How do you do keyword research using free tools only?

I only use free tools to do my research. I usually enter a seed word at Google's External Keyword Tool. I show Estimated Average CPC to get a gauge of how much the keywords are worth. I run this tool to build a nice list of keywords and save the info in a spreadsheet. It's also a good idea to find similar words also. You can sprinkle them into your content and also use them to vary your anchor text in links to the page. (Example: horse diseases, equine illnesses, illnesses in horses, etc)

After the list of KWs & expected CPC is built, I use Free Wordtracker to get # of searches. (just double-checking the #s from Google's tool...I just trust wordtracker more for some reason)

After I have the # of searches & CPC, I'll check the number of results in quotes on Google. I usually go after KWs with <100K results in quotes. No authority sites in the top 3 is also a good sign. It's also best to check out the top 3, top 5, or top 10 sites to see what they're like. (KWs they're going after, # of links to KW page, # of links to main page, PR, etc)

ETA: I also recently started using SEOQuake, a free extension for firefox & IE. You can use it on Google & Yahoo Site Explorer to find useful information on the results (PR, Yahoo Link Density, # of links to page, indexed pages, etc)

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dotcomken

17 years ago

My method is right on with what Chessguy is saying above. If you follow that you will be good to go. No need to pay for anything to analyze keywords.

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Ron.

17 years ago

Thank you.

I don't think I'll ever pay for a tool.

Originally Posted by dotcomken

My method is right on with what Chessguy is saying above. If you follow that you will be good to go. No need to pay for anything to analyze keywords.

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AmyBrown

17 years ago

Originally Posted by Ron.

Thank you.

I don't think I'll ever pay for a tool.

That seems very short-sighted. When you have more time than money it might make sense to do things manually. However, when the balance shifts and time is the limiting factor tools like Market Samurai can be invaluable to the growth of your business.

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Ron.

17 years ago

Only short sighted for you. IM is not and will never be my main line of income. It's not a high value business FOR ME.

I am doing this just to see if I can do it. Heck If I only make $500 a month for selling some ebook that's fine with me. I am not trying to "hit it big" with IM.

My background and and experience is Mergers and Acquisitions(M&A). I've spent the last 12 years as a Financial analyst.

I now have a offline business in which I offer M&A consulting and business valuation services. That's where my passion is, not IM. FOR ME, there are so many more opportunities offline than online.

Soon I'll be setting up a lead generation tool using certain aspects of online marketing. I may create products as it relates to my speaking engagements and live workshops I present to business owners, but It will not go beyond that. I'll use those as freebies for signing up for my nwsletter.

It just doesn't make sense for me to spend a lot of time and money with MMO stuff.

I just want to see if I can do it and apply what I've learned to setting up my lead generation program, it has nothing to do with the money.

From your POV it may be short sighted but you don't have my background and experience nor do probably understand Finance and business they way I do. If you did you would proabably spend more time offline than online.

Ron

Originally Posted by AmyBrown

That seems very short-sighted. When you have more time than money it might make sense to do things manually. However, when the balance shifts and time is the limiting factor tools like Market Samurai can be invaluable to the growth of your business.

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AmyBrown

17 years ago

Originally Posted by Ron.

Only short sighted for you. IM is not and will never be my main line of income. It's not a high value business FOR ME.

I am doing this just to see if I can do it. Heck If I only make $500 a month for selling some ebook that's fine with me. I am not trying to "hit it big" with IM.

My background and and experience is Mergers and Acquisitions(M&A). I've spent the last 12 years as a Financial analyst.

I now have a offline business in which I offer M&A consulting and business valuation services. That's where my passion is, not IM. FOR ME, there are so many more opportunities offline than online.

Soon I'll be setting up a lead generation tool using certain aspects of online marketing. I may create products as it relates to my speaking engagements and live workshops I present to business owners, but It will not go beyond that. I'll use those as freebies for signing up for my nwsletter.

It just doesn't make sense for me to spend a lot of time and money with MMO stuff.

I just want to see if I can do it and apply what I've learned to setting up my lead generation program, it has nothing to do with the money.

From your POV it may be short sighted but you don't have my background and experience nor do probably understand Finance and business they way I do. If you did you would proabably spend more time offline than online.

Ron

My experience is that those who talk about their experience or how much money they make when it is entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand are either full of themselves or full of something else.

I do understand finance but more importantly I understand the value of my time and so do most successful business owners. I can't imagine spending more time than necessary on such a mundane task but whatever floats your boat

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gvannorman

15 years ago

Originally Posted by nostih

Thank you.

I don't think I'll ever pay for a tool.

Its true that the free methods will do everything that a paid program will do. I use Market Samurai and love it. You can do all the above stuff faster and time is money in any business that I have ever been associated with.

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ThelemaqueTip

15 years ago

Originally Posted by gvannorman

Its true that the free methods will do everything that a paid program will do. I use Market Samurai and love it. You can do all the above stuff faster and time is money in any business that I have ever been associated with.

I have also use samurai it do me great justice i def recommended..beside why paid for something when you can get it for free..all it take from you its time that's you

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Ron.

