With so many keyword analysis tools out there, it can be hard to decide which you should be using for your SEO, and whether you are missing out.
In reality, only three major things need to be considered while conducting keyword research: relevance, search frequency, and competition. So where are tools needed and why should you pay for a keyword research tool?
Relevance: you are the best judge of what keywords are relevant to your website so tools have little use here.
Search frequency: finding out what keywords are typed in by searchers and how frequently they are typed in is essential. The Google keyword tool is the only tool you need for this, and this tool is free. Other keyword tools will provide this but the data they provide here will be no better than the Google keyword tool, and you’ll probably have to pay.
Competition: competition for each keyphrase is important since it tells you how easily you could rank on the first page. So how can you go about finding this out? The Google keyword tool provides competition data but this is not very relevant to SEO and so greater analysis is needed. The free way to find out is to do it yourself. Typing in Google “allintitle:keyphrase” will tell you how many websites are targeting that keyphrase in their page titles and so give you a rough idea of the competition. This is useful although can be time consuming if you have a lot of keywords and does not paint the full picture.
Many might invest in a paid SEO tool such as Wordtracker which provides useful information, yet many smaller companies or individuals just might not be able to afford the somewhat hefty monthly fee. Obtaining information on competitors’ use of keyphrases in header tags, description tags, and their backlink profile can be particularly useful and SEO tools can provide this. If you are willing to invest and make full and common use of the tools then it might be a good idea. I for example use Market Samurai, an effective SEO tool which only involves a single fee rather than quite a large monthly fee. If you don’t mind splashing out about £80 then I’d recommend this tool.
However, for those of you who just don’t think you can afford, or make enough use of a paid tool, then all is not lost. The only competition you should really be worrying about is the first 10 results in the SERPs since the front page is where you want to be for your keyphrase. Bear in mind that only around 20% of searchers click through to the second page so ranking on the first page is what matters for you. So why not type your keyphrase and do a quick analysis of the top 10 websites yourself. What are their title tags, their header keyphrases, and their page descriptions? Determining this shouldn’t take too long if it’s just for the first 10 results. And finding out backlink profiles for the top 10 results? This is easy. You can access basic information on this for free using Majestic SEO.
So which tools do you need for your SEO?
The only keyword tool you definitely need is the free Google keyword tool. In addition, the free Majestic SEO backlink checker tool is very worthwhile.
If you are willing to invest a little and plan on doing a lot of SEO, then I’d recommend paying a one off fee for Market Samurai which gives you a little extra information with a little less hassle.
