Resources

A bad workman blames his tools. A successful search campaign is built on intelligent application of information research, content planning, competitor awareness, coordinated implementation and cyclical evaluation. Pragmatic understanding of the search environment, together with an adaptive marketing approach are defining characteristics of companies that feature, and sustain their presence, in search results. Glean stronger insight to search market research from this sample report for the pharmaceutical trade in Ireland.

REFERENCE

There are a number of resources that Surf Merchant SEO consultants refer to. We will outline specialist SEO tools, expert SEO white papers, search engine research pieces and peer material upon which we base our search engine consultancy.

Search Volume/ Keyword Research

1. Google Keyword Research Tool: Your one-stop-shop for keyword search volume research and Adwords competition.
2. Keyword Permutation Tool: Develop your keyword target sets to capitalise on the long tail of search queries.

Website Audit Tools

1. TouchGraph: Old-school mapping application that graphs the relationships between websites on the web. Built off the Google API, a little dated in its data correlation, but still powerful in its demonstration of web presence.
2. Majestic SEO: heavy-weight SaaS that relays detailed business environment research and website audit statistics (requires webmaster verification).
3. Sitemap Generator: produce an xml sitemap in seconds
4. Google Webmaster Tools: Inspect your website’s search index, rank, and keyword association, uncover structural/technical development flaws, discover market citation/visibility, and communicate directly with Google on this web interface (requires webmaster verification and a Google account).

Analytics

1. Google Analytics: Track your website usability and marketing performance
2. SiteScan: Confirm that Google analytics is correctly installed on your website

Search Market Research

1. Twitter Search: Real-Time market research tool
2. Online Industry Stats: Google-powered 3rd party UK statistics provider
3. Google Barometer: Business intelligence gleaned by Google through search query interrogation.
4. Google Market Research Studies: Underlines the shifting sands in market research application.
5. Google Zeitgeist: Insight to the search patterns globally and locally over the past decade
6. Google Trends: Chart market interest in topics over time
7. Google Insights: Graph the volume of Google searches for competing terms or websites, build density maps, review latest market trends & identify niche marketing opportunities.