In this video interview search marketing expert explains the value of both free and fee-based keyword tools. These tools help you find the search terms that are actually being used by people to find things on the web so you can optimize your online marketing. She discusses the Google Keyword Tool, that shows search numbers and search trends month by month over the year.
Google Insights for Search helps you spot trends from year to year. In the recession, keyword search trends have changed dramatically, so you may need to update your keyword research. Google Insights for Search also shows geographical use as well as rising search terms.
Google Sets helps you quickly expand your keywords by helping you find sets of keywords, when you put in a few keywords in a set, such as car brands.
Paid tools to consider include Trellian Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker. These draw on different databases and help you determine the rank order of keywords, unaffected by artefacts introduced by spiders running ranking reports, etc. Paid tools are worth the cost because (1) they offer management capabilities, such as the ability to manipulate lists, and (2) they are usually parts of larger sets of SEO tools that increase your capability.
Manipulating keyword lists into “buckets” can be useful to manage your account. Microsoft Excel’s concatenate function can help you build keyword lists rapidly.
Christine Churchill is the president and CEO of Key Relevance, a full-service search marketing company based in Dallas, Texas that does both paid and organic search as well as consulting and customized packages for clients. This interview was recorded on August 12, 2009 at Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, California.
