Wordtracker Vs. Keyword Discovery

We demonstrate both Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery in our SEO courses as well as looking at some free tools to generate keyword ideas. I’ve been asked more than once which I prefer, and if I had to choose one, which would it be.  I use both, and just when I started to feel comfortable recommending one over the other - I was leaning towards Keyword Discovery - Wordtracker made some bold (and I think overdue) changes that will once again make the decision harder.

So…some thoughts on these two leaders in the field of paid keyword research services:

Wordtracker

Wordtracker recently implemented a whole new set of tools for keyword research which include some fundamental changes on how they measure competition.  The KEI (keyword effectiveness index) provides a number derived from a ratio between the number of competing pages and the number of searches for a particular keyword. Simply put, the higher the KEI the better.

Previously, competing pages were determined by conducting a search for your keyword, in quotes, on your selected search engine. Any page that contained that exact keyword phrase was included.  Now, the KEI measures the number of pages that use the keyword phrase in the inbound links, and the beta KEI3 measures the number of pages using the phrase in both the title and incoming links.  I like the change - since any serious competitor for the phrase will be using it in one or both of these important areas - the title and inbound link anchor text.

I still prefer Wordtracker for quickly and easily finding related keywords and phrases that your target audience may be using. You can do this with both tools, so my preference here is a personal one and based partly on the user interface.

Keyword Discovery

Some strengths of Keyword Discovery include the ability to get search volume data by country, rather than just US or UK, and I like the fact that their search volume data is coming from actual search engines, rather than Meta crawlers. So instead of relying on general search volume I have a way to look at search volume within Canada. Having said that, I am not convinced yet the country-specific data is entirely accurate. Still, even if you use the global data it is bound to be more accurate than an extrapolation based on Meta crawler market share.

The tool for examining industry specific keyword phrases is not bad, and at this point is unique to Keyword Discovery.

So I’m back on the fence about which to choose if you had to pick only one.  If you can afford both, that’s the route I would go. If you are working with multiple sites, especially in competitive industries, it is worthwhile to use them both, compare data, dig down deep in their respective tools.

Wordtracker costs a bit less, so if budget is a consideration that might be the way to go. If you work exclusively within one competitive industry, such as travel or real estate, Keyword Discovery may be your best bet.

Here’s an article by John Alexander, one of the founders of the Search Engine Academy, offering his perspectives on Wordtracker and Keyword Discovery comparative strengths that I hope you’ll find useful. John goes into more detail about specific features and their strengths/weaknesses.

Do you use WordTracker and/or Keyword Discovery?  Let us know what you like or don’t like about them, and what other keyword research tools you find helpful.

Tags: Keyword Research, keywords

This entry was posted on Monday, October 26th, 2009 at 11:28 am and is filed under Keyword Research. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.