The headline shouts, "Free SEO!" But is it worth your time and effort to follow a link promising free search optimization tools? That's what I endeavored to find out by asking who can you trust as your SEO guide?
My initial attitude was negative. After all, I had hunted for the illusive pot of gold promised by so many would be gurus on the Internet. Armed with the questions above, here's what I discovered:
- A surprising number of links provide excellent tools at no charge. Just Google "free web tools" and look at several pages of opportunities.
- Most sites offer free SEO tools to entice you to look more closely at their primary products or services, which range from nominally priced to expensive offerings. Another surprise was many of these sites let you use one or even several of the tools without providing your email address.
Some of the marketeers have been around for several years, such as Perry Marshall. Although he has several books in print and available on Amazon, Perry gives away a generous amount of information with his email updates. For example, he recently emailed a link that showed how Google now provides search volume data in Keyword Tool. By using Keyword Tool and setting the columns display to "show all," you'll see rich data that can help you select low-cost phrases for your pay-per-click advertising campaigns.
My research strongly suggests you'll benefit by learning more about these free tools. With that said, however, I need to warn you about the time commitment. Most of the tools you'll find are one-off functions, which means you must perform several tasks with different tools to gather enough information to make informed decisions. That's why successful entrepreneurs like Bryan and Matt Callen at Bryxen Software make SEO Elite and Keyword Elite, which automate the labor-intensive tasks and format the information so you can quickly make informed and timely decisions.
If you're new to SEO and keyword selection, look for and download the free guides and white papers. Once educated you'll be prepared to decide whether manual research or automated tools are best for your needs.