17 years ago

Finally................a very doable and easy to follow process. I'll copy and past this.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by chessguy

I only use free tools to do my research. I usually enter a seed word at Google's External Keyword Tool. I show Estimated Average CPC to get a gauge of how much the keywords are worth. I run this tool to build a nice list of keywords and save the info in a spreadsheet. It's also a good idea to find similar words also. You can sprinkle them into your content and also use them to vary your anchor text in links to the page. (Example: horse diseases, equine illnesses, illnesses in horses, etc)

After the list of KWs & expected CPC is built, I use Free Wordtracker to get # of searches. (just double-checking the #s from Google's tool...I just trust wordtracker more for some reason)

After I have the # of searches & CPC, I'll check the number of results in quotes on Google. I usually go after KWs with <100K results in quotes. No authority sites in the top 3 is also a good sign. It's also best to check out the top 3, top 5, or top 10 sites to see what they're like. (KWs they're going after, # of links to KW page, # of links to main page, PR, etc)

Thanks

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"Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody"

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Pete223

17 years ago

Originally Posted by chessguy

I only use free tools to do my research. I usually enter a seed word at Google's External Keyword Tool. I show Estimated Average CPC to get a gauge of how much the keywords are worth. I run this tool to build a nice list of keywords and save the info in a spreadsheet. It's also a good idea to find similar words also. You can sprinkle them into your content and also use them to vary your anchor text in links to the page. (Example: horse diseases, equine illnesses, illnesses in horses, etc)

After the list of KWs & expected CPC is built, I use Free Wordtracker to get # of searches. (just double-checking the #s from Google's tool...I just trust wordtracker more for some reason)

After I have the # of searches & CPC, I'll check the number of results in quotes on Google. I usually go after KWs with <100K results in quotes. No authority sites in the top 3 is also a good sign. It's also best to check out the top 3, top 5, or top 10 sites to see what they're like. (KWs they're going after, # of links to KW page, # of links to main page, PR, etc)

ETA: I also recently started using SEOQuake, a free extension for firefox & IE. You can use it on Google & Yahoo Site Explorer to find useful information on the results (PR, Yahoo Link Density, # of links to page, indexed pages, etc)

That's some very sound advice Chessguy... the only thing I have a problem with is
that it's time consuming!

What I like with a tool like MS or some of the other good products out there is that
I can analyze multiple keywords in much less time!

You could spend many hours researching before you hit on a good
keyword/keyword phrase doing it manually!

Anyhow, with that said, again, good advice you gave here!

Cheers, Pete

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mikeyman120

17 years ago

Originally Posted by chessguy

I only use free tools to do my research. I usually enter a seed word at Google's External Keyword Tool. I show Estimated Average CPC to get a gauge of how much the keywords are worth. I run this tool to build a nice list of keywords and save the info in a spreadsheet. It's also a good idea to find similar words also. You can sprinkle them into your content and also use them to vary your anchor text in links to the page. (Example: horse diseases, equine illnesses, illnesses in horses, etc)

After the list of KWs & expected CPC is built, I use Free Wordtracker to get # of searches. (just double-checking the #s from Google's tool...I just trust wordtracker more for some reason)

After I have the # of searches & CPC, I'll check the number of results in quotes on Google. I usually go after KWs with <100K results in quotes. No authority sites in the top 3 is also a good sign. It's also best to check out the top 3, top 5, or top 10 sites to see what they're like. (KWs they're going after, # of links to KW page, # of links to main page, PR, etc)

ETA: I also recently started using SEOQuake, a free extension for firefox & IE. You can use it on Google & Yahoo Site Explorer to find useful information on the results (PR, Yahoo Link Density, # of links to page, indexed pages, etc)

Thanks for that post. I will be copying this one. Thanks for the keyword information ecspecially, I needed that.

Mike

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JeffLam

17 years ago

Originally Posted by Ron.

Only short sighted for you. IM is not and will never be my main line of income. It's not a high value business FOR ME.

I am doing this just to see if I can do it. Heck If I only make $500 a month for selling some ebook that's fine with me. I am not trying to "hit it big" with IM.

My background and and experience is Mergers and Acquisitions(M&A). I've spent the last 12 years as a Financial analyst.

I now have a offline business in which I offer M&A consulting and business valuation services. That's where my passion is, not IM. FOR ME, there are so many more opportunities offline than online.

Soon I'll be setting up a lead generation tool using certain aspects of online marketing. I may create products as it relates to my speaking engagements and live workshops I present to business owners, but It will not go beyond that. I'll use those as freebies for signing up for my nwsletter.

It just doesn't make sense for me to spend a lot of time and money with MMO stuff.

I just want to see if I can do it and apply what I've learned to setting up my lead generation program, it has nothing to do with the money.

From your POV it may be short sighted but you don't have my background and experience nor do probably understand Finance and business they way I do. If you did you would proabably spend more time offline than online.

Ron

Are you sort of like a banker?

Originally Posted by Craig McPherson

I have posted this before but this is for the benefit of those that have not seen it.

Type the word: something

into Google and the number 1 result is www. something. com

Results 1 - 10 of about 764,000,000 for something
The main page has the single word something on it.
It is in the title tags too.

BUT

Do a yahoo site explorer and you will find the home page has 55,735 backlinks to it
The entire site has 60,415

Proves that backlinks are vital. Another interesting point is that I did not find a single relevant site that backlinks to it.
So much for "on theme site backlinks"

That is very interesting indeed..the power of backlinks.

Jeff

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rody 15 years ago

Originally Posted by nostih

WOW.....really!

YES....really!!
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Pete223

17 years ago

Check out Market Samurai... it's not free but it's top notch!

You can get a free 40 day trial instead of the normal 12 days here: Niche Marketing Product - Market Samurai

You'll find great video tutorials here: Video Tutorials - Noble Samurai

Cheers, Pete

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Ron.

17 years ago

Pete, thanks.

I watched the M.S video after I signed up for the free trial. It looks like M.S takes everything into account.

Since it was a free trial I said why not.

Thanks again. Looks good.

Originally Posted by Pete223

Check out Market Samurai... it's not free but it's top notch!

You can get a free 40 day trial instead of the normal 12 days here: Niche Marketing Product - Market Samurai

You'll find great video tutorials here: Video Tutorials - Noble Samurai

Cheers, Pete

Thanks
1 reply

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-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Pete223

17 years ago

Originally Posted by Ron.

Pete, thanks.

I watched the M.S video after I signed up for the free trial. It looks like M.S takes everything into account.

Since it was a free trial I said why not.

Thanks again. Looks good.

You're welcome Ron!

I'm sure you'll like it, it's very thorough and it will cut down your research
time by A LOT!

Set your filters right and 3 clicks later you'll know if you have a good
keyword/keyword phrase picked out, if the market is spending money and what
you'll need to do to make it to the top!

Cheers, Pete

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webjedi 15 years ago

Originally Posted by Pete223

Check out Market Samurai.

You can get a free 40 day trial instead of the normal 12 days here: Niche Marketing Product - Market Samurai

Cheers, Pete

Is this puppy still good to evaluate for 40 days?
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Craig McPherson

17 years ago

Originally Posted by Ron.

no one seems to take into account the number of backlinks the #1-3 spots have pointing back....all of which you should do.

I have posted this before but this is for the benefit of those that have not seen it.

Type the word: something

into Google and the number 1 result is www. something. com

Results 1 - 10 of about 764,000,000 for something
The main page has the single word something on it.
It is in the title tags too.

BUT

Do a yahoo site explorer and you will find the home page has 55,735 backlinks to it
The entire site has 60,415

Proves that backlinks are vital. Another interesting point is that I did not find a single relevant site that backlinks to it.
So much for "on theme site backlinks"

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Franck Silvestre

17 years ago

I've detailled my step by step keyword research process on my blog, you can view it here:

This is a full step by step tutorial: Niche Marketing Profitabililty | Internet Marketing Mentor

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Franck Silvestre

17 years ago

I've detailed my step by step keyword research process on my blog, you can view it here:

This is a full step by step Google External Tool tutorial: Niche Marketing Profitabililty | Internet Marketing Mentor

Enjoy!
Franck

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Kevin Riley said: "Franck, glad to see you bringing out MORE and MORE GREAT stuff"

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Steven Carl Kelly

17 years ago

For KW research, I only use Google's own tools (free), OpenOffice Calc (free), and MNF (paid). Nothing else is really necessary, especially if you have a formula. Wordtracker, other KW providers, to me aren't worth the money because their numbers aren't based on Google. If it isn't Google, it isn't useful enough to me.

Your "competition" is the front page of Google. That's it. I don't care if a search has 10,000 results or 10,000,000.

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NateRivers

15 years ago

I really like market samurai but you can find out what you need quickly with just free tools. Mainly, google keyword tool and regular google. To check competition, I like using allintitle:"your keyword phrase" - That and checking the first page of search results to see who you'll have to beat.

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TrishMullen 15 years ago

In your expert opinions here on KW research, what advantages does MS have over MNF?

I have MNF but have never used MS.
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jasonmorgan

15 years ago

How I do it for SEO ranking... the lazy sock way.

Toss the keyword into Traffic Travis for detailed information on the top 20 sites and see what TT has to say about it. You can use Market Samurai as well.

This pretty much gives me all the information I need to know about the pages ranking for that keyword. I can look at the list and know what sites, backlinks and SEO info instantly. Then I go on my gut or use the handy difficulty ranking they give.

Top that off with switching over to google advanced search, showing 100 results per page, and clicking on page 10 (page 100 default). Google only returns 1,000 results for any search (the rest are lost in supplemental results land) so checking out page 10 will show me exactly how many real pages I have to compete with. The top 10 sites are what really matter but this lets me know how many pages stand between me and #1.

That about sums it up from an SEO POV. If you're keyword researching for adsense there are extra steps involved since you want to know the value of those keywords as well.

This stuff isn't complicated and doesn't have to be time consuming. Once you get a feel for what you can accomplish and what is out of reach it's a quickie. Actually thinking up good keywords is harder than the research part.