Keyword Tools
Ok, so you have built your site, now you just need people to visit it, keyword is the keyword here! Below is a list of all the free tools out there that will help you gain that elusive number one spot on Google.
Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Ok, so most of you will have probably heard of this one but it's an obvious place to start. Primarily created for 'Pay Per Click' (PPC) advertisers Google AdWords allows you to find out how many people search for a term or phrase each month as well as giving you a list of suggested keywords. It really is worth taking some time to get familiar with this one as it is by far the most useful free tool available when it comes to keyword research.
Google Analytics
Again, I'm sure most of you have heard of this one. Google Analytics shows you how people found your site, how they explored it and how you can enhance their visitor experience; all useful information once you have a website up and running.
Google Trends
Google Trends lets you see how often certain topics have been searched for over time. It's a handy tool for spotting seasonal drops or rises in the searchers interest for any targeted keywords. This is a tool that is worth having a play around with, just bear in mind that the results shown don't indicate actual search volumes but whether the searches for a particular topic are up or down.
Google Trends for websites
This tool allows you to analyze the visitors to a particular site and see what other websites they are also likely to visit as well as what related keywords they search for.
This is a useful tool for analyzing both your own site and the site's of others giving you a better idea of related search terms you may be missing out on.
Google Insights for search
Google Insights for Search is a more advanced version of Google Trends allowing you to analyze search trends, searcher's interests, demographics and how they change over time.
Google Sets
Google Sets is an experimental keyword tool that creates sets of items based on a couple of seed keywords. You simply enter one or several words and the tool generates a list of related terms. In the opinion of IMF, this is a tool well worth having a play around with.
Yahoo! Advertising solutions
Yahoo! Advertising solutions is the Yahoo! equivalent of Google AdWords. Like Google AdWords it was primarily set up to provide its advertisers with a keyword research tool so they can find more keywords to bid on. This makes it a useful tool for keyword research regardless of whether you plan to get involved with their PPC campaigns or not. To open a free account, click on the link above.
Bing Webmaster
Once you have signed in you are able to gain a whole host of useful information, some examples are crawl activity, index coverage and traffic stats. You can also research which keywords are driving traffic to your site and see a comprehensive view of sites that are linking to your site.
YouTube keyword tool
If you’re into video optimization this tool will help you identify the keywords that are popular with YouTube users.
SEO PowerSuite
SEO PowerSuite professional has been generating a lot of buzz in the world of SEO; it is made up of four software tools in one pack;
- Rank Tracker - Helps with keyword research and fast search engine rank tracking.
- WebSite Auditor - Deals with website structure and content SEO optimization.
- SEO SpyGlass - Finds over 100,000 competitor back links and shapes your link-building strategy.
- LinkAssistant - Works for all link management tasks from building link directories to establishing link partnerships.
This is an excellent package that will assist in any search engine optimization campaign. However, it doesn’t come cheap with a price tag of £150 ($249), fortunately for those that can't afford this price tag, a free version is offered. Whilst you won't get all the features offered in the paid package this version still provides a useful set of tools to anyone wishing to improve their search engine rankings. It is also worth noting that it's possible to purchase each software tool individually which could be a good cost reducing option. For more information on both versions of this software click on the link above.
Atomz Site Search
Having used all the above tools, you now have people flocking to your little piece of the internet; help them out and make it easier for viewers to find exactly what their looking for by putting in a search box where people can search for keywords within your site with this free tool.