If you have been marketing on the internet for a while, you should have realized the importance of keyword research. No matter how or in what ways you make money online, chances are you need to have the right keyword research skills to analyze what these keywords mean.

Keyword research is the critical first step to any website, SEO strategy, and even article marketing. Without doing keyword research, you are just assuming keywords that you think people are looking for in search engines, which may not be true.

Most people use Overture’s keyword inventory database to find out what people are searching for online because it’s free. The other two keyword databases are keyword tracker and keyword discovery, which are paid subscription.

Comparing database of 3 keywords

Let’s take a look at how the 3 keyword databases compile their keyword database.

For Overture, it’s the collective keywords gathered by the Yahoo and Overture search engine and tracks keywords for up to 30 days.

One downside to Overture is that keyword search volume may not always be accurate, as it can be skewed by automated bots accessing your search engines.

For wordtracker, it uses metasearch engines like dogpile and metacrawler to collect its database of keywords. It tracks keywords for up to 90 days and its keyword database has approximately 330 million keywords.

Wordtracker’s database is more accurate than Overture, as the chances of automated bots reaching metasearch engines are pretty remote.

The downside of wordtracker is that it doesn’t accurately represent internet search volume keywords, as metasearch engines only take up less than 1% of total keyword search volume.

For keyword discovery, it collects data from over 180 search engines, most of which are Google. It tracks up to 365 days and has approximately 32 billion keywords in its database.

The main advantage of keyword discovery is its huge keyword database that can allow you to unearth keywords that may not appear in Overture and Wordtracker.

Now you might think keyword discovery is the best keyword research tool as it has the largest keyword database. However, it may not be necessary depending on what you want to do. For example, if you’re just trying to brainstorm new ideas for a product or a website, Overture and Wordtracker will suffice.

If you’re trying to compile a large list of keywords for your niche, use keyword discovery. If you are doing ppc with adwords or yahoo search marketing then developing a great keyword list is important and keyword discovery can do you better than word tracker or hint.