Looking to do search term research? Below are articles covering the topic. But first, here are some tools you might want to consider:

Free Tools

Google AdWords Keyword Tool: Enter a search term or terms, and you’ll be shown other keywords related to that term. You can then sort keywords in terms of search volume popularity.

Google Trends: Got some terms in mind and wondering how they’ve been trending, such as becoming more or less popular? Google Trends provides a way to go back in time and chart keywords, based on the accumulated search data that Google sees. Also see Google Meme: Hot Trends Added To Google Trends, which explains more about the day-to-day reporting you can get from Google Trends.

Wordtracker Free Keyword Suggestion Tool: Enter a term and get a list of 100 terms related to (and including it), ranked by daily popularity. Data is based on Wordtracker’s search term data collected from the Dogpile and Metacrawler meta search engines. Wordtracker also offers a much more robust fee-based keyword research tool.

Trellian Free Search Term Suggestion Tool: As with Worktracker above, enter a term and get back a list of 100 terms related to and including it. They’ll be ranked by how often they’re searched for each year, rather than each day. Data comes from a variety of search engines. Trellian Keyword Discovery is fee-based tool hitting the same database and providing more features.

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool: Taps into the Yahoo tool above and provides links and information to many of the other tools also listed above, so that you can get more information directly from them. A variety of other keyword tools are also offered.

Other Tools

Hitwise Search Intelligence: Provides the ability to tap into Hitwise’s database of how people search, based on ISP data it gathers. Offered on a custom pricing basis. Hitwise Keyword Intelligence offers fewer features but is also available for a lower, fixed cost.

comScore qSearch: Allows you to tap into comScore’s database of search activity, gathered from a large panel of web users that it monitors.

eBay Marketplace Research: Mine data on how people are searching at eBay, for a fee.

Good Keywords: Free software for Windows designed to help with keyword lists.

Google Webmaster Central: Provides a way to see the top search terms that are sending you traffic, according to Google.

See also the Stats: Search Behavior area of Search Engine Land for tools that let you discover what people are searching for in general at particular search engines, plus how people search overall.

How To Mine Your Local Market Site Search Keyword Goldmine

Apr 9, 2013 at 9:30am ET by Bill Hunt

The lowly keyword phrase seems to be getting more attention these days. Last month, I spoke at SMX West about big data and co-optimization, then finished up at the International Search Summit with global keyword research and management. Based on the recently released 2013 Search Marketer Survey from BrightEdge, it appears as though global search marketing activities might finally be top of mind for search marketers: One of the areas getting a significant boost in interest is the discovery of keywords relevant to global audiences. The BrightEdge survey of Enterprise Search Marketers ind [...]

Infographic: How To Do Keyword Research For SEO

Sep 24, 2012 at 1:02pm ET by Search Engine Land Infographics

Good SEO begins with good keyword research. After all, if you don't know the ways people are seeking your content, it's pretty hard to ensure that your content "speaks" to them using the words they search for. The folks at Promodo have an infographic outlining some key parts of the keyword research process. Understanding that each page has its own terms to target, brainstorming possible terms, researching with the Google Keyword Tool and more are covered. Check it out: Want the infographic for yourself? You'll find it here: Keyword Research Infographic. Looking to improve your key [...]

The Difference In Keyword Research For SEO vs. PPC

Aug 28, 2012 at 11:11am ET by Jenny Halasz

Often when I complete a keyword research project for a client, they ask me about keywords I may not have included, or they want to know what the relative competition on the keywords looks like. This happens often enough that I thought I would remind everyone that while research for SEO and PPC can go hand in hand, they’re actually very different. First, think about what your goals are with each medium. What are you trying to do, and what constitutes success in that area? Next, think about how the keywords will be used. Where, when, how often? Finally, consider what your margin for erro [...]

Why Google Should Retire The Global Market Finder

Jun 26, 2012 at 10:33am ET by Andy Atkins-Krüger

Does Google really "get" international? There are clearly some very clever people within Google who do -- but the corporation's behavior bizarrely still tends to suggest a silicon valley tech company that's a little insulated from the non-English speaking world. Take, for example, the "Global Market Finder" tool which you can find here. This tool was originally conceived in the UK and then made its way into the Google mothership. The idea behind the tool is that you can enter a keyword or several keywords -- and it will then automatically in a matter of seconds rank the markets where the [...]

Why Restaurants & Other Local Businesses Need Mobile (Not Responsive) Sites

May 29, 2012 at 12:37pm ET by Bryson Meunier

In his Smashing Magazine response to Jakob Nielsen’s directive to build separate desktop and mobile sites, Bruce Lawson used the line "you never know better than your users what content they want" to argue that we shouldn’t be building separate mobile websites. I would agree with him that you never know better than your users what content they want, but would argue that’s usually a reason to build a separate mobile website. In search, we have the benefit of user queries that tell us what the majority of users want, and those queries often tell us that they’re looking for different t [...]

How To Use The Keyword Funnel To Understand Searcher Intent

May 15, 2012 at 5:17pm ET by Ted Ives

Keyword research can give you great insight into customer problems, needs, desires, and intent.I like to categorize keyword categories themselves into a total of *ten* funnel stages. After performing my initial keyword categorization (sort of into micro-categories), I like to categorize the categories themselves into a total of *ten* funnel stages I’ve developed, which are organized around a “problem/solution” mental model.

Dictionaries, Grammar & Feeds: A Rules-Based Keyword Generation Approach For PPC

Mar 2, 2012 at 9:45am ET by Crosby Grant

This article presents a rules-based approach for Keyword Generation using Dictionaries, Grammar, and Feeds. Essentially, Dictionaries define the various groups of words that are relevant to an account. Grammar defines how to combine them. Feeds define the data that may be changing regularly, like e-commerce inventory, store locations, etc. Readers may be able to generalize these terms to apply to existing rules-based tool if one is currently in use. First, a word about where this approach fits in to the broader picture. The Broader Landscape of Managing Keywords & Negatives There are [...]

When Is the Super Bowl Start Time? The NFL Finally Gets It Right

Feb 5, 2012 at 1:21pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Super Bowl 46 kicks off on February 5, 2012 at 6:30pm EST on NBC. Amazingly enough, I found this information by searching on Google and clicking on the second result: nfl.com. Amazing because every year, football fans flock to search engines searching for the start time, and until now, organizations like the NFL, the playing teams, and the broadcasting station didn't show up at all in search results because none of their sites answered the question. Seem crazy? 2009 Results: In 2009, start-time related searches were among the most popular the morning of the game, but neither the N [...]

Ask.com Has The Most Long-Winded Searchers, Report Says

Jan 24, 2012 at 7:28pm ET by Matt McGee

The longest search queries are happening on Ask.com, where users average almost five words per search. That's according to research from Chitika. The ad network analyzed search referrals on "hundreds of millions" of impressions across sites in its network between January 9th and 12th. And the longest search referrals -- at an average of 4.81 words -- came from Ask.com. AOL users are at the other end of the spectrum; their user queries average barely above four words, by far the shortest of the five sites that Chitika studied. It makes sense that this would be the case, since Ask.com [...]

How To Take Your Keyword Research To A Higher Level

Oct 13, 2011 at 1:07pm ET by Tom Schmitz

Good keyword research is laborious. So is it no wonder that once you understand the basics, you may be tempted to use whichever tool you have at hand and try to automate or speed up the process. Except, should you want to do this? Keyword research is your time to understand the market you are competing in and how people search. It is your opportunity to comb through the competition and learn their keywords, content and link-building strategies. It is your opportunity to map out what you should track for your website, your market competitors and your keyword competitors. If you plan a mon [...]

Google Decides Fate Of More Than Half Of Labs Projects; Correlate Survives, Sets Doesn’t

Aug 30, 2011 at 2:42pm ET by Matt McGee

Another week, another round of updates from the slow phase-out of Google Labs. This week, good news for fans of one keyword-related tool, but bad news for fans of another. Google Correlate Added To Google Trends Google Correlate has survived the chopping block. Previously available at correlate.googlelabs.com, it's now been given a permanent home as part of Google Trends and can be found at www.google.com/trends/correlate. Correlate has been described as "Google Trends in reverse." With Trends, you provide a search term and get back data related to the term. With Correlate, you provi [...]

Report: Those Searching For Google+ Are Younger & Have More Income Than Facebook Searchers

Aug 29, 2011 at 10:01pm ET by Greg Finn

In a recent study released by comScore, searcher demographics showed some striking differences between those looking for Google+ vs. those looking for Facebook in July. Surprisingly, Facebook had a larger percentage of searchers over the age of 35, while Google+ trended younger. 34.2% of searchers looking for Google+ were under 35 years old and only 24% of Facebook searchers were under 35. In addition to the younger demographic, Google+ searchers skewed towards higher incomes. Facebook saw 22.8% of searchers with an income of above $100,000 a year, while Google+ had a 32.1% makeup. [...]

How Mobile Searchers Are Changing Keyword Research

May 30, 2011 at 12:49pm ET by Bryson Meunier

Many analysts are making the case for separate device targeting in mobile paid search these days, but due largely to the subtlety of the differences in natural search results, too many SEOs are under the mistaken impression that desktop and mobile SEO are one in the same. Because this ignorance affects all of us by not giving us the tools we need to target mobile users effectively, I’m using a few columns to make the differences crystal clear. In my last column, I started to make the case for how SEO changes when targeting mobile searchers, starting with the 14 differences between desktop [...]

Using Social Awareness Streams To Learn What People Care About

Apr 29, 2011 at 12:42pm ET by Kim Krause Berg

It wasn’t long ago that knowledge about our world came from newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, and of course, person to person gossip, storytelling and family gatherings. The Internet changed all that. Today, a person wanting to know the latest buzz studies social awareness streams (SAS). In the Just Behave column, we’ve discussed information architecture as it is used for search engine marketing and usability. One of the points mentioned concerns the gathering of terms and words that are used for taxonomies, link labels, category setup, navigation labels and content development. [...]

Kadafi, Gaddafi, Qaddafi: In The Age Of Search, News Publications Still Struggle With Libya Leader’s Name

Mar 21, 2011 at 6:33pm ET by Danny Sullivan

A decades-old dispute involving Libya remains unresolved. How do news organizations spell the name of Libya's leader, Muammar Gaddafi? The exact spelling has a bigger impact these days, where people search for news. Use the wrong spelling, and your story might go missing. Can search tell us the "right" one? More below. Google News: A Copy Editor's Nightmare Consider this page from Google News, the "Muammar al-Gaddafi" page that pulls in headlines from all over the world about the leader: That page would give any newspaper copy editor fits, given that there are at least four different [...]

Cars, Restaurants, Financial Services Top Study Of “Complaint Searches”

Mar 16, 2011 at 5:31pm ET by Matt McGee

Among major brands, those in the automobile, finance, and food service industries attracted the most complaint-related searches in 2010. That's according to a new study from the marketing agency Web Liquid Group. The 2011 Customer Complaint Index measures search activity in the Google Keyword Research Tool involving complaints (i.e., broad match results for "(brand name) complaints") and applies the data to Interbrand's Best Global Brands report. Web Liquid recognizes some of the limitations in this approach: the study doesn't reflect non-Google searches and the Keyword Tool also has some d [...]

Priceless Keyword Research Data You Already Have – But Never Use

Nov 8, 2010 at 7:00am ET by Brad Geddes

It is easy to lose sight of your customers when doing keyword research by relying on tools. These tools are not going to spend money with your company; tools just show you the most popular phrases regardless if your customer’s actually use these words or not. One of the best sources for keyword research is your customer’s own words. Here are a few simple ways to conduct research by just examining your customer’s information. Gathering The Data The first step is to gather the data in a single place so that you can analyze the information. There are generally a few places where you ca [...]

Of SEO And Spaghetti Sauce

Oct 29, 2010 at 7:00am ET by Evan LaPointe

I can virtually guarantee that you aren't satisfying at least one major segment of your customers. Did you know that it took until 1989 for chunky tomato pasta sauce to come out? A guy by the name of Howard Moskowitz cracked this code for the Prego brand while they were trying desperately to defeat Ragu, the champion of pasta sauce at the time. Until then, companies were looking for the "perfect" pasta sauce, much like we seek the "perfect" architecture, interface, product photography, shopping cart, landing page, etc. It was Howard who pointed out that they shouldn't be looking for the per [...]

Adchemy Promises Better Search ROI Through Intent-Based Ad Copy And Landing Pages

Sep 22, 2010 at 9:35am ET by Greg Sterling

Billing itself as one of the "best kept secrets in Silicon Valley," Adchemy is a technology provider that promises to help search marketers "dynamically" create more relevant ad copy and landing pages at scale. The company recently released its WordMap application, which is intended for very large campaigns with millions of keywords but where the ad copy and landing pages are more general and thus unable to reflect the variety and nuance of the more specific associated keywords. Adchemy says that it can "dynamically generate tens of thousands of paid-search ads directly related to intent [...]

You Say Law Firm, I Say Lawyer

Sep 17, 2010 at 6:00am ET by Mark Sprague

You have a dilemma: you are considering a couple of keyword phrases that are similar. How do you choose, and does it matter? It often does. In this analysis, I show that consumer search behavior can be different depending upon how they start their search. Here I contrast the phrase law firms with lawyer to show that consumers engage in either seven or nine distinct categories of search behavior depending upon which phrase they use when searching for legal services. It's often useful to contrast two complementary search phrases to show that user intent can be significantly different, depending [...]

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