Keyword Research & SEO Tools

If you would like to suggest a tool, please by email and we'll be happy to consider it. Resources do not need to be free, but we will need full access to evaluate them.

Free Tools From SEO Research Labs

• SEO Research Labs Keyword Worksheet
  This 415KB zip archive includes our standard keyword research report template in Microsoft Excel format, along with our usage instructions in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format. Includes sample data. To download, right click here and select "save as..." or "save target as..." from the menu.
   
• STAT: Search Term Analysis Tool
  STAT is currently in beta testing. We expect to complete development of a general release version in early June. We do not need more beta testers. System requirements will include PHP and MySQL; the recommended configuration will be a desktop installation using XAMPP or other local LAMP server. If you would like to be informed when the general release version is completed, please sign up for our mailing list using the form at the bottom of this page.
   

Free Tools From Others

• DigitalPoint's Free Search Engine Optimization Tools
  A nice set of free tools. Among them, a system that uses the Google API to track keyword rankings and backlinks to your site. Another nifty script offers a comparison of keyword popularity counts from Wordtracker's free trial and the Overture search term suggestion tool.
   
• Peter Faber's "Keyword Effectiveness Rank" Formula
  We aren't the only people trying to improve the quality of keyword research. Peter Faber of SEO-Works has developed an interesting alternative to Sumantra Roy's KEI analysis (which is used by Wordtracker), to provide a different way of comparing similar keywords. A free spreadsheet allows you to compare up to 25 keywords using Wordtracker data.
   
• Good Keywords
  If you're doing your own keyword research, you may as well use the right tools. Good Keywords is a very helpful brainstorming tool, combining the "related searches" from several search engines into an easy to use Windows application.
   

Software You Should Know About

• Mozilla Firefox - The Best Browser for SEO
  I'm not suggesting that you make it your default browser, although I have. However, if you are doing any kind of web development or SEO work, you really should be using Firefox. The tabbed browsing is fantastic, but the cool thing about Firefox is all the extensions that we use every day. "Live HTTP Headers" allows you to view HTTP headers in real time. The "Edit CSS" sidebar lets you play with stylesheets and see the results immediately - clear out the stylesheet for a site and see how it looks to search engines. Other handy extensions include a web developer's toolbar, user agent switcher and RSS feed reader.
   
• Chami's HTML-Kit Editor
  HTML-Kit isn't just the best text editor for HTML. With tons of cool plug-ins, and integration with many third party applications, it's one of the web's best kept secrets. Use it to edit files on your local machine and upload them via its integrated FTP client, or edit files directly from the server. My favorite feature is the Prototype Pad, a WYSIWYG tool that lets me quickly add HTML markup to any text.