Aaron Wall’s web-based, free SEO Tool, called the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool provides search volume estimates for a keyword of your choice, and for a selection of keyword suggestions. This data is drawn directly from Overture, and thus inherits the inaccuracies outlined in our review of Overture’s Keyword Selection Tool. Further, this data is then used to estimate Google and MSN traffic, simply doubling the Overture figure for Google, and halving it for MSN. As Aaron points out, the inaccuracies in Overture’s data are thus amplified, and the estimates of double and half are obviously not exact, and will vary between countries. For example, Google in the UK has a 77% market share as of March 2007.

However, Aaron conveniently provides quicklinks to assess each keyword suggestion in a variety of other Keyword Search Volume tools, including WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, Google Trends, and Google Adword Traffic Estimator. In short, all figures are to be taken with a pinch of salt, but it’s a great hub from which to direct your free keyword search volume research.

Lastly, SEO Book offers links to a number of further research tools refered to as ‘vertical databases’, that include Google Blog Search, Del.icio.us, and topix.net, and should give you an idea of the extent to which your keyword or phrase is or is not a popular topic of discussion across the web.

SEO Tool Pros

• Provides a base from which to lead a free keyword research campaign
• Encourages using data from a number of sources

SEO Tool Cons

• Inherits and amplifies the inaccuracies of Overture’s SEO Tool reviewed here
• Lot’s of data, but it all ends up on different pages, so it’s easy to get disorganised

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