Can WordTracker Still Keep Up with the Newer Search Engine Marketing Trends?

One of the first keyword research tools to have ever come out was Wordtracker. But with the ever changing keyword marketing tools available can Wordtracker still deliver? This search engine optimization keyword research tool has a huge 340 million-keyword database including misspelled words and phrases.

It allows you to complete your keyword analysis in three easy steps and completes the process in less than 5 minutes without any guesswork. Wordtracker is a fantastic keyword research tool, and believe me I should know? Because, I started using Wordtracker back when it was practically the only tool available for studying and understanding keyword marketing. To my mind, it is a still a solid tool that allows me to investigate, analyze  and research whatever market I’m working in from affiliate programs to full blown product development.

Wordtracker will determine keyword popularity using what they call the KEI ( Keyword Efficiency Index) gauge. This gauge is a range between 0 to 400 + it divides the keywords into 3 categories poor, good and excellent. During the free trial, you're allowed to collect up to 30 keywords however you are limited to only analyzing them on one search engine namely MSN. With the full version you can perform keyword analysis on up to 250 keywords across all the major engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL and others.

To get a better understanding of how they rate keywords on Wordtracker it's easier to simply explain their keyword finder rating system.

A Poor keyword indicates that search engine are reporting this word as saturated, and the likely hood of obtaining a top search engine ranking with a site built around this keyword is low at best.

A Good keyword means there is far less competition for this particular keyword and therefore you have an opportunity to gain the advantage of a top search engine ranking with a site built around this word.

An Excellent keyword usually has a KEI worth more than 100 and this means that your market hasn’t quite taken advantage of this word and it might also indicate an opportunity for a possible niche.

With Wordtracker you can print out your actual results from the keyword finder and you can also set up within the system to send you an email well, which is a real handy way of saving backups of your keyword analysis without having to print everything out.

Perhaps the best part about Wordtracker is its ease of use. It’s a very simple keyword research tool to use. Sure there are a lot of fine tuning that one can do and the depth of the wordtracker magic really is only limited by the user. But having said that it’s also easy enough for the beginner to use and achieve the results needed to be successful.

Many times when I'm talking with other web site owners, they mention that why use a keyword research tool when I already have a Google Top ten listing? Well my answer is simple. What the search engines choose as being in their top ten this month might not be that way in next one.

This means it’s crucial to stay on the heartbeat of search engine marketing, especially if you want to insure that your top ten listing stays that way. After all without the ever-crucial traffic coming in from the search engines well you know what your sales are going to be like.

Let's take a Quick look at how the keyword finder works in Wordtracker

The first thing I usually do is think of the most common word or phrase that pops into my head about a particular market I’m thinking of potentially marketing. So I usually start off in Wordtracker with the keyword finder. Since this will tell me what keywords people are searching on, rather then what my competition is doing. I prefer to start off at a general level and work into the idea first then get into the meat and potatoes of keyword analysis later.

Let’s say I was building a site on "bass fishing."

So the most common word I probably would start off with would actually be “bass fishing”. So I plug it in and here’s the result.

bass fishing 253 446 6,530,000 0.01

Now I knew the number would be really high and that’s ok, and most of you probably are saying yes that keyword is too general and trying to compete with such a general word would only land up being very costly to advertise at best. Well, your right so let's keep digging. So I look at the various responses within the results to determine a better keyword popularity.

flw bass fishing tournament 8 14 923 0.07
handmade bass fishing jigs 11 19 3 40.33

Now that’s a lot better but still not that great as the numbers are still kind of high. But it’s just a start so I’ll keep note of these two possibilities. The basic idea is to refine and to continue to refine my keyword analysis until I start to see something that is a lot easier to work with. Again the idea is to use the keyword finder for things that relate to the general topic, but that are specific enough that if I was to create an Adwords marketing campaign I’m not going to be paying $10 a click. So I keep looking and now I find.

hand made fish hooks 23 40 91 5.81

Now this is starting to look better I know I can optimize a page on our site for hand made fish hooks and it’ll give our visitors some content for our bass fishing page and it’ll be easier for me to grab a better ranking. The other benefit here is the search engine spiders will see my other links on the page and probably will look upon my other pages more favorably. But I’m not going to stop there so let’s keep going.

bass jig trailers 40 70 9 177.80

Now we are getting somewhere the word "jig" gave us a great result:

Again I know I can work this type of keyword into my page an optimize it. The idea is I know I cannot compete with a general keyword but by building content on more specific areas around the topic I not only land up with a much better website but I’ll also land up with a better Google ranking.

As you can see from the above exercise it begins to open up ideas around our topic of bass fishing. I Now I wouldn’t stop here if I was building this site myself, but rather it gives you enough of an idea to see where I was going with this.

The idea is this. Rather then try and market your site through general keywords. Market your site through more specific keywords about your topic from the reports that Wordtracker gives. The end result will be you'll land up creating a better search engine optimization, you’ll beef up your site with content and the search engines will love you for it.

To recap:

1. Start with a common root word or phrase

2. Find a couple words 3 or 4 that are specific yet still are about your topic

3. Use the keyword finder and determine the keyword popularity

4. Be open to discovering new ways of attacking your topic and you’ll be surprised at the results.

5. Lastly, go and optimize these new phrases on separate pages within your site

Wordtracker as you can see is a great tool for anyone serious about search engine marketing getting down and dirty with keyword analysis. Again, this article really only scratches the surface of what can be done with Wordtracker and the best way to start is to try it out. You can find more information about Wordtracker at Wordtracker.com