of a fan of this one at first but then I noticed if you log in you can see up to 800 results and use it pretty well to find some good keywords.
Generally I use several tools together to do my research as I find each has its strengths and weaknesses.
This is with over a year of experience. Enjoy!
-
I also like to use Keyword Spy (www.keywordspy.com). It helps me see keywords my competitors are using. That's always a great place to start.
-
I tend to start with good ole Adwords, its free and can give you a very quick glimpse at whats being searched for and whats not. However the competition bar is less than verbose..
Which is where I, like Damion, use Market Samurai to go that step further and look further into the competition
-
Liked Samurai. Do you combine the results with KW from any other tools?
-
Have a look at Market Samurai -- http://www.marketsamurai.com/ -- it's a paid tool with (I believe) free access to the keyword analysis module.
Don't be put off by the spamminess of their webpage - the product is sound.
Market Samurai lets you do a lot of heavy lifting with Google Keyword Tool via the Adwords API. It also pulls down global and country-specific competition. Export all this into Excel and you can crunk and ply the data until a niche presents itself.
I like to think of Market Samurai not so much as a keyword tool in its own right, but as a way to use Google's keyword tool in a smart way.
-
Beyond the basic Google AdWords tool, I spend a lot of time going through Google Insights, which is especially good as a predictor of future searches instead of being purely backward-looking.
Open Site Explorer helps you see what keywords are being used in links. This is particularly helpful when researching what links your competitors are getting that you're not.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
SEO question for page keyword focus - how to make it sound natural
So I have a page that sells say hockey sticks and the site is situated in Australia. My Keyword focus for the page would be hockey sticks Australia.
Keyword Research | | eulabrant0 -
Competing Pages for Ranking Keywords?
Hey there, My client has this existing page which ranks for rentals-related keywords that are product type specific - i.e. electric wheelchair rentals, mobility scooter rentals, etc. https://mobilityequipmentforless.com/pages/rentals I recently made a rentals page for each product type to try and really target those keywords that the rentals page is ranking for. Is this a problem? Is the potential nature of the pages competing for the keywords a real issue? Any help is appreciated. Thanks! Mike
Keyword Research | | naturalsociety0 -
In Need of Excel Formula to Manage Export from Adwords Keyword Tool
Hi All, I was wondering if anyone had an excel formula that they use to manage large amounts of data in spreadsheet exports from the Google Adwords Keyword Tool? Specifically, I am interested in something that establishes a solid corollary between a given keywords competition score and the amount of local/global monthly searches. Any suggested ideas or methods are very welcome. Thanks!
Keyword Research | | G2W0 -
Keywords for fabrication (welding) company??
I've been tasked with finding the keywords for our website. The difficulty I'm finding is receiving help from the fabrication personal to suggest keywords. I'm not sure if its peoples imagination or if there's a general unwillingness. Can anyone make any suggestions here? Is there a fabrication or welding keyword database I can put to them and hopefully get their brains working? Or even a way to see what keywords our competitors use?
Keyword Research | | Resolver1010 -
Keyword Ranking Information
Recently I received an email from an SEO marketer with the following ranking information for my site (image attached) ( link to image http://imgur.com/CAo4D) I am sure he ran some sort of tool to this ... Is there any tool , which can give a list of low ranking articles in my site which have high search traffic CAo4D
Keyword Research | | iamnew1 -
SerpIQ vs. Keyword Difficulty tool
http://imgur.com/6uidr Is this any good for keyword research? I see they use some weird metric and I'm not sure whether those are relevant at all, plus it's really hard to do a bulk research. Let me know what you think.
Keyword Research | | jest0 -
What is the maximum lenght in url for keyword ?
Howdy, I was looking at the maximum lenght of url for ntfs and they told me it was 255 character for url and/or folder ect. Does that mean that i could use the full lenght of 255 filled whit keyword for the url on my site ? Thx.
Keyword Research | | Promoteam0 -
Conducting Keyword Research in "Other than English"
I haven't done my homework on this, so I'd like to ask, if I am interested in launching a website in multiple languages. Let's say an Urdu version (that will have different content) of our English News website then how do I conduct some keyword research for popular keywords used by people searching the net in Urdu. Furthermore, how can I get an estimate of how many people are actually using the web in a particular language and from which geographical regions? Cheers!
Keyword Research | | RishadShaikh590