Keyword Optimization involves finding and using the proper search terms that will effectively drive the appropriate search traffic to your site - organic search engine traffic that does what you want them to do.
How each keyword performs can only be decided when you are actually ranking for the keyword and getting traffic. Everything up till that point in time is nothing more than a guess.
SEO Software is software which enables you to perform tasks more easily. There are Keyword Tools available which purport to help you identify the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but do they really?
Many Keyword Tools are not software which resides on your hard drive, they are Software As A Service (SAAS) which is delivered from the cloud. You pay a monthly subscription for the service and it can get very expensive.
If you want to join-in and play the guessing game that IS Keyword Research, you have many many options available to you at prices all over the map.
This blog tries to identify the Best SEO Software, SEO SAAS, and other SEO Tools and Scripts which allow you to excel using the Mac OS. I have found that most Search Engine Optimization products and services built for Mac are usually available for the Windows OS as well as Linux.
Although many if not all of the software solutions out there, especially when it comes to Mac SEO Software, do much more than Keyword Research, I am going to try and limit the scope of this article to Keyword Optimization and Keyword Tools.
Free Keyword Tools
- Google Adwords Keyword Tool
- The Wordtracker FREE Keyword Suggestion Tool
Of all the Free SEO Tools out there for Researching Keywords, the Google Adwords Keyword Tool is probably the most useful and mostly used.
Googles' Keyword Tool is Free to use and has various options to display and export data that you can use in a spreadsheet if you are so-inclined. The information is organized by the month.
It's my favourite Keyword Research Tool and even though I have other SEO Tools I've paid for, I still use The Google Keyword Tool and a customized spreadsheet every day.
Keyword Research using the Google Adwords Free Keyword Tool won't give you exact results across all search engines, but it's a great tool and can give you a great place to start.
If you want to break-out your search data for a daily search volume, The Wordtracker FREE Keyword Suggestion Tool is a great place to go. The data is not as thorough as Google but if you are just looking for search quantity you'll find it there
I use the tool to see how the numbers compare with Google. One of the cool things in Wordtrackers Free Keyword Suggestion Tool is that you will find Long Tail Keyword Phrases that you may have missed in the Adwords Tool.
This is a great feature because when you are just starting the planning phase of a website or blog, it can be very informative to see these long tail searches.
Paid SEO Software Focused On Keyword Research
Keyword Research is obviously very important for finding what people are searching for and how they are searching. If you use the Free SEO Tools, you must be highly organized and have a method to keep your research together and easily accessible.When you buy an SEO Tool for Keyword Research, this will be taken care of for you.
- Market Samurai Market Samurai is an all around Keyword Research Tool that will help you stay organized and informed. It's available for Mac OS X and Windows. From what I understand you can also run the software on Linux as well but I haven't tried it. The folks at Noble Samurai call Market Samurai Traffic-Hunting Software and here are a few of the features you'll find.
- Rank Tracker Monitor multiple sites and webpages, and their rankings across all major search engines.
- Keyword Research Find additional relevant keywords - then analyze the total traffic, visitor values, competition and likely buying intentions around these keywords.
- SEO Competition Analyze the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) competition around the top 10 web-pages in your current keyword market.
- Monetization Discover exactly how you can profit from the keywords in your market, and turn your newfound visitor traffic into a cascading stream of income!
- Find Content Once you know your keywords, Market Samurai saves you time, effort and frustration when it comes to creating content for your web-site.
- Publish Content Take the headaches out of publishing articles and blog posts online, and make managing your web-site a breeze!
- Promotion Boost your search engine rankings, pump-up your site traffic, and build high quality back links quickly and easily.
- Keyword Elite 2.0 Keyword Elite 2.0 is the first attempt by Brad Callen, Owner of Bryxen Software, to build his landmark Keyword Tool specifically for Mac. This software has been around for quite awhile for Windows and Keyword Elite 2.0 is a considerable upgrade. The software is much more than just a Keyword Research Tool and has quite a few features. Here's what they say:
- Keyword Surge Build long tail keyword lists. Generate large diversified keyword lists. Uncover unique keyword phrases.
- Market Research Sleuth Find high converting, low cost keywords for ALL major ppc engines, including Adwords, Yahoo, and BING. See search trends on every keyword on the planet. Know what's being searched for the most, right now!
- Adwords Time Machine Instant access to the past 6 months of ad history for any Adwords advertiser! Uncover any Adwords advertiser's keyword list!
- Search Engine Dominator Quickly uncover the reasons your competition is outranking you in Google, Yahoo, and Bing! See how exactly how many links you'll need to get a top Google, Yahoo, and Bing ranking. Learn just how competitive a niche is to target.
- Adwords Competition Sniper Monitor any Adwords advertiser in real-time and see exactly how they're running their campaigns!
- Advanced Adwords Site Targeter Uncover those hidden traffic sources that only the gurus use to send traffic to their sites!
- JV Diamond Miner Uncover the marketers with HUGE mailing lists that you can get to promote your products!
- CPA Magnet Quickly and easily find super hot CPA offers with the click of a button! Get instant access to search through over 40 affilate and CPA networks!
- Rank Tracker | SEO Powersuite Rank Tracker is specifically designed to track your rank in the SERPs so you know it's designed around keywords. The built in features allow you to expand on the keywords you are using and add them to your data center.
Rank Tracker helps you discover profitable keywords you've been missing out on! Check this out: Rank Tracker includes a powerful "Suggest Keywords" feature. With it, you'll be able to grab traffic-generating keywords using Wordtracker, Google Suggest, your competitor's websites, and many other methods. Now Rank Tracker users get access to the 40+ million keyword database of SEMRush and can generate keyword suggestions in 4 languages: English, German, French and Russian. Together with SEMRush there are now 16 keyword research tools in Rank Tracker including Google AdWords Keyword Tool, Keyword Discovery, Google Search Based Keyword tool and other services. That makes Rank Tracker a solid weapon for keyword research.With the ability to output reports with custom designed templates, not only is this SEO Software great for personal use, it's the perfect option for a Pro. You can send clients customized reports showing where they are when you start and reports that highlight the improvements you've generated for them over time.
These are just a few of the options you have for organizing and researching keywords. I will be adding to this page as time permits. I'll post the many plugins for Firefox that you can use as well which can help in your SEO efforts.
Just remember though, when it comes to SEO, Optimizing Keywords is the starting point but it is an ongoing process and having great Keyword Research Software can really help but you will still have to do the work.
When it comes to the Mac, I just can't wait until someone comes up with an SEO App for the iPad, it will surely make the whole experience a total pleasure.
Jim
