Best Keyword Research Tool

The Best Keyword Research Tool Allows You To Find Great Keywords For FREE

This is Part I of II. See Part Two Here, Finding Low Compete Keywords With FREE Tools - it was originally part of this Hub, but was too long.

Maybe you've heard of "IMEye" or other tools like it - software as a service that charges a monthly amount for your keyword research. I've been getting the emails about it (a while back actually) - and thought it was a joke at $197 per month - say what?!

Then there's Micro Niche Finder - which I cut my teeth on - and Market Samurai (the better product, looking back on it). . .Now there are other tools out there, but Market Samurai is the best I've ever used and it does much more than mere keyword research (like backlinks analysis, tracking your rankings over time, finding content, checking competition, etc.).

Do you want to know why all these tools exist? The honest truth?

Because you'll pay for them, that's why. SEO seems so hard up front, seems so mysterious - but SEO is really a garage business that has blossomed into big business: getting found in Google, Bing and Yahoo!, et al. . .but it's still simple enough for most to get a grip on, without expensive tools.

Don't get me wrong, Market Samurai saves me lots of time every day. It gets me to the top in search...

But you don't "need" tons of tools to make your money online. You can do just fine without keyword tools, to be honest with you. (And yes, I'll still keep using Market Samurai all the same, but the point stands.)

Search Engine Optimization relies on solid keyword research - and of course a computer's the best thing at that, right?

I'll be honest with you, I cut my teeth on Micro Niche Finder. I thought it was awesome: plug and play. Then I read this and that blog post, this and that forum, a few ebooks. . .

More importantly, I built profitable websites from day one using it - for the most part, mind you - I did turn up some "duds" but more on that in a minute. . .

I began to see that the software was a luxury I actually could afford to throw out the window. The free tools were so often referenced that it just made sense to figure it out by reading extensively from those people who were successful at IM.

I have a blog where I interviewed an IMer by the name of "Diane" we'll say - she told me she. . .

(I'm not sure if this is even decent to say about her behind her back. . .)

She said she only uses free software to check keywords.

((Insert collective "GASP!!"))

Immediately I knew it: she was an idiot. She had to be!

Just plain and simple: untrained, uncouth, uninformed, and likely broke as a joke. . .

Maybe she grew up, raised by wolves and without electricity, who knows. I just remember thinking, "Who didn't use Micro Niche Finder? Or at least Market Samurai?"

I had software, but do you know what she had? She had knowledge. I didn't know keyword research basics.

Why? Because I thought all you needed to do was rely on the paid-for tools.

You know what I found? That the tool was wrong sometimes - or that it didn't have all the pieces of the puzzle in place.

Then I bought this plugin called SEOPressor - it does your on-page SEO checking for you, giving you suggestions on improvements. I installed it on my websites -

And I was told my on-page SEO sucked. You know what I thought at that? I thought that this plugin sucked, that's what!

I also thought, "No, it was my stupid keyword tool. . ."

To tell the truth, I discovered two things: 1) My on-page SEO was abysmal. 2) Micro Niche Finder is just a program - and it's wrong at times - but it did give me a false read on some keywords.

That's true for any keyword tool, by the way. Then I realized:

Whatever the best keyword research tool was - paid or free - you need to know how to do your own keyword and market analysis to really get a picture of competition, and feasibility.

Really quick, here are the basic steps of SEO, in a nutshell:

1. Find Good Keywords
2. Use Them Properly (On-Page SEO)
3. Use Them For Your Anchor-Texts For Backlinks To Your Site (Off-Page SEO)

It needs to be mentioned that without following up on your keyword research with steps 2 and 3 in our simplified model, you will have wasted your time.

You might think your software was busted - and then you go off to buy a more expensive product, thinking that the $57 tool wasn't enough.

Solution?

You get the $97 tool. . .Nevermind that you never bother with learning on-page SEO nor understand off-page SEO - it MUST be the keyword software, right?

In answer - to be blunt: if you don't know SEO, then how would you know?

Before going further - software has its place. It's not a cardinal rule that anyone peddling software has it "in" for you - not the case. And: what's wrong with plugging a good product?

Nothing, really - but here's the rub: if you knew keyword research, then you wouldn't need to pay through the Yin Yang to find the keywords that

==> EVERYONE SAYS <==

are

"hidden, secret keywords that NOBODY knows about. . ."

It's not true - because these tools all mine public data centers and information that is readily available to those willing to look.

For example, you can use the "Google Wonder Wheel" for a bit of Latent Semantic Analysis and Indexing words (LSI), it's in the left-hand sidebar of Google under "more".

These are terms related to your main keyword in Google's eyes. Or use their suggestion drop-down, it's underneath the search bar when you enter terms to look for (all the main search engines have their own suggestions).

Want hidden keywords? Look at Amazon, where you will find plenty of search parameters of things to sell related to whatever it is your website is about. The point is - even the "best keyword research tool" still mines its data from some place that you can, too.

I'll cut to the chase for you: want the best keyword research tool? Learn SEO - learn about keywords and how to find them (I'll show you just one of the ways at my other Hub, Finding Low Compete Keywords With FREE Tools).

For a desk-top suite of tools that is free to use - though there is an upgrade option (I use the free version just fine, it's worth the "investment"....Read More About SEOPowerSuite HERE.)