The Best Keyword Research Analysis Tools

In Affiliate Marketing, choosing the right niche and using the right keywords is key to the game.

For the complete newbie, keywords are the words and search phrases potential customers type into the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN etc) search box while looking for products and services like yours. Keyword research tools allow you to discover the most searched for phrases on different topics. Here is a list of 5 popular free or paid keyword research tools.

1. Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool (free tool)
The Overture Keyword Suggestion Tool can be found here:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Please note that Overture is now called Yahoo Search Marketing. Also, the results are based on both the plural and non-plural version of keywords. So, a keyword result for “cool book” also includes the total searches for the plural version “cool books.”

I’ll use “hiking” as an example keyword of how of the tool works. After typing “hiking” into the suggestion tool I see that “hiking, hiking boot, hiking shoes, hiking gear, and hiking backpack” are some of the most searched for hiking related keyword phrases last month via the Yahoo Search Network.

Based on this data you could create an affiliate website on the broad subject of hiking products. Better yet, narrow that down to a more specific hiking products website which reviews different types of hiking boots.

Now that I decided I want to build a website based on reviews of different types hiking boots, I can find out just what specific brands of hiking boots are searched for most frequently.

Next, I type in “hiking boots” instead of just “hiking” and see that some of the most searched for keywords are “women’s hiking boots, man hiking boots, asolo hiking boots, vasque hiking boots, merrell hiking boots, nike hiking boots, etc. You can continue to narrow this down even further if desired.

Finally, you can setup your affiliate website based on these specific brands of boots. There are a lot of “shoe” affiliate programs so you will probably find a program(s) offering these specific shoes. You can start with CJ.com.

2. Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool (free tool)
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

This tool is much more powerful than that of Yahoos because it collects data from Google.com searches. This tool also has many more features including the amount of advertiser competition within the Google Adwords network and search volume. You can also sort these results by “broad match”, “phrase match” or “exact match.” Rather than getting into details on the different match type, you can follow this link to read the differences: https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6324&ctx=tltp

The tool also has a Site-Related Keywords section where you can enter a webpage URL to find keywords related to the content on the page.

3. Wordtracker (pay to use service)
http://www.wordtracker.com

Wordtracker is probably the most popular paid keyword research tool. Wordtracker’s keyword suggestions are based on over 300 million keywords and phrases that people have used. The keyword data is collected from MetaCrawler.com and DogPile.com searches over the previous 90 days.

In my opinion, Wordtracker’s keyword research tool is definitely worth purchasing if you can afford it. However, they have also just recently released a free keyword tool which will generate up to 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume. See: http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

4. Keyword Elite (pay to use service)
http://www.keywordelite.com

The Keyword Elite software is not cheap, but it is a one time fee instead of having monthly or yearly fees like those of a Wordtracker.com membership. It’s a powerful piece of software with a long list of features including spying on your competitors Google Adwords keywords. I personally own this software.

5. Nichebot (pay to use service)
http://www.nichebot.com

I have not personally used this keyword research service but it looks like it could be very useful for generating large lists of long-tail keywords for your website. It appears to include several other powerful features as well and is worth a look.

Did you enjoy this post? Please Subscribe via RSS or email.