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16 Killer Keyword Research Resources For Much More Search Traffic

By:     Topics: Get Web Traffic     More posts about: ,

If you are not doing keyword research, you are missing out on a whole higher level of traffic. Marketers that research keywords, to find profitable search terms, are far more likely to get high ranking positions. That shouldn’t surprise anyone, considering you are taking out the guess work and going with a tried and proven technique for your SEO.

Let’s be honest.

How often do you research your keywords?

Once a month? Quarter? Year? Never?

While the term “Keyword Research” might provoke the familiar feeling of taking a nap in the back of Algebra class, it’s also the one thing that can make or break an online business.

Every successful business, online or other wise, shares one core trait, their ability to speak their customer’s language.

Keyword research is the way to learn that language and create content that people and search engines can’t resist.

Below, you’ll find a list of the 16 best resources I’ve found on keyword research. There are guides as well as tools that will help you wrap your head around keywords in a strategic way that will ultimately help you drive more traffic and make more money.

This article is structured to bring you from a beginner’s mindset all the way down the rabbit hole.

There are hours worth of materials here, so be sure to bookmark this article any time you need to reference it.

Keyword Research Process and Guides

Keyword Research: It’s Not What You Think

Resource In Question: Copyblogger

This introduction to Keyword Research is the perfect resource if you’re just beginning to get your feet wet.

It explains how the “origins” of keyword research were started by copywriters in the 1960’s to learn the language of their target market.

It’s about how finding the right words is what separates the blogger’s who receive traffic, subscribers, and shares, from those who are just clamoring for attention.

 

How to Do Keyword Research Like A Pro [DiY]

 

Resource in Question: Search Engine People

Lackluster Keyword Research can make or break a blog.

If you’re not determining what the best keywords for your topic are, you’re likely to get ranked in the search engines for irrelevant or the entirely wrong keywords. Wasting your’s and your reader’s time.

This article helps you develop a mindset that find better, low competition, high converting keywords.

How to Choose A Profitable Niche

Resource in Question: Copyblogger

This article from Copyblogger gives a real world example of honing in on specific keywords, and interpreting different phrases to find search intent.

Doing this keeps you focused on keywords that are buying signals, instead of searches that are just looking for more information.

How to Optimize a Webpage for a Keyword

Resource in Question: Search Engine People

After you’ve chosen a profitable niche, you obviously need to create content.

This article gives another method for keyword research and selection, and takes it a step further by teaching you how to incorporate said keywords into your blog.

 

How to Take Your Keyword Research To a Higher Level

Resource in Question: Search Engine Land

No doubt, once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll want to improve your game.

This article gives you more advanced strategies, explains search intent and helps you categorize your keywords accordingly.

It also goes into detail on the difference between long tail and medium tail keywords and what you can do to make them support each other.

Do you Make these 13 Keyword Research Mistakes?

Resource in Question: Leaving Work Behind

Simply put, things to look out for.

Many of the mistakes in this article are very easy to make.

For Example: Relying on Broad and Phrase Match searches do not give you an accurate estimate of search on a given term. When using Exact, you’ll get a much more accurate (albeit maybe less impressive) list of results.

Avoid these mistakes to create accurate and effective keyword lists that will make you money.

Keywords Forensics: Research Search Terms That Others Miss

Resource in Question: Search Engine Watch

John Alexander of Search Engine Academy explains Keyword Forensics as a way to survey keyphrases as they have been input by users in an attempt to identify a user behavior, then create very specific content on your site to serve these needs.

For Example: Words like Review, Study, Statistics, Rare, Find, Discount, Wholesale, Pattern, Maps, Supply, Supplies, Old, New, Pricing, and Recipe reveal a buying intent in some way or another.

The idea is using the searchers intent, you can position yourself as an authority in the context of what they’re looking for, and stand a much better chance of converting cold traffic into sales.

How to Find Content Topics That Score Big Using Keyword Research

Resource in Question: Copyblogger

After finding your keywords, at some point you’re going to have to create content, no way around that.

This article from Copyblogger shows you how to use Alternative Keywords to create content that reaches new audiences. Then it gives you a couple of ideas for contacting other websites that could link to your content.

After all, if nobody is seeing what you write, it kind of defeats the purpose, right?

 

15 Ways to Brainstorm Keyword Ideas (And Jumpstart your Brain)

Resource In Question: Niche Pursuits

After a while, Data Diving turns your brain into a puddle of Jello.

This is an excellent and practical list of suggestions to help you reboot your mind and draw inspiration for keyword ideas in some of the most mundane and often unlikely of places.

After reading this article, you’ll never look at the world around you the same way again.

How To Use Delicious For Business

Resource in Question: Hubspot

While this article doesn’t go into huge detail about using Delicious (A social bookmarking site) for keyword research, it does give an overview of how it can be beneficial to your efforts.

