Keywordfinder: New & Different Keyword Research Tool
By Matt McGee on Nov 26, 2008 in SEO & Web Tools
Keywordfinder is a new keyword research tool that I think belongs in your toolbox. It won’t become your primary keyword research tool, but I think there are some situations when you’ll find it useful. Let’s take a look at how it works, and when you might use it.
How Keywordfinder Works
It’s brain-dead simple to use. Just provide a word or phrase, and Keywordfinder scans the highest-ranking pages on Yahoo for that word/phrase, extracts the relevant keywords from those pages, and spits back an ordered list of the 20 most frequent keywords.
In other words, it’s different from primary keyword research tools like Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker; it’s not telling you the keywords that searchers use, it’s telling you the keywords that successful web pages use. Here’s what the interface looks like on a search for Richland real estate, one of my wife’s primary keyword terms:

Some of those phrases are obvious, but something like “real estate listings” isn’t; I don’t think we use that phrase anywhere on her site, yet it’s a popular phrase on other high-ranking pages. It’s also interesting to me that “WA” appears more frequently than “Washington.”
When You Might Use It
1.) You might use it to help optimize individual web pages. But rather than simply rely on the basic list Keywordfinder provides, I’d suggest putting any new terms (like “real estate listings” above) into Keyword Discovery or Wordtracker (or whatever primary tool you use) and seeing if it’s a keyword that searchers use. That’s a good double-check you should do.
2.) You might use it when writing articles or blog posts. If there’s a specific word or phrase you’re targeting in an article or blog post, Keywordfinder might help you find related terms that could help you expand that article into something with more depth/substance.
Conclusion
Keywordfinder isn’t going to replace your primary keyword research tool, and I’m sure it’s not even trying to. But it does complement those tools with a fast, simple interface that lets you see what words and phrases are in being used on high-ranking sites on Yahoo.
(found via Frank)
- SBS Mailbag: When Local Keyword Research is a Dead End
This great question came in today from Mary Ann: I am helping a small dance/fitness business with local SEO.... - Download: Keyword Research Guide
For whatever reason, I’ve not done a lot of writing here on SBS about keyword research. Yet, just last week... - Andy: Yahoo Keyword Tool “on Life Support”
I assume most of you also read Andy Beal’s blog, but just in case I’ll point to his post tonight... - BulkWords: Keyword Suggestion & List Generator Tool
If you do a lot of keyword research — especially for PPC — you might want to check out a...









4 Comment(s)
By Marcus Lindley on Jan 16, 2009 | Reply
This is a great little tool. I love the speed and I like the fact that they provide your search results as a comma separated value right on the website in less than a second! Thank you!
By Matt F. on Feb 28, 2009 | Reply
Pretty good supplemental tool. We mainly use Google’s kwd tools and an in-house one we’ve developed using wordz api, we’ve seen tremendous success using just those. SOmetimes, though, you’ve got to break out a new tool or two to get the exact sets of words or phrases you want. I use keycompete and trends a lot too, especially for blogging, press releases and informational articles.
As I mentioned, we use an in-house tool as part of our strategy. We offer it in it’s basic form for free on our company website. Thought perhaps readers here may be interested in trying it out. We encourage feedback, so if you notice something, please let us know.
http://www.visible.net/tools/keywords/
By Geordie Romer on Nov 21, 2009 | Reply
It suggested I use “Geordie” as a keyword for Leavenworth Real Estate. 100% pure awesome.
By Nina Anthony on Jul 12, 2010 | Reply
Has this tool changed recently? It doesn’t seem to provide top ranking sites for a particular search term anymore…