Top 10 free SEO & keyword tools and reports from Wordtracker by Rachelle Money, 13 February 2009
With no mention of the CC it’s a good time to remind you of all the lovely freebies we have on our website. Take a look at our free guides on keyword research, as well as our fantastic tools and videos, which should help you come up with some fresh ideas for your 2009 SEO strategy. Here's our top ten for you to enjoy.
1) Profit from Keywords Videos
This has to be the finest series of videos on keyword research out there. On every day of the week you can learn how keyword research can assist your business in achieving its maximum return on investment. The videos are easy guides on how to enhance your business online by learning all about Pay-Per-Click campaigns, how to use keywords in your linking text, how to assess your market with keyword research and how to expand into new markets.
Video 1 - Search Engine Success Starts with Keywords
Video 2 - Assess Your Market with Keyword Research
Video 3 - How to Build an Effective Keyword Strategy
Video 4 - How to Optimize Your Web Content
Video 5 - Pay Per Click (PPC) for Testing and Profit
Video 6 - How to Use Keywords in Linking Text
Video 7 - Expand into New Markets (and Beat Your Competition)
2) Keyword Basics Guide (Start finding the keywords you need to succeed online)
This four-part extravaganza gets deep into the heart of what keyword research is all about. This is really the perfect introductory step everyone should take on their journey to optimize their website. Even if you have been using Wordtracker for some time and think you know enough about the subject, I urge you to read this because you may uncover some new gems of information.
In Part One, our Chief Marketing Officer Ken McGaffin takes you through how search engines work and how they determine which website gets top of their results.
Part Two is all about discovering the Keyword Matrix, where Ken explains how Wordtracker can be used on a practical level with a step-by-step guide on how to use the tool, and what to do with the keywords after you get them.
Part Three focuses on how to choose the best keywords, when you should expand your keyword list, and how they inform your overall SEO strategy.
Part Four gets down to the nitty gritty with a final chapter on how to use keywords in website copywriting. Once you have all your keywords how do you start writing the keyword-rich content? Read this, and you'll soon find out!
3) Keyword Research Guide
If you haven't read this free guide, do it now. This is a must-have to help Wordtracker clients get a good handle on what keyword research can do on a practical scale.
We created a fictional company, Virginia Veg, and asked experts to provide real answers to the problems facing its CEO, Susan Webster. The results are in this e-book which is packed with insight, tips and techniques on keyword research that you can apply easily to your own website.
It's well worth taking the time to read through the 13 chapters which show you why keywords matter, what you can achieve with Wordtracker, how to boost your online traffic and how to design an online marketing strategy.
4) Using Keywords Guide (A 9-point plan for growing your website revenue)
This is another chunky guide on how to use keywords and has been divided into three parts.
The first chapter looks at how you can use keywords to optimize your current content.
Then the second chapter lifts the lid on how to generate search-engine friendly content for your site.
Finally, the third chapter of Using Keywords is an insightful guide on how the Wordtracker tool can uncover useful niches in your market for you to exploit.
5) Keyword Creativity In Web Design
"Bob Arden is young and ambitious enough to believe that he can still make it big with his website design company.
"He's determined to make big changes, and make them happen soon.
"The latest new business pitch sounds just the right opportunity to try new ways of working, especially as it demands a high level of keyword research skills, something he really wants to get on top on."
Read Bob's story and learn about how the power of keyword creativity can help your website find you more business.
6) The Keyword Questions Tool
The Keyword Questions Tool allows you to enter a 'seed' keyword which is then paired up with a host of top questions asked in search engine queries. So if you want to know what kind of questions people are asking around your business just enter your important keywords and hey presto! This is also a great tool if you want to find inspiration for new content.
7) Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
This is a really simple tool for those who are still contemplating purchasing a full Wordtracker license. This free tool means you can enter a keyword and it will generate around 100 related keywords and an estimate of their daily search volume.
8) Keyword Expert Newsletter
Every month you can find the latest discussions and debates around keyword research and search engine optimization on the Wordtracker Academy site. It gives a great opportunity for experts from all fields to talk about what they think are important lessons, tips and ideas our clients should know about. We also have a fantastic library of case studies which show how Wordtracker has helped a variety of online businesses.
9) SearchStatus Firefox plugin
Not a Wordtracker tool but used and recommended by Wordtracker's SEO expert, Mark Nunney, who tells me: "The SearchStatus Firefox plugin is packed with '2-click' features including (for the page and site you are browsing) finding: inbound links (excluding from current site) as measured by Yahoo; old versions of the site in the WayBackMachine; untold WhoIs options so you can explore who owns the site; and Alexa Rank and traffic estimates."
10) SEO For Firefox plugin
Mark Nunney says: "Aaron Wall's SEObook has a bunch of free tools but my favorite is the 'Look up this page' feature on the SEO For Firefox plugin. With two clicks you are shown a collection of useful facts about the page (and site) you are browsing including: Yahoo inbound links, site Age and a collection of indicators of the site's social profile on Del.icio.us, Digg, StumbleUpon, Twitter and Technorati. Marvelous stuff."
About Rachelle Money
Rachelle Money is a freelance journalist based in Scotland, UK. She graduated from the Scottish School of Journalism in 2005 where she was awarded an internship with two national publications - The Sunday Herald newspaper and The Big Issue magazine. Rachelle has been working with Wordtracker since August 2007 and is a regular contributor to the newsletter.
33 comments
Thank you for all these tools, especially the video series. They will save countless hours of research.
Thanks for putting all of these in one place making it easy for me to do research when adding tags for blog posts.
Thanks for this great list of free stuff. I love the keyword question tool, it's a brilliant idea. It's already given me some great information.
As someone new to SEO and keywords, and not knowing how to find them, your tools we be quite valuable in my efforts to improve our concrete fence form website. The video series will help greatly and save me hours of research time as I try to learn all this on my own.
Excellent stuff. Thanks for collecting it all in one place.
Kevin
That's a lot Rachelle.
Nice to see more comprehensive materials to work from when dealing with such a technical issue. Keyword research has gotten me down in the past and overwhelmed me with boredom until I correctly set up a Google PPC campaign and for almost a year was clearing $200 a day from just one niche. Kwyword research is invaluable for a net business at any level. Without concentrating on it in the beginning you will be forced to always have less profit than your competitiors who ARE concentrating on it.
I also find Rank Checker from seobook a useful tool. I use it to keep an eye on the competition and link building efforts.
If you go to Google and type "Google Adwords Keyword Tool" you get to another free and actually excellent resource. G really improved the tool over the years and most of the 23 SEO's I work with use this frequently for keyword research. Remember to use the results from all these programs in relative terms meaning the data is not to be believed verbatim... but, it will give you a feel for "lots of results" or "some results" or "flatline results".
The video tutorials are excellent. I haven't had time to read the guides but if they're as good as the videos...Wordtracker is the way to go, and although it takes some work to optimize a site, especially the learning process, the results will pay off. John Chartrand
Rachelle, how would you like to spend a week in Kuala Lumpur - away from the cold - assisting us setting up a SEO strategy for around a dozen sites?
Thank you for all the great information! The videos are excellent. The content is well researched. Wordtracker has been the best investment for my new business!
Thanks for putting all of all these tools. I also liked the video series, keyword question tool and Rank Checker from seobook quite useful. Thanks for you effort in bring this article.
Excellent video tutorials....Thanks
I really appreciate the great info. Your stuff is such a time saver. I would be at this for days, while others are out there putting it to work for them. Now, I can put it to work for me! Thanks!
Very educational thank you!
Rachel
Great training, available for free too! With so many art works on my site it's very hard to handle all the right keywords - thanks. Dg
Thank you for all the great information! The videos are excellent. The content is well researched. Wordtracker has been the best investment for my new business!
Thanks for this great list of free stuff. I love the keyword question tool, it's a brilliant idea. It's already given me some great information.
What a great selection of learning aids! We have always promoted your Keyword Research Guide to our clients. Now with this collection of "Top 10" training tools, I envision the learning and earning potential for SEO content will grow by leaps and bounds. Love the videos. Thank you.
Thank goodness for WordTracker! The useful information and guides that you make available are beyond measure.
Great videos! The free wordtracker tool rocks too, I also like the google free keyword tool. We use a bunch of free and paid tools to lock in results. Thanks for all the great resources as they aid in our never ending quest to dominate the search engines :) We use them for all our websites - Ciro Gamino
Thank you so much!
Thanks for coming up with another very useful and insightful article. The freebies you have given are really quite powerful tools; wish every newbie would have found these at the very start of their internet marketing venture.
Wow, this goldmine of info is going to keep me so busy reading I won't have time to get done to the actual work for days :-)
If I could twist your arm from here, or make other search engine "experts" use WordTracker, I most certainly would. I have used it for years and there is not a day that goes by that WordTracker is not on my monitor. The reason is that my clients count on CannonFire getting them Results and WordTracker provides me the information I must have to accomplish that. When you apply the data here properly, your web site relevance and rankings will improve. If you will use the recently released Google SEO Starter Guide, and all the knowledge in WT's Academy, you too will see top rankings like we do. I have one site that is easily found by over 600 keyword phrases. I'll let you guess where they came from!
I haven't been interested in keyword research until recently. I found out that if you can find a good niche, it will save you a lot of time and money. Your marketing will gain result soon and you can beat against your competitors. I suppose Market Samurai is very useful for finding mini niche. And Google Adword tool is very helpful,too.
another free keyword tool (longtail) http://www.bocetos.info .. simple but friendly. :)
This is the really useful information (especially about videos) - I'm really glad I decided to visit this site! Till now I was using Google keyword tool only - but now I see this tool is very useful too.
thanks for the great list of tools!
I will definitely bookmark this page, Very useful for someone fairly new to blogging, keyword research and SEO.
Thank for this great collection of tools. Very helpful!
This has been so much help, thank you for the tools...