subject: Keyword Research Tools And Search Engine Optimization [print this page] Keyword Research Tools And Search Engine Optimization
If you want your site to be found when people search in Google and the other search engines, then you need to optimize your website for the keywords people actually search for. Keyword research is thus a huge part of what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about.
First, you want to be sure that your website and the pages on it are built around the best keywords for your website. Especially, you want to be sure that your keywords appear in the meta title tags, heading tags such as H1 and H2 tags, and sprinkled around your site. This is called on page search engine optimization.
Next, you want to do off page search engine optimization. You need to get as many inbound links to your website and the pages in it as possible. But not just any links - you want to try to get the anchor text (the text of the link) to use your keywords and variations of your keywords. Why? This indicates to Google and the other search engines that other sites think your website is a good resource for information on that topic.
This really sums up basic SEO in a nutshell. But then the question is: how can you know what keywords people search for, and which ones are best for your website?
This critical need has driven the creation of many online marketing tools and services for keyword research, including popular sites like Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery. But did you know that there is another keyword research tool that has two huge advantages over Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery?
What is it, you ask? The Google AdWords Keyword Tool. It's two huge advantages are:
1. It uses Google's database of actual search data rather than data from meta search engines that are rarely used.
Google dominates the search engine market big time, so this is a huge advantage in making sure your keyword research results are as useful as possible.
2. It's free.
Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery are both paid keyword research tools, but Google provides their tool freely even if you are not an AdWords advertiser.
If you want to know what Google thinks the most profitable keywords are, this is the keyword research tool for you. Whether you want to estimate competition for PPC ads or get an idea of the number of monthly global or local searches, this tool will tell you.
