Working with a professional to improve your search engine optimization is a good idea, but there are a lot of free SEO tools available that can help you get started. Here are 3 free SEO tools that can help you come up with a solid keyword list.

3 Free SEO Tools For Keyword Research

SEOTools Keyword Phrase List Generator

This tool isn’t going to give you any input on what keywords or phrases are better, it simply does the legwork of listing all of the possible combinations of specific phrases. You’ll need to take the data from this list and do further research to decide which phrases will work best for you.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool 

One of the first free SEO tools available, Google Adwords’ Keyword Tool is still a great place to start for brainstorming keywords. You’ll put in one keyword, and the free tool will generate a list of other related keywords, and will even using synonyms if you tell it to. For example, entering “women’s shoes” brings up suggestions like “comfortable women’s shoes” and “dress shoes.” This keyword tool will also give you an idea of how many times the phrase is used as a search query on Google.

Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool

Instead of starting with keywords, you’ll actually put in the URL of your website or specific pages on your site. Based on the URL you enter, the Search-based Keyword Tool displays a list of relevant search queries that have been used on Google over the past year. It basically looks at your data and shows you what you should be optimizing for, based on the information you already have and what people are most interested in. This free SEO tool will also give you a broad list of keyword ideas that are relevant, but not necessarily based on your site.

Once you’ve decided which keywords you want to optimize for, you should use a free page grader to test your content’s keyword density.

Britt Reints is a freelance writer living in Orlando, Florida.  Google seems to think she’d get more attention if her name was “britt ekland.”

Image from ideachampions.com

Imagine being able to follow a New York Times journalist directly from her byline, tweet about a video without leaving YouTube, and discover new Twitter accounts while visiting the Yahoo! home page—and that’s just the beginning. Twitter has proven to be compelling in a variety of ways. With @anywhere, web site owners and operators will be able to offer visitors more value with less heavy lifting.

With recent reports that Facebook has more web site visits than Google and drives 44 percent of social sharing on the web, Twitter’s stepping up to the plate by integrating itself into the rest of the web. Part of the reason Facebook has such monumental numbers is the ease with which its users can share information (you can record a video onto someone’s wall without ever leaving it or doing much more than pushing a button). Facebook has even surpassed email as an information sharing platform, probably because it’s so much less exclusive; when you share something on Facebook, you do so recognizing the possibility that it will be viewed by others. Google attempted this with Buzz, but instead the buzz was all about Google’s failure to allow its users to incorporate the social platform into their own lives—err—email. Hopefully Twitter’s been paying attention to the latest social developments, successful and failed, and their further integration into the web will allow Twitter skeptics or hesistants to join the conversation.

So you’ve realized that the overused pop culture adage “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t ring as true as you hoped it would. Some websites can lead a long life and never once reach top ranking on a search engine. This doesn’t mean they never get visited, it just means they’re flying too far below radar to really get noticed. If you want to get serious about raising your website’s profile, you’re going to have to get serious about SEO writing.

But Wait, What’s SEO Writing?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” and it’s just a fancy technical term for maximizing your site’s visibility in the search results of places like Google and Yahoo. One of the most effective ways of doing this is by writing online articles or blogs that are rich in SEO content—or words and phrases that someone who’d be interested in finding your site might punch into their Google search field.

The Write Stuff
Maybe you fancy yourself a pretty darn good writer—and who knows, maybe you are? If J.K. Rowling taught us anything, it’s that you don’t have to be classically educated or run with the intellectual elite to have what it takes to hammer out an appealing story or two (or seven). Here are just a few SEO writing tips to help get you started.

• Make your content relevant and informative.
• Get creative. There’s no better method of chasing readers away than being dull.
• Don’t just string a bunch of keywords together. People hate this. Google hates it more, and will flag your site as potential spam if you take this approach.
• Hire a writer. Companies like ideaLaunch have experienced SEO writers on hand that can dramatically improve your search engine ranking.