For Example: Using the tag search for marketing we can find all of the most popular links in the category. By scrolling down the page, we can see that “marketing” has 24,282 pages of material containing that tag. By viewing the tags that also associated with the “Marketing” tag, we can find the other “keywords” that real people often associate with our given term.

Keyword Research Can Help Make You Money

Resource in Question: Copyblogger

This is where we start to get into the real juicy stuff. Once you’ve been discovering what people are going to be searching for, and you’re creating content that corner’s the market in your area, it’s time to make some money.

Copyblogger hones in on doing keyword research for product reviews that you can use affiliate links to sell stuff on your blog, and make a commission.

Keyword Research Tools

Below is a list of free keyword research tools that will give you insight into search volume, competition, and ranking difficulty.

With each tool listed below, you’ll find 3 things.

  • A link to the tool
  • A link to the best free tutorial
  • The length of the tutorial in (mm:ss)
No one tool is definitive, therefore it is recommended to use multiple tools in tandem with each other to compile the best keyword list possible.

Google Keyword Tool

The Tool: Google Keyword Tool

Resource in Question: Google Keyword Tool Tutorial (40:49)

Search keywords you’ve brainstormed by Broad, Exact, and Phrase Match to get a rough idea of the search volume and traffic for any keyword.

The tool also gives you recommendations for related keywords that you may also be able to use in your campaigns.

Note: Be sure to use advanced functionality like “Include Phrase” & “Exclude Phrase” as well as setting your Region, Language, and Device to get the most accurate data possible

WordTracker

The Tool: WordTracker

Resource in Question: Your first week with WordTracker (Playlist: 7 videos)

One of the most highly recommended keyword research tools among industry experts.

WordTracker doesn’t just generate a list of keywords, it helps you identify the best keywords for your niche.

It has a number of built in tools like the Keyword Effectiveness Index to help you determine whether key phrase is worth your time or not.

It is free for 7 days, and comes with $136 in free bonuses. After the trial period is up, that membership increases to $69.00/mo.

Google Insights

The Tool: Google Insights

Resource in Question: Google Insights for SEO campaigns (4:14)

Google Insights is like a crystal ball for your keyword campaigns. Plug in a key phrase and check out search trends for the term.

Insights shows you search trends as broad as the world to as narrow as your nearest metro region.

If you’re running a local business, or your website’s traffic is regionally based, this tool will be among the most important in your toolbox to ensure you’re not wasting your time on terms that aren’t trending.

 

Spyfu

The Tool: SpyFu.com

Resource in Question: Spyfu Kombat

At some point, you’ll realize you’re not the only catering to your target market. Spyfu is a competitive keyword analysis tool that lets you to “spy” on the competition.

Use “Spyfu Kombat”, to let them do the research for you. Learn what keywords they’re targeting for both paid and organic content. Then beat them in their own territory.

Spyfu is free to use, mostly. Reports are limited for free users, and for $79/month you can get full access to entire keyword lists. It may be expensive for some, but with the full reports you can find comprehensive lists of the “low hanging fruit” every single one of your competitors are going after.

Bonus Tool: Keyword Discovery by Trillian

The Tool: Keyword Discovery

Resource in Question: A review by Jon Morrow

This is a keyword tool designed for those who are fanatical about keyword research.

Keyword Discovery collects data from over 200 search engines to give you the most well rounded picture of what people are searching for.

They also gather data from shopping sites like Amazon, Ebay and others to show you products people are buying related to your keyword.

It’s interface is deceptively simple, it’s searches are incredibly fast, and it’s data is deadly accurate.

Now for the bad news… It’s expensive. A basic plan goes for $69.95/month or $599.40/year and to get access to the full range of tools, you’re looking at $199.95/month or $1,895.00/year

Keyword Discovery isn’t for everyone, but if you’re looking to make serious money online it’s the only one you should look at building your self up to.

There you have it

16 Resources to get you on the right track, find a profitable niche, or at the very least get you more focused in your efforts.

I know the idea of spending hours writing down words on a spreadsheet might leave you drooling at your desk, but it seriously can make the difference between 10 visitors and 1,ooo.

It’s the foundation for creating content that sells, stands out, and answers the exact problems your prospective customers might be looking for.

So the question now is, what are you going to do?

 

 

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Comments

  1. Seriously you guys are excellent. The articles are phenomenally informative. The main problem I have with you is that you offer too much value and too much information.

    I respect how you work. You are giving extra and above the necessary to your subscriber list. I would also like to add that almost every site etc that I have subscribed to have been slightly annoying, over selling, and with poor and over hyped content.

    This is the single occasion that I find excellently researched, well written communication and I am not itching to hit the unsubscribe button .

    • Wow! Thank you so much for those kind words Andrew

      Maybe I’ll dial it back on the value next time?

