Emerging Keyword Trends With Hittail and Blogpulse

How do you identify appropriate keywords phrases when they are only hours or days old?

Take the phrase "subprime crisis" for instance, or "global food crisis". These are subjects that have only recently been thrust into the public consciousness. Language is constantly evolving, but SEO experts need to be ahead of the curve.

Using keyword research tools like wordtracker or Trellian is excellent for understanding the "voice of the customer" - words that prospects use to describe the product or service that you offer- as long as the phrases are well established. But what about keyword phrases that are evolving or being coined today? By the time an SEO expert has found them, he is already behind in the race to get search engine position.

That is where tools like Hittail and Blogpulse come in.

I've written about Hittail a couple of times, but if you haven't downloaded it, you can get it here free: www.hittail.com.

Blogpulse is a tool from Neilsen Buzzmetrics. You can check it out at www.blogpulse.com.

Hittail give you a realtime stream of keywords, as well as the ability to easily repeat the search that brought your visitor. It allows you to identify emerging keyword combinations quickly.

What it doesn't do is help to expand your keyword list to related terms.

If the phrase is very new, the keyword research tools won't help you here.

So how can you identify related keywords to the longtail phrases Hittail shows you from your site traffic?

For this I have recently started to use Blogpulse. Results are fresh. timely. and framed in the language of the people who are most interested...niche bloggers and the site visitors who post their comments. I have to comb through the results, looking for useful terms and phrases. It is not neatly packaged like a keyword tool, and volumes are anyone's guess. But the wording in use by the bloggers and commenters is a good starting place for building out a list.

The site also displays helpful charts showing incidences of the phrase over time.

I am on the hunt for a more immediate keyword research tool. Can anyone suggest one for me?