Vince Font is a freelance writer with a burning desire to teach the world the difference between there, they’re and their. He currently resides in Utah with his wife, two dogs and a mouse he’s convinced the D-Con didn’t get rid of.

Image from www.eisforerik.com

Want to know the real magic to improving your Google search ranking? Here it is, according to Dilbert:

Should you not have any virgins around, you might want to consider trying the following to improve your SEO:

• Get the lowdown on how to select and use keywords within your content
• Learn how to create inbound links that utilize select anchor text
• Use a mix of different tools in your content marketing strategy. Besides improving your website, think about starting a business blog, guest blogging on other sites, utilizing social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, publish videos on YouTube and other video sites, conduct webinars and place your presentations on sites like SlideShare, publish white papers and ebooks, develop a tip center, host a Podcast … and much more!
• Go to or follow SEO events and learn from the experts
• Hire a freelance writer that understands SEO content
• Check out a content marketing agency and see what they can offer you

Google Hackey Sack

The sun was bright and the morning air crisp for last Friday’s presentation, “The Future of Search: Google’s Perspective,” at the Cambridge Google office. Presented by SEMPO Boston Working Group and Google’s Lisa Greene, the 200-plus people in attendance were perky and inquisitive despite the early 7 a.m. hour. Why such high energy? We’re talking about the mythological office of Google, the number-one rated company to work for by Fortune, the place where employees allegedly receive “a $1,500 monthly stipend for mandatory lava lamp purchases.”

Totally Radical Lava Lamp

Greene had a lot of exciting news to share with SEM industry insiders, even if a lot of it was centered on search functions that won’t be available for months, years or maybe never. The general theme was the “device revolution”—how our search for information has gone from using the devices (aka mediums) of encyclopedias to desktop computers to smart phones. Each step in this progression has made the quest for information easier and a more integral part of our lives. Google is adapting their search engine to be more compatible with smart phones, helping to turn these hand-held devices into something more and more akin to a human being—something that can hear, see, feel, tell us directions and sometimes has skin, too.

Here’s a recap of news from Google:

• Real-World Digitalization: Google is fusing digital with the real world. For example, Google Sky Map for mobile devices. You can hold up your phone to the sky and it tells you what constellations you’re looking at using its internal global positioning device. (Men, earn points with your lady gazing at a clear Valentine’s night sky!)
• Location-Personalized Searches: Now, no matter where you are, you can type in “sushi restaurant” into your smart phone and get the phone numbers and locations of sushi joints right around the corner; no need to type city or neighborhood into your query.
• Social Circle Presentation: Google Social will augment search results based on what our friends have recommended via social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and on their blogs. I’ll be able to get recommendations and reviews on sites, products, movies and restaurants from my friends before advertisers can reach me.
• Modes: Wouldn’t it be cool to ask your mobile phone a question and have it respond back with the answer? Voice-search is in its infancy. First the search engine has to learn how to understand your accent, voice, language, pitch, etc.
• Media Search: If your content goals are focused solely on text, get with the program! Google is incorporating many more forms of content in its search results, from images to videos, podcasts and songs.
• Image Recognition: Speaking of images, with Google Goggles, you’ll be able to take a picture with your device and have the search engine tell you what you’re looking at—whether it’s a landmark, a specific person or skyline. You’ll even be able to get search results based on the data it finds in images. In addition, the algorithm is starting to understand what color looks like. So, if you search on “red roses,” you’ll get crimson blossoms in your image results.
• Similar Image Searches: Have you seen the Google Wonder Wheel? This is a helpful tool in finding root keyword terms to target in SEO and PPC campaigns. Well, the Wonder Wheel v2 for images is going to give you similar results for images.
• Language: Search all content in the world and have your results presented in your language. The only caveat? Once you click on the page, it’s still in Swahili.

So that’s the future. But what can content marketers do right now to get top search results?

