Online Marketing Blog

With any kind of online marketing you need a place to start. Find out what kinds of search queries people are typing into the search box and you’ll know what kind of content to optimize, create and get links to.

For the most part, keyword research software and tools fall into a handful of categories. Paid and free are two as well as those that are specific to SEO or for PPC. There are a few dominant players in each category but with some interesting innovations in the past year or so it’s worth re-visiting what’s out there and which tools our dear Online Marketing Blog readers prefer.

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You really don’t need to look down here until you’ve voted. Now scroll back up and vote thank you very much

For reference, here are links to each tool mentioned above along with some commentary:

• Wordtracker – Subscription fee and fairly reasonable – an “OG” of keyword research tools
• Keyword Discovery – Subscription based and prices have increased within the past 3 years, GRRR, but very popular amongst the natives on SEO island
• NicheBOT – Search an array of keyword research tools at one time
• WordZe – A pay for service with options like keyword difficulty and trends – interesting
• Google Keyword Tool – Free from Google – ’nuff said
• Spy Fu – Free and paid options available with an interesting way to research competitor keyword ads and the CPC prices they’re paying
• SeoDigger – Free and kinda cool way to see what phrases your competitor sites are ranking for on at Google – that’s right, you heard me
• Hitwise Search Intelligence – You will pay and then pay some more for this best of breed keyword and competitive intelligence service
• comScore qSearch – Sell all that you own as well as your mother’s retirement and kids college fund so you can afford this top shelf, yet amazingly featured service
• AdGooRoo SEM Insight – A paid for service and a pretty popular competitive research tool for keywords on PPC campaigns
• SEO Book Keyword Tool – Free and way more information than you’ll likely need – but that’s the kind of guy Aaron is
• Google Suggest Scraper – Free but isn’t there an ethical cost?
• Digital Point Keyword Suggestion Tool – Free unless you donate, in which case, it is a paid for service
• KeywordSpy – A paid for service and too new for me to write anything more
• adCenter Labs Keyword Tools – Free except there is the cost of your fake privacy from all those Hotmail accounts you’ve set up
• Overture Keyword Selector – Free but virtually worthless since it’s no longer updated

Are there niche tools you’ve used that other search marketers should know about? Please mention them in the comments.

Also for reference, here are the last two poll winners:

Poll: What’s Bugging You About Search Marketing? – “Disinformation, Rumors, Divisions, That Sort of Thing” received 26% of the votes with quite a bit of commentary and notice from prominent blogs such as Bruce Clay.

Poll: Best Search Engine Marketing Email Newsletters – A bit of late competition between Search Engine Land and WebProNews on this one. Search Engine Land’s SearchCap came in as the winner receiving 46% of the votes.

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