Keyword research tools are a great way to not only work out which online niche you want to choose, but also which keywords you should be optimizing your website or blog for. No webmaster or site owner can ignore keyword research as part of their regular business activities. If you want to make more money from your site via increased traffic, then read on. The list below are my favorite tools for exploring keywords for your site.

Wordtracker

Wordtracker is a great keyword research tool that offers both a free trial version and a paid version. The free trial version only gives you results from the MSN search engine but includes the number of competing websites, the amount of search volume each keyword gets and a value known as the KEI index value which tells you the relative ratio of search volume versus competition. This should be used when optimizing your web page for keywords as choosing keywords that have a high search volume with low competition (a high KEI value) enables you to position yourself for higher rankings in the search engines.

Overture

Overture has been a popular keyword research tool for a number of years but the information it gives is quite limited. Overture specifically covers the Yahoo! search engine and mainly gives alternate keywords for the one you entered. Although this can help you get more ideas for possible keywords and tells you how many people are searching for these terms it is not particularly helpful in terms of the competition you will be facing. Regardless, I would say Overture is my all time favorite tool. Reason? This tool was part of the inspiration of WhyDoWork.com :D (since it was noticed on Overture that there were always over 250,000 searches a month for “work at home”).

Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool

If you are using Google Adwords to promote your website or blog then you will have come across the Adwords keyword research tool. This tool gives you a number of different reports and offers alternate keywords, the search volume for these terms, amount of competition, cost and ad position estimates, search volume trends, and possible negative keywords. This is a free tool to use, and even if you aren’t using Adwords as a marketing method it can provide a lot of useful information for your keyword optimization. Keep in mind that you will have more options available to you if you actually log in to Adwords to use the tools. On the public version of the tool, I particularly like the search volume trends option (select in the drop-down list) as it will highlight the most popular month for each particular keyword.
Keyword research is often an overlooked activity in the quest for making money online; but how can you make money without traffic? ;). You’d be surprised at how much effective keyword research and tracking can effect your income. Knowing who to target, at what time of year, and where, can have great returns.

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