• Continue optimizing for long-tail keywords. Search results are getting more and more specific, and users are learning that the more specific keywords they search on, the better results they get. Google is constantly making improvements to the algorithm in favor of long-tail keywords to weed out low-quality sites.
• Keep up with your company blog and social media initiatives. Real-time results are showing more and more tweets and blog posts in search results. Make sure your company is a part of these results.

Creating contextually-strong, embedded links improves your website’s search ranking. Follow these linking strategies to get the maximum benefit from external and internal links.

1. Don’t permit “orphan” links on your site. Links with no context don’t help your website ranking as well as links embedded within contextually-appropriate keyword content.
2. Be clear when you craft your link phrases. Metaphors and clichés don’t typically work well because they may be ambiguous in meaning. The best internal and external linking strategies require the use of link phrases that match your most important keywords and relate directly to your content.
3. Links from outside sites with a strong reputation add validity to your site. Look for well-optimized, content-rich pages for the most impact.
4. Don’t forget important internal linking strategies when building links on your site. Look for other pages of your site with relevant information and link to them when appropriate, always keeping in mind the rules about contextually-appropriate link phrases.
5. When you’re linking from other sites, Google Page Rank is important, but even more important is the website’s reputation with readers. Link to sites that publish information from bestselling authors and authorities in the field. Put plenty of time into internal link building strategies and you’ll know you’re linking to quality, authoritative content—because it’s content created by writers you’ve hired!

 Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

Image from Amyandrew.files.wordpress.com

A Reason to Dance
If you’re active in social networking and frequently post updated blog content to drive readers to your website, throw on your dancing shoes. Individuals that already employ blog marketing techniques are poised to see a substantial increase in site traffic.

A Reason to Pitch a Fit
If simply uttering the words “social” and “networking” in the same sentence leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, or the sound of those two words combined is enough to make you want to drive daggers into your ears—might we suggest you hide the cutlery, find a comfortable clearing someplace and prepare for the tantrum of your life. The way Google’s real-time search results work, Twitter and blog updates are most likely to top the list of search results, potentially burying your website under a mountain of tweets.

What You Should Do
Get busy blogging, or get busy paying someone else to do it for you. If you’re not confident in your own ability to churn out articles at a frequency to surpass your competitors, seek out the services of a marketing company or other blog writing service to provide you with frequent well-written content. The importance of the blogosphere to effective marketing has been evident for some time. Google’s latest move has just served to shove it a little more forcefully under your nose.

Vince Font is a freelance writer with a burning desire to teach the world the difference between there, they’re and their. He currently resides in Utah with his wife, two dogs and a mouse he’s convinced the D-Con didn’t get rid of.

Image from Chandrakantha.com

For years, it’s been a practice by less than ethical search engine marketers to use “cloaking” scripts to push the ranking of websites to the top of a search engine’s results page, regardless of relevancy. For example, an unsuspecting user who entered the keyword “sailor” could have found themselves directed to an unscrupulous website dedicated to seamen of an entirely different sort. Google has decided it’s high time to crack down on this nonsense by hitting offenders where they live—and banning them altogether.

A harsh move? Maybe. But it’s a good move—in particular for companies that have been playing by the rules all along with principled SEO marketing strategies. Now that search engines have implemented improved filtration techniques, the rest of the law-abiding cyberworld can sit back and watch the hits rack up, right? Not exactly.

There’s a lot more to search engine optimization than meets the eye, and an increasing number of online merchants are getting savvy to this by hiring the help of SEO marketing consultants like ideaLaunch to fine tune their visibility. These content marketing companies offer the kind of results that blow free SEO tools out of the water in terms of effectiveness, and infuse websites with the kind of credibility offered by qualified SEO writers. It’s a given that having relevant, compelling content increases hit rates. If you’re not already on board, now’s the time to saddle up.

Vince Font is a freelance writer with a burning desire to teach the world the difference between there, they’re and their. He currently resides in Utah with his wife, two dogs and a mouse he’s convinced the D-Con didn’t get rid of.

