Keywords, webmasters and marketers, eat, sleep and have nightmares about keywords. They are truly the lifeblood of our business and especially the SEO end of it.

Keywords is how web surfers find our sites, how we target buyers and visitors and overall are essential to the success of our websites and blogs.

Remember that the SERPS (search engine page results) are all about the positions are sites have for certain keywords, and so we need to target the ones that have a good balance of searches versus competition.

And, many focus on sitewide keywords and neglect to optimize all the inner pages by doing the requisite keyword research, and so they miss out on a huge about of potential traffic from those inner pages.

Free webmaster tools that deal with keyword research are plentiful, but, one thing to keep in mind is that none of them are 100% accurate and never will be. It is just not possible. It is a good idea to use 2-3 tools to cross check results and then use common sense.

Also, if the keyword sounds too odd for a large amount of people to search for it then let it go, no matter what the keyword tool tells you.

Also, often times the long tail keywords are the ones that are the hardest to figure out but they are usually some of the most profitable, most diverse and the easiest to rank for.

Free Keyword Research Tools

SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool – My favorite!

Google Keyword Tool

Wordtracker Free Keywords – Limited results for free version, not my favorite but people use it.

Google Search Based Keyword Tool – This one is very cool because it analyzes your web pages and offers you related keyword ideas as per your website to use for inner pages and blog posts.

Only Keyword Tools Worth Paying For

There are few keyword tools worth paying for, not only because the free ones are so good, but also because many of them are just crappy and not worth the money.

Micro Niche Finder – The best tool for finding micro niches and long tail keywords that provides clear and comprehensive information.

Keyword Discovery – Limited for free version, but gives detailed data.

Free Keyword and Niche Suggestions and Ideas Tools

If you’re short on niche ideas and topics to even start your keyword search here are some great places to get ideas for popular topics and products that are hot on the web.

My Simon – The greatest invention since money

Google Trends

Ebay Pulse – Shows top searches on eBay…it’s eBay…enough said!

Amazon – Browse categories and products

Happy Keyword Searching!