Review by Copyblogger Associate Editor Jonathan Morrow.
Word Tracker was my first love… for keyword research, that is.
I heard guys like Aaron Wall, Perry Marshall, and Danny Sullivan writing about it. They talked about all of the cool things they could do with Wordtracker, making it sound indispensable.
So I signed up. At first, I was a little suspicious that I was being gamed for an affiliate commission, but I slowly realized how powerful Wordtracker is. I used it to take a brand-new blog to #3 on Google for a fairly prestigious keyword, repaying my investment by a hundred fold.
Of course, this was several years ago. Since then, lots of new keyword research services have popped up to compete with Wordtracker. Still, it holds its own, maintaining the largest market share from what I’ve heard. They’ve made substantial improvements to stay competitive.
And you know what? I checked around, and all of those guys that convinced me to sign up still recommend it. So why shouldn’t I? Wordtracker may be the grandpa of the keyword research industry, but it’s still leading the pack.
Let me show you why.
Convenience, Convenience, Convenience
Wordtracker isn’t pretty, intuitive, or flexible, but it’s convenient, especially once you learn your way around.
Where new kids on the block like Wordze give you lots of tools, you can spend a lot of time figuring out how to use them all and move your data between them. If you’re doing a broad search, all of that clicking around can use up quite a bit of time without your even realizing it.
Wordtracker gives you several separate tools, but they also combine those tools to where you can do it all in one place. Their Full Search tool lets you research and analyze multiple keywords at a time, polling and all of the related keywords and showing you their popularity without having to do separate searches for each term.
It’s a little overwhelming when you first start to use it, but after you’re used to it, you might get annoyed by some of the other tools that make you save your data and import it into a different tool. I know it’s a small thing, but if you’re using keyword research tools on a regular basis, those small things add up.
Learn How to Do Keyword Research
Most keyword research companies hand you the tools, a few video tutorials, and tell you to have fun. If you know what you’re doing, that’s fine, but if you’re new to keyword research, you’d probably like to have a little more help getting started.
Wordtracker’s Academy provides that help. It’s full of information about keyword research, including:
- Articles - Tips for doing keyword research properly, optimizing for search engines, and building a successful website
- Case studies - Stories about people that have used keyword research to succeed online
- A keyword guide - Several in-depth pages that walk you through the basics of keyword research and how to use it for your site
The most helpful resource is probably their Keyword Research E-Book—a 55 page guide walking you through how to use Wordtracker, using vegetarian dog food as an example. Substitute your own subject, and you have a guide for building a successful website with keyword research.
Grandpa is Stingy
Is Wordtracker perfect? Umm… no.
If it’s the grandpa of the keyword research industry, then he’s getting a bit stingy in his old age. It limits you to:
- Either 100 or 1000 results, depending on which tool you’re using (up to 10,000 with other services)
- 7 projects with the Keyword Universe tool (unlimited with other services)
- No cheap, short-term subscription — the shortest is one week for $30 (one-day trial with other services)
Search the SEO forums and you’ll find lots of professionals in the field complaining about the first two problems, and you’ll find prospective clients complaining about the last one. Really though, is it that important for the average client?
Unless you’re putting together an exhaustively targeted PPC campaign on a certain keyword, 1,000 results is plenty. The vast majority of users will never need more than 100. Also, only a professional working with multiple clients would need more than seven projects at a time.
And the subscription? Unlike some of its competitors, Wordtracker provides a free trial where you can think around with the tool before buying it. Granted, it’s not full access, but you can still get a good idea whether Wordtracker is the tool for you.
Pricing
The monthly and weekly subscription options may be more expensive than its competitors, but its annual subscription is actually the cheapest of all the major keyword research services:
- Keyword Discovery - $599.40/year
- Wordze - $540.00/year
- Wordtracker - $329.00/year
That’s 39% cheaper than the next service of comparable quality. If you’re thinking about doing a lot of keyword research for a new blog or website over the next year, it’s arguably the best deal between all of the major tools.
Who Should Subscribe to Wordtracker?
I think anyone can subscribe to Wordtracker and be reasonably happy, but it’s obviously targeted at a certain type of user.
If you are putting together highly targeted PPC campaigns or you need highly accurate traffic results, then Keyword Discovery would serve you better. Or if you are planning on only doing keyword research for a month or two before dropping the service, then Wordze is a better deal because of the monthly plan.
Wordtracker is built for people who need:
- Continuous access, instead of a month here or there to look up some info for a new project
- Fairly high level details about a niche or topic
- Only a few projects at a time, instead of bunches like SEO experts have
In other words, I think Wordtracker is well-suited to the blogger that wants to use its Keyword Universe tool to look up related topics and niches for new posts ideas. Or, if you’re starting a new information product, but you’re not spending a fortune on PPC, then Wordtracker is also your best bet.
So give it a shot. If you are unsatisfied, they have a 30 day, unconditional money back guarantee, so there’s literally no risk. Click here to sign up.
