Keyword research is an essential part of Internet marketing, whether you’re choosing a niche or implementing a search engine marketing (SEM) or search engine optimization (SEO) initiative. To that end, here are seven (7) top keyword research tools to help you identify the right keywords to target.

1. Google Keyword Tool (Free)

Google’s Keyword Tool generates both keyword ideas and detailed statistics about each keyword it generates – ranging from ad share, to search volume, to advertiser competition, to average cost per click – based on actual Google search queries. It’s accessible from within your Google Adwords account or, if you don’t have a Google Adwords account, at the link above.

2. SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (Free)

Using data from Wordtracker (see below) Aaron Wall’s SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool generates keyword ideas, along with traffic data and statistics from Google, Yahoo and Bing. It also generates links you can click on to get further results from such tools as Google Trends, Google’s Keyword Tool and Trellian’s free Keyword Discovery tool.

3. Wordtracker (Free Trial / Paid)

Wordtracker generates keywords and traffic statistics based on searches performed across all the main search engines, including Google and Bing. It collects search terms from the major search engine metacrawlers – Dogpile and Metacrawler – and uses a database of over 330 million search terms, which it updates weekly.

4. Trellian Keyword Discovery (Free Trial / Paid)

Keyword Discovery generates keywords and traffic statistics from over 200 search engines worldwide and, consequently, lays claim to having the largest keyword database, containing nearly 38 billion searches. Trellian imports the search engines’ search logs into its database or collects samples at the browser level from its user panel and other sources. Data is collected daily, but due to the size of the index, the database is updated monthly.

5. WordStream For SEO (Free Trial / Paid)

WordStream for SEO generates keyword ideas and traffic statistics, and also offers keyword analytics, keyword grouping and organization, and integrated content authoring tools. WordStream uses blended data which it buys from Internet service providers, search engines and browser toolbars. It also allows you to import and analyze search data from your own website.

6. Wordze (Free Trial / Paid)

Wordze generates keywords (up to 10,000 at a time), traffic data, and also additional information such as an indication of ranking difficulty, keyword history, what keywords competitors are targeting, and other features. Wordze derives its data from meta search engines.

7. Market Samurai (Free Trial / Paid)

Market Samurai generates keywords and traffic statistics based on Google search query data, and also provides a range of additional analytics and tools. These include such tools as the SEO Competition tool, which allows you to analyze the SEO competition for your keywords, the Monetization tool which helps you find affiliate products based on your keywords, and the Find Content tool which allows you to find content based on your keywords.

Which keyword research tool is right for you?

We’ve used the Google Keyword Tool, the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool, Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and Market Samurai and each of these has its pros and cons.

The question of which of these keyword tools YOU should use comes down to such factors as what search engines you’re targeting (if you’re only targeting Google you might want to just use Google’s Keyword Tool and/or Market Samurai), whether you want Google to know what you’re doing (a reason not to use Google’s Keyword Tool), the analytical detail you need, the extra features you want, the basic usability of a given keyword research tool, and how helpful you find the tool to be.

We haven’t used WordStream For SEO or Wordze, but I’ve included them in this list because they frequently come up in online discussions about the top keyword tools. There appears to be a lot of praise for WordStream but, admittedly, the sentiment about Wordze is rather more mixed.

Fortunately, you don’t have to take anyone’s word for what keyword research tool is best for you. Instead, you can try out any and all of these tools for free to see which keyword tool helps you the most. You might even do as we do, which is to use a few keyword research tools, based on your specific objectives in deriving and analyzing keyword research data.

Related Articles:

• SEO: Should You Optimize Your Site For Bing?
• Does Search Marketing Deliver High Quantity or High Quality Leads… Or Both?
• What Are The Most Important Factors For Getting a High Search Engine Ranking?
• SEO: The Case For Using Keywords In Domains Names and Web Pages
• Google’s 8 Tips For Link Building

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Feature, Kikabink Lab, Search Marketing, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.