Keyword Research Tools and Tips

Michael Buczek - December 19, 2008

Good keyword research is essential to the optimization process.   You can think about the keywords that you choose as the building blocks for the entire SEO effort.   The better the keywords you choose, the stronger the foundation you will have.   To help you choose keywords for your site provided are some free keyword tools that you can use to research phrases you might be using to optimize your website.   These tools show different information regarding search volume, competition, and synonyms for the keywords you are searching.

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
This tool is the trial version of the subscription based WordTracker website.   It allows you to get a sampling of what people are searching for in relation to the word you type into the box.   The results will show you the approximate daily searches for the results. Example:

Search Function:

 
Results

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
While this tool was originally developed for PPC advertising, it still gives people insight as to what people are searching for on the Internet.   It allows you to type in keywords and get results with search volumes, competition and synonyms much like the free WordTracker tool. But this tool also has another great feature.   If you are looking to retarget website content, you can simply copy the URL of the page you are analyzing into the free tool. It will scan the page and give you results based on the word choices you have already used.   It may give you some less common phrases to use, thus increasing your competitive edge.  

Example:

Search:

Sample Results:

If you wish to analyze keywords, leave the radial button checked by “Descriptive words or phrases”, and enter the keywords you wish to research.   If you would like to analyze the page content of a specific URL, change the radial button to “Website content” and copy and paste the URL into the appropriate section.

Once you have picked keywords to optimize your website, you will need to begin writing, or “tweaking” existing copy to incorporate the chosen keywords.   MoreVisibility recommends that you write your content to a 4.0% keyword density.   This number is not the Silver Bullet of SEO content writing, but it will give you a workable goal to have when writing your content.   Keyword density should be adjusted to the readability of the content.   Longer keyword phrases will not read correctly at that density level.   If the content you are writing starts to sound “spammy” or could turn off your reader, reduce the occurrences of the keyword until it reads well.   Tools you can use to help monitor keyword density include the following:

http://live-keyword-analysis.com/
This tool has a simple copy, paste functionality.   Copy the text and the keyword you would like to analyze into the provided fields, and the tool will show you the keyword density as you make changes.

http://textalyser.net/
This tool allows you to analyze current copy as well as new copy you are writing.   Analyze text either by using the URL of the page, or by copying the new text from a document and pasting it into the provided field.