Keyword research is very basic to online marketing of all sorts, Blogging is no exception to that rule. Blogs generally rank well in search engines mostly due to their structure and frequently refreshed content. However, if you blog and don’t use the words people are actually interested in or actively searching for, you could be missing out big opportunity to get traffic.

Using appropriate keywords are immensely crucial to the ranking of the site you are working on. Imagine a site which has the coolest Flash applications, great and unique content, the best products and services. However, without appropriate keywords, it would hardly ever have a good rank in the Google SERPs! And what about domains and keywords listed in them? This is why Keyword selector tools help us in understanding and analyzing the market while also capitalizing on its benefits.

A site named SiteVolume with the help of a nifty little tool can give details of different kinds of vocabulary words that are used in popular social sites like MySpace, Digg, and Flickr. SiteVolume gives the result in the format of a bar graph to show the occurrence of a particular word or a set of words appearing on each of the popular social sites. If you are confused for the kind of keywords you should use for starting your search, then you can simply compare the frequency of those keywords on these sites and use the most popular one.

Sponsored Search system might soon provide alternatives to Overture Inventory Tool which is on its last legs and is no longer supported by Yahoo!  Along with the launch of the Sponsored Search system, Yahoo!released a mail to advertisers announcing adjustments to the tool in the meantime.

It has been reported at WebmasterWorld Forums that users suggest Yahoo! has exited its UK version of the Overture Keyword Suggestion tool. Of late, the Keyword Suggestion tool which would load here without complications has proven unaccessible time out most quickly.

As it was promised with the US version, a better version too could be on the way. However, closer reading of the previous Yahoo! announcement suggests subliminally a new keyword tool, rather than improving the Overture tool.

Cameron Olthuis on link Building Blog informs that Google Adwords 'gather accurate data in regards to search volume and conversion rates for keywords.'

“Assuming that you already have a good idea of what keywords you want to optimize your site for you can take that list and enter it into your Google AdWords account. I recommend using a combination of both exact match and broad match.”
 
It helps finding out keywords which people are looking for and you didn't even think about it.     

Aaron Wall wrote a blog post titled  Why Do Keyword Tool Search Estimates Vary So much?. In his post, he suggests that the tools should serve as a way of identifying trends in various keywords, rather than being relied upon for hard numbers. According to him, the keyword suggestion tool should be used for more qualitative purposes.

A recent report presented by Fathom Online says that search engine marketing PPC keyword prices have undergone a tremendous fall in the first quarter of 2006. For example, the average keyword bid has dropped down from $1.43 in Q4 of 2005 to $1.39 in Q1 2006, according to Fathom.