Image from redstick.files.wordpress.com

Image c/o 2.bp.blogspot.com

The two hottest trends in web marketing right now are search engine optimization and social media marketing. As someone who writes a lot of content for the Internet, I usually find that I’m focusing on one strategy or the other, but rarely both at the same time.

So what’s the difference — and how do you know where you should invest your time and money?

The easiest way to explain the difference between search engine marketing and social media campaigns is by comparing how quickly you see results.

SEO writing works, but it usually takes time to see an increase in traffic. No matter how good of a job you do at incorporating keywords into your web content, it takes a while for search engines to notice you. You also need to spend time building links to your content if you want to improve your rankings and subsequent traffic.

In general, it will take longer to see results from search engine optimization, but you’ll likely reap the benefits of your hard work for a much longer period of time with little maintenance.

Social media campaigns, on the other hand, can bring a quick spike in traffic and – hopefully – sales. You can build a contest that you promote through Twitter or Facebook and begin to see results almost immediately.

The down side to social media campaigns is that they have a short shelf life. Twitter and Facebook are constantly being renewed with fresh information and content and it doesn’t take long for your message to get buried by more recent content.

Ideally, you’re working with a content marketing expert who will help you use search engine optimization to reach your long term goals and build a solid foundation for residual traffic AND put together timely social media campaigns to help you with time sensitive promotions.

Britt Reints is a freelance writer living in Orlando.  She’s much more interesting on Twitter than she is on Google.

Well, I, for one, like my feet planted on Earth. Here, there’s oxygen, a climate that allows me to neither freeze nor boil, food and of course, Tivo. It’s not to say that we shouldn’t have challenging goals – it’s just that we should be realistic in both setting them and finding a way to meet them.

This is particularly true in the case of developing keywords and an SEO strategy for your content marketing. Let’s say your start-up business and blog are all about social media and you need to get traffic and build your reputation online.

If you’ve been reading ideaLaunch’s SEO tips, you know that incorporating the right keywords into an internal linking strategy are important ways of doing this. Let’s use the Keyword Tool from Google AdWords to give a real-world example. We type the term “social media” into the Keyword Tool and we instantly see a bunch of info, here, organized by competition:

Keyword search of "social media" - the top end

Now, you might think to yourself, “Great! Lots of people are searching for the term, “social media” – and that’s my focus – so there’s one of my keywords!” Well, you need to back up.

See that “Advertiser Competition” field and the full bar next to it? That indicates that a LOT of other websites are using the term “social media” in Google ads. While you might not be going for a Google ad but are instead using the keyword in your marketing content, it’s a very good indication of how frequently the term is being used by others in the same way you intend to.

Type “social media” in a Google search and see what comes up.

Do you think you can compete with those websites? Currently, Mashable – a website focused on social media and tech gadgets that’s been established for nearly five years, has a handful of paid writers and updates itself roughly eight times a day – doesn’t show up in the results until the third page (in the #22 position). Even if you wrote two great articles every day (realistic, yes?) and used the best internal linking strategy for the term “social media” – what position do you think you’d be in? Let’s be generous and say you showed up on page 30. How often have you searched through to page 30? I believe “never” is the word you’re now searching for.

Here’s where the advice to aim lower comes in. Google AdWord’s Keyword Tool does us a mighty favor by listing similarly searched terms. Take a look at some of the ones that are typed in less frequently but also have less competition:

Keyword search of "social media" - a little lower down the line

Now, these are hardly bottom of the barrel keywords, some of these get nearly 900 hits a month. Perhaps you can see keywords you can zone in more than others depending on your services (like “brand in social media”, “social media secrets” – of if you specialize, “government social media”).

So, it’s up to you. You can focus on the top word, achieve a ranking of #426 on the search engine (which will get you no hits) – or you can aim to be the top site (and most likely to get clicked on) for a word that gets 880 searches a month. I’m not the best at math, but 880 hits vs. 0 hits makes sense to me. It may not be the stars or the moon, but it makes for a great foundation to see traffic and revenue.