What SEO/SEM tools do you use? There have been a number of tools I have used over the years. Just to break down each set I will begin with

• Keyword Research Tools – I have used various, free and not so free.
  • Wordtracker: This was one of my first keyword research tools. After using others, I have to say, this is not my favorite any longer. If you notice they get their results from dogpile and hotmamma, who?, exactly. I do like the lists of new keywords it generates when I may be hitting a road block for a particular industry specific keyword though. Scale of 1-10 this gets a JT score of “3″
  • Nichebot: This tool used to be very basic in nature, now there seems to be lots of things going on over there like a wordtracker thesaurus, quick digging tools, a 1-click LSI (latent semantic indexing) which can help you make a listing of all thematically related keywords and a few other pretty handy free tools. You do need a login and password to access, but overall not bad for free. Does use wordtracker and overture resources. Scale of 1-10 this one gets a JT score of “3.5″
  • Overture: This is a favorite amongst many I work with and have worked with. I don’t particularly like the fact that it seems to be grabbing “January 2007″ results in August, but hey its another no cost tool you may use in conjunction with the others. Scale of 1-10 this one gets a JT score of “6″ (if they ever update their monthly results, I could give it a few more points).
  • Google Adwords Keyword Tool: I have a love/hate relationship with this tool. I do love the “highest volume occurred in” great for seasonal things, however, I do not like the “avg search volume” area, what is “low volume”? Is this less than 1,000 searches? A little help here Google? Is this really supposed to be “top secret” I can get a clearance if it’s necessary. Overall this one gets a JT score of “8″
  • Keyword Discovery (Subscription Based): I do like this tool very much, it has a way of grouping things (I know Wordtracker has the project group too), but I can also get a KD API if I wanted, don’t have any experience yet with their SEO toolkit, but looks pretty intense. Also, very helpful to your shopping channel campaign is the eBay and shopping research. The “Global Premium” area isn’t my favorite, the results seem very low like “earth concert” only shows in global premium with 310 results, but not in overture. Overall this one does get a very decent JT score of “8.5″.

  At this point it would be great to get your input, any an all tool reviews are welcome.

I will move on to other SEM/SEO tool reviews later… for now, enjoy the tools!