SECockpit is by far the best keyword research tool I’ve found. And what is strange is that I rarely see other marketers talking about it. Perhaps they just don’t know it exists? It’s actually been around for several years and in my opinion blows the competition right out of the water. So, if you’re crazy serious about the SEO game I would definitely start here. My favorite features about SECockpit is that it’s cloud-based, which is awesome (nothing to install or download). It’s super fast. And it has a ton of features and settings that help you find those low hanging fruit keywords without having to think too hard.
Long Tail Pro is my next choice. Even though I don’t personally own Long Tail Pro, from what I’ve seen of it, it’s essentially Market Samurai on steroids. Very similar, but has a bit more features. What I do like about it is that it’s an Adobe Air app, which is cool since it can work on both Mac and PC (traditionally a lot of marketing softwares were only for PC). The other thing I like about it is that it is a one-time fee, which is nice. Most beginner SEOs will be fine with the Pro, however if you’re a serious SEO, I would consider upgrading to the Platinum one-time price.
Market Samurai is kind of the keyword analysis tool that started it all. Aside from the official Google Keyword Planner Tool, Market Samurai was probably the most widely used keyword tool for SEOs, specifically ones that were into ranking and monetizing niches sites. It’s still a great tool, and actually has some excellent training videos. I would recommend going through all their tutorial videos before downloading their software, because it actually comes with a FREE trial, so that will allow you to maximize your free trial period. Plusses are that it is an Adobe Air app (can work on Mac and PC) and that it’s only a one-time fee.
HitTail is worth checking out and works by analyzing your traffic, providing you with a simple, actionable list of precisely which keywords you should target to dramatically grow your organic search traffic. There’s nothing to install (web-based) and the plans are extremely affordable.
RankReveal is unique because traditionally with keyword tools, it’s up to you to plug in specific keywords and try to drill down and find specific keywords that would be worth targeting. However, with RankReveal, they’ve developed a unique technology to be able to analyze a site and tell you what keywords you’re already ranking for, so you can focus on increasing your rankings on those specific search terms that are already driving traffic.
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