  2. June Perry says:

    Great post and thanks for the info, i really found it helpful. I hope u will write more blogs about this subject in the future.

    • Thank you so much If it’s something enough people want us to revisit, I’ll be sure to do another one!

  3. Silvestru @ Couchexperts says:

    This will come in handy. I’d also like to add that you can do all your keyword research without paying a dime for third-party tools. Sure, they can speed up the research process, especially if you’ve got many campaigns, but if you’re just starting out, nothing beats Google’s Keyword Tool and a bunch of Excel spreadsheets.

    You’ll learn a whole lot more doing it “by-hand” (in the beginning at least). Just my cents

    • You’re absolutely right, though I would caution against using only one source for your data because no one is 100%

      But grinding it out is something everyone should do, if anything, to really appreciate the accomplishment of getting ranked for a juicy keyword.

  4. Gareth Sear says:

    Hi Tommy

    Thanks for the informative article – will try and go through to some of those links.

    Didn’t know about keyword discovery, but have used Wordtracker well. I was just wondering what your thoughts were on Market Samurai?

    Cheers

    Gareth

    • Market Samuari is good from what I hear, though I haven’t used it personally. I have been using spyfu more lately and am finding it to be one of my favorites because of the competition analysis aspect. I think Samuari has similar functions, so it may be a “choose your flavor” type scenario.

  5. Christina says:

    I agree with Andrew. Great content on this website! I often find myself referring back to older articles, but I have difficulty finding them sometimes. Would you consider adding a search bar to the website?

  6. Tyson Strange says:

    nice post,but one question remains.you said “50,000 or less search results” is it means exact phase count.I mean the the keywords quoted like this in search “what is ipad”.or simply what is ipad.because the users are not going to search on Google with quotes.And is it possible to monetize the micro niche site with any other PPC.

    • I’m always using the quotes and the brackets to do phrase and exact matches, then checking out the results to see just how many other people are hitting that exact phrase and what the semantic results are. That way I know if I use those words exactly, I’ll stand a better chance at ranking.

      You could do a micro niche sites using that method, you just have to do a ton of extra keyword research to get strategic rankings for your niche site. Check out the “keyword forensics” article to go after the exact right phrases.

  7. Hi Tommy, very nice Article! Didn’t knew about some Tools at all.
    Do you guys know about SBI? I would really like to hear your opinion on it.
    Cheers

    • Tommy Walker says:

      SBI… hmmm… never heard of it, but if you drop me a link, I’ll be sure to check it out

  8. Great post tommy!
    The only keyword research tool I’d thought that only exist was keyword tools. Never knew there is so many varies. Guess i will be keeping myself busy for the next few months =]

    • Tommy Walker says:

      Oh yes, and there are so many more varieties than the ones listed in this article.

      It’s very important to check against multiple sources, because no one tool is 100% accurate.

      My favorite, is checking out a competitors keywords, then going after those and out ranking them… no greater feeling than beating someone at their own game honestly.

  9. Abigail Johnson Akingbade says:

    I enjoyed reading this posts Tommy! Though for me it takes some of the fun out of writing when I have to research keywords and do SEO. I see much I can improve. These are valuable resources for Newbie bloggers to use to build an audience!

    • You know, I know exactly what you mean.

      I’m the same way. In fact, what I did to get myself comfortable, is come up with the concept first, then do the keyword research to make sure my ideas have the potential to get in front of the maximum amount of people.

      For time’s sake now, because I’m juggling a few different projects at the same time, like writing here and my show Inside the Mind I’ll plan my content a few weeks out, then do the keyword research for multiple pieces at the same time.

      My plan is to eventually build a larger list, but it will all be in the context of things I know I’m going to want to talk about, or how each topic can build on each other.

      A lot of people will say to build your big keyword list, then create the content, but I say plan your content and see how it all piggybacks off each other, then do the research to make sure you’re going to get the most bang for your buck. I’ve found it to be a lot more fun, and rewarding, because when something ranks high and I planned it that way, it feels like you’re on top of the world

  10. Great article.

    I tend to brainstorm for keywords when I am out and about and recently found a keyword research app that works on my iPhone! The data comes from the SEM Rush API and it works great! You can type in a seed keyword, get related keywords and e-mail yourself a CSV spreadsheet…all from the app!

    check it out: http://www.keywordapp.com

    Thanks again for another great article. I read this site daily on my iPad.

  11. Jennifer says:

    Great article! In the seo training I took from clickminded, we discussed tools and some of their advantages and pitfalls. Thank you for the additional insight!

  12. Aqib Shahzad says:

    Mainly I use Google keyword planner and Ubersuggest tool and keyword revealer as well which really seems to be effective for me in doing keyword research. The best part about all of these tools is that they are free of cost and easy to use.

  13. Nice post!

    And great resources but this takes some time and that’s why I prefer to outsource it for a few bucks.