Keyword Identification Tool – NicheBOT

Thinking of starting a new blog but you don’t know what keywords to target? NicheBot might be a tool worth checking out. Its a very useful tool that helps you to identify keywords that:

1. are being searched for

2. don’t have too many other sites competing for the same keyword

To use it simply enter in a keyword that you’re considering targeting – I’ll choose ‘MP3 Player’ for our example as its something I’m kind of interested in. After a short wait they’ll come back to you with a result page like this which has some very useful information (well it gets me going!) – the results are made up of the following pieces of information which they glean from Google and Word Tracker

– Phrase/Keyword – they suggest a whole heap of keywords that are related to the one you’ve chosen that you might want to consider targeting

– Count – this column tells you how many people searched for this term in the last 60 days (I’m a little dubious about the actual numbers here – I suspect that digital cameras were searched a little more for than 6,965 times in the lead up to Christmas – but the results look like they are relatively accurate in relation to each other). Update – the FAQ page says this number is only ‘The total number of times the keyword phrase appears in the Wordtracker database over the past 60-days’ and not a live statistic.

– Pages – shows how many pages Google has listed with any or all of your keyword (which gives you a good indication of how much competition you have).

– Comp. – shows you how many pages are listed on Google with your exact keyword (even more useful).

– Ratio – calculates how many sites there are for every search. The lower your number here the better your chances of succeeding in being competitive for this keyword.

So with my ‘MP3 Player’ example – the results show that there is ALOT of competition for my initial keyword – but it illuminates a number of other options that I might want to target like ‘mp3 player reviews’, ‘mp3 portable players’ or ‘sony mp3 players’.

Its not a perfect tool – but definitely handy.

update: Search Engine Journal has a good article on The Power Of The �Niche” – Choosing Keywords People Actually Use that shows the usefulness of a tool like this one. They write:

‘Keywords and keyphrases are the search words and terms Internet surfers use to find the products, services or information they are looking for.

Choosing the right keywords and phrases for your search engine optimization (SEO) program is critical to its success. The right keywords drive targeted traffic to your website – prospects that are ready to buy. The wrong keywords attract web visitors that are not likely to purchase your products and services – wasting everyone’s time and your money.’