I hate keyword research! Do you have a simpler method?

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It seems whatever job or business I have ever engaged in and enjoyed, there is always one aspect that drives me crazy and I end up hating.

With IM it is keyword research. I sometimes find that I have spent hours flicking between tabs - google, google keyword tool, back to google, with inverted commas without inverted commas, average PR of page 1 etc, etc. - and have still got nothing particularly inspiring to work with at the end of the day. At which point I slam down the lid of the laptop, stride out of my study and pour myself a stiff drink!

I know you will all tell me to outsource it but two things stop me. Firstly, I was always brought up to believe that I should be able to do and excell at every aspect of my business. Secondly, it is against my nature to spend money when I should be able to do it myself.

So my question is: (apart from outsourcing) do you know of any inexpensive or free tools or any 'tricks of the trade' that would make this process more enjoyable, more productive, less frustrating and less time consuming?
#search engine optimization #hate #keyword #method #research #simpler
  • It's not free, nor inexpensive, but you can get a free trial before you buy: market samurai. I can't live without it for my keyword research.

    Leslie
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I second this recommendation. Actually, this is the tool I use in my freelance keyword research work (and I have tried pretty much all the free and paid keyword research tools).

      It is a bit pricey, but it is by far the best resource for accurate and complete keyword research.

      KateD
      • [1] reply
  • No matter you use any good software for keyword research...There has to be a manual touch for the final list else the whole campaign will get affected.
  • Market Samurai - absolutely worth the price imho - it's also so much more than a keyword search tool.
  • I've found that Micro Niche Finder is the quickest way of finding effective keyword phrases.

    I also have Market Samurai which is more comprehensive, but the speed of MNF in identifying worthwhile keyword phrases is superior IMHO.

    Anyway, either of these tools will prove very effective for you.

    cheers,
    Eric G.
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    • Banned
      Re: I hate keyword research! Do you have a simpler method?
      I have Two words for you:

  • What about WebCEO, I only ask because I've just had an email from them with some special offers they're doing right now. I like Market Samurai because it runs on a Mac, but just wondered if anyone swears by WebCEO as their current offer looks good (no I'm not an affiliate, developer, friend or in anyway connected to WebCEO).
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thanks for all the input, folks and for pointing me in the right direction for making 'cleaning the IM toilet' less infuriating for me (that's how I see the KW research aspect, anyway).

    I got hold of the trial version of Samurai, had a play and it does look awesome. I am also checking out WebCEO too.

    Hell, if I find the right tool, maybe I'll start doing it for others! Lol
    • [1] reply
    • Wow...

      You went from calling keyword research "cleaning the IM toilet" to contemplating offering keyword research services to others in a matter of seconds.

      Well, best of luck on that. I was the first to offer keyword research services on the Warrior Forum and I absolutely LOVE doing keyword research.

      And even for me, who has been providing my service to Warriors for the past 14 months, has to really work at developing new business.

      How confident will Warriors be in your keyword research services when they read your "I hate keyword research" thread?

      KateD
      • [1] reply
  • Use Market Samurai for your research. It's great!
  • Use keyword elite. That will make the job much easier.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I see you already made a post there, but as soon as I saw this thread it made me think of Kate's thread http://www.warriorforum.com/warriors...sUbonZW7iTetvw

    (hopefully it's OK to link someone else's thread here?)

    I just used her keyword service and it was great, especially at her prices. She got me back a list of nearly 200 keywords. Now I can just go down the list and write for each one, skipping any I think might be too competitive or w.e.

    Saved me a ton of time and I'd definitely recommend it.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • Problem is....I think I upset her with my flippant jokes.
      • [1] reply
    • Brandon,

      Thanks for the positive feedback. I am so grateful that my keyword research services helped you further your marketing strategies.

      I truly LOVE happy customers.

      Thanks again, Brandon.

      KateD
      • [1] reply
  • I also use the market samurai and have found it to be a great tool for keyword research. It really is a great product and free for the keyword research part. Although I recommend getting the full version as it offers lots of great seo tools.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I recommend using the free keyword suggestion tool at SEOCentro | Latest SEO & Search Engines News
  • Mate, save yourself some time and invest in either Market Samuri or Keyword Elite 2.0. Will cost you to get in but this is money well spent, and will save you an huge amount of time!
  • I've tried them ALL and honestly Market Samuari is the best...the keyword research tool is FREE forever but the other portions of the software are free for the trial then a one off payemnt after that.....definetly worth it's weight in gold i think i might of spent all of a few hours and I had ideas turned into keyword phrases and even knew my level of competition, picked out my product for me from Amazon for affiliates and told me the adsense payout....
  • Thank you all for the great feedback.

    I am using Market Samurai at the moment and it looks fantastic.

    @KateD I may well take you up on your services later on. Thanks.
  • Market Samurai or outsource it if You're really busy.
    • [1] reply
    • Traffic Travis is pretty good, and it's free. It's Market Samurai light.
  • Market Samurai or Keyword Elite. They're both great. I'm looking more at links now, though. I recommend using MajesticSEO (it's free) Majestic-SEO : Competitive Link Intelligence and Yahoo's backlink checker.

    Hope that makes it easier, man!
    Kris Roxas
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    • I've checked out most tools and have to say Market Samurai is amazing. If only it would fly a little faster...
  • If you are using a WordPress blog, I recently came across a plugin that uses the OpenCalais API today. It extracts relevant meta-data based on the relevant keywords submitted to the service. Still testing it out, however.
    • [1] reply
    • Does the paid version of Market Samurai offer such great functionality, because nothing i've seen on the free version suggests that its worth upgrading?

      I'm still shooting in the dark when it comes to KW research, using Google adwords KW tool to check for volume (which I understand may not be accurate), then looking at the allintitle and allinurl search operators to check for the competition (hardly scientific).
  • Hi Rysk,

    I'm not sure why you would still need to check with the adwords keyword tool. Market Samurai gets the data from there, but puts it in a daily number. In the same module (keyword research) you can then see the number of competition (just make sure to check that before you do the research). Then, if you want to see the info for the allintitle and such for a certain keyword, you just create a new tab with that keyword, open the SEO competion module and there you get all that information for the first 10 ranking pages in google.

    Leslie
  • Market Samurai is not always correct, but neither is the google keyword tool. However the later is free, and you'll still need to figure out what level of competition is comfortable for you by looking at the competition for yourself. After many months you'll develop a 6th sense which would be otherwise hindered if you only trust one tool or method. Don't hold yourself back, you have to push through, and your business will be better served.

    It sucks, but if you want to do it right, do it yourself, for free. With the level of vampirism on all IM forums I wouldn't trust anyone with even a small part of my business. But that's just me.
  • Micro Niche Finder...it is the cat's whiskers! I LOVE keyword research and its just made my job a lot more easier.....it doesnt mean that you stop there, it just allows you to save time and be a little more dilligent.

    There are other recommndations such as Market Samurai etc but I havent used them and cant vouch for it but from the feedback it seems to be equally as good!

    Hope that helps
    Zaheer
  • I agree, Micro Niche Finder is great!
  • I do it manually and uses Google serp results doing my keyword research.
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    I hate keyword research! Do you have a simpler method?

    It seems whatever job or business I have ever engaged in and enjoyed, there is always one aspect that drives me crazy and I end up hating. With IM it is keyword research. I sometimes find that I have spent hours flicking between tabs - google, google keyword tool, back to google, with inverted commas without inverted commas, average PR of page 1 etc, etc. - and have still got nothing particularly inspiring to work with at the end of the day. At which point I slam down the lid of the laptop, stride out of my study and pour myself a stiff drink!