Alternatives to Outdated Yahoo/Overture Keyword Tool
It has been a while since Yahoo! Search Marketing mentioned that they would no longer be supporting the Overture Keyword Research Tool
Andy Beal reported this in May 2007 but yet we still see many internet marketers and gurus recommending this tool. Or worse still, using it. So much for perfect knowledge spreading fast among the internet eh.
Probably the main reason why a significant portion of people are not in the know is because the Overture Keyword Research Tool still gives you the keyword search results.
OUTDATED keyword results that is! It returns to you data drawn from Jan 2007. Bummer eh.
Just do a search on anything at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion and see for yourself how rotten…Oops…old the data is.
Implications
If you are just interested in generating a monster keyword list for Pay Per Click (PPC) of 5000 to 20000 keywords, then the numbers will probably not matter that much.
But if you are using them for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, then the keyword estimates and rankings might matter a lot more for you. Especially if your niche market is seasonal, then the searches in January might not be indicative of real searches. Imagine gunning for the wrong keywords in your anchor text backlinks and other SEO efforts.
Listed below are the keyword tools/services that are still drawing data from from outdated overture data. So if you are still using them. Take the results with a pinch of salt.
Outdated Services
- http://freeaddlink.com/domain/research.php
- SEO2020’s http://www.seo2020.com/seo-tools/keyword-research/keyword-research-tool/
- Aaron Wall’s http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/
Note:
Two free services listed above estimate Google and MSN searches by multiplying Yahoo Search results by 2 and dividing it by 2 respectively. Imagine if the margin of error for outdated January data is 10-15%. The error for Google and Msn results would be further magnified through these estimates.
Applications drawing from Outdated Overture data:
- GoodKeywords Tool
- Adword Analyzer
- Keywords Analyzer
- The Dowser
- Niche Inspector (Has a function to draw from a free alternative database besides overture)
Note:
Some of the applications mentioned above have the capability to draw data from keyword services like WordTracker, KeywordDiscovery etc, but that requires a separate subscription and doesn’t come included when you buy their products.
Ok so which free services can you use for keyword research then? Try these:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
ttp://www.nichebotclassic.com/
http://www.longtailadwords.com
For paid services, you can try these.
(No affiliate links. Zip Nada!)
Do leave a comment if I missed out any information. =)
Popularity: 23% [?]
Here is a new one I am launching (so I am biased!)
It works directly with the Google Adwords API - so this is getting keywords right from the horse’s mouth!
I hope you don’t mind me sharing the link with your readers. There is a $1 trial and a full demo video here:
http://www.keywordsecret.com
[…] Alternatives to Outdated Yahoo/Overture Keyword Tool […]
http://www.longtailadwords.com/ is not free. Wanted to charge me $19.95 — for zero results, incidentally. If they cant get that part of their programming right, what is the quality of their data??
So would NichebotClassic be serving up outdated or current results? - please.
Howie,
Thank you for informing us of your new service. I’ve updated KeywordSecret in the main article as a paid service, since $1 is still not free. =)
Gary,
www.longtailadwords.com seems to work for certain websites only. It doesn’t return results for one of my niche website but does for my competitors. The free list provided is pretty extensive. You might want to try plugging in different websites.
I have not purchased keywords from them before so I do not know for sure the quality of their data. But I do use the free list provided for PPC.
NicheBotClassic is powered by wordtracker as shown there. Its predicted daily count is the same as what freekeywords.wordtracker.com would give you. Hence it doesn’t draw outdated overture data.
Thanks for commenting guys. =)
Alvin Huang
Wow, this is truly eye-opener… You must be really good at such things.
Thanks for mentioning HitTail, Alvin. It’s nice to hear others repeating the “good keyword data” mantra. Many of the tools out there are powered by keyword aggregating from InfoSpace data (Web Crawler, DogPile, etc.), which is not really representative of the Web, and is particularly de-coupled from the details of your particular site. HitTail is on the other hand, directly keyed off of the activity that’s already going on on your site, and the data is exclusively yours. Oh yeah, and the service truly is free–unless you choose to support us and get some enhanced features.
Hi Alvin,
Since you mentioned my Niche Inspector under the ‘Applications drawing from Outdated Overture data’ list, I thought I’d chime in and let you know that NI users have the option to use the Overture database, or an alternative database which provides current results (and faster, too).
We are also working on implementing an optional KeywordDiscovery option but it will be subscription based as KeywordDiscovery charges for access to their database.
Hope this helps clears out some doubts about Niche Inspector.
Myleena
P.S. Great blog by the way
(Gary Harvey told me about this post of yours.)
Hi Mike,
Thanks for visiting. www.HitTail.com does sound interesting. Despite the raving reviews I have heard about it, I must admit that I have yet to try it out but will do so in the next couple of days so that I can revise the PPC campaign for my websites.
Hi Myleena,
Thank you for clearing the doubts. I think its great that www.NicheInspector.com offers an alternative database to provide results. Rather than just outdated overture data that many of the other keyword softwares are just solely relying on.
Definitely gives NI the edge over the competing products. =)
Regards,
Alvin Huang