[Hidden-tech] Keyword Research Tools for SEO

[Rob Laporte]

Hi All,
 
In the October 13 panel ³Making Sense of SEO,² we discussed keyword research
tools for search marketing, and we concluded that Google¹s tool is good. A
few days before the panel, Google made changes to the keyword tool that
appear to degrade it to the point of barely worthwhile, unless coupled with
other tools. This page explains:
http://www.aimclearblog.com/2010/10/07/r-i-p-google-keyword-tool-long-live-s
eo/. I have more research to do, but so far it doesn¹t look good for the
Google keyword tool for SEO.
 
I believe Wordtracker.com is still the best for under 40G SEO jobs, though
here too one must know its weaknesses. KeywordDiscovery.com has plusses,
though I question its data sources. The new WordStream.com has strengths
worth exploring. My firm is currently engaged in another round of research
into SEOmoz¹s tools; you should look into SEOmoz.org too. Many swear by
BruceClay¹s ToolSet; I don¹t, but as with all tools, using them well will
produce good results. For 40G+ SEO jobs, there are better, more expensive
tools, like Hitwise and comScore and others.
 
Also, I regret that our panel neglected to answer some questions posed by
the audience at the beginning. To answer Sheldon¹s question about one SEO
tactic that can be used for a quick lift, I would echo professional opinion
that keywording your HTML titles is still the single easiest and most
powerful tactic. That assumes that there are no serious SEO technical
problems to begin with. Google Webmaster Tools is the single best start (but
only a start) for assessing your SEO technical status. Many good free SEO
technical tools exist, but none are complete, and some well-regarded ones
produce significant errors.  For link building, often the single most cost
effective tactic is finding inbound links to removed URLs, and 301
redirecting them to live, relevant URLs (for sites with a few years of
history and some deep in-links).
 
Another question had to do with migrating or changing a site without loosing
organic positions. This is one of the most complex and important areas in
SEO, for which there¹s no quick answer, but my firm¹s boilerplate proposal
language on the topic explains:
 
> ³It is crucial that you preserve all good SEO attributes both in your web site
> and in the search engines' records of your web site when transitioning to a
> new web site, or incorporating an external site within a main site, or
> splitting off part of a main site into a separate site. One of the most
> demanding jobs for SEO professionals is such preservation. DISC will guide
> your team in proper use of redirects; server set-up; dovetailing of old URLs,
> new URLs, and your XML SiteMap feeds; use of 404s and 410s; and other factors
> in a precisely sequenced plan in order to preserve what your site has built in
> the search engines as a function of time and whatever good SEO attributes your
> site has now.²
 
I look forward to enlightening replies on the above topics.

Best of luck with your SEO and your businesses.

Rob Laporte
President and CEO
DISC, Inc. - "Making Web Sites Make Money"
413-584-6500
Fax ­ 413-584-3330
Rob at 2disc.com
www.2disc.com 

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