Top 5 Free Resources for SEO Keyword Research

Good keyword research lays the foundation for any successful SEO strategy. That’s because ranking higher than your competitors for one keyword could mean the difference between hundreds of visitors a month, and hundreds of thousands.  So here are 5 great resources that’ll help you find those highly valuable keywords for your niche, so that you can dominate to competition and target the correct customers.

Yahoo Answers

A huge percentage of daily searches are questions. These inquiries often related to a specific problem or a “how to” tutorial. You can use Yahoo Answers to do searches for your most relevant, general keywords. Then you’ll see the most popular keywords related to questions people ask about your niche

Alexa Search Analytics

This resource is a great way to learn a lot of important information about your strongest competitors. When you enter your competitor’s domain URL  in Alexa, you’ll be given a current list of all their top keywords.

Google Webmaster Tools

With Webmaster Tools you can find an up-to-date list of all the keywords you are currently ranking for on Google.  This resource is very useful because it’ll show you which keywords you can work better on to rank in first. After all, it’s always easier to work on improving ranking for a keyword than to start all the way from the beginning with a new keyword.

Google Trends and Insights for Search

These are actually two tools that are very similar in function. Both of them allow you to find out the most popular, viral content circulating the web right now that relates to your niche. Staying on top of what’s trending is a fantastic way to find new, relevant keywords. This is also a great way to brainstorm topics for your next blog post as well.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool

By far, this is the most important tool available to for your Keyword Research. Originally made for Google Adwords users, the Google Keyword Tool allows you to search for keywords and get a wealth of information on them. This includes monthly search volumes, competiveness, and a number of related keyword terms as well.

There a many more useful, detailed keyword research tools out there, but with these few, reliable sites, you’ll be able to find all of the relevant information you could ever need for your blog.

Vincent Clarke is a blogger for USB Memory Direct, a leader in the custom usb drives industry. As someone who works in marketing, he enjoys learning and blogging about new, creative, and effective SEO marketing techniques.

About Jakk: Jakk Ogden is a professional self-employed blogger and the founder / owner of Technology Blogged. 22, with a love for good writing, you'll find me playing 'Drag Racing' on my HTC One X and rocking a pair of Grado headphones. If you love technology, be sure to subscribe to my feed for unique editorials. Find me on Google+. View author profile.