This article outlines several keyword research tools and how to use them to maximize your website keywords. Once you have decided on a topic for your site you will have to do some research to decide which primary keywords will work best for you. The most effective way to do this is to find out which search terms are the most popular and optimize your site accordingly. Successful keyword research will make a huge difference in the amount of traffic you will receive from searches. If your site is well-optimized for your chosen topic you have a better chance of getting the number one position in search results.
Keyword Popularity Tools
Most of the major search engines have a "top keywords" page of some kind, where you can track the latest trends in keyword popularity. If you want to build a very popular and successful website you should study popular keyword trends for a while before deciding on a topic or idea. One way to maximize your traffic would be to create a good quality resource that includes many subject areas based on popular search terms.
AOL - Hot Searches
The top 20 AOL searches for the previous week. Top ten searches are also available for six broad categories.Dogpile - Search Spy
Shows the top search terms and lets you choose between filtered and non-filtered results. Very little detail is given for each search term.Google - Zeitgeist (by Country)
Displays the top search terms in weekly, monthly and yearly reports. Reports are also available for specific countries. Google Trends shows long-term search statistics for chosen keywords.Lycos - Weekly Top 50
Shows the previous week's top 50 searches along with an arrow indicating if the keyword is on the rise or decline from the week before. A short paragraph summarizes information about the top three search terms.Yahoo! - Buzz Index
The most comprehensive and up-to-date keyword statistics tools. Daily top overall searches show today's search terms and movement information. The Buzz Log displays articles about top search terms and there are several popular categories.
Keyword Research Tools
If you already know your topic you can narrow your keyword research to find out which keywords are most popular in your subject area. For example, if you want to build a website about "web design" you should study the popularity of search terms in that subject area. You may find that term "website design" gets searched for more often than "web design". This information is priceless when you are deciding on your website title and article keywords.
Digital Point - Keyword Suggestion Tool
This tool uses Wordtracker and Overture to display the top searches for your term in a side-by-side format. This tool is very useful if you are researching keywords with both plural and singular forms.Google - Adwords Keyword Tool
This tool is designed to help advertisers estimate their ad campaign budget. Enter your search term, choose a maximum price per click, and Google will show you what advertisers are paying for ads related to your search terms. A very useful tool if you are optimizing your site to generate ad revenue from advertising programs like Adsense. If you optimize your site keywords for high-paying Adwords, you are likely to earn more per-click from the ads on your site.Google - Google Trends
A tool for viewing broad search term data. The trend history displays a line chart for your keyword term from the past few years. If your are keyword terms show a slow and steady rise then it is possible that your topic will gain in popularity and traffic over time.Overture - Keyword Selector Tool
A simple stats page that shows how many times terms related to your topic were searched for in the past month.SEO Tools - Keyword Playground
This keyword tool is based on the above tool from Overture but it show slightly different results. Might be useful for comparing and creating keyword trend averages, etc.
These days the internet is full of keyword optimization tools and articles. I've narrowed this list down to the tools I personally find most useful. If you know of any that should be on this page please leave a comment about it or contact us.