When was the last time you updated your keyword list? If it’s been awhile, you may be missing out on relevant keywords that could bring free – and targeted – traffic to your site. Take a minute to visit these free keyword tools and update your website keyword list:

1. SEO Book Keyword Density Checker: Stuffing your content with keywords is not an advised method to achieving SEO rankings, but Keyword Density Tools can still be useful by allowing you to view which keywords your competition is targeting. Enter your competitor’s URL into the search box, press submit, and pull up the keywords and phrases that are most often used on their website.
2. Googe Insights for Search: Visit Google’s Insights for Search tool and type in a keyword in the search box to see the popularity of that term over the years. This tool can be helpful in determining seasonality trends, regional interest of a keyword, and the top searches related to a given term.
3. SEO Book Keyword Tool: SEO Book’s Keyword Tool pulls in the daily average search numbers from a number of search engines, including Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Wordtracker. The Keyword Tool from SEO Book is also useful in determining long tail keywords.
4. Google Keyword Tool: While Google’s Keyword Tool lists out related terms for the keyword you type in, it also provides helpful numbers such as approximate search volume per month and which month the keyword was most popular in.
5. Google Search Based Keyword Tool: You can use this tool in a number of ways – update your PPC keyword list, see if there are any key phrases missing from your content, or to view your competitors website for commonly used phrases.
6. Wordtracker Questions: Are you missing out on long tail phrases in your website content? Visit the Wordtracker Questions tool to find out common questions people are typing into search engines, then use these questions to update your FAQ section or write a new blog post.
7. Backlink Watch: Another “Spy on your competitor” tool, Backlink Watch is useful for determining the keywords that your competitor is targeting through back links. Type in the URL of another website (or yours) and pay special attention to the “Anchor Text” column, making note of any keywords that you aren’t currently targeting.
8. KW Map: Keyword Map is an idea generator tool that can help you visualize relationships between keywords. Type in a keyword that you currently target to find related terms.
9. 5 Minute Site Local Keyword Generator: The local keyword generator is helpful when it comes to updating your PPC campaigns, but can also be useful to services that target specific regions. Type in your keyword and the zip code + radius you are targeting and 5 Minute Site will attach the city names and zip codes to that keyword, saving you time and research.
10. Google News: Meme trackers, such as Google News, are useful in determining trends and slang that you aren’t targeting yet. Type in your keyword and read through the latest articles to pick up keywords as they become popular.

Social Media outlets can be a great way to better get the word out there about your business or organization, but with so many options out there, knowing the difference between different types of social media can greatly help your cause. The three main outlets are Blogs, Forums, and Social Networks.

A Blog (a contraction of the word “Web Log”) is a website usually maintained by an individual and sometimes teams, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. A blog can contain links, videos, images, events, articles, or any number of things. It’s an online diary of sorts in which questions and comments are allowed from users. Blogs are most helpful when talking about your marketplace.

Common places to create a blog are:
Blogger.com
WordPress.com
Twitter.com – mini blogging

A Forum is a meeting place for open discussion of various topics. A forum may also be referred to as a bulletin board or discussion area.  Unlike a blog, a forum allows numerous users to write stuff – and for other users to add questions and comments, starting any number of discussions segmented by topic.  Many forum users are also respected experts and bloggers in the topics covered in the forum and making a good impression to this audience can help your marketing message spread far and wide. You can use forums by creating one for your own site and opening up discussions or you can participate in the numerous industry specific forums out there to help promote your business.

A Social Network is a social structure made up of individuals or organizations that are tied together by one or more common interest. Social Networks allow users to organize around a person’s relationships or interests, rather than just focused on a certain topic. These are great tools to get people with similar interests together to share information and make new business connections. Not only is social networking great for making new connections, but it’s also a place where new ideas, products and ways of doing things develop.

Common Social Networks to join are:
MySpace.com
Facebook.com
LinkedIn.com
Orkut.com
Plaxo.com

Now that you know the difference between some common social media outlets, it is important to define who your community is, where they are, and what messages you want to get across to them. From there you can better choose an option that is best for your business or organization.