Free Keyword Searching Tools

To be able to compete with other websites for a product or niche in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), one must definitely have good SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques implemented on the competing website. But sometimes, having good SEO is just not enough for the competition. Another important step is choosing the right keyword.
Fortunately, the web provides several free keyword data tools and how to search for keywords. The top 3 tools are Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery and Google Adwords Keyword Tool.

Wordtracker
Although the full version of Wordtracker is available for a fee, they also offer a free version at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com. The free version is no doubt lacking some features of the full version, but it can still play a part as a reference for determining the proper keywords to choose from. The service is very easy to use. All you have to do is type a certain keyword, and set the adult filter options, and the site will return keywords containing the words you just typed in with the corresponding amount of searches over the year in US. The value originated from the monitoring and record of various search engine partners of the site.
For the record, the trial version is also available at http://wordtracker.com/trial/.

Keyword Discovery
Unlike Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery doesn’t provide a free version of its service. However, there is a trial version only available after you sign up HERE. Known to be more expensive than Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery collects its data from over 200 search engines during the one year period. They claim that their database is free from data skew caused by robots or software, but this announcement is yet to be proved. An interesting feature of this site is the availability to search from specific databases, such as certain websites or countries. 

Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Google AdWords Keyword Tool is an absolutely free tool to use. Compared to the free version of Wordtracker, Google Keyword Tool provides more data to be compared from. Besides the monthly search volumes from both local and global locations, it also shows the Advertiser Competition rate in placing AdWords for the corresponding keywords. This data is useful if you intend to utilize Google Adsense in your website or if you are a fellow Advertiser in search of the competition for placing AdWords. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t point out exactly where these data come from. So, it shouldn’t be too much to think about. But despite the sealed action from Google, the volumes can be useful as comparation of search popularity